Leadership: Self Mastery through Mindfulness

University of Sri Jayewardenapura

6 June 2016 Lalith Ananda Gunaratne

2005-2013, Velsoft Training Materials Inc.

Sage Training Pty

Corporate Druids Ltd.

Positional External-Enforced by

the organisation

Sources of a Leader’s Power

Personal Internal value system that

affects the Leader’s behaviour

Leadership Requires

• Critical Thinking Skills

• Emotional Intelligence

• Mindfulness

Red Zone – Child Mind

• Can undertake simple tasks.

• Respond to reward and punishment.

• Have emotions that are overwhelming.

• Are self-centred.

• Are impulsive.

• Cannot imagine a future different from today.

• Cautious in engaging with the world. John Corrigan – Group 8 Education

Blue Zone – Adult Mind • Are self-aware.

• Can expand awareness through higher order learning.

• Are social and can adapt to changing surroundings and society.

• Have the ability to imagine, plan and achieve a different future.

• Don’t blindly react to emotions, have availability of choice and the ability to put off gratification.

---------------------------------------------------

confident, collaborative and creative John Corrigan – Group 8 Education

Why do we need to think about Critical Thinking?

Critical Thinking is based on reflective

thinking that is focused on interpreting,

analyzing, and evaluating information,

arguments and experiences with a set of

reflective attitudes, skills, and abilities to

guide thoughts, beliefs and actions

(Ruggiero, 1989).

Non-Critical Thinking…

• Sees the world as black and white

• Is uninformed and indifferent

• Is passive or aggressive

• Is lazy

• Looks at only the superficial aspects of a problem

• Is reactive

• Is stubborn and rigid

• Is closed-minded

Critical Thinking…

• Accounts for shades of gray

• Is informed and curious

• Is assertive

• Is active

• Looks deeply at a problem and its surrounding issues

• Is proactive

• Is flexible

• Is open-minded

Understanding Critical Thinking

Emotional Intelligence Defined

John Mayer, Ph.D. and Peter Salovey, Ph.D.

“[Emotional intelligence is] the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emotion accurately and adaptively; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought (use); and the ability to regulate emotions in ways that assist thought (manage).” Velsoft

“Most of us have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand, diagnose, - to think and communicate in terms of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ with people. At best this way of thinking and speaking hinders communication, creating misunderstanding and frustration, at its worst - it leads to violence”

Dr. Marshall Rosenberg – psychologist, activist and international conflict mediator

Communications and Relationships

• Intrapersonal

• Interpersonal

• Organizational

• Community

The Power of Balance and the Organizational Athlete

Performance and Inspirational Leadership

• The above “Performance Pyramid” presented by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarts in their well researched article The Making of a Corporate Athlete in the Harvard Business Review 2001 illustrates the balance required for performance.

• Physical well-being is its foundation. Above that rests emotional health, then mental acuity, and at the top, a sense of purpose. The Ideal Performance State—peak performance under pressure—is achieved when all levels are working together. This is the power of balance.

Working with Our Mind

Unconscious and

automatic.......

Conscious and reflective....

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-

SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-

IC STUDY COMBINED WITH

THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY

YEARS OF EXPERTS.

Conflict happens...

Conflict – Finding the Balance • Conflict comes with a threat, real or not.

• Perception colors our reactions and triggers emotions.

• Learning to manage conflict without harming relationships – self mastery

• When in doubt – communicate - conversations about accountability.

• Changing our mindsets, framing conversations with good intentions – looking for positive attributes in our ‘adversaries’.

In competition or collaboration……

• Conflict is natural and inevitable

• Conflict is neutral

• Conflict is an opportunity

NVC

Levels of Conflict

– Values

– Goals

– Strategies

– Information

as you go up the list, the intensity of conflict rises.

NVC

Working with our biology

The Brain

– Reptilian

– Limbic

– The Neo Cortex

Emotional Intelligence Defined

Emotional intelligence is our ability to:

• Accurately identify emotions in ourselves and others

• Understand and manage emotions

• Use and effectively communicate emotional feelings

Definitions and Thoughts (I)

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic intelligence (involving language abilities)

• Logical-mathematical intelligence (involving analysis and math skills)

• Musical intelligence

• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (involving mental and physical co-ordination)

• Spatial intelligence (involving pattern recognition skills)

• Interpersonal intelligence (involving the ability to work with others)

• Intrapersonal intelligence (involving the ability to understand oneself)

Emotional Intelligence Defined

Mindfulness as a way of life…

Mindfulness Meditation

• A non-sectarian, research-based form of meditation derived from a 5,000 year old practice.

• Skill of paying attention to our inner and outer experiences with acceptance, patience, and compassion.

• Awareness of thinking

Brain Wave Frequency

• Beta 14-21 Hz and higher - Waking state, the five senses. Perception of time and space.

• Alpha 7-14 Hz - Light sleep, meditation, intuition. No time and space limitation.

• Theta 4-7 Hz - Deeper sleep, meditation.

• Delta 0-4 Hz - Deep sleep. You are unconscious at Delta.

What are Telomeres?

• Telomeres provide a unique model for understanding cell aging.

• They act as protective caps on the end of chromosomes to keep them from deteriorating.

• When cells replicate (think aging), telomeres are cut and become increasingly shorter. If the telomere becomes too short, it dies or at the very least, becomes dormant.

Telomere Shortening

• Telomere shortens with chronological age, predicts risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) independent of age, and is shortened in people with age-related diseases, including atherosclerosis and diabetes.

• Stress appears to influence the rate of telomere shortening.

Mindfulness Meditation

• How can mindfulness meditation alter these pathways and have direct effects independent of stress pathways?

• Brief mindfulness-based meditation training has been shown to reduce reactivity to emotional stimuli and increase willingness to be exposed to or tolerate negative stimuli.

Elissa Epel, UCSF

The Four Questions for Clarity

• What am I observing?

• What am I feeling?

• What am I needing?

• What am I requesting myself to do?

Managing Self

The first and paramount responsibility of anyone who purports to manage is to manage self: one's own integrity, character, ethics, knowledge, wisdom, temperament, words, and acts. It is a complex, unending, incredibly difficult, oft-shunned task. We spend little time and rarely excel at management of self precisely because it is so much more difficult than prescribing and controlling the behavior of others. However, without management of self no one is fit for authority no matter how much they acquire, for the more authority they acquire the more dangerous they become. It is the management of self that should occupy 50 percent of our time and the best of our ability. And when we do that, the ethical, moral and spiritual elements of management are inescapable. Dee Hock - VISA

Keep in touch..

Lalith Gunaratne

Sage Ontario for Mindful Leadership

Website: www.sageontario.org

E Mail: lalith@sagetraining.org

Tel: 1-613-857-0912

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