Mindfulness Works Better: From Buzzword to Business Essential
May 18, 2025
Mindfulness Works Better: From Buzzword to Business Essential
You're in a high-stakes meeting. Your mind jumps between the presentation on screen, yesterday's argument with your spouse, tomorrow's deadline, and that email you forgot to send.
Sound familiar?
That scattered mental state is the opposite of mindfulness, and it's costing your organization more than you might think.
Andrew McNeil, author of Organisational Mindfulness, described on the Work Positive podcast his first encounter with mindfulness: "I was broken...my health isn't great, I'm not present with my family, I'm not performing well at work, it's just not working."
Many leaders find themselves in exactly this place of overwhelm, disconnect, and underperforming. But there's a powerful antidote that has moved from monasteries to mainstream boardrooms.
What Mindfulness Really Means
Andrew told me in the podcast: "I realized that if my thoughts were overwhelming me, perhaps having a different relationship to my thoughts could help."
That's the essence of mindfulness. You develop a different relationship with your thoughts.
It's not about sitting cross-legged and burning incense, though that works for some. It's about being fully present and aware of what's happening inside and around you, without getting swept away by it.
Three Core Mindfulness Practices
Introduce mindfulness to your work culture with these three foundational practices:
- Mindful Meetings
"We invited everybody to share a 30-second to two-minute practice at the start of the meeting just to center," Andrew explains. "One of the directors said this was the most collaborative senior team she had ever experienced, and she put that down to mindfulness."
- The STOP Practice
Execute this simple four-step practice throughout the workday:
- Stop what you're doing.
- Take a breath.
- Observe what's happening in your body, mind, and surroundings.
- Proceed with awareness.
This practice creates "a gap between the thought and the action," allowing for more thoughtful responses rather than automatic reactions.
- Mindful Communication
Communication is at the heart of every successful organization. Mindful communication involves listening without planning your response, speaking with intention and clarity, and being aware of your emotional state while communicating.
The Mindfulness Misconception
Andrew noted that many work activities are inherently mindful practices. We just do them poorly.
"Program management, and indeed almost everything that we do in an office environment is a mindful practice. It's just we do it incredibly badly," he explains.
Your Mindfulness Challenge
Ready to bring mindfulness into your good mental health culture? Here's your challenge:
- Personal Practice: Start with yourself. Commit to 5 minutes of mindful breathing each morning before checking email.
- Team Experiment: Propose a two-week experiment with your team. Begin each meeting with 1 minute of mental preparation.
- Environmental Audit: Identify three aspects of your work environment that undermine mindfulness. Pick one to address this week.
Taken from Dr. Joey's forthcoming new book, Good Mental Health Works Better: 6 Culture Strategies that Grow People and Profits.
What's your question about creating a positive work culture? Ask Dr. Joey here.
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