Pausing, Lojong, and Leadership
by Kate Harper
I was recently introduced to lojong, a centuries-old Buddhist practice for training the mind in compassion. As Pema Chodron describes it, lojong contains “fifty-nine pithy slogans that remind us how to awaken our hearts.” The slogans point to practical instructions for ways to awaken amidst the beauty and difficulty of the world.
I was struck by lojong’s use of pithy sayings as invitations (or exhortations) to practice a different way of engaging with what is right in front of us. And that made me think, this is what we created with Pause, Inspired Mastery’s book and card set of 52 practices for leaders.
Concise practices and pithy quotes that cultivate presence
Hang on for a minute. Before you think I’ve gone crazy, I am not comparing Pause to lojong as an important spiritual text. I’m not saying Pause is the path to enlightenment. And yet, Pause is a set of concise practices, with pithy quotes, that invite a different way of engaging with what is right in front of us. The Pause practices open possibility, expand awareness, and cultivate presence. In pausing and inviting a new perspective, we access our natural resourcefulness and open-heartedness.
Think Bigger
by Jen Sellers
One way to think bigger is to question the thoughts you’re having. Questioning your thoughts requires you to know what they are. Knowing what they are requires self-awareness. And self-awareness requires practice.
Notice Any Thoughts
Begin by just noticing any thoughts you’re having, any time you can. You might take a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days to practice this step. Notice whether each thought that you become aware of evokes a positive, a negative, or a neutral feeling in your body and your psyche. Just this much may lead you to insights.
Listen to this practice here:
Don’t Believe Everything You Think
by Jen Sellers
Mindful Leadership
“Mindfulness” and “mindful leadership” are buzzwords in business today, but they are concepts that people have practiced for thousands of years. And self-awareness – a form of mindfulness – is one of the basic components of emotional intelligence, a suite of traits that is more and more valued in the workplace.
The components of mindfulness are simple. It is present-moment awareness without judging something good or bad. Any time a leader looks at something with an open, curious mind, he or she is practicing mindfulness. A flurry of studies shows that even short-term mindfulness practices can bring many, many benefits, including increased physical health, emotional health, focus, and memory; and decreased stress, depression, and hostility.
Nine Breath Mind Clearing
by Jen Sellers
Here’s a Mindful Leadership practice for you – a nine-breath mind-clearing exercise. Use it between activities, as you leave one activity behind and prepare for the next, for example, between email and a meeting, between one phone call and another, between a conversation and working on a project.
You can be sitting or standing, and as you gain experience with it, you can even be moving from place to place. This practice takes only a few minutes to learn and a few seconds to do. Listen to the exercise here.
Curator of the Good and Useful
by Kate Harper
My client had a tough decision – go on the last business trip before retirement with a very special colleague or stay put and keep an eye on a very high profile project.
“Choose your answer,” I coached him. “Now imagine it is 10 minutes from now. How do you feel? Now move forward 10 months. How do you feel? How about 10 years from now?”
He got his answer. “Great tool,” he said.
“It’s not mine. I stole it from Suzy Welch.”
“Fantastic. I’ve never had an original thought, but I’m great at recognizing them.”
That got me thinking. I’ve always been in awe of people who create something – those with a message, philosophy, or good and useful tool. I’m sheepish that everything I have to offer has been learned from someone else. My client’s words stopped me short. What if the eye for something good and useful is a talent? Indeed one of my gifts is the ability to find, absorb, and share things that are genuinely helpful to my clients. I hereby claim my gift. I am a curator of helpful perspectives, practices, and tools.
Please join me for my first curated exhibition: one perspective, one practice, and one tool.
Trendy or Timeless?
by Kate Harper
Years ago, I was told to just be present. What? What the heck does that mean? Mindfulness – being present to what is happening in the moment with openness, curiosity, and compassion – is an ancient practice garnering a lot of buzz in leadership circles.
