MINDFUL STAFF RELATIONSHIPS
MINDFUL COMMUNICATIONMINDFUL COMMUNICATIONS AT WORK
Companies consist on the companionship of its employees. Communication and strong professional relationships are at the heart of a well-functioning organisation. Without good staff relationships, stress rises, productivity falls and creativity is stifled. Mindfulness improves the ability to work well with others even if the relationship is fraught with difficulty.
THE ISSUES
Employee Turnover
This can cost as much as twice than each leaving employee’s salary. There are recruitment fees, lost staff time, missed business, slowed productivity and costs and time to train and establish the new staff member. Staff morale suffers as colleagues leave and excess work is distributed. Turnover is often a result of change to the organisation, poor relationships with and communication between management and colleagues, low engagement and stress.
Proposed Business Change
The only constant in life is change. Restructures, mergers, redefining business and reshaping teams give rise to much uncertainty, unpredictability and staff anxiety.
Staff relationships with customers, colleagues, management and leadership.
Human conflict is inevitable. It is a skill to be able to work productively with it. Difficult relationships can trigger strong emotional and behavioural reactions. A colleague reacting out of stress, especially if they are in a position of power, can cause distress to another. The resulting worry and distraction can knock this staff member’s performance and this can burden the load of others, generating more conflict and stress. This in turn impacts morale and productivity.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) and communication.
Distracted staff, working habitually and unskilfully while reacting impulsively and making quick but careless decisions leads to bad people skills. Staff communicate less and working relationships suffer.
LEADERSHIP GRAVITAS
“We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us, that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.“
W.B. YEATS
MINDFUL LEADERSHIP
HOW MINDFULNESS HELPS
EMBRACE CHANGE
Mindfulness encourages practitioners to watch non-judgementally the constantly shifting and changing world in flux. Meditators find stability in states of mindfulness – an awareness that is always present and unchanging.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (EQ)
This includes self-awareness, social awareness and social self-management (not reacting mindlessly to others). Mindfulness enhances emotional literacy – the ability ‘read’ others’ emotions while you sensitively manage your own. It increases awareness of habitual thoughts and helps the individual step back and see the situation with reason, clarity and compassion. This helps staff communicate difficulties sooner, enables managers to listen and respond well and improves communication and relationships.
IMPROVES LEADERSHIP
People are more drawn to those with enhanced emotional intelligence (EQ). People with a high EQ are seen as more trustworthy, charismatic and morale-building. Mindfulness improves leader’s ability to really listen to themselves, staff, customers and the community to make good sound decisions.
THE EVIDENCE
Researchers found that mindfulness reduced employees' intention to leave their job.
This research was on over 100 servers and managers across seven chain restaurants. The researchers found that workplace mindfulness was related to greater job performance and less turnover intention (Sample items included, ‘I am thinking about leaving this organisation’ and ‘I am planning to look for a new job’). Another company reduced staff turnover by 46 per cent by increasing employee well-being, the iOpener Institute found. Mindfulness is a powerful and cost-effective way to increase employee well-being across the organisation.
Researchers say that managers’ mindfulness is positively associated with subordinates’ well-being
Researchers say that managers’ mindfulness is positively associated with subordinates’ well-being, job satisfaction and work-life balance. Research on managers (upper, middle and first line) in the finance, service, education and manufacturing industries were scored on mindfulness traits. Their subordinates were measured on performance. The more mindful the mangers were, the more productive were their staff.
Research shows that mindfulness helps employees be less negatively affected by others.
A brief mindfulness course at a financial institution call centre significantly improved the satisfaction level of the employees’ customers and internal clients after only two weeks of listening to two short guided meditation sessions each day. Research on compassion fatigue (lowered empathy and ability to attentively connect with clients) among professionals and volunteers at a traumatic bereavement agency, who had done an intensive mindfulness training, showed that greater levels of mindfulness are associated with lower levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Similarly, a separate study found that mindfulness training improved physicians ability to be attentive, listen actively and respond to patients with more empathy.
%
% wellbeing reduced staff turnover by
OTHER MINDFULNESS AT WORK PAGES…
If you would like to learn more about mindfulness in the workplace, please see a summary of the other pages below and links to take you to them. Please contact us with any specific questions you have.
OVERVIEW
TEAM WORK
Canary Wharf mindfulness at work
Mindfulness has drawn attention at the White House and 10 Downing Street, turned heads at the World Economic Forum and worked its way into the curricula of the world-famous business schools. A growing number of businesses are recognising what mindfulness has to offer and have been early adopters of mindfulness in the workplace. This includes Google, GlaxoSmithKline, KPMG, and PwC, Transport for London (TfL) and The Cabinet Office.
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT
STAFF & LEADERSHIP TRAINING
London mindfulness work training
Boosting productivity is a concern of every workplace. The issue of productivity embraces a whole range of human psychological skills. This includes being more in the present to focus on the job at hand, making decisions that enhance job efficiency, thinking creatively to spot better solutions and leading others to be better workers. Mindfulness has been proven to bring changes in all of these areas.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
STAFF WELLBEING
Workplace stress training London
When pressure turns to stress, productivity plummets. Over time, a stressful workplace can tip into being a toxic environment. This increases risk of high absenteeism, valuable staff leaving and damage to the company reputation and brand. Mindfulness has strong evidence for reducing stress and improving mental health.