The 10-Minute Path to Mindfulness for Practically-minded People
Peter R. Classen
Part 2 of 3:
Highlights:
To recap from Part 1: “Mindfulness” is central to being skilled at the modern idea of being “Situationally Aware.” The business case for “mindfulness” and “mindful leadership” comes down to this: If one lets one’s employees suffer the personal pain and disruption of the COVID-19 crisis on their own, and without any collective or coordinated support from their employer, there should be no surprise that employees become disheartened, demotivated, and disengaged.
With the current extreme situation, mindfulness - when appropriately applied - is one of the most outstanding tools a team manager can use to preserve and protect the human capital assets (i.e. the employees) entrusted to their care.
Becoming “mindful” may not happen instantaneously, but in ten minutes, a pragmatic leader (who doesn’t usually go in for soft management skills training) can get a good sense of what is required, can see its business value, and can have a path to making “mindfulness” a practical component of “modern situational awareness.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
This famous Charles Dickens’ quote is sometimes used in business to suggest that in times of crisis when business is bad and things look bleak, there are also things that are great going on. We just have to realize what those great things are. No offense Charles, but tell us honestly, you’ve never run a business have you? Best and worst times, together? If one is owning and trying to keep afloat a severely-impacted small business (or medium-sized, or even a large business) in COVID-19 America, this is definitely not the best of times. It is the worst of times. The current economic shutdown could very well be a catastrophe of fatal proportions for tens of thousands of small business owners.
Yet as business owners, chief executives, as business unit leaders, or team leaders our job is to never give up, to never surrender, to continue fighting. To put on a calm, confident, and all-knowing face. To solve problems of all shapes and sizes with the ease of a master, the precision of a surgeon, and the humility of Mother Teresa.
While we at Grahampton are not sure we can help anyone become a master-surgeon-saint, we can apply mindfulness and help you lead in a mindful way such that the types of problems facing remote teams today do get solved.
What sort of remote team problems are we talking about?
Even if business is up, the chances are good that many, if not all, of your team members, are experiencing problems and feeling pain. If you know people in New York City, that pain might be great. They may very well have been directly affected by the current crisis (as our organization has). Resistance to dealing with the pain of individuals on our teams, though, just creates more suffering. It’s futile to deny its existence or resist dealing with it. So here we are in this extremely stressful situation. Businesses are suffering, and as of this writing, at least 22 million have lost their jobs. Some of us have a loved one fighting for their lives and some of us have lost someone already. This is all very unpleasant. Feelings of fear, grief, and loss naturally arise, and if like humans, we let them come and go without suppression, that is healthy and natural.
Being healthy and natural are good aims for team leaders in stressful times, but neither of these competencies is typically included in corporate training. What we really need is a crash course so we can put ourselves on a path to becoming “mindful leaders.” The following six steps provide just this. It should only be a ten-minute read.
1. First, promote yourself to “Head of Pain & Fear Management”
As mentioned, a lack of suppression is healthy and natural. Situations, however, get more complicated when as executive leaders or team managers, we let these feelings be suppressed. Suppression in this instance is unhealthy and unnatural. What a team leader can do is treat “pain & fear” as something that needs to be assessed, analyzed, and addressed. If you were promoted to the new Head of Pain & Fear Management, what would you do? You would probably start by assessing the problems; gathering intelligence from multiple sources using multiple techniques. You would understand and define the fullness of the problems, its various dimensions and the various ways it is impacting the business and your people. Then you would look for options; aligning specific solution options with each specific dimension of the problem. You would prioritize, and look for ways to efficiently and collectively address the most pressing problems. You would make sure you made the right decision - checking with experts who might have better ideas, a more informed perspective, and relevant experience you could lean on. You would decide and decisively launch solutions in whatever form they take. You would not just let people endure pain and fear just so you could think casually about doing something. Lastly, you would monitor and adapt. The proactive, caring team leader would not leave the success of the solutions to chance. They would know that success is not guaranteed, but that there is also value in trying. They would observe, measure, and continuously evaluate so they may make course corrections as the results unfold.
Let’s be clear, this is not medical advice; this is a business recommendation. Approaching the pains and fears of team members like a “team capacity problem” will allow team managers to take a systematic approach and use their project management strengths to deal with these difficult dimensions.
2. Establish the daily practice of “checking in”
Even if business is going great, your employees may not be. A daily call at a regular time will help teams and team members be better. They may say that they begrudge you around the virtual coffee machine for setting an 8:30 am “touch base” call, but their inner selves are happy to have a reason to get out of bed and put on pants. On the touch base call, team managers should structure the time to ask everyone how they are doing. If this level of empathy is unusual, you can call it a “safety moment” or a “remote work check.” The point is that as the team leader you will have to invite individuals to share their personal situations. For those that can speak, they will. The conversation need not be entirely personal. For example, you might say: “I heard on the news West Virginia is doing pretty well. You live in Western Virginia, right? How are the grocery stores in your town?” This invites the sharing of personal experiences, which is on the path to getting comfortable with sharing personal pain and fear.
