Blog
Workplace Mindfulness
Taking a Tough Look in the Mirror
By Dr. Karlyn Borysenko, guest contributor
There's not a leader out there who would tell you their goal is to create less productive employees, and yet data shows us that is precisely what many of them end up doing. About two-thirds of employees in the United States and Canada self-report that they are unengaged at work, 79% of employees do not see professional growth opportunities in their current organization, and 79% of employees who quit their job credit a "lack of appreciation" as their re…
Like the Wild Geese
By Wendy Saunders, guest contributor
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
–Excerpt of “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
It can feel rather lonely sometimes when leading mindfulness programs or endeavoring to gather the support needed to start, sustain, or expand these programs in the workplace. This has been my experience at points during the …
Resources for Mindfulness Champions
Shared Resources and Tools
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Hotline to Peace: 360-385-2200 x2238
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eNaropa: Mindful at Work, 8-week online course (also free 7-day course)
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Mindfulness-Based Emotional Intelligence Facilitator’s Guide
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Becoming a Resonant Leader, book by McKee, Boyatzis, Johnston
Creating a Culture of Mindfulness at Work
Summary Report
This document captures key questions and insights that arose during a weekend deep dive retreat hosted by Mindful Leader and the Garrison Institute in August 2018. The participants were all internal champions of mindfulness within medium to large organizations (100+ employees). Our objective was to provide a forum where these peers could share best practices and lessons learned, bond, and find meaningful ways to support the continued growth of mindfulness in America.
Being an i…
How integrating change management with mindfulness meditation helps employees through difficult change
By Wendy Quan, guest contributor
Organizations struggle with constant change. Or, rather, it’s the employees who struggle with the relentless changes that disrupts their lives and mounts their stress. The problem is there is never enough change management resource to truly help our employees.
The responsibility of helping people through change, or ‘change management’ tends to fall upon leaders, change managers, project managers or human resources. However, generally whatever little time there…
America’s First Chief Mindfulness Officer
By Schuyler Brown, guest contributor
One morning in 2015, I opened my Sunday New York Times to find a profile of Mark Bertolini, the CEO of healthcare giant Aetna, on the front page of the Business Section. The story was not a typical business story, but rather a vulnerable and personal portrait: the story of a corporate leader’s personal journey into meditation and his vision to bring the practice into his workplace.
Bertolini hired Andy Lee to do the real work of building a company culture w…
A Mindful Solution to Mindless Meetings
By Leah Weiss, guest contributor
Meetings are a way to arrive at solutions, voice opinions, share and receive team feedback. So why are roughly 59% of meetings a waste of time? Furthermore, meetings can cause companies to lose billions of dollars in revenue annually.
Why haven’t we yet found an antidote to mindless meetings? Maybe we’re not looking in the right place.
A Tip from Tibet
The image of an ego-tripping narcissistic boss is fading fast. In its place is a leader who knows the impor…
Bringing Mindfulness to Work
By Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader's President and Chief Community Organizer
In recent years, mindfulness has made tremendous strides into mainstream society. People are practicing it individually and bringing it into their organizations. Through my work at Mindful Leader I have encountered, advised, and learned from countless champions of mindfulness at the workplace across the globe and at companies of every size and industry.
If you are interested in bringing mindfulness to your organization, th…
Is There a Place for Compassion in Business?
By Patricia Thompson, guest contributor
I recently coached a senior executive I’ll call Stephanie, who was grappling with a pretty common dilemma in the business world: her organization’s profits were nowhere near where they had been projected to be, and her impatient CEO wasn’t happy about it. She and her colleagues were feeling intense pressure to perform and feared that they would lose their jobs if they were unable to turn things around.
To cope with the situation, Stephanie decided to mir…