Mindfulness is being completely in the present moment. This mental state is achieved by staying fully conscious and aware of your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations and calmly acknowledging, accepting, and managing them. Staying mindful is a vital life skill for any individual but it becomes even more important when other people are involved such as in a workplace, be it an office on-site, home office or in a factory. Being mindful in the workplace means staying focused and fully engaged in the job at hand and managing inevitable distractions.
Traditionally, employee wellness programs focused on disease/care management programs (e.g., managing chronic health conditions, like diabetes), lifestyle- management services (e.g., weight management programs, gym membership discounts), health-risk management services (e.g., on-site flu shots), physical activity programs, and work environment enhancements (e.g., bike racks, walking paths).
Mindfulness has now become a necessary part of wellness programs in the workplace to ensure that employees have a sound mental and emotional state when dealing and working with others be they customers, bosses or colleagues. Mindful workers can thoughtfully respond, rather than react to thoughts, conflicts, stresses and challenging emotions. Increased emotional intelligence leads to better conflict resolution. A heightened sense of self-awareness can help to improve empathy, compassion, listening, coordination and communication skills, better work relationships and thereby efficiency in team projects.
The speed of business in today’s offices with rapid-fire emails, short response times, multitasking, texting, and social media distractions creates a significant level of stress. According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of workers feel stressed on the job. Nearly half of the workers say they need help in learning how to manage stress, while 42% of people say their colleagues need such help. Unmanaged stress leads to an increase in stress-related illnesses and poor mental health which has physical, psychological and behavioural repercussions. While all stress can't be eliminated from the workplace, employers can help reduce stress levels and improve employee health through mindfulness.
In today’s fast-paced modern work and living, mindfulness training helps employees to slow down, notice more and also accept things they cannot change in a stressful and difficult situation while proactively looking for solutions. Better coping mechanisms help to manage stress and prevent serious health and performance issues, including frequent headaches, irritability, insomnia, difficulty making decisions, and trouble remembering.
Mindfulness programs in the workplace can take the shape of meditation and yoga sessions, mental health screening and interventions, mental/psychotherapy, counselling services, reflection workshops, relaxation techniques, stress management and mindful leadership coaching. Even in today’s times of work from home and social distancing due to Covid, these sessions can be delivered via online classes and live webinars . Benefits of mindfulness programs include reduced blood pressure, less stress, anxiety and depression, improved sleep and immunity. These programs also improve cognitive skills key to high work performance such as clear thinking, lengthened attention spans, and skills to focus, compartmentalise and prioritise. They also improve memory and creativity. For example, meditation helps one to feel balanced, centred and grounded so that one can better achieve both personal and professional goals.
Training workers how to mitigate their stress, whether workplace or personal (as one affects the other) and create a healthy work-life balance is vital for preventing emotional exhaustion and employee burnout. Happy, healthy and relaxed workers will take lesser sick days, have a greater capacity to deal with the challenges of organisational life, and also have better morale. They also have higher levels of job enjoyment and satisfaction. This will help organisations maintain a productive workforce, save money and improve the bottom line in the long term.
Some key points to keep in mind while designing and incorporating a successful mindfulness program in workplace wellness are:
1. Keep it secular and inclusive.
Mindfulness practices are sometimes seen through a spiritual lens. While some will understand and appreciate this aspect, others may not. Hence it is important to keep the focus on the positive, practical health and universal aspects of yoga and meditation.
2. Give it time.
It is important to remember that mindfulness may take a short time to learn or teach, but a long time to master. Hence the need to schedule recurring mindfulness training sessions.
Remember, mindfulness training works and makes for a smart investment in the health and productivity of employees and staff. As Richard Davidson, the Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and the University of Wisconsin-Madison says: "The key to a healthy life is having a healthy mind."
Meetings are a mainstay of modern workplace communication, and for good reason. Done right, meetings aid collaboration, creativity, innovation, and inclusivity among teams. A study1 by ResearchGate reveals that over 50% of respondents considered their meetings productive and only 15% complained about them being a waste of time.
