Mindfulness in leadership roles is now being taught in many organizations. It’s been found that effectiveness on a personal and professional level increases when leaders practice mindful leadership – and, that productivity is increased.

Stress is one of the most cited causes of mental and physical complaints about carrying out job tasks and the costs to organizations of medical claims due to stress is enormous – about $300 billion per year. In today’s world, many of us are at work more than we’re home or elsewhere and the pressure increases with the amount of information we have to learn and the tasks we must complete in a certain amount of time.

Creating mindfulness in leadership positions has been found to decrease the amount of stress, both of workers and management. Mindfulness is defined as “paying attention in a particular manner: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” It can be achieved in the work place by focusing on thoughts and emotions rather than getting the job done as fast as possible.

Mindful leadership is as important to our health as are regular medical checkups. There are many benefits, including:

• Thinking outside the box.
• Improving focus and clarity of thought.
• Better mood and more positive emotions.
• Less panic and feelings of guilt.
• Helps lengthen attention span.
• Helps strengthen immune system.

Mindful leadership is becoming more of a staple in companies’ leadership training programs and is considered a necessary topic in most management training classes.

Although mindfulness training is just recently being considered in today’s leadership training, it’s not a new idea. Mindful Stress Reduction programs have been used by some medical facilities to treat chronically ill patients and had huge success. Now, it’s being used to treat healthy people and to keep them from developing stress issues in their lives.

Mindfulness is gaining wide attention now because organizations are becoming more cognizant of what effective leadership is all about. Findings are that the best leaders are self-aware and centered in their self-confidence and capabilities. When potential leaders learn how to focus on one task at a time and turn their attention to the larger vision rather than numerous small tasks, they tend to become much more effective managers and leaders.

If you want to become a true leader of a team or organization, find out more about mindful leadership and how it can help you draw on your inner reserves to achieve clarity of purpose and train your mind to meet any challenge you might face.