Bringing together mindfulness and business psychology

There are still people who are convinced that leaders are born and not made.

I personally lean toward legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi's, counterpoint: "Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which [sic] all of us must pay to achieve any worthwhile goal."

This is the exact sentiment I shared with several team members one day over lunch.

We were avoiding talking about work at that point and were trying to fish out controversial-ish opinions to break down. If I recall correctly, the topic on that day was whether leaders are born or made.

I admit I was a little gratified to learn that quite a few people saw things the way I did. A few disagreed and it was entertaining—and enlightening— to hear the others try and convince them that you don’t really need a leadership gene or whatever to lead.

Funnily enough, this is something that mindfulness teaches you—the power of possibility. In my personal experience, mindfulness is a catalyst for change.

This is similar to the personality theory in business psychology: everything you do is a reflection of who you are; if you change your personality, you can change your life.

This was where we left our lunchroom conversation—that if you choose, you can be the master of your fate.

Mindfulness and business psychology

Among other things, business psychology examines how work life can be improved. It investigates how to make people and organisations more effective by aligning individual and organisational needs.

The goal in doing all of this is to create healthy, productive and mutually-beneficial relationships between people and organisations. Mindfulness can be a tool used to achieve this.

In the business world, there’s an underlying tendency to seek absolutes, which can be metrics like sales, revenue or even something like promotions.

We are wired to hit the brakes when we don’t hit these absolutes. We label it as a failure and tend to give up when success isn’t quick or easy.

Mindfulness teaches us to take things one step at a time. You learn how to avoid adding labels to things that don’t work out and perceive it for what it really is: An opportunity to learn and grow.

This not only helps you enjoy better organisational outcomes but also tap into plenty of personal growth.

Business psychology and leadership

Business psychology also relates to organisational development in terms of leadership.

In this context, business psychology is very useful in terms of understanding what effective leadership means and contributes to creating environments in which leaders can grow and add value to their organisations.

This, however, is tricky because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. It doesn’t really look a certain way, nor does it fit a mould or follow a script.

Mindfulness, however, provides some general guidelines that are useful in shaping how you lead your teams.

For example, mindfulness can help a leader embrace their limitations and work in a way where they can make the most of their existing skills, instead of forcing them to overcome or deny them.

Acknowledging your limitations is not a weakness because unless you do, you’re not going to be able to lead your teams as effectively as you’d like. By being open, honest, and accepting, it’s easier to see the right way forward and make more confident decisions.

Remember, a leader or CEO isn’t a god; they’re very much human and go through the same experiences and emotions as anyone else :)

How can Awakened Mind help you leverage the benefits of business psychology?

A well of water is useless unless there’s a bucket to take the water out. This is the same when it comes to business psychology and mindfulness.

While business psychology can guide you on how to achieve certain things—especially when it comes to things like leadership and HR— unless leveraged the right way, it’s quite useless.

At Awakened Mind, our platform is designed to foster mindfulness in the workplace. We help you convert theory into practice and boost individual and organisational performance through tried-and-tested strategies.

Get in touch with our team today to find out how we can support improved wellbeing, leadership, and organisational growth with our mindfulness resources.