Marc Lesser's Blog, page 28

3 Ways to Transform Busyness and Regain Focus So You Can Accomplish More

An excerpt from Practice #7 – Keep Making It Simpler – in Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader.

“Are you as busy as we are?” This was the question a female executive from a technology company once asked me as we began our Skype meeting. I was talking with her regarding the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, and I could have easily said yes. Instead I said, “We don’t do busy. We aspire to work in a way that is focused, engaged, and spacious.”

I was attempting to be playful, and we both laughed. Of course I was busy, but I have a strong aversion to busyness, and she and I then had a meaningful discussion about our intention for how we wanted to work. It’s easy to get caught up in the prevailing culture of busyness. Having a lot to do is one thing; it’s a common problem we are all familiar with. To me, busyness means becoming caught up in that complexity and losing sight of what is most important. Busyness equates to mindless rushing. For me, the antidote to busyness is remembering to be mindful and to practice being focused, engaged, and spacious.

So, what does this mean? How do we make this shift?

Be Focused: See what matters most, your ground truth, your creative gap, the most important thing, and focus on that. Come back, over and over, to the simple, yet difficult question: What is my priority right now? What is the most important thing to accomplish in this call, this day, this week?

Be Engaged: This refers to your level of energy and attention. Whatever the task, engage with it fully till it’s time to move to a new task. In general, I find I can remain fully engaged with tasks in 45-90 minute increments, then it helps to take a short break of 5 or 10 minutes. When working, engage with your full energy, then completely disengage and relax.

Be Spacious: This refers to bringing your attention away from concerns about yourself and noticing the space and openness, literally, that exists around you, wherever you are. At the same time, notice stress without becoming stressed. Expect stress, anxiety, and fear to arise at times, and let them go when they do. Studies show that stress and busyness aren’t the real problem; the problem is our relationship with stress. In one study, people who believed that stress was inevitable and positive had greater well-being than those who believed that stress was negative and something to be avoided. Further, those who had a positive attitude about stress lived longer than those who experienced relatively little stress in their lives.

Try this: Right now, notice where you may be feeling tight or constricted. Give attention to those places, and relax and soften them. Notice how much space is now available. So often we miss how much space there is right in the midst of our busy lives. We tend to look only at people and things and miss how much space there is in between. Explore, notice how much space there is, physically. Right now, look up, look to the left and right. There is lots of space everywhere. Then return to the question of what matters most to you right now.

Making it simpler doesn’t mean avoiding stress or accomplishing less. There is a good deal of evidence that we can live healthier lives and accomplish more, and more of what matters, when we are focused, engaged, and spacious.

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Interview: What Matters Most

Marc Lesser speaks with Paul Samuel Dolman on the What Matters Most podcast about enlightened management, leadership, and meditation. Marc discusses his book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader and what tips and lesson leaders of all levels can learn from it. You can listen to the conversation below.

 

http://pauldolman.southbeach.netdna-cdn.com/wmm522_marc_lesser.mp3

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Is the Wind At Your Back?

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

– Marc Aurelius

I had breakfast a few days ago with a colleague who I’ve known for many years. We were talking about our work and our lives, in particular about the challenges, the unknowns, and the struggles. She shared a practice that she learned from one of her teachers, where, instead of holding onto the assumption that you need to (in someway) struggle at work in order to feel that you’re achieving something, you summon the feeling, and act as though, the wind were at your back. As soon as I heard this, I immediately felt my internal chemistry and my mood shift.

Try it out – what would your work and your life look like if the wind were at your back?

It might be that you try on, perhaps even embody, a realistic optimism of how your plans, visions, and aspirations can unfold. You might find yourself coming up with creative ways to obtain the resources necessary to take whatever next steps are needed, and/or to develop the support of others.

That doesn’t mean that everything will go your way or that there won’t be issues to address, problems to solve, and even failures along the way. Those things are inevitable. But, with the wind at your back, you’re better equipped to navigate these challenges skillfully, with courage and grit, rather than feeling overwhelmed by them.

I was at Esalen Institute last month teaching a 5-day workshop with my wife Lee. In this workshop, we developed ways to integrate mindfulness into our ability to envision, connect, empower, and collaborate. We focused on the practice of loving the work, where “the work” is to cultivate self-awareness, go beyond ourselves, and serve others. I dedicate the first chapter in my book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader, to this practice – it’s a powerful exercise; one that can open the door to creativity and insight through a radical acceptance of what is while also envisioning what’s possible. (Seeing inner freedom as possible is a core underlying aspect of mindfulness and mindful leadership.)

Ultimately, the point is this: your vision for your work and your life can be truly potent if you’re willing to open to possibility; if you’re prepared to pivot so you find yourself with the wind at your back.

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Interview: 15 with the Author on KYMN Radio

Marc Lesser speaks with Teri Knight on the KYMN Radio 95.1 FM show 15 with the Author about company culture and its impact on people and productivity. Marc explains how a mindful leader deals with an employee who is more inclined to be a “disrupter.” You can listen to the conversation below.

https://kymnradio.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Seven-Practices-of-a-Mindful-Leader.mp3

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6 Questions to Identify Ground Truths and Creative Gaps

Reality has an irritating habit of shifting and changing, totally undermining our hopes, dreams, and fantasies. When our ideas and plans collide with reality, reality generally wins, whether it’s the reality of our aging bodies and minds, of our mercurial emotions, of upheaval in the business world, or of the shifting priorities and feelings of other people – family, friends, and coworkers.

