 Nike, 50 Cent and the Marine Corps all embrace the benefits of mindfulness
meditation, he says.
"The benefits of mindfulness meditation do not exist in a vacuum; mindfulness
meditation not only lowers your blood pressure, it also offers a host of other
positives, including increasing business acumen," says Josephs, who has coached
executives for more than 30 years and recently authored the book
"Dragons at Work."
"It sharpens your intuitive business sense. By relaxing your body, breathing
evenly and paying attention to the present moment, you notice things you might
otherwise miss. Paying exquisite attention is the key to staying real, and daily
meditation builds that capacity."
The benefits of a calm and focused mind are ubiquitous. Josephs offers these
tips for business leaders:
Sit there.
Breathe quietly and let the fear and greed subside. The easiest way to fool
yourself in a deal, negotiation or transaction is to let your thinking stray
from what's happening and get seduced by a dream. It could be the dream your
counterpart is spinning for you or simply the dream of results, good or bad.
Like most people, you have probably experienced moments when you knew
something — a business relationship, an investment — was going south, but
you hesitated to act because you didn't have facts to support your
intuition. Sometimes, your intuition knows something that your logical mind
does not.
Pay attention to what your body is telling you; you
may be expressing signals that your logical mind is slow to notice. In a
psychological study called "the Iowa gambling task," researchers gave
subjects the task of making the most money possible by choosing cards from
four decks. Unbeknown to the subjects, the decks were stacked. Some were
"good decks," producing winners more of the time, and some were "bad decks,"
producing losers. After about 40 to 50 picks, most subjects caught on which
decks produced winners and losers. Their bodies knew something that their
rational minds had missed. After about 10 picks, they began to produce
physiological symptoms of stress when their hands reached for the bad decks.
If you're not paying attention to those subtle signals, your innate wisdom
is inaccessible.
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- Meditation develops emotional balance and a better business
mind.
If you've never meditated, try it. Start small by
simply sitting still and keeping your eyes closed for five
minutes. Feel the weight of your body in its sitting position.
Try to simplify your thoughts to basic things, down to the
subtle sounds of the room, your breathing. Mindfulness
meditation does not require extensive study in ancient
traditions. Notice the difference after only five minutes; you
will feel more relaxed. Later, try it for 10 minutes, and then
longer. Do your due diligence in that state of mind. The
equanimity that will sharpen your acumen is also the source of
your happiness in life. Don't trade it for anything.
___
With more than 30 years experience as an executive coach and
consultant, Stephen Josephs, Ed. D, helps leaders build vitality and
focus to make their companies profitable — and great places to work.
His doctorate at the University of Massachusetts focused on
aesthetics in education: how to teach anything through art, music,
drama and movement. Josephs is particularly interested in the
intersection of business performance, psychology and mind-body
disciplines. His new novel, "Dragons at Work," tells the story of a
tightly wound executive — a fictionalized case study of coaching
that produces fundamental changes in a leader. Josephs has also
co-authored "Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery in
Anticipating and Initiating Change" (Jossey-Bass, 2006) with Bill
Joiner, which shows how certain stages of psychological development
affect leadership.
[Text from file received from
News and Experts]
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