Yet, many of us hear superiors say, “If you’re invited to a meeting, we expect you to speak up. Don’t wait for someone to ask you.”
So, when you can’t find your voice in a meeting or if you’re getting interrupted too often when you try to speak, here are a few ways to make yourself heard in meetings.
7 Ways to Make Your Voice Heard in Meetings.
1.Do your research beforehand.
Walking into a meeting with no idea about its purpose or agenda is like going to war without guns. It’s imperative that you study the agenda before the meeting and arm yourself with ideas, questions and suggestions. If there are topics on the agenda that you can contribute to, convey the same to the host in advance and request that they set aside a few minutes in the meeting for you to speak. And if public speaking gets the best of you, practice your speech before the meeting with a friend or a trusted colleague, and invite questions and suggestions. Remember, practice makes perfect.
2.Arrive early to a meeting.
Reach the meeting room 10-15 minutes ahead of time and start conversations with those who are already present. It’s astonishing how even experienced people shy away from contributing in meetings because they fear what others will think of them. Being assertive in your communication with attendees gets easier if you’ve already spoken to them and built a rapport before the meeting. And if small talk is not your thing, just pull out the agenda and ask for someone’s opinion.
3.Consider questions as contributions.
Questions spark curiosity, curiosity creates ideas, and ideas lead to innovation. So never hesitate to stand up in a meeting and ask your questions. But don’t ever use questions to draw attention towards you. If your question doesn’t have merit, you’re only wasting your and your entire team’s time—a crime too grave to commit when everyone is already pressed for time. Don’t have questions but want to contribute? Make your voice heard by answering questions or summarizing the meeting based on your understanding.
4.Make sure your ideas get the attention they deserve.
When you’ve finally won attention in the meeting, hold the floor until you’ve made your point. Sometimes, even though you’ve made an important contribution, another attendee might think that they’ve come up with an idea of a lifetime and your idea will get lost under their enthusiasm. To avoid this, right after you make your point, engage others in a conversation by asking them “Do you think we can work with this idea?”, or “How can we make this work for your team as well?” to make sure your idea gets the attention it deserves.
And if someone interrupts, politely tell them that you’d like to hear their opinion but have just two more points to make. After you’ve completed your dialogue, remember to ask the person what they were saying.
5.Respond in agreement or disagreement.
If you agree to a point, ensure you voice your agreement with facts or reasons for the same. And if you disagree, speak up and explain why. Never apologize for disagreeing with someone, instead be assertive in your communication without being disrespectful.
Avoid starting with phrases like “I’m sorry but I think...” or “I don’t want to interrupt, but…” and start with these:
● In my opinion, we have a better solution if we….
● I understand Sheetal’s point, but that could lead to…
● I see it differently because…
6.Ask yourself why you want to contribute.
You either have something important to say that will change the course of the meeting, or you’re worried that you’ll be at the receiving end of the “If you’re invited to a meeting, we expect you to speak up.” comment.
If your contribution is driven by the latter, begin by asking yourself why you care about your role, your organization and the project at hand. Answering these questions will help you develop a sense of connection to your work, so you can find new ways to contribute instead of just making your presence felt.
7.Leave your emotions at the door.
People complain that they get “shut off” or “spoken over” in meetings. The only way to get past this is to leave your emotions at the door before a meeting. If you’re being spoken over, or when your idea isn’t being accepted like you wish it to be, staying in a neutral emotional state will help you cope with the feedback. If you have an important point to make that was interrupted, stand up and assert it; if it wasn’t, let it pass. Remember, the point of the meeting is to find solutions to a problem, and not to hear you out.
Making yourself heard in meetings can be tricky, especially when you’re stuck in a workplace that doesn’t notice your contributions. Give these suggestions a go, practice ways to be more assertive in your communication, and you’ll soon find it easy to be heard in meetings!