Want to be a better leader? Observe more
and react less
Overloaded
executives need coping mechanisms. This personal reflection shows how
meditation can help.
Most time-strapped executives know they should plan ahead
and prioritize, focus on the important as much as the urgent, invest in their
health (including getting enough sleep), make time for family and
relationships, and limit (even if they don’t entirely avoid) mindless escapism.
But doing this is easier said than done, as we all know—and as I, too, have
learned during years of trying unsuccessfully to boost my effectiveness.
In my case, I
stumbled upon an ancient meditation technique that, to my surprise, improved my
mind’s ability to better resist the typical temptations that get in the way of
developing productive and healthy habits. Much in the same way that intense,
focused physical activity serves to energize and revitalize the body during the
rest of the day, meditation is for me—and for the many other people who use
it—like a mental aerobic exercise that declutters and detoxifies the mind to
enhance its metabolic activity.
Before my chance discovery of this timeless technique, I was
skeptical, despite the accounts of the many accomplished practitioners who have
preceded my own beginning efforts.1 Just as
learning to swim or the enjoyment of floating in water can’t be experienced by
reading books about it or hearing others’ accounts of the joy of aquatic
self-buoyancy, so the benefits of meditation can only begin to be understood by
taking an experiential plunge.
So why write about it? Because I think today’s “always on” work
culture is taking a heavy toll on today’s leaders, and we need coping
mechanisms. Meditation isn’t the only one; it’s just one that I feel somewhat
qualified to talk about because of my experiences with it over the past five
years. I’m far from alone; mindfulness has been gaining currency in business
circles, and a few business schools also have been wading into the topic of
meditation through the leadership of professors like Ben Bryant at IMD, Bill
George at Harvard, and Jeremy Hunter at the Drucker School of Management.
.
In my
experience, though, most of today’s workers—and senior executives perhaps most
of all—lack what they need, whether it’s meditation or a different approach, to
balance and offset the demands of their “anywhere, everywhere” roles in today’s
corporations. The famous hitter Ted Williams, at the conclusion of a long
baseball season, used to go hunting and fishing to relax and recharge. Winston
Churchill was an amateur painter who once said, “If it weren’t for painting, I
couldn’t live. I couldn’t bear the strain of things.”
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Most executives can’t disappear for long stretches to go
fishing, and picking up painting sounds daunting. But they can use simple
versions of proven meditation techniques to improve the quality of their lives,
even if it’s only by increments. My purpose in this article isn’t to tell you
whether, or how, to meditate; there are several flavors of meditation and I
have only really ever tried the tradition of Vipassana. Instead,
I will describe how it has helped me deal with three common challenges faced by
leaders: email addiction, coping with disappointment, and becoming too insular.
Fighting email addiction
Compulsively
checking email, particularly first thing in the morning, is probably the
biggest affliction to grip the modern-day professional. This was also the
productivity-destroying habit I had found hardest to shake off.
In the past, I
would find it almost impossible to resist looking at messages as soon as I woke
up between 6 and 7 a.m., my mind conditioned in a Pavlovian manner to keep
doing it. Some messages came in overnight from other time zones; others might
be truly pressing items that couldn’t wait. Many were nonurgent notifications
and newsfeeds.
The impact of
checking everything first thing was a combination of electronic overload, a
heightened stress response to difficult messages (leading to knee-jerk
replies), and, most seriously, a slower start to the morning’s activities. This
welter of electronic communications consumed my mind’s energy. A curt or
unpleasant email from someone important could easily affect my mood and get me
off on the wrong foot with other, unconnected people, as I ruminated on whether
a personal grievance or some other reason was responsible. The email habit
started to feel like self-inflicted harm that I couldn’t avoid.
Through
meditation, my self-awareness and self-regulation “muscles” have grown to the
point where I now am better able, after a good night’s rest, to put the first
several hours of my day to better use: toward meditating, exercising, writing,
planning the day’s priorities, and other complex-thinking tasks that would
likely be crowded out later. I have relegated my heavy emailing period to the
post-dinner timeframe when my mind is typically sluggish and less productive.
Also, taking the extra time to respond to emails has helped my responses be
more considered and deliberate.
My new
conditioning means colleagues know that I won’t always get back to every email
first thing in the morning. This has stemmed the flow of overnight messages and
served to alleviate anxiety and guilt over unanswered emails. Like everybody,
I’m at constant risk of slipping back into old habits. I try to guard against
this risk with the mental space I have recaptured for myself, motivating myself
with the improvements I recognize in my personal and professional life that
have occurred as a result of meditation.
