I dreamed when I was a younger that the world would be a place where we all loved and supported each other. When I started my career people would tell me, that the business world has different rules and in order to be successful you need to do things differently. Now, I realize that my dream can exist and that nobody can convince me that this is not possible.
My dream
To do business in a compassionate and mindful way
To lead in a way that empowers others
To have careers centered around our passions to achieve great things
AND to contribute to the greater good at the same time.
(Illustration by Lloyd Dangle)
I thought I was alone but the more I spoke about my theory publicly the more people contacted me telling me that they feel the same way. More and more people want a change – they want to do business in a differently and they are ready — now more than ever to go the extra mile to make it happen.
New Culture
We speak a lot about business needs to transform to adjust to the way technology is impacting our lives. But what we don’t realize is that digital is creating a real cultural shift in the way we do business. People want a business culture driven by trust, authenticity, purpose, and new skills. There is growing demand for a new way of collaboration and co-creation. Businesses are starting to realize that their purpose so much more than maximizing profits — they must serve a greater good. And by the way this all leads an agile way of working.
New skills for a digital era
The world economic forum published a study that states that 5 years from now 35% of the skills that we find important today will have changed.
“By 2020, the Fourth Industrial Revolution will have brought us advanced robotics and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics…… What is certain is that the future workforce will need to align its skillset to keep pace.”
The new skills we will need will focus more on emotional intelligence, intuition, problem solving skills, awareness, coordinating with others – all these skills can be enhanced with mindfulness. Many of these new skills we need helps us to embody the principles we value in an agile work style.
New leadership
The talent workforce of tomorrow is fostering a new definition of leadership. New managers in leadership will not accept political behavior anymore, they want leadership that empowers them to grow: it's called mindful & compassionate leadership.
Mindful and compassionate leadership does not mean that we change our thought processes however it does have a different intention:
A shift from I to WE: the leader is of service to the whole. The leader literally steps out of the way of the people so they can do their work in an empowered way.
Awareness about myself: in order to be a good leader we need to understand ourselves (self awareness)
Authenticity & Communication: communication skills should be authentic, providing the gift of listening instead of being the speaker all the time
Heart connection: connecting to our heart wisdom and to our emotions because even if we try – it’s difficult to leave our emotions at the door. We tend to be analytical and overthinking things.
Empowerment: empower employees to truly grow into the person they want to be and even if we don’t always understand their decisions.
Change from the inside inspires change outside
It all starts with ourselves, without doing the work first, without raising the awareness to who we are as a people and as a leaders we cannot make an impact on the outside. Once we do the work, we will realize how things are shifting without having to do something about it.
So what to do?
One answer is to develop Emotional Intelligence through practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is much more than meditation but it is the action of going out of autopilot, out of our reactive mode into being present and choosing our reactions.
Mindfulness helps organizations address some of their most difficult challenges
Every company and organization needs emotionally intelligent leaders. All organizations can benefit from a more mindful and self aware workforce.
Once everyone has these new skillsets, it’s possible to go through a co-creative transformation and re-invent organizations in a way treats employees as full human beings. The new trend of digitalization is human connection and heart wisdom. So let us rethink the way we do business, bring like-minded people together and maybe even create a movement.
Search Inside Yourself is coming to different organisations. For me this is one of the most ground-breaking leadership trainings! If this sounds great for you feel free to contact me to see how we can bring it into your organisation or how you can attend one of our public trainings.
About Search Inside Yourself
The Search Inside Yourself training is one of the programs we offer to companies in order to develop emotional intelligence and to learn new skills. Developed at Google and based on the latest in neuroscience research, the Search Inside Yourself (SIY) program teaches attention and mindfulness training that build the core emotional intelligence skills needed for effective leadership. We help professionals at all levels adapt, management teams evolve and leaders optimize their impact and influence.