Managing
the human mind at work is possibly the most difficult of all tasks. Top PGDM
colleges in Delhi NCR reflect upon this aspect in both the academic curriculum
and also in beyond the classroom learning activity. There are aspects of human
behaviour and managing the self that academicians at even the best business schools
in Delhi cannot teach aspiring managers. For that matter at Ishan Institute of
Management & Technology we have been offering Art of Living lessons to
students of all batches. Through these efforts and engagements with students we
have found that while business executives and corporate leaders try their best
to manage resources of all types, they lag behind in managing the self.
Managing the self is perhaps the mother of all management trades. In the
parlance of management psychology we refer to it as ‘mindfulness.’
What Are the Challenges in Managing
the Self?
Managing
the self is about managing the human mind. Let us take a look at the research
reports and survey results on the importance of mindfulness. Most professionals
reach their place of work every day with a trail of energy and exasperation in
the rush hour. The truly hard working and sincere professionals come to the
office with a work plan of their own and a to-do list that is cumbersome. They
get to work with a burst of high energy and as they race against time to tick
things off their to-do list it is evening even before they have realized. By
the time it is evening most of these people realize that they have accomplished
very little of the targets they had set for themselves early on in the day. Is
not it astonishing? A work day ordinarily consists of 9-10 working hours in the
corporate sector. On days of unusually hectic business activity this may go up
to 12-14 hours and yet most business executives in the corporate sector do not
have an idea about what went wrong with their work day. Recent research reports
assert that most people spend 47% of their time thinking something else apart
from what they are doing. In fact most of us operate on autopilot mode.
Business
psychologists refer to this as the attention economy. In most business schools that
confer PGDM and MBA degrees academicians engage in lectures, workshops and other
academic activities that develop technical, analytical, interpersonal and
generic skills while ignoring two really important skills that are required to
manage the self: focus and awareness. These two skills define the mindful mind.
Focus is defined as the ability to concentrate on the present while dealing
with task at hand. Awareness is defined as the ability to realize distractions
of all kinds that arise from time to time and thus threaten to disrupt the
focus. Much of the threat to focus emanates from the fact that managers, corporate
executives and business leaders deal with decision making and decision making
requires them to deal with information. This translates into staying connected
to all sorts of devices like the laptop, smart phone, IPad, fax machines and
land line phones at the cost of being disconnected to the self. Constant
irritants include regularly incoming emails, social media updates, phone calls
and frequent requests for assistance form office colleagues. The end result is
a complex of data overload on the mind and distraction from work even before
one realizes that he/she is being distracted and thus losing focus. Email
addiction for example releases dopamine, a pleasurable hormone that affects our
focus on the completion of small and unimportant tasks that probably do not
even figure on our to-do lists. The effect is that the completion of these
small tasks makes us feel like the Gods of small things and by the time we come
out of the momentary pleasure of having achieved something small, the work day
is over and we stare back at the to-do list only to realize that we have won
the battle but lost the war.
How to Practice Mindfulness?
Mindfulness
is a science of the highest order and calls for regular application to get the
visible results. In order to practice mindfulness, one needs to get the basics
right. First, start the day with mindfulness. It has been observed that people
release the highest quantum of stress hormones early in the day at the time
they wake up from sleep. As we wake up from sleep our mind is engrossed in
thoughts on getting things done and starring at the mountain of work that we
have to climb. The release of cortisol in the blood perpetuates stress levels
that are tough to handle. Practice deep breathing while concentrating on one’s
breathing process is one simple but effective way to practice mindfulness. As
one inhales and exhales he/she should listen to his breaths and heartbeats for
two minutes before getting out of bed. Second, on reaching office one should
practice deep breathing while sitting at his/her desk for the first two
minutes. Closing one’s eyes while sitting upright and breathing with focus is
prescribed before one heads off to work and starts the one on one meeting at
office. This way work delegation, coordination with colleagues and clients
becomes less cumbersome because even when dealing with people who represent the
other one is constantly in touch with the self. It enables one to see through
the verbal, non-verbal and written forms of communication better, decode the
meanings of others better while sticking to one’ own agenda. Third, as the day
progresses it becomes hectic to manage communications from and with people in
different directions. It is recommended that one should after lunch set a timer
on the phone for it to ring once every hour. Every time the bell rings one
should practice deep breathing with eyes closed for one minute and regain connect
with the self. Fourth as the work day comes to a conclusion one should get back
to practicing mindfulness by taking time out for two minutes at the end of the
commute. Switch off the phone, the radio and all other gadgets. Focus on your
breathing and feel your existence while breathing in and out. It enables one to
detach from office and the motions of the day to engage productively with
family at home.
At
Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, workshops on Art of Living are
conducted for management graduates with an aim to enable them take charge of
their lives. As one of the top PGDM colleges in Delhi NCR we make concrete
efforts to get students in top mental shape for their career in corporate
sector.