Table of Contents
Introduction
The workplace can be a fast-paced, stressful environment. Many employees find themselves overwhelmed with tasks, deadlines, and the pressure to perform. However, it is possible to thrive, rather than flounder, in the work environment. The key may lie with mindfulness – gently noticing what is going on for us, in the present moment, without passing judgment.
Though the research is somewhat lagging in the area of mindfulness at work and mindful leadership, it is nevertheless growing in interest. This article aims to capture and share the power of mindfulness at work, and also explore another relevant and related topic – mindful leadership.
As you read, you can take from the information what you can about how to be more mindful in your work and your leadership.
Table of Contents
1. What is Mindfulness in the Workplace?
2. Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace and Business
3. Why is it Important?
4. A Look at the Research
5. 10 Examples of Mindfulness in the Workplace
6. How to Introduce Mindfulness in the Workplace
7. Video: Mindfulness at Work – Shanel Munger
8. 14 Ways to Encourage Mindfulness at Work
9. What is Mindful Leadership?
10. Cultivating Mindfulness Skills in Business
11. How Does Mindfulness Look in Organizations?
12. How to Develop a Mindful Organization
13. Mindful Leadership Training
14. Other Mindfulness in the Workplace Programs
15. 7 Recommended Books
16. 10 Mindfulness Quotes for Work
17. A Take-Home Message
What is Mindfulness in the Workplace?
Put very simply, workplace mindfulness is the degree to which individuals are mindful in their work setting (Dane & Brummel, 2013). What, then, does it mean to be mindful? Well, like so many constructs in positive psychology, mindfulness is not easily defined.
However, most definitions, such as the one described by Hyland, Lee, and Mills (2015), share three elements:
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Mindfulness can be described as a ‘present-focused consciousness’ (Hyland, Lee & Mills, 2015). In other words, a mindful individual is not ruminating about the past or worrying about the future; they are simply “being” in the here and now.
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Mindfulness includes paying close attention to both internal and external stimuli (Hyland et al., 2015).
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Mindfulness involves doing this in an open and accepting way (Hyland et al., 2015).
To summarize, a definition from Brown, Ryan, and Creswell (2007): mindfulness is “a receptive attention to and awareness of present moment events and experiences” (Brown et al., 2007: 212).
Mindfulness involves noticing what is happening without evaluating, analyzing, or reflecting upon it – it is therefore said that mindful information processing is ‘pre-conceptual’ (Hülsheger et al., 2013).
Thus, a mindful employee will take in what is happening in the workplace and not react to it, rather, simply taking in information from their surroundings. They will non-judgmentally approach their work and their relations with other colleagues and management.
Although the majority of research into individual differences in mindfulness see it as a trait, many researchers now consider mindfulness to be a psychological state that varies from moment-to-moment within individuals (Hülsheger et al., 2013).
Furthermore, mindfulness has been described as a natural human capacity, which varies in regard to strength across both situations and persons (Hülsheger et al., 2013). What does this look like in the workplace?
Well, it means that throughout the working day, at any one time, employees’ mindfulness is variable; they may be closely paying attention, non-judgmentally, in a meeting – focused on whatever the presenter is talking about. Or, perhaps, later in the day they are less mindful and are sitting staring at the computer wondering what to cook for dinner.
So, the person has the capacity to be mindful, however their mindfulness at any one time is variable.
Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace and Business
Mindfulness has a multitude of benefits for workplaces and businesses.
Speaking very generally, there are some mindfulness-based processes that are thought to affect employee performance and wellbeing.
These include response flexibility, decreased rumination, empathy, affect regulation, increased self-determination and persistence, improved working memory, and more accurate affective forecasting (Glomb et al., 2012).
Benefits of mindfulness in the workplace also include improvements in task commitment and enjoyment of work (Hyland et al., 2015). Let’s have a look at some of the work-related benefits of mindfulness in more detail…
Improved Social Relationships
Mindfulness results in improved social relationships (Glomb et al., 2012). Positive workplace relationships can have a significant impact. They buffer the effects of workplace stressors, promote thriving in employees, and foster communication, creativity, and citizenship behaviors (Glomb et al., 2012).
Glomb et al. (2012) suggest that mindfulness promotes positive social connections in the workplace through a number of integral mindfulness processes, but most especially empathy and response flexibility.
Employees who practice being mindful are therefore more likely to show greater acceptance of colleagues without reactivity (Glomb et al., 2012). Optimal functioning of organizations is, in many ways, dependent upon positive interpersonal relationships.
Given that some studies have suggested that training in mindfulness may be linked to social connectedness, this highlights the important role that mindfulness may play in workplace relationships and the success of the organization (Glomb et al., 2012).
Mindfulness and Resilience
A benefit of mindfulness in the workplace is that it promotes resiliency. Glomb and colleagues (2012) nominate two processes associated with mindfulness as being likely to foster resilience: affective regulation and persistence.
Mindfulness helps individuals to approach others positively and, in addition, it protects them from the negative emotions and agitation of another person by regulating affect appropriately and decreasing reactivity (Glomb et al., 2012).
In the workplace, resiliency is at the face of interpersonal or task-related stressors, and is also a vital part of optimal work functioning.
Enhanced Task Performance
Mindfulness also improves task performance.