Even if the business updates are mundane, repeat them and go through them. You cannot be sure all team members were listening the first time you went through things. One need only count the number of “non-office sounds” one hears on the team conference call to understand that there are sometimes overwhelming distractions (babies crying, kids in cyber-school but not, husbands being ...grrrrrr...special.)
Just posing the question on a group call may not be enough. The one who says, things are “just fine”, “spectacular” or “truly fantastic” might very well be on the verge. Some people might not share publicly what they feel personally. It might go against their culture, their upbringing, or their sense of what’s right. It might even be that their fears and pains are simply too overwhelming. In such settings, it is important the team leader finds a way to have a meaningful conversation - by phone, by text, or even driving by and talking.
3. Be earnest, be genuine and be ready to listen
It might seem obvious, but if a team manager invites personal status reports one better mean it and be ready to get an earful. This week alone on a team call the “how are things going?” the question was responded to with “Two female relatives died today of complications due to Covid-19.” “Right after this team call I have to go call my relative’s ex-husband. He doesn’t know.” Wow, that’s a lot to process. Our team had a brief pause. There were approximately 1 minute of expressions of condolence, and then we moved into the meeting.
Now regardless of the nature of the meeting, do you think that this individual was in any capacity to engage, be responsive, and give thoughtful responses to any questions? No team manager should think that this person would have their full faculties about them at a time like that. Adjustments needed to be made.
The point is that if you are to use a “daily check-in” be prepared for non-standard, genuine answers, that might not be easy. Be prepared to genuinely listen and be prepared to give everyone an equal time to speak. In small team settings, I have observed that 15 minutes for personal updating and 15 minutes for business status updates is a good morning touch base. For those disproportionately impacted, I have seen it require much longer. For example, among the CEOs I work with, the average “touch base and listening time” is about an hour to an hour-and-a-half per day (between 4:00 am and 10:00 pm most days).
4. Create an inventory of everyone’s pains, fears, and problems.
To some, this may sound like a violation of privacy and rather macabre. To those who have managed good-sized teams during a crisis, there is great value in keeping an inventory. The point of the inventory is to be able to see what is a collective problem and what is an individual problem. A collective problem can be dealt with collectively, in the form of providing a shared solution.
For example, one firm in Washington DC. took heed of the U.S. Federal Government’s warning on February 20th, that major economic disruptions and the closing of offices was likely. Their crisis manager knew a “work from home” corporate decision would entail everyone being able to log into their secure and especially-managed servers (they did U.S. Government work). A quick audit of available home internet and computer availability made it clear - there were far too many variances in-home equipment and connections to make for a workable, distributed, secure worksites. The solution: immediately buy 700 laptops, pre-configured, and ready to distribute. This is exactly what the company did. In speaking with the Chief Executive: “I know that decision cost us half a million [dollars], and it really was a shock. There were some who argued flat out against it. But now, we really don’t know yet how much we gained. It depends on how long this goes on. I think we are probably making $4 or $5 million more per month than what we would have. The transition to remote work has its difficulties but technology has not been one of them.”
The types of problems that might emerge may not be so obviously business. They might be personal. How do you deal with the odd remote cyber schooling hours? How to find resources to care for an aged parent? How do you treat the care of a sick loved one? What do you do if you start to show clear symptoms? The value of this inventory is readily apparent in just a short while. If 7 out of 10 employees say they are having trouble with morning meetings because of remote schooling issues, then it is in the company’s best interest to let the team managers figure out a solution? The same goes for what to do if you show clear symptoms. A company-wide policy, easily drawn up, is in the best interests of all. It will reduce the stress burdens on the employee and team managers alike.
5. Solve one small problem because it might end up turning into a very big small problem if you don’t.
In normal times, there is a view in Corporate America that an employee’s personal problems are not problems that the business should care about. In times of crisis, the line between business problems and personal problems becomes a lot more grey. Taking a pragmatic position on this issue, most companies will reach the conclusion that an employee’s personal problems may be very real, very relevant, and solidly in the scope of what a business should be concerned about during crisis operations. Some, however, may still doubt that this is the case. To those, I suggest considering African-based operations: medical insurance coverage, education and other benefits offered by the largest African-based employers are other based on the idea that an employee’s personal problems are among the most important problems a business should care about. There is no rule that says a company should not care deeply and act supportively for its employees.
So, when inviting team members to share their current dilemmas, do not just listen to the problems, seek ways to solve them. Team managers can take on the role of problem-solver or facilitator; “has anyone got a solution to this problem?” Use the power of diversity (diversity of life experience) to find quick solutions to the specific individual problems that employees are facing. For example: One person on a call today is having a terrible time finding care for an elder parent who has limited abilities at present. Another person on the call had read an article about medical school student unions putting together volunteer programs to help families with these kinds of needs, and suggested they check with local medical schools. This was a very helpful idea. It might solve one person’s particular pain point while at the same time, motivating others to share their problems, and others to be more helpful. A three-way win.
