Leading From Within: The Mindful Approach to Business Excellence

applicable practices barbara schindler conscious leadership emotional endurance leadership skills mindful leadership self leadership

Chalkboard with timer: Pause and Reflect - How am I really doing right now? - Empowering Leadership Teams

A client shared with me this story of how he found himself becoming exactly the kind of leader he never wanted to be. In the midst of back-to-back meetings, urgent emails, and competing priorities, he said he became reactive, tense, and somehow was always behind. The team could feel the tension. The atmosphere in meetings had shifted from collaborative to cautious. My client shared that this is when he realized that something needed to change, and that something was his own behavior.

His journey into mindful leadership began with a simple question: "How am I really doing right now?" This deceptively simple check-in became the foundation for transforming not just his leadership approach, but his entire team dynamic.

The Self-Awareness Foundation

We often identify our own state of being by our surroundings—absorbing the anxiety of a stressed colleague or the urgency of a tight deadline. This outside-in approach leaves us disconnected from ourselves precisely when self-leadership matters most.

Taking a moment to pause and connect with yourself might seem indulgent in a busy workday, but it's actually essential for optimal performance. When you're not fully present in a meeting, you simply can't make your best decisions. Every time you check email during a conversation or mentally rehearse your response instead of listening, you sacrifice the quality of your contribution.

The practice is simple: Before important interactions, close your eyes briefly, take a deep breath, notice your physical and emotional state, take another deep breath to ground yourself in inner-calm, and set an intention for how you want to show up. This micro-practice—often just 30 seconds—creates a foundation for authentic leadership presence.

The Contagious Nature of Energy

Have you ever witnessed how quickly a room's atmosphere can change when someone enters with obvious anger or anxiety? Or conversely, how a calm, centered leader can settle a tense situation? The energy you bring as a leader is profoundly contagious.

Your team is constantly reading your signals, often unconsciously. When you're triggered into survival mode—what we might call "hair on fire" reactivity—your team's ability to think clearly diminishes as well. Your amygdala activation spreads, creating a collective state of anxiety rather than thoughtful problem-solving.

Mindful leadership allows you to recognize when you're being emotionally hijacked and deliberately shift your state before it impacts everyone around you. This isn't about suppressing authentic concerns—it's about centering in a steady state so that you may be empowered to express your truth.

The Counterintuitive Power of Slowing Down

Perhaps the most transformative mindful leadership practice is learning to slow down conversations, especially during challenging moments. When results aren't meeting expectations or conflicts arise, our instinct is often to push harder and move faster. Yet this approach typically yields diminishing returns.
True mindful leadership means creating intentional pauses that allow everyone's best thinking to emerge.

This might look like:

Checking for understanding: "What I'm hearing you say is... Is that accurate?"
Creating space for reflection: "Let's take a moment to consider what data is informing our concern here."
Engaging thinking partners: "I'd value your perspective on this challenge. What might we be missing?"

These deliberate slowdowns aren't wastes of precious time—they're investments in better outcomes. They create psychological safety that allows team members to contribute their best thinking rather than their most defensive reactions.

Building Your Mindful Leadership Practice

The beauty of mindful leadership is that it doesn't require adding more to your already full plate. Instead, it's about bringing a different quality of attention to what you're already doing.

Start by identifying trigger points in your day—perhaps the transition between meetings, difficult conversations with certain team members, or reviewing disappointing results. These are your opportunities to practice mindful presence.

Remember that like any leadership skill, mindfulness requires practice during easy moments to be accessible during challenges. The leader who attempts to suddenly become mindful during a crisis without prior practice is like an athlete trying a new technique during the championship game.

Begin building your mindful leadership muscles today with these simple practices:

Set an intention at the start of each day for how you want to show up as a leader
Create transition rituals between meetings (even just three deep breaths)
Notice when you're not fully present and gently bring yourself back
Practice validating team members' perspectives before moving to solutions
Reflect at day's end on moments where mindful presence made a difference

As you develop these practices, you'll discover that mindful leadership isn't just a personal wellness strategy—it's a business advantage that elevates your entire team's performance. In a world of constant distraction and reactivity, your mindful presence becomes your greatest leadership differentiator.