Is mindfulness this season’s polka dotted coat or a Chanel jacket? Our vote is for Chanel. From the beginning, we at Inspired Mastery have supported our clients to bring mindfulness to everyday circumstances. One of Jen’s clients, Lucianne Walkowicz, a stellar astronomer and TED Fellow shares her experience (excerpted from her blog post Be There Then):
A Word About Acceptance
by Jen Sellers
Accept what is and your role in creating it, and you become empowered to create something different. – Alan Seale
In a Mindful Leadership seminar I conducted a couple of weeks ago at a bank in Phoenix, the word acceptance came up as an aspect of mindfulness. It had me thinking about what acceptance is and what acceptance isn’t, especially when it comes to our own leadership mastery. These are my brief thoughts.
What it is:
- Seeing clearly what is here, not what we wish were here, hope will be here, or even expect to be here
- An attitude of meeting a situation as it is without fighting it or pushing against it
- The ability to feel whatever emotions are arising without letting them take over
- A practice in equanimity
What it isn’t:
- Saying “Whatever!” with an air of frustration and despair
- The idea that “It’s all good.” It is often not good, but it is
- Giving in
- Giving up
What does acceptance mean to you? We’d love to hear from you!
Stopping the Anxiety Drain
by Jen Sellers
My client Xavier had a niggling problem. As a senior leader and member of the personnel development team, he fosters the growth of individuals across the organization, including recommending transfers to grow new leaders and advance careers. Yet, if too many of his best people go to other locations, the performance of his division could be compromised.
Xavier only had a glimmer that this nagging issue was subtly draining him. We talked it through and he developed a plan which included prioritizing the most essential people at his site, looking at who could replace them from other sites, and preparing a time of overlap. When we were finished, I asked him what had been important in our discussion, and he said, “I turned a worry into action.”
In our next session, Xavier described how he dealt with another concern, the latest obstacle in a difficult plant start-up. Without realizing it, he had again turned worry into action.
Receiving the Gift of Feedback
by Kate Harper
“How many of you regularly ask for feedback?” One hand out of 10 is raised. The rest of the group looks stricken. These leaders are voluntarily here for a class on receiving feedback and still the topic is uncomfortable.
What makes receiving feedback so difficult? “The process strikes at the tension between two core human needs—the need to learn and grow, and the need to be accepted just the way you are,” say Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone, in their Harvard Business Review article, Find the Coaching in Criticism.
Intellectually we understand the value of feedback – it helps us gauge if we are being effective and see inside our blind spots. No company would bring a product to market without getting customer input. Yet when the product is our self, even the thought of someone else’s helpful suggestion can trigger a strong defensive reaction.
Think back to the last time you received unsolicited feedback. Did you want to argue? Run away? Or were you temporarily frozen in place? Perhaps it was a combination: I can’t punch my boss so I’ll just say nothing. Our brain interprets feedback as a threat. The threat causes anxiety which triggers a defense – fight, flight or freeze.
This is a very basic protective mechanism. Even the most enlightened among us will get triggered. So what can you do? One way to receive feedback more easily is understand what triggers you, recognize your physical and emotional reaction, and engage the larger self by asking, “How do I choose to respond?”
Get Outta Here!
by Jen Sellers
Wow. Think of how much time you spend inside, disconnected from the natural world. I say this not to discourage you or disparage you, but to encourage you to reflect.
For example, it’s about 65 degrees outside and gorgeous here in Tucson. I just opened my window. That’s because I reflected for a moment on how much time I spend inside. And then I thought, “Okay, I work from home, for crying out loud – why couldn’t I go sit on a bench in the yard?” So that’s where I am now, a mesquite tree shading my laptop screen. That’s the power of internal reflection. It changes external actions.
There are a bunch of reasons to get outside, as we all know.
I feel more alive just sitting out here. I feel more clear-headed, more connected to myself, and more in my body. Several varieties of birds are singing, the trees are waving gently in a slight breeze, and a small neighbor girl is doing outside chores with her Mom. I am more connected to the world.
When I walk the dog every morning and evening, my body moves, which benefits my mind and my spirit. The left-right motion is good for my brain. If I pay attention, I see patterns of beauty and sometimes patterns of pain. Both connect me with the world outside myself. As I let my mind go, ideas come to me and problems sometimes solve themselves. Wisdom seems to find me. I have more vitality, not only physically, but also emotionally and intellectually.