Mindfulness for leadership

The power of mindfulness in business leadership

Today, a company that wants to be a market leader must focus on team and employee management as one of the company's main resources. Putting the employee at the centre.

We interview Montse RojoMontse Rojo, mindfulness expert, is our guest today. She works as a mediator and facilitator of change. One of the many tools she uses in the development of her profession is mindfulness.

Why mindfulness is useful in the workplace

This practice is currently being incorporated into many companies' wellness programmes. It consists of sessions lasting approximately one hour in which mindfulness meditation techniques are taught, in which the employee becomes aware of what is happening at that moment and of his or her own thoughts. The regular exercise of this type of practice has been shown to be very effective in reducing stress, improving the ability to concentrate and even developing creativity.

In this interview you will find out what mindfulness is and how we can use this technique to develop leadership.

The interview with Montse Rojo: mindfulness for leadership

1. What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness, in a nutshell, is a series of practices that allow concentration of attention in the present moment. In a business or organisational environment it is extremely valuable.

2. Why is mindfulness so relevant now?

Mindfulness has been implemented in organisations for more than 30 years. National and international companies have included it in their training agenda and wellbeing plans with very satisfactory results.

This pandemic and teleworking has tested our resilience and highlighted the need to strengthen emotional self-management and the skills to generate and imagine from new parameters. As a result, mindfulness is more in demand than ever.

3. How does it apply to leadership development?

Change and transformation dominate our environment and this is where leadership must be situated. Today a leader has to be honest, creative, able to bring together diversities, to invite involvement and creation. In short, mindfulness offers effectiveness in reacting to a bewildering work landscape that demands strong but more flexible leadership than ever before.

4. What benefits does mindfulness bring to an organisation?

" Mindfulness helps us to know how to function from respect in an aligned way, to work as a group with the same sense of commitment and to know how to set objectives collectively requires fostering group awareness from different parameters. - Montse Rojo

Effective communication, shared culture, respect and connectivity are words that are here to stay. Mindfulness helps us to do all this and that is why organisations do not hesitate to integrate it into their training formats.

5. How can a company measure the ROI of investing in mindfulness for its employees?

I love this question. I think that if there is something positive about mindfulness, it is how quickly it permeates a way of doing, of functioning. The degree of well-being of the participants tends to increase very effectively and this is reflected in their degree of involvement and in the reduction of conflict. The companies that have hired me have valued very positively the impact that these practices have in the short term in the development of their objectives and in the improvement of the organisational climate.

Finally, I love the phrase of a great teacher and disseminator of mindfulness, Jack Kornfield, who says that in the end there are three things that matter: how we have lived, how we have loved and how we have learned to let go. In all three, mindfulness can help us a lot.

Thank you very much Montse!

Final advice

One of the fundamental aspects of creating a good wellness programme in organisations is listening to people's needs. For this, continuous feedback will be key. Having channels and tools that help to understand the state of mind of employees will help the company to be a leader and adapt its wellbeing plans. In short, it is a matter of creating tailor-made programmes that improve the organisation's working environment and the well-being of the teams.