If a company fails to address those issues that negatively impact the employees ability to function, they should not be surprised if, in the company’s time of greatest need, the employee decides its best to keep it strictly business, and not answer the company’s call for extraordinary, out-of-anything-normal support.
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers [and employees] stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
6. Have a positive, mindful sign off for every team call.
Sure it is very tough for executive leaders and team managers today. For start-ups and small companies, it is easy for leadership to fall into mental resistance patterns like ‘why is this happening to me?’ or ‘it’s not fair’ or ‘this shouldn’t be happening’ or ‘I want this to stop.” This is not a helpful direction. They are starting to fight with reality. They are fighting with the present moment – and that, the more experienced among us know, is utterly futile and just creates more layers of hellish suffering.
Executive leaders and managers will also lose touch with themselves and the present moment if they descend into a resistance mod. We know the tendency to resist is strong when there is a lot of unpleasantness. One mantra frequently used by leaders who have survived difficult times before is this: “This too.” “This too” can be an abbreviation for saying “This too shall pass. We must accept unconditionally the reality of this present moment in whatever problems it brings us. This too is understood and accepted.” “This too” can remind team managers and staff alike to soften their resistance to the unpleasantness of all that is happening. It can be used to remind people to stay grounded in the presence (as best they can) and keep people connected to an easier and more peaceful future even when in the middle of this pain and suffering.
The technique is this: close every team call with a one minute vision of the better future. The vision must be distant enough, must be credible, and must resonate in two dimensions: It must provide “hope” and the idea that the current situation will “change for the better.” If the team leader in times of crisis and challenge does not provide “hope” and the belief “this too shall pass” then who will?
What comes next? Practice, practice, practice.
It’s taken about ten minutes to read how a practically-minded leader can become more mindful. Chances are good that the ideas and tactics we suggested have taken hold at least a little. We have found that with good organization and daily attention to this skill, it is likely you can become “pretty good, even decent” at mindful leadership within 30 business days. It is after this amount of diligent practice where we have seen mindfulness become instinctive and habitual. You can be happy to know that with just a little effort thought, improvement in perceptions, attitudes and attentiveness may be instantaneous, beginning on Day 1.
To create a larger, company-wide impact, more structure and process are needed. Part 3 in this series is where we will provide an abridged explanation of how organizations can put in place the infrastructure and systems needed for all teams to develop a high-level of situational awareness, and in turn, become more capable of addressing issues related to the current crisis and the challenges that lie ahead in market recovery and business reconstruction.
During a crisis, the companies that outperform others have leaders with a high level of situational awareness; they seem to “know what is going on” better than their competitors. Executive leaders are aware of the external situation (the national economy, market, and industry situations) and they are making smart strategic and tactical decisions. Team managers are just as aware of the internal situation with their team members (their employees’ trials, tribulations, fears, limitations, and problems) and they are using mindfulness to continuously measure the internal situation. They use what they learn through “mindful leadership” to make continual adjustments to work design, work processes, and workloads in order to preserve their teams, increase remote team productivity, and continue to produce results even during this challenging time.
If organizations wish to survive and thrive in this difficult and challenging environment, they would do well to quickly learn how to use “mindfulness” to better protect and support their most valuable asset: their employees.
Final Part in this Three Part Series: Seven Days to a Mindful, Reality-Embracing Enterprise.
Part 3 of these three-part series will focus on creating a larger, company-wide impact. We will provide an abridged explanation of how organizations can put in place the infrastructure and systems needed for all teams to develop a high-level of situational awareness, and in turn, become more capable of addressing issues related to the current crisis and the challenges that lie ahead in market recovery and business reconstruction.
A Guide to Achieving Excellence in Total Situational Awareness
High-degrees of this expanded idea of “situational awareness’ has been vital to the success of many of the business transformations, crisis navigations, and revenue drives Grahampton has led in the U.S. and in markets around the globe. If hearing case studies of how “mindfulness” and “mindful leadership” factored into saving two sizable enterprises during times of national crisis (one with 1,600 employees and another with 8,500 employees), please contact us. Grahampton has approaches to improve “situational awareness” that can help leaders lead better during this time of COVID-19. Please reach out to Peter Classen - pclassen@grahampton.com or any of Grahampton’s partners for a discussion.
About the Author: Peter R. Classen is a Chief Transformation Officer, Crisis Navigator, and an Expert in “Leadership and Management in Challenging Times.” Peter is also one of the Managing Partners at Grahampton & Company, a management services and advisory firm with three decades of experience helping organizations survive and thrive in some of the most complicated and thorny situations imaginable. Peter has been a hands-on c-suite leader and “chief crisis officer” in two +1,000 employee organizations during an extended national crisis and disaster settings and facilitated over 78 companies to overcome and thrive in times of calamity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his strategic revenue growth and business transformation focus have shifted to working with leadership teams on revenue continuity, on “survive now & thrive in the future” strategies, and on proactive management and team leadership in times of crisis and challenge. Find Peter and his teams at www.grahampton.com.