The Mindful Leader

6 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 11 blame on others when something goes wrong. We do it all the time. In any environment, a lack of commitment to accountability will always cause problems that ripple out to others. If a leader comes to us and says their workplace culture is struggling, the answer is going to lie in their own behaviour, and they won’t get anywhere without recognising their own level of fault. “The third thing we work on is self-awareness. We live in a world where the vast majority of the population is completely unable to regulate their own awareness. For example, say you’re trying to lose weight, but instead of cooking a meal to take to work, you tell yourself you’re too time- poor and buy a burger on your break instead. Practicing self-awareness here would involve catching that thought midstream, realising you’re rationalising your emotional impulses, regulating your reactions to the emotional response, and changing your behaviour to eat something healthy. The technical process of being self-aware and regulating our behaviour is something 99% of the population has absolutely no idea how to do, yet most people would maintain that they are pretty self-aware if you asked them.” Integrity, Michael says, is an integral value to stick to when developing conscious leadership skills. He explains, “The average person will spend a collective six years and eight months of their life on social media. We are so good at numbing ourselves with external factors like these that it’s quite possible, even common, to act out of THE MINDFUL LEADER