Taking positives from the negative
Shortly after
starting meditation five years ago, I vividly recall hearing that McKinsey had
lost to one of our main competitors the opportunity to serve an important
healthcare ministry. As lead partner on the negotiation, I’d spent months with
colleagues from around the world developing what we thought was a compelling
approach for helping the ministry.
My instinctive
reaction in similar situations previously would have been a mix of deflation,
disappointment, frustration, and even resentment towards competitors.
Minimizing any damage to the firm—and containing the impact on my own standing
and career—would have been uppermost in my mind.
I’m not saying
I was completely free of those feelings this time around, either—but something
was different. There was more space between me and the emotional reaction that
I’d have had previously. I surprised myself by acknowledging to colleagues that
the rival bid must really have been better, and I almost took some satisfaction
from the competitor’s success. The win would admittedly allow them meaningful
entry into a market that they had been pursuing for some time, but it would
likely mean they would be a more rational competitor in the future. On
reflection, I also felt genuinely happy for the clients, who I believed had run
a fair and thorough process and had now found a well-qualified partner for this
important assignment. I was aware that my own negativity hadn’t been magically
removed from me by meditation, but I was able to respond in a more neutral
manner and not allow myself or others to be consumed by it.
Focusing on others
Although
meditation is a solitary act, it has helped me focus more on others as I shed
some of my insecurities and redefined the way I make tough trade-offs. I used
to feel insecure about being “left out” of certain meetings or discussions,
thereby passing up opportunities to delegate. Similarly, when I faced dilemmas
that required balancing conflicting interests, my dominant consideration was
“What’s in it for me?”
Again, I
wouldn’t say I’m now free of insecurity or self-interest. But regular
meditation has helped me better identify those things that I truly need to be
involved with and those that could carry on without my direct involvement. This
has freed up a good 10 to 20 percent of productive time, and it has reduced my
stress about not pulling my weight. It was also energizing for those who worked
with me, as it allowed many of them to step up and take greater ownership and
control. While all this might seem intuitive, it had eluded me before because
of my insecurities and my lack of self-awareness with regard to my unconscious
drives, and about how I was matching my energy level with productive uses of
it. Meditation has made me more aware of these issues and, as I continue
practicing, I’m hoping and expecting to access further levels of self-awareness
and to make more progress toward letting go.
What’s also
shifted is my definition of personal gain or loss. I still acknowledge the
personal dimension, but I find myself slowing down, and reflecting on
situations from more angles, including more of how the situation will affect other
people or the environment in which we live, and of what’s right or fair. The
impact of a decision on me personally is less of a yoke that makes the labor of
assessing my choices exhausting or draining.
Instead, I find
myself coming to “seemingly right” conclusions more nimbly than in the past.
When I am able to avoid, or at least put in perspective, my previously
perpetual orientation—“How does this serve my agenda?”—the “right” approach
becomes relatively self-evident. This is liberating: it helps free me from the
internal turmoil that used to arise when I tried to reverse engineer solutions
that, first and foremost, served me.
At one point
before beginning the practice of meditation, I had a renowned time-mastery
coach assist me in rewiring my tendencies, including blocking off periods of
the day for important strategic tasks. This advice, like Stephen Covey’s habits
for personal effectiveness, which I have long admired, was elegant and highly
appealing. Yet I found it puzzlingly inapplicable to high-intensity
professional life and I rapidly fell back into old habits. I would often feel a
sense of passively going through the day’s events rather than making active
choices in the driver’s seat.
Post-meditation,
I have experienced a real shift in how I focus my energies. Despite the same,
if not greater, pressures at work, I am enjoying more control and a greater
sense of purpose in my daily and weekly activities. I no longer take pride in
the number and diversity of my appointments—even as I now have to be on guard
for new ways pride can present itself.
I would sum up
my experience in four words: observe more, react less. I try to observe myself
more disinterestedly and to avoid knee-jerk reactions to the rush of incoming
stimuli and to situations that seem negative. Even if I don’t always succeed, I
am more easily able to identify my weaknesses: my sense of insecurity,
addiction to short-term benefits, and overemphasis on process-driven results.
That helps me work smarter and lead better toward longer-lasting achievements.
About the author
Manish Chopra is a
principal in McKinsey’s New York office. He is the author of The Equanimous Mind, which
chronicles his initial experiences with Vipassana meditation and the impact it
has had on his personal outlook and professional life.
http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Leading_in_the_21st_century/Want_to_be_a_better_leader_Observe_more_and_react_less?cid=other-eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1602
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