When this happens, we may not want to admit that reality isn’t going to meet our expectations. We may even create trouble for ourselves by avoiding what’s in plain sight. But we need to see what is, what in the military is called the “ground truth.” This is what’s actually happening, the reality of the battle or situation on the ground, as opposed to what intelligence reports and mission plans predicted would happen. The ground truth is what you say to yourself and closest friends about your actual experience, as opposed to what you want, or what you hoped or planned would happen, or how you’d like to appear to others.

For a moment, consider your “ground truth” in these areas:

Your well-being, including sleep, exercise, diet, and your state of mind
Your work
Your experience of your core relationships

In each of these areas, how does your experience compare to your vision or higher aspirations?

In war and in life, there are always gaps between our ground truths and our visions of what we expect or want.

Naturally, we ’d like to close these gaps if we can, but first we have to see and acknowledge them. An important practice is to acknowledge where you are right now, where you want to be, and the gaps between these two. Doing this requires being curious, appreciative, and warmhearted with yourself while at the same time looking directly, sometimes even fiercely, at what exists and what you aspire to/for. This is an important, even paradoxical skill and practice: the skill of acknowledging the gaps between what is (the ground truth) and what you want, while at the same time fully appreciating this current moment/situation.

For example, your ground truth might be that you are rarely exercising, (or meditating) despite your good intentions Or, you might want to take on more responsibility in your work or are in some way dissatisfied with your current job and want to make a change. Or perhaps it’s that a project or book is just not getting the time and attention you had hoped for.

In his groundbreaking book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge calls these gaps “creative tensions.” Senge explains that one of the most important skills of leadership is staying with these gaps instead of covering them over or finding strategies to make them go away in order to feel more comfortable.

Some popular strategies for avoiding these gaps include:

lowering the bar of your visions, goals, and aspirations
getting so busy that you lose sight of the goals
becoming embroiled in emotional difficulties to avoid the gaps

These strategies or habits are wonderful ways in which to avoid the discomfort of moving from where you are to where you want to be. And they ensure that we remain in the status quo.

Instead, having considered your “ground truth” in several areas, try to identify some of your core or most critical creative gaps.

Then, ask yourself:

In what areas is the difference between what actually is and your vision of what you want the widest?
What are some ways you might narrow or even close those gaps?
What support do you need?
What skillful conversations might be useful?
What are some of your strategies for avoiding discomfort and not recognizing or staying with these gaps?
What is there to learn?

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Interview: We’re All In This Together

Marc Lesser speaks with Mike Robbins on the We’re All in this Together podcast about why more businesses are bringing mindfulness to the workplace and how the Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader can facilitate this process. You can listen to the conversation below.

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Why Everyone is a Zen Student and a Leader

Though Zen has a rich historical and religious tradition it has a surprising and creative way of not taking itself too seriously.

Not only does it express a sense of humor but a strong desire to negate itself. Zen doesn’t exist for the sake of Zen but as a tool to help people live more in reality and less in partial and false interpretations of reality. It is a philosophy, and explanation for what it means to be human, and a set of practices that can be seen as antidotes and aspirations: antidotes for greed, hatred, and delusion (which have been popular for thousands of year); and aspirational (and practical) practices for living with greater wisdom and compassion – to live with a radical sense of aliveness, freedom, and connection.

If you are a business person, you most likely don’t see yourself as a Zen student. If you are a Zen student, you probably don’t see yourself as a business person. If you are either or neither, it can by useful to try on the possibility that you are both.

I believe we are all Zen students, in that we all must contend with birth, old age, sickness, and death – that is if we are lucky. We have no idea where we come from or where we will go. How did we get here? What is consciousness? At the deepest level I believe we all have the same aspirations — to love and be loved, to discover and express our unique gifts, and to find peace and equanimity in the midst of whatever life may bring us. Zen is a practice and set of values to help us be aware, to awaken, to uncover our innate wisdom and authenticity. Though Zen is often perceived as enigmatic and difficult to understand, it is at its heart a system of simple practices that can be done anywhere — even, and especially in the middle of our busy work lives, and within all our relationships.

There is no separation between Zen practice and everyday, ordinary life.

We all have to deal with difficulty and crisis — taking care of dying parents, troubled friends, or growing children; meeting the changes that come suddenly or gradually; confronting pain and difficulty for ourselves and for those we love. Meditation practice, the heart of Zen practice, can be seen as creating a controlled crisis — a time each day where we have nowhere to go and nothing to do; we’re depending on our own bodies and minds, completely alone, and completely connected. This practice can help us reveal ourselves, our pain and suffering, our bare feelings, the immensity of our lives. By sitting still, just by being present, we learn that we can fully accept our imperfect selves, just as we are. This process can be cleansing and transforming; it can influence every part of our lives. Zen practice is ultimately about finding real freedom and helping others.

