VIM Executive Coaching doesn’t go looking for network flubs and blunders, they seem to find us. So, we were watching television a couple of nights ago and we turned to one of those 24/7 news and weather channels to check on the next day’s unpredictable Inter- Mountain weather.
The seemingly harried meteorologist stood behind a bank of computer screens as though a concert pianist about to play a concerto. In full command of the moment, she announced that “Wednesday will see snow with a chance for cold.” We thought it to be funny, and made funnier still, in the sense that she never caught her mistake.
The little flub made us relate to a client, an overworked executive leader, who made a serious accounting mistake due to stress created by unrelenting pressure. In her multi-tasked, high expectation world, complete with a recent acquisition, reverse stock-split and onboarding of several employees due to under-staffing and poor cost cutting decisions, she was humiliated and faulted by the board.
Could it affect a future promotion? That we can’t say. However, such incidents don’t help.
Did you take a space?
Did you take a space? She did not understand the question. We asked it in a different way: What do you do to counteract the stress and the anxieties that come with your job? She shrugged. The question itself increased her unfair assessment of herself.
In case the obvious has not been stated as of late, none of us are machines. Long-standing research has shown that despite best efforts, stressed employees may miss conversations, details and often high-level conversations. Executives can only process so much, respond so much, absorb so much and ultimately act on situations so much.
In a 2022 marketing article by McKinsey & Company, it was stated “With endless meetings, incessant emails, and casts of thousands, companies have mastered the art of unnecessary interactions. Winning in the next normal requires much more focus on true collaboration.”
How should executives achieve true collaboration amid all of the clutter and input, through all of the unnecessary interactions and the incessant stream of often useless information? Spaces for response and reflection are not only important but becoming essential.
While executive leaders might view daily practices such as mindfulness meditation and response rather than reaction to seem counter-productive time wasters, they are just the opposite. Taking a personal space away from the clutter, if even for 15-minutes a day, enables a slowdown in the noise and the clutter.
As our society and workplaces have become more digitized and distracted, taking a space of quiet and mindful reflection have developed into an increasingly effective counterbalance to the clutter.
While flubbing a weather forecast or making an incorrect accounting projection are decided two different outcomes of stress, both can be mitigated by being more mindful to the pressures.
Mindfulness meditation can be taught. It is not a mysterious, religious or frivolous practice rather an excellent coping mechanism that says, “Let me briefly pause, review the situation, take a moment and breathe.” The more executive leaders learn to take a moment, the more responsive, aware and authentic they become.
Far before society saw anything remotely digital, mindfulness meditation was employed as a strategic coping mechanism. It is every bit as effective in this age, as it was in the millennia before anyone could have foreseen 24/7 news and weather.