Mindfulness and Leadership Coaching

by Julia Bunyatov

August 2023

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Mindfulness has been practiced for thousands of years and is increasingly utilized as a transformative tool in leadership, empowering leaders to improve self-awareness, build resilience, and make decisions aligned with values.

In 2009, Rick Hanson defined mindfulness as our ability to control attention and the most powerful way to reshape our brains and change our lives.

Mindfulness involves cultivating present-moment awareness, non-judgmental observation, and compassionate acceptance of thoughts and emotions. Anything we fully attend to in the present moment is a form of mindfulness. It requires paying attention to thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, sensory experiences, and external context with openness and curiosity.

It is a skill that can be developed and cultivated with regular practice.

There are many forms of mindfulness, with formal meditation practice being what we usually refer to. One of the most potent results of meditation is optimizing the brain-body energy to focus our attention in a desired way, introducing a certain level of ease or flow into our lives. This process ultimately contributes to the plasticity of the brain, also called neuroplasticity.

The first step in training our brains to focus attention in a desired way is hard for so many - accepting what shows up internally without any judgment, with curiosity and acceptance. This process requires courage to sit with what it is and not react. And while sitting through 15 minutes of meditation might sound like a huge task, knowing that thoughts are transient, and the wave of emotion only lasts no longer than a 90 second cycle can be a relief. This realization of transience and the knowledge that our emotional reactions are caused by physiological processes that manifest as physical sensations can allow us to acknowledge and often understand our internal energy, which is essential for our well-being.

When we accept what shows up non-judgmentally and with compassion, we meet ourselves where we are and gain internal brain-body energy, overall clarity, and perspective. We integrate ourselves internally (brain and body) and connect with what is important: our essence and core. This inner connection, or congruence, is the level of being that creates a resonance that we often call presence. Making decisions from that state contributes to internal alignment and a sense of fulfillment.

When it comes to my coaching practice, first and foremost, I show up for the mindfulness practice on my yoga mat daily or through the exercises I share with my clients.

As a former corporate leader, I resonate deeply with that sense of resilience or thriving, where nothing seems impossible yet; I am present, connected, know what I am doing and where I am going, trusting the people around me, keeping the vision in sight. This is the place to be in. And many leaders I coach are looking for that sweet internal sense of thriving.

Mindfulness gives us this ability to thrive - operating from strengths and values, showing up empathetically, having a strong sense of perspective, executive presence, and internal trust that anything is possible – especially when we show up for ourselves and reach for our dreams.

Here are several ways leaders can build a skill to practice mindfulness:

Breathing – so much has been said about breath! It is that simple - we are several breaths away from calming our nervous system, accessing parasympathetic state, connecting with our body, and creating perspective to the external environment, recognizing we are not one with the IT that is happening. Several deep breaths through the nose, box breathing is excellent. Ultimately working towards breath-based meditation.

Silencing the mind by observing any object intently and connecting with the visual sensory experience. This is simple yet very effective – start with 5 minutes and work up to 10 or 15. Observing a tree is my favorite.

Journaling – journaling creates the space between us and our thoughts and emotions; that space is the gateway to non-judgmental empathetic acceptance. As a coach specializing in emotional resilience, most of my clients engage in daily morning journaling. What can happen as a result is incredible – emotions are information and, more importantly, energy. Mindfully showing up and acknowledging them, we optimize our brain-body system and can focus our energy in a desired way.

Mindful walking, especially in nature. Several sensory data points are activated during mindful walking – auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and smell. Walking in nature is also energy-inducing since nature's surroundings (especially trees) have the highest energetic levels, and energy flows in both directions, so this is the quickest way to replenish it.

Being mindful and intentional about the language we use to describe and define ourselves to others, especially in our self-talk. When we show up for all of us and acknowledge it compassionately, we create the space to choose what we want. Most of my clients know that by the third or fourth session, I will ask them to restate their sentences leveraging the energy-inducing language and aligning it with their desired outcomes. By doing so, yet again, we optimize the brain-body energy most effectively.

Connecting and engaging fully in our passions outside of career. Anything we engage in and attend to fully is a form of mindfulness, and what a beautiful way to be present and mindful by doing what you love.

Silencing the mind by body scan meditation – head to toe. This is a relaxing and grounding experience that is especially helpful at night before bed.

Working with a coach can support you on your path to mindfulness through building internal awareness, creating perspective, and recognizing that we have an agency where we place our attention, where we put our effort, and what we choose to do. Great coaches have presence, they listen intently and ask open ended questions, and by doing so they actually ignite a similar brain pathway in their clients.

How do you stay mindful?

References:

Hanson, R. (2009). Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Kleiner, A., Thomson, J., Schwartz, J. (2019). The Wise Advocate: The Inner Voice of Strategic Leadership. Columbia Business School Publishing.

Davidson, R.J., and Lutz, A. (2008). Buddha’s Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation. IEEE Signal Process. Mag.

Swart, C. (2021) A Trait of Mind: Cultivating a Mindful Workforce. The neuroscience of mindfulness at work: How silencing the mind relates to other predictors of resilience. Neurozone.

Behan, C. (2020). The benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices during times of crisis such as COVID-19. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine.