At all levels of organizations, increasingly greater demand is placed upon us to manage ever greater complexity. Demands on attention, focus, processing, energy, health, relational & mental capacities and more. All too often, as Doug highlights above, the old methods prove to be no longer ‘fit for purpose’ in such an evolved, rapid-fire environment. The negative downstream effects on creativity, communication, innovation, productivity, well-being and ultimately bottom-line are inevitably apparent throughout the organizational ecosystem.

Clearly, an evolution is also required of us in order to optimally meet this upgraded environment—as leaders, as teams and as individuals. This leaves us facing two fundamental issues: A more appropriate skillset is required, one which then needs to be embedded as a new way of being.

In my experience change is typically attempted as either top down or outer to inner process. If it’s mandated from above (executive decision) or if we just gain a few more skills then we believe this will become that. While doing so can give a temporary impression of a shift, any real alteration in behavior — be it individual, team or organizational—is typically not truly effected at program level in the system. This is like telling oneself to be a different way and expecting that to even happen let alone last. The well-worn grooves of habit, the ingrained ruts of our conditioned neurology, are still deeply committed to the old way of being, and inevitably that wins out over any new commitment. Organizational development psychologist Robert Kegan from the Harvard Graduate School of Education describes this as an ‘immunity to change’. System program wins out over top-down decision.

My methodology integrates several coordinated pathways and all have deep roots in cutting-edge areas of organizational and human potential development as they do in some of the latest directions in cognitive science. An awesome, ground-breaking company requires awesome, upgraded leaders and so we need to draw on the latest developments out there. Much of my process is informed by the work I’ve been developing in my role as creator and head of a leading-edge, internationally-regarded, professional coach training program at the Human Potential Institute.

Alongside powerful 1-on-1 coaching I integrate many simple yet empirically-verified and highly-effective skills designed to help address some of the key issues raised by the increasing demands of high-pressure organizational and life environments— no matter what level of the foodchain we occupy!

Consider how stress, dysregulated focus and attention, poor communication, lack of energy regulation among others all play havoc both at work and home.

We want to address all aspects in order to manifest whole leaders: ones who lead with mind, heart & body. One key tool for addressing many of the challenges above as well as bringing our full capacities online is that of mindfulness. Drawn from ancient contemplative practices this has rapidly morphed into a central component of employee well-being programs across the globe, with Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Apple and Google right through to industry leviathans such as General Mills running inhouse mindfulness programs as part of their internal offer. Aetna Insurance Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini is quoted saying,

Mindfulness training clearly offers huge benefits to any organization, plus it is also a key tool in any evolved leaders toolkit.