Mindfulness in the Workplace

2020 has been an exceptional year for everyone personally, but it has also had a massive impact on organisations. There have been furlough schemes, redundancies and closures of businesses, all of which have an economic effect, but there has also been a significant influence on the culture of organisations.

Earlier in the year, I wrote an article for a colleague (contributing to Scopism – The Jisaw Organization) about new leadership practices as businesses adapt to the lockdown, release and re-imposition of restrictions. We need to be open about the psychological health of the people who work with us and for us. Successful organisations need to understand and respond to the challenges of the mental health and wellbeing of their staff.

Mindfulness can help all personality types to accept and engage with their particular needs. A non-judgemental approach and an acceptance of our differences will assist our organisations to support our people in these complex and difficult times.

We should encourage the exploration of psychological health in our organisations, so that everyone is comfortable to talk about their needs and personality traits. Consider using an external counsellor to ensure staff feel that individual confidentiality will be maintained.

Each personality type has its own strengths and, managed appropriately, these can be combined to complement each other and become greater than the sum of the individual parts. Each should be able to recognise that their contribution to the whole is good enough and valuable. Understanding your staff’s personality traits and adapting to their needs will enable you to bring out the full potential of your teams.

Extroverts and introverts process information and communicate in different ways to each other. Each type needs the appropriate communication options to make the most of their ideas and experience. This includes human interaction and the tools that support those collaborations. Broadly, extroverts are re-energised by social contact, introverts are exhausted by people.

If you are interested in exploring this subject further, tune in to the ITSM Zone ITSM Crowd series. Alternatively, simply contact us at the Aware Mind to discuss how we can help your staff and organisation.

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