Mindfulness-awareness has fast become a core practice for leaders seeking to become more agile in the face of an increasingly disruptive business climate. Research has shown that a regular mindfulness awareness practice can strengthen a leader’s self-awareness, selfregulation, positive self-regard, social cognition and more. In addition, sustained meditation leads to neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and change, structurally and functionally, on the basis of environmental input. Our experience at Global Coaching Alliance (GCA) is that such mindfulness inspired agility can also significantly accelerate learning in coaching engagements.
In these engagements, (which we at GCA call MILEs – mindfulness inspired learning engagements) - leaders rely on reflective inquiry and a capacity to observe a ‘way of being’. Such “deeper” self-awareness when brought to bear on real time day-to-day business issues prompts the leader to challenge assumptions, “de-bias” opinions, listen openly, explore conflict, invite feedback and much more. In MILEs, this ability to curiously open to one’s experience rather than trying to control it, becomes the foundation for the engagement, building the leader’s confidence to learn quickly, take decisive action and sustain “lessons learned” by sharing them with others. This enhanced capability for reflective inquiry and unbiased openness also supports the action learning model, strengthening the leader’s ability to learn while leading.
While research on mindfulness awareness and action learning in coaching* is just beginning, our experience at GCA has show that by combining a regular practice of mindfulnessawareness meditation with 6-12 months of MILE coaching, leaders demonstrate a heightened agility in accelerating self- directed learning, gaining insight, and influencing skillfully.