The way that mindfulness is implicated in workplace performance is dependent on the nature of the task and the contextual factors of the work. Some mindfulness processes will beneficially affect a variety of types of jobs, whereas others are more specific (for example, for jobs with a lot of emotional content, decreased rumination and improved affective regulation may hold the key to performance) (Glomb et al., 2012).
It has also been found that mindfulness is associated with fewer cognitive failures (such as forgetting, distraction, and blunders) – which suggests that mindfulness may therefore lead to improved workplace performance and fewer accidents (Glomb et al., 2012).
Improved Intuition
Mindfulness also promotes an awareness of ‘gut feelings’, and it has been suggested that tapping into these intuitions may facilitate improved task performance when the level of expertise is high (Glomb et al., 2012).
Furthermore, mindfulness is also thought to promote better decision making, with decision biases being less likely due to attention to internal and external stimuli and reduced heuristic processing.
As you can see, the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace are many and varied.
A Look at the Research
Compared to the interest in mindfulness showed by academia, business, and government, research in the industrial-organizational community has been somewhat sparse (Hyland et al., 2015).
Nevertheless, we take a few moments to examine the research that has looked at mindfulness in the workplace.
Research into mindfulness, as a general construct, has been studied by employing a wide range of methodological approaches, such as survey designs, experimental studies, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Hyland et al., 2015).
Examples of instruments designed to measure mindfulness are the FMI and the MAAS.
The FMI is the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, which has both a long form (30 items) and a short form (14 items) (Hyland et al., 2015). Both forms have been shown to be psychometrically sound (Hyland et al., 2015).
The MAAS is the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale, consisting of 15 items (Hyland et al., 2015). This scale can distinguish between people who have various levels of experience with mindfulness. So, now that you have an understanding of what mindfulness research looks like, let’s take a closer look at mindfulness in the workplace context.
Coping and Calm
In 2008, Hunter and McCormick conducted a small exploratory qualitative study, examining a range of workplace outcomes derived from mindfulness practice for eight managers and professionals.
These outcomes included heightened awareness of external stimuli, greater acceptance of an individual’s work situation, increased coping ability, the ability to remain calm in stressful/challenging work situations, better adaptability, and more positive workplace relationships.
Hunter and McCormick analyzed the interviews they conducted and found out a number of things about employees who practice mindfulness. They found that individuals who practice mindfulness have more modest, realistic work goals, are more selfless, and are less concerned with material acquisition and wealth (Hunter & McCormick, 2008).
They also found that mindful individuals are more likely to find meaning in life from sources other than work (Hunter & McCormick, 2008).
Affect and Mindfulness-Based Interventions
Tamara Giluk (2010) conducted research that looked at outcomes from employees’ participation in either the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program or the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), which were conducted at the University of Iowa. The findings of this particular study were limited by a very low sample size, and the study thus lacked statistical power.
The study did show, however, that mindfulness was significantly related to positive affect and negative affect, but that no correlation was found with the quality of relationships or job performance.
Stress and Mindfulness
Allen and Kiburz (2012) looked at mindfulness as a trait. Their study showed that greater trait mindfulness was associated with greater work-family balance (Allen & Kiburz, 2012). It also found that trait mindfulness predicted improved sleep quality and increased vitality (Allen & Kiburz, 2012).
Galantino and colleagues (2005) were interested in stress and mindfulness. They looked at subject-reported stress symptoms, as well as salivary cortisol (a known indicator of stress levels) in healthcare professionals (Galantino et al., 2005).
An 8-week-long mindfulness meditation program was implemented. Mindfulness meditation was found to be related to significant decreases in employees’ emotional exhaustion (Galantino et al., 2005). It was discovered, however, that changes in salivary cortisol and subject-reported stress symptoms from baseline to 8 weeks post-program completion were weak and not statistically significant (Galantino et al., 2005).
Mindfulness, Emotional Exhaustion, and Job Satisfaction
Following on from Galantino’s work, Hülsheger and colleagues (2013) looked at the relationship between mindfulness, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction in a sample of interactive service workers. Their research looked at jobs that require employees to interact directly with customers/clients, which means that they are often faced with emotionally charged encounters.
These employees therefore need to manage their emotions as an inherent part of their job. This form of ‘emotional labor’ means that these employees are generally more likely to experience emotional exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction because these factors relate to other important organizational outcomes, including task and contextual performance, staff turnover, and absenteeism (Hülsheger et al., 2013).
Study 1:
The first study conducted by Hülsheger et al. (2013) was a 5-day diary study involving 219 employees. Mindfulness was found to be negatively related to emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction, at both the within and between person levels. Surface acting mediated the relationship between mindfulness and job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion at both levels of analysis (Hülsheger et al., 2013).
Perhaps you are wondering what surface acting is? Put simply, surface acting refers to an emotion regulation strategy involving the suppression of negative emotions and ‘faking’ positive emotional expressions in jobs in which positive emotional displays are expected.
Study 2:
Hülsheger et al.’s (2013) second study looked at 64 participants who took part in the experimental field study. The individuals either took part in a mindfulness intervention or were assigned to a wait-list control group. It was found that participants in the mindfulness intervention group reported significantly less emotional exhaustion and greater job satisfaction than those in the control group.
Findings of Hülsheger et al.’s (2013) research suggests that mindfulness promotes job satisfaction in emotionally draining work roles, and that it can also help to prevent burnout caused by emotional exhaustion.
