Do Leaders in your Organization have Time to Think?
Three simple ways to create space for leaders to pause, reset and respond with intention.
Many leaders spend their days firefighting, moving from one meeting to the next, responding to messages and making decisions at speed. Yet self-leadership requires something that busy working lives often squeeze out, space to pause, think and reset.
Here are three simple ways organizations can build that space into the working day:
Tip #1. Put breathing room between meetings.
Make 25- and 50-minute meetings the norm rather than 30 and 60. Microsoft’s brain research found that back-to-back meetings caused stress to accumulate, while short breaks allowed the brain to reset and helped people remain more focused and engaged.
Tip #2. Make a three-minute mindful pause normal.
Before an important meeting or decision, stop. Feel your feet on the floor, notice your breathing, and simply observe what is happening in your thoughts and body without trying to change it. This kind of present-moment, non-judgemental attention sits at the heart of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s mindfulness approach. Research on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has found benefits for workplace stress, including among managers.
Tip #3. Name the mood before acting on it.
After a difficult conversation, take two minutes before firing off the next email. Ask: What am I feeling? What might be influencing my reaction? How do I want to respond? Research on affect labelling, the act of simply putting feelings into words, suggests that doing so can reduce emotional reactivity and engage areas of the brain involved in regulation.
These small changes collectively create something leaders badly need: the mental space to notice, interpret and choose their response, rather than simply react to whatever comes next.
Don't wait too long to try them!