And we are all business people. There is no avoiding having to deal with money, with the basic needs we all have for food and shelter and clothing, and for getting things done. All professions, even those not primarily focused on business, are embedded in the world of business. Doctors and therapists call their customers patients. Teachers and social workers cannot escape budgets and management structures. Nonprofit organizations and religious institutions need to attract employees, pay salaries, and perform within financial frameworks.

At the heart of all businesses, whether they are overtly within the business community or not, is a focus on meeting the needs of people. Businesses make things or provide services that people need. We sometimes forget that the starting point of business is much more than making money or creating wealth. During the dot-com bubble we witnessed firsthand what happens when businesses are started without a thoughtful plan for meeting the needs of people: they often disappear rather quickly.

The business world appears to be understanding and embracing this – that we are all Zen students and business people (without ever using the word Zen) – that bringing out the best in people and supporting real connection and collaboration are good for people and good for business.

Some key practices:

As a student of Zen, ask yourself: “What’s most important?”

Experiment with appreciating and being curious about everything, shifting from being right and knowing to wondering; noticing how rich everything can be when we, like Zen, have a sense of humor about ourselves.

As a business person explore asking yourself: “What problem or need does my work address? How might I be of greater service?”

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Interview: The Lucas Rockwood Show

Marc Lesser speaks with Lucas Rockwood on the Lucas Rockwood Show about meditation, emotional intelligence, and how corporate culture can dramatically change when people are present, emotionally open, and connected. Marc discusses how his book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader can help us to be more mindful in our lives. You can listen to the conversation below.

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Interview: Untangle

Marc Lesser speaks with Ariel Garten on the Untangle podcast about how he’s used the practices of zen and mindfulness to improve employee satisfaction, productivity and teamwork at companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Marc discusses his book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader where he distills the wisdom he’s discovered moving between Buddhism and the boardroom, and back again. You can listen to the conversation below.

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Finding Your Power

When I was a 26 year-old Zen student living at the Green Gulch Farm (a part of the San Francisco Zen Center) a woman Zen teacher and friend looked at me and said, “Marc, you have a way of pissing away your power.”

I didn’t quite know what to make of this statement. I sensed it was not meant to be a compliment (yes, this laser-sharp insight was due to several years of my comprehensive and expensive Zen training)! At the same time it didn’t feel like an ordinary or familiar kind of judgment or criticism. The directness and mysteriousness of her words definitely grabbed my attention and caused me to pause.

I wondered what her words meant, and why she was saying this to me. I was curious what power she saw in me that I was unaware of, and how I was “pissing it away.” I had never given any thought to power, personal or otherwise.

Though the statement – you have a way of pissing away your power – may sound harsh, this is not how I experienced it. I don’t think it was intended to be disrespectful or cause harm. In fact, I’ve always felt it to be a tremendous gift. Since hearing it, I’ve become immensely curious and attentive, even passionate, about the topic of power – noticing, wondering, studying my own and that of other people, as well as how they stand it in, and whether they use it well, badly, or piss it away entirely.

Her statement has become a core reminder, often helping to either frame or orient my life, acting as a cautionary warning for how not to live, and providing aspirational direction for a better path. In a way, her observation has become a “koan” – a Zen teaching phrase, puzzle, or story to engage and grapple with, to think deeply about, allowing the words to seep into your bones and into your being as a way to uncover something meaningful and important, even primal, as a means to learn and grow, to unearth insights, and to be transformed.

In my work as a business coach, I regularly hear from clients about how difficult it can be to face, own, and embody our true power. Sure, it’s much easier to have an image of our power, or to aspire to be powerful. It’s always easier to play it safe, to stay safe. After all, if we don’t take risks we won’t fail, right? This is when I typically offer the reminder that motivation, will, purposiveness, intentionality, choice, initiative, freedom, and/or creativity probably won’t have a chance to surface if you’re content to stay “safe” by ignoring or skimming the surface of what is difficult, risky, or painful.

Cultivating Power

Explore quieting your usual judgments and ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, powerful and not powerful. See if you can recognize and accept that you are a vulnerable, human being, and that you have this in common with every single person on this planet. Try on accepting fear as part of your path. Practice noticing your aspirations and the gaps between where you are and where you aspire to be. There is real power in our yearning, our vision, and intentions. When I was CEO of Brush Dance, a greeting card company, one of my favorite cards stated:

Why not go out on the limb…that is where the fruit is.

When it comes to cultivating power, Marianne Williamson (currently running for the Democratic nomination for president) has a potent and surprising take on power:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

As Williamson so eloquently writes, it is by cultivating self-awareness that we find our real power – the power to be present and authentic, the power to heal, actualize, and have a positive influence in our relationships, in our organizations, and in the world.

And, here are a few more of my favorite quotes about power:

“Power when properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose.”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

“Transforming Power: to be able to have the potential, to possess and use one’s energy of creation.”

–Adrienne Rich

 

“Power is the drive of everything living to realize itself with increasing intensity…”

–Paul Tillich

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