Are You a Leader if No One Follows You?

In businesses, where the quality of customer experiences and satisfaction are critical, mindful leadership has an opportunity to flourish and produce results.

Barry Moniak

In human endeavor, mindful leadership is considered a most challenging undertaking, yet something of which humanity is always in need.

Mindfulness, in simple terms, is a practiced technique of focusing one’s attention on the present—while maintaining an equal awareness of the past and the future. In a mindful state, we can experience thoughts, feelings and sensations without judgement—like an impartial and unbiased observer.

A leader is defined, obviously, as a person who leads. And, to lead is to go before or with, to show the way, to escort or afford passage to a place. Yet the term leadership has, unfortunately, been relegated over time to mean nothing more than a position or function of power and control over people. 

Dictionary definitions aside, mindful leaders possess a developed ability to assess people and situations. They are also future thinkers, evaluating potential risks and rewards in decision-making processes. This allows them to avoid landmines while exploring future possibilities which could lead to optimal results.

These days, leadership in larger organizations often has little, if anything, to do with mindfulness or leading people to a good (or better) place. Leadership in today’s world is too often about coercing, even manipulating people into doing things in such a way as to fulfill a particular agenda.

In businesses, where the quality of customer experiences and satisfaction are critical, mindful leadership has an opportunity to flourish and produce results. This helps create commitment-based relationships where leaders earn our trust and respect—and prove themselves worthy of our following.

If you are currently in a leadership position, ask yourself…

Do people follow your lead because they willingly choose to, or because they must? 

If those you lead were given a choice to follow you or not, without fear of negative consequences, would they do so of their own volition?

Being a Good Listener

As leaders, being ready, willing and able to face credible feedback on inquiries like these may initially be intimidating, yet one’s ability to do so is a telling mark of a true mindful leader.

Being acknowledged as a leader who is receptive to both feedback and input identifies you as an empathetic listener. The act of mindful listening is one of the more critical components of mindful leadership.

These open lines of questioning and listening are self-effacing and self-revealing. Not only do they show how we perceive ourselves in our leadership position—they also enlighten us as to how we are being perceived by those we lead. It reveals their impression of us as a leader and allows them to be considered as a valued contributor to the company.

This also lays a foundation for organic team formulation. When people feel like they can openly express themselves to those in leadership positions, it creates a culture where they feel more comfortable with each other. It removes the divisiveness of “us versus them” and gives them a sense of being on a winning team. 

Engage & Empower Employees

Leadership is much like a double-edged sword. A company without mindful leadership is not likely to produce the most desirable results. Likewise, a company without an engaged community of employees is also not likely to achieve optimal results. 

Successful businesses, especially in a challenging economy, need both mindful leaders and engaged followers. This can be accomplished only when leaders use effective language to communicate internally and externally.

Too often, people in leadership positions are under a false impression that the way they approach the job of leadership is the most effective way of accomplishing the task at hand. Nothing could be further from the truth. People will always respond more favorably when they are being led in a manner that suits them and inspires them to like, trust and respect you as a person.

So, where does mindful leadership start? It begins within each of us. We are given both a mind and a body and effective communication between the two is critical for our health and well-being. If we desire to improve a level of performance in a particular field, how well we articulate that communication between our mind and body will ultimately determine the outcome.

Clearly Articulate Goals

Organizations have a similar make-up. The mind of a company is the human interaction and the body is the functional operation. All businesses, regardless of industry, include these two components. 

Having responsibility for the quality of human interaction within an organization is a key reason why so many people shy away from leadership positions. It takes a lot of work on the part of a mindful leader to show up in such a way that their people are more likely to: a) follow them; b) feel valued by them; and c) make great things happen within the business.

An ongoing task of a mindful leader is to articulate the organization’s vision and mission through commitment-based language and communication. This creates an internal company culture of stewardship where everyone is on the same page as to “who we are, what we stand for, why we do what we do, who we serve and how we go about providing our products and/or services.” 

Businesses with mindful leadership at the core are readily seen, heard and felt by those who do business with us. And, happy patrons make for demonstrable results in every aspect of our enterprises, including the bottom line!