Top Mindfulness Keynote Speaker, Pandit Dasa, on Resilience, Mindfulness, and Work Life Balance

The best leaders are authentic, resilient, and mindful. Leaders with these traits exude confidence and encourage employees to follow in their footsteps. If your business or corporation needs to turn morale around, consider starting from the top down. Pandit Dasa, the Urban Monk and leadership keynote speaker, helps businesses large and small improve their company culture, employee morale, stress levels, production, turnover rates, and more by working with leaders.

Pandit Dasa was a monk for 15 years; during this time, he spoke about mindfulness and work-life balance to small businesses and universities like Columbia. He realized he could do much more for society by leaving his monkshood and sharing his teachings with corporate America. He has spoken at organizations like Chase Bank, NASA, Novartis, London Stock Exchange and many of the Federal Reserve Banks; he is also the author of two books, Urban Monk and Closing the Apps, and has been featured on the likes of WSJ, USA Today, NPR and PBS.

In his Mindful Leadership workshop, he gives leaders an outline they can follow on their path to resilience and mindfulness. For example, he speaks of things like:

How to Listen

Pandit Dasa believes that good leaders understand how to listen well to others. Taking the time to hear people and address their concerns shows them that you value their input and, therefore, them. Listening mindfully is also a great way to learn about underlying issues and new ideas.

Showing Commitment to the Team

Mindful leaders participate as part of the team. Rather than using downtime to sit in the office, they get out, chat with employees, and help where they can. They also do their best to make it to team events and parties to let people know they are supported and valued.

Following Rules

This one is simple, follow the rules you set. Be a good example to others and follow your own rules and the company’s rules even if it feels like they don’t apply to you. People will respect you much more for doing this.

Mindful Conversations

Just like mom always said, think before you speak. If you are having a tough day or someone approaches you with a difficult situation, it’s easy to get caught up in emotions and say things you don’t mean. Always remain vigilant of what you are conveying in conversations and work to keep the point of view of the person you are conversing with in mind.

The Importance of Self-Care

To achieve mindful leadership, you need to be in a place to learn mentally and emotionally. So make sure to take care of your needs and get into the right frame of mind to take on new information and work to conduct yourself in a new way. This means actively endeavoring to develop work-life balance for yourself and others in the organization.

Being Humble and Honest

Pandit Dasa encourages individuals that If you make a mistake, own it. There is nothing worse for employee morale and company culture than leadership that blames their mistakes on those below them. Blaming others is a recipe for disaster. Owning your mistakes might hurt for a bit, but it will earn you tons of street cred (respect) in the long run.

Delegating

Some leaders have a tough time delegating tasks and take on more than they can handle. This charges the environment with stress. Workers feel like they could be doing more to help but are asked not to, and feel underappreciated. Give others their moment to shine by allowing them to do things for you.

Gratitude

No matter how bad the day has been, extending gratitude to another person can brighten it quickly. Remember to tell your employees they are doing a great job once in a while; they appreciate it and will return the sentiment when they can.

Consistency

This may be a new way of running things for you, so don’t do it all simultaneously. Instead, take each piece of advice a step at a time and practice it until it becomes a consistent practice. As you become a more resilient, mindful leader, you will find your employees becoming more mindful as well.

As a mindful leader, leading by example, you will find yourself well supported and surrounded by an increasingly trustworthy and loyal team. These are some of the ideas Pandit Dasa learned as a monk and has chosen to share with the world. Visit his website for more information on Mindful Leadership training and other workshops.