Businesses around the world are facing one of the biggest challenges in recent years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises and their employees have to cope with difficult tasks, such as shortage of supply, operational restrictions, or economical shortcomings. In times like these, one strength is more important than ever: mindfulness.
A mindful response to COVID-19
Learn how to use mindfulness to cope with the pandemic’s disadvantages. Clif Smith, one of the world’s leading mindfulness networkers and author of the recently published book “Mindfulness without the bells and the beads – Unlocking Exceptional Performance, Leadership, and Well-being for Working Professionals”, devotes much of his time to mindfulness trainings. In our video, he shows how to develop and apply this strength, with measurable impact on leadership, performance, and well-being.
Five steps to roll out mindfulness in your organization for the benefit of your employees
Healthy, engaged and resilient employees are by far the most precious resource of your company. This has become even more evident during the COVID-19 crisis. To change people’s mindset from fearful to mindful, EY recommends a five-step approach:
1.Start small with ad-hoc activities
Identify mindfulness ambassadors, either internal thought leaders or external coaches, who speak about mindfulness at learning events or other meetings.
2. Inductions to mindfulness
Create content for a mindfulness induction and align it either with your leadership or health management approach. At EY, mindfulness forms part of the transformative leadership framework, and the one-hour induction is bookable through the firm’s learning platform.
3. News channel messages
Update your team on your endeavors, if possible on a daily basis. Attract employees who want to attend an induction and become mindfulness champions.
4. Mindfulness champions
Train your employees to become mindfulness champions. EY has developed a Teams-based course program, which can be taught over a period of approximately eight weeks.
5. Sharing the mindset
Your own mindfulness champions bring the topic to their co-workers by sharing their knowledge and answering questions, thus ensuring a sustainable impact.
Ready to leverage our five steps for your success? Contacting EY is the best next step.
The goal of mindfulness is to become aware of what is going on in our mind and our body (self-awareness) and also to become aware of what is going on around us (empathy). The increased level of self-awareness makes it more natural for individuals to seek support if required and the enhanced level of empathy enables individuals to offer appropriate help if others are in need.
The three core aspects of mindfulness
The second wave of COVID-19 continues to flood our lives with uncertainties, which can be tough to handle – both mentally, emotionally and physically. Mindfulness is the art of responding wisely (instead of reacting wildly) to things that happen. This response is based on three main abilities:
Focus and presence
The ability to pay attention. You are able to focus on what you want to focus on without getting carried away.
Resilience
The ability to analyze the components of your experience. You learn to manage your feelings by making the unpleasant experiences less overwhelming and the pleasant ones more satisfying.
Self-care
The ability to experience without pushing or pulling. Don’t try to hold on positive feelings and don’t push away negative ones. Take a neutral look at it. Calmness and balance are key.
In short, mindfulness is the ability to know what is happening in your head at any given moment without getting carried away with it. That is why it is considered to be the next big health revolution. Employees practicing it suffer less, calm down mentally, relax physically, consciously enjoy their fulfilment, help others more effectively, and experience positive behavior changes. These effects are especially useful in troubled