Today’s hyper-accelerated and ultra-competitive business world brings challenges to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders that require them to make quick and effective decisions in a myriad of circumstances. From having to troubleshoot a product in the middle of a public launch to navigating complex emotions during high-stakes negotiations, our nervous systems are consistently placed in “fight-or-flight” mode as leaders.
While traditional leadership paradigms typically focus on logic and rationality above all else, I’ve learned firsthand that the ability to incorporate practices that can elevate your emotional intelligence can bring a new dimension to your decision-making process.
By embracing and nurturing practices such as yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, for example, I’ve seen leaders enhance their intuition, better regulate their emotions, and gain a deeper understanding of their teams, partners, and customers.
For those leaders who want to start infusing more mindful practices into their workday, here are a few of my top tips and lessons learned for sidestepping ego in favor of spiritual solutioning within the business realm.
1. Heighten Your Intuition and Emotional Intelligence
The practice of spiritual mindfulness encourages us to tap into our intuition and embrace emotional intelligence when making any major decision. This may feel contrary to what we’re taught in business school, but the value of these “gut instincts” cannot be understated for leaders within the professional sphere.
While some of the decisions you’ll be faced with will require a logical, reason-based response, others will require a more mindful approach that leans on your intuition. By developing internal discipline through practices like meditation and yoga, leaders can increase their self-awareness, patience, perspective, emotional stability, and communication skills.
In that quiet time of inner reflection, we are granted space to take a step back, breathe through the tension, objectively assess the situation at hand, and determine whether it requires a rational or emotional solution. Understanding when to trust your gut and when to opt for a more linear business decision can lead to more balanced and well-informed choices.
2. Elevate Your Human Understanding
Once the brain has been opened to spiritual practices, its ability to truly understand those outside of itself multiplies dramatically. As a more mindful leader, you’ll notice a new capacity for perceiving the underlying motivations, desires, and needs of those you lead and those who rely on you to drive the business forward.
This increased awareness can be especially valuable in high-pressure meetings, interviews, and negotiations, as it enables leaders to see beyond the surface-level interaction while more astutely analyzing the perspective, values, and interests of those at the table with them.
By empathetically acknowledging those less tangible factors, our ability to connect with and provide value to our fellow man increases – as does the leverage we have within those interactions.
3. Improve Conflict Resolution and Compassion
Most leaders reach their position through passion, relentlessness, confidence, and occasionally, genius. A natural driver of each of these qualities is the ego, which there’s no shortage of amongst leaders. The ego can create endless opportunities for conflict, whereas spirituality heightens one’s awareness – of self, of others, and of existence – and instills or elevates interpersonal qualities (compassion, empathy, patience) that place the ego in the backseat.
When faced with conflicts that can easily and unnecessarily escalate by activating the ego, leaders who incorporate spirituality into their approach can choose to shift their mindset from a combative, ego-driven stance to one that intentionally seeks common ground. They can approach conflicts with curiosity, asking thoughtful questions and observing closely to understand triggers and underlying motivations.
By recognizing the pain points of all parties involved and focusing on finding an empathetic, mutual resolution, leaders can foster an atmosphere of collaboration, earn a positive reputation amongst partners, and create win-win outcomes for all.
4. Regulate Your Mind-Body Connection
The mind-body connection determines so much of how we move through our days and experience the world, yet it’s very often neglected or forgotten in business.
By introducing physical and psychological practices that can regulate the parasympathetic nervous system (such as breathwork, meditation, and exercise), leaders can ground themselves in the present moment, harness a sense of inner peace, reduce stress, gain mental clarity, expand their perspective, increase productivity, and navigate complex situations that impact the people, partners, and businesses they are guiding.
There is no shame in taking breaks to reconnect with our bodies – in fact, I would argue that the ability to step away in order to elevate outcomes and interpersonal interactions is a leader’s superpower that must be learned and continually refined.
5. Release Attachment and Embrace Flow
One of the most proven, profitable, and productive states of being in business (and in life) is that of “flow.” Coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as a positive psychology principle, flow is an experience in which we become so immersed in the task at hand that nothing else matters in that moment. It’s marked by creativity, genius, and bliss.
When a leader can tap into a flow state, innovation occurs, solutions arise, productivity is unparalleled, and fulfillment in one’s work is at its highest. We are never more present or receptive than when we are able to achieve a flow state.
Part of this practice requires us to release our white-knuckled grip on outcomes and expectations to leave space for unexpected opportunities and possibilities to flow in. As distractions, conflicts, and the tension of attachment flow out of that space, we have the best chance at finding the best next step for our business.
Combine Spirituality with Practicality and Reason to Gain an Invaluable Edge
As the landscape of business continues to evolve, leaders who learn how to combine spirituality with practicality and reason will possess an invaluable edge.
By enhancing intuition, understanding the needs of others, resolving conflicts compassionately, staying grounded, and embracing the flow of opportunities, they will be able to make more impactful decisions, inspire their teams, and ultimately, achieve sustainable success.
About the Author
Rachael McCrary is the founder and CEO of Gather Labs, the first vertically-integrated, high-complexity CLIA laboratory to offer same-day lab results for over 100 diagnostics tests.
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