One of the key learnings for me, based on my own experience and from the patterns that I observe in successful scale-up leaders, is that mindfulness is essential for building emotional capacity to thrive in such an environment.
A large part of this is a growth mindset and practices that help sustain emotional capacity during tough times. With the right motivation, support, time and effort, everyone can build significant emotional capacity.
While some may be fortunate to have had experiences and a genetic makeup to make them less vulnerable to breakdowns, thanks to neuroplasticity and the mind-body connection, we can all actively build this key resource within ourselves.
This is where mindfulness enters: not as a quick fix, but as a lifelong practice that expands our ability to be present, balanced, and compassionate in the face of life’s demands.
The True Power of Mindfulness
The most powerful skill I have personally learnt and continue to practise and learn is mindfulness. Many leadership experts are now leaning into mindfulness as the primary leadership skill, that is, leading oneself first before leading others.
If you can’t lead your whole self – thoughts, emotions, sensations, urges – how can you lead others? Mindfulness helps you learn and practise this life-enhancing skill.
There has been a lot of research and buzz around mindfulness in recent years, but as a wise person once said to me, “Eating in a restaurant is not the same as reading the menu.” Some people think of mindfulness as simply being present in the moment and assume this is something that doesn’t need training and practice. That’s not true in my own experience. As simple as it sounds, it is not easy and requires skilful teachers to learn from.
I came to mindfulness in a desperate attempt to escape my anxiety and depression. One of my friends recommended the best-seller “Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World” by Mark Williams and Dr. Danny Penman. I listened to the audiobook and tried a few practices. It gave me a sense of calm, but I didn’t quite unleash the superpower of mindfulness until I was recommended a teacher to learn from about a year later.
I signed up for an eight-week online MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) course, which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s, after he successfully helped patients with terminal and chronic illness using a secular form of Buddhist mindfulness practice in his clinic at Massachusetts Medical School.
Clearing up the mindfulness myths
I want to clear a couple of myths about mindfulness that I hear over and over again from many people and share what I learnt from my experience.
- Mindfulness is a way of life. Meditation is a big part of it, but mindfulness is also about how you relate to life outside the meditation practice through a skilful mindset.
- Mindfulness meditation is not about achieving a thoughtless state. It is a practice of observing your thoughts, emotions and sensations with loving kindness and curiosity, and without judgement, and returning your attention gently back to something you want to focus on. The thoughts, emotions, and sensations are not distractions to the practice. The process of noticing and bringing the attention back is the practice! So, one can’t go wrong with it. Meditation is like running on a treadmill each day to build your muscle memory for a potential marathon.
- Everyone can meditate! And with practice reap the benefits meditation offers in their day-to-day life.
It might be that I came to mindfulness at a time I had the most need, but I found the sessions fascinating. It was like an experiment to understand my mind. The practices might sound silly to the untrained – scanning your body and noticing those tingling sensations or tasting a raisin with so much awareness that it feels like you are eating the raisin for the first time in your life. I knew this was something! I continue to be fascinated as I enter my fifth year of having “found” mindfulness.
Mindfulness has helped me become more aware, manage my attention, emotions and thoughts better, become more compassionate with myself and others, seek challenges with curiosity and generally be more courageous and flexible in my life. The thing to note about mindfulness though is that it is a lifelong practice. Our minds quite easily and naturally go back to our default tendencies without constant practice. So, I fully recommend mindfulness, and I wish you luck on the life-long journey.
If you are still not convinced, there are several research findings to prove that practising meditation can change your brain structurally to improve empathy, compassion and response to stress.
Vidya has been working in the UK's leading tech businesses, including Amazon and high-growth scale-ups such as Deliveroo. Having grown up in India before moving to the UK in 2006 and completing her MBA at the University of Cambridge, Vidya brings a unique perspective as a woman of colour and an introvert navigating high-growth and fast-paced business environments.
She now holds a leadership position and supports her colleagues and clients as they deal with the exciting – yet chaotic – environment of fast-moving scale-ups, helping them navigate the challenges, seize opportunities, and thrive.