Mindfulness in Management: Power-Up Your Leadership Presence

Greetings and welcome to the Achology Mindfulness for Highly Effective Management and Leadership online course. You will hear from Kain Ramsay, your instructor, who introduces the format of this online course and how you can expect to benefit from this online learning experience.

When we become fascinated by life, we see it in different ways. Observation skills refer to the ability to use all five of your senses to comprehend, analyze, and recall your surroundings. The practice is often associated with mindfulness because it encourages you to be aware of the details in your everyday life. Kain discusses three ways to view, so that you may benefit most from this course.

To gain even more benefit from this online training experience beyond just watching the pre-recorded instructional videos, here are some of the different ways you can achieve this. Access 100's of articles, 100's more FREE video tutorials, and browse the inspiring Achology Quotes website!

This brief onboarding article offers basic course instructions and directs you to Udemy Support for any questions or issues you might encounter while using the Udemy website.

The goal of mindful listening is to listen without judgment, criticism or interruption, while being aware of internal thoughts and reactions that may get in the way of people being able to communicate effectively with you. Mindfulness is not about clearing our minds of all thoughts, but rather about being aware of the thoughts you are thinking. The theme of this teaching is learning how to listen mindfully.

In self-reflective behavior, we use our mind to think before we speak; to contemplate before we judge or evaluate. There is an important gap between stimulus and response, and within this gap is our capacity to make decisions about what we will say or do next. Here, Kain discusses the five degrees of self-reflection, which is the process that we all have the opportunity to engage in during this 'gap'.

We have all had moments of being physically present in a room while a conversation is taking place and yet mentally being elsewhere. Likewise, most of us have had the experience of reading a page in a book before realizing we could not recall what we’d just read. In this video, Kain discusses the basics of Mindfulness, how it works, and why it’s essential for effective leadership or management.

The basic theory of mindfulness is simple. The human mind does many things outside of awareness. While there are several ways to practice Mindfulness, you should first understand its three basic components. By understanding how our internal dimension impacts various aspects of our lives, we can make better and more informed decisions. The video teaches the 3 dimensions of mindfulness.

Your personal culture is the combination of the cultures that you belong to at any given time, and you identify with those cultures. In this video, Kain discusses the three personal culture zones; a teaching that gives you a framework for understanding your own growth process and offers insight into how to become the kind of leader that other people will find naturally appealing to follow.

Wise, intentional leadership is needed now more than ever. With our world becoming increasingly complex and challenging, we need to think carefully about how we lead, plan, and organize ourselves. Leading mindfully is one way to achieve this, but what is a mindful leader and how do we become one? As part of this video, Kain contrasts conscious awareness with mindlessness (autopilot).

Discipline contributes to the stability and structure of a person's life. Individuals who are disciplined are capable of handling stress and taking responsibility for their actions. The key is not to lose our ground, even when working with high-passion individuals or stressful situations. Kain outlines questions we can ask ourselves to remain level-headed when faced with uncertainty or challenge.

Recognizing the problems that distraction creates is half the battle. As for the other half, it involves developing strategies to overcome it and identifying ways to improve focus. In order to overcome distractions, it is first necessary to identify them. As Kain discusses in this video, self-awareness is essential to developing the kind of self-discipline needed to remain centered and focused.

We are often told to be ourselves, but this can be challenging if we don't know who we are. As is explained in this video, the full-cycle Model of mindfulness consists of three parts. Mindfully aware doesn't mean you're at peace with everyone; it means you're aware of your biases. Kain asks questions in each factor of the model that help us understand ourselves and our lives better.

By becoming more mindful, we are more likely to become aware of the intentions underlying our words, actions, and behaviors. People tend to believe that just having goals is enough to achieve them. The idea is untrue. In order to achieve our leadership goals and objectives, we must prioritize positively framed goals over negatively framed ones. Kain explains throughout this video.

If we are primarily concerned with what is happening inside of our heads, we are not able to spend the necessary time being mindfully aware of someone else. Kain explains the factors contributing to the breakdown of mindful awareness, providing an additional base for ongoing self-reflection.

Being mindful means being aware of one's self. Being mindful is neither mystical nor religious. You will learn the fundamental characteristics of mindfulness as being non-judgment, patience, beginner's mind, trust, non-entitlement, non-striving, self-acceptance, accepting things and accepting others, and learning how to let things be as they are.

In order to live mindfully and maturely, individuals must be able to discern between the brain and the mind. The mind is the set of faculties responsible for mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will and sensation. In this video, we make a thorough evaluation of the human mind.

People tend to take four main attitudes toward living their lives. As a term, consciousness refers to your awareness of your physical and mental experiences. Self-awareness does not look the same for everyone. Human consciousness comprises several states and a variety of factors can impact these states. i.e. A person's readiness to grow, develop, and mature.

In many cases, people lead an unconscious existence. In order to live a progressive life, it is imperative we wake up. Consciousness is not a biological process that occurs in the mind, but is rather a form of behavior that is controlled by the mind, just as all other forms of human behavior are. In this video, Kain elaborates on the experience of waking up and becoming fully conscious in life.

This section of the Mindfulness for Management and Leadership course presents self-reflection questions designed to help you reflect upon the central ideas and concepts you have learned so far.

The majority of us are taught self-discipline is a necessary skill that will lead us to success in the future. It is common for people to look to the wisdom of their parents, society, and the world for guidance concerning the truths of life, but the truth is that we possess all the answers we require within ourselves. In this video, Kain presents an analogy to unpack this concept further.

Humans are both brilliant and flawed, sensitive and savage, exquisitely caring yet painfully indifferent, remarkably creative yet highly destructive. Some aspects of our human experience are undeniable by all. It is common for some to use the term "mind" while others may use "brain". We can benefit from creating a vocabulary to describe our human experiences. Let's explore what it means to be human.

Growing spiritually is about connecting with your inner self, becoming more mindful of life around you and developing inner strength, character, resilience, integrity and congruence. In this video, Kain discusses the stages of growth we go through as human beings. The degree to which we will influence other people will be to the degree to which we have been influenced.

Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and understands their own character, feelings, motives, and desires. In this video, Kain discusses the five different stages of self-awareness.

Many of us are capable of much more than we accomplish, and often do not live up to our potential. By learning how to identify roadblocks to personal growth, we are able to avoid self-defeating behaviors. In this video, Kain identifies seven roadblocks to personal growth: learned helplessness, unidentified opportunity, undeveloped vocabulary, a state of comparison, and a destiny attitude.

In this video, Kain introduces a self-reflection exercise to help you develop a comprehensive understanding of yourself by considering in detail each of the roadblocks to personal growth.

This video explores Kain's view of mind as part of the Wise Mind Model's broader concept, which has been approved by the American Psychological Association. There are three different parts of our minds (the rational, emotional, and the wise). This fascinating model explores what occurs in each.

Identifying ourselves by what we do makes our identity dependent on our performance. There are many ways in which people define themselves that limit their potential for growth and expansion, which negatively affects their self-esteem and self-confidence. Throughout this video, Kain offers a framework for appropriate, positive, and unrestrictive self-identification.

The actual self refers to how individuals perceive themselves realistically, whereas the ideal self refers to how people would like to see themselves or how they would like to appear. This video discusses a teaching in which Kain provides a differentiation between our actual selves (who we are currently) and our ideal selves (the person we hope to become in the future).

Identifying ourselves by what we do makes our identity dependent on our performance. There are many ways in which people define themselves that limit their potential for growth and expansion, which negatively affects their self-esteem and self-confidence. The point of this video is to offer a framework for identifying with one's special characteristics in a positive, unrestrictive, and helpful way.

Humans have a tendency to fear the unknown. More than ever before, we are creatures of comfort and luxury. Leaving our comfort zone to explore, experiment, and experience requires a lot of effort. When we examine the meaning we have placed on our life events, we gain insight and understanding into who we are. Past experiences can have a strong hold on people. With this video, Kain shares his timeline and explains how valuable and clarifying it can be to ‘piece together’ our life experiences.

It's human to fear the unknown. We all are creatures of comforts and luxuries, more today than ever. The idea of leaving our comfort zone to explore, experiment and experience requires an enormous effort. When we take time to understand the meaning we've placed on our life events, we gain insight and understanding into who we are. People often become bound to their past experiences. In this video, Kain shares his timeline and illustrates how profound this exercise can be.

Change curves are derived from the work of Kubler-Ross and describe the emotional journey people experience when dealing with change or transition. People go through several stages during this process, including shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Kain uses Kubler-Ross' Model Life Transition Curve to describe the ongoing process of transition in life.

Stress is an emotional or physical tension. Feelings of frustration, anger, and nervousness can be triggered by any event or thought. Stress is a physical reaction to a challenge or a demand. Stress is not a conclusion in itself - it comes from somewhere. Kain discusses the stress theory in this video, unpacking where stress comes from and how we can most effectively reduce stress in our lives.

The act of journaling is an excellent method of reflecting on our learning. You are the sum of all the experiences you have had leading up to this point in your life. The story of your life is perhaps one of the most valuable assets that you possess. In this video, Kain introduces a homework exercise to help you examine your own story: your past, present, and future.

As the name implies, a reference point is something used to make comparisons or to evaluate another object. Setting a unique reference point for our future gives us something to aim for and helps us to move forward. In the following video, Kain outlines the most useful method for identifying and how this will serve as a positive reference point for your ongoing leadership or management.

Many people live their lives as if they were human doings rather than human beings. Under the 'human doings' category we are those who define themselves according to what they do. In this video, Kain introduces his self-awareness workbook to assist you in further developing your self-awareness.

Ignorantly, some people define themselves by their interchangeable personality traits. This is one of the easiest ways to undermine one's self-esteem and confidence. A German born behavioural psychologist, Hans J. Eysenck developed a model of personality flexibility. Kain breaks down Eysenck's model and argues that how we identify will influence our willingness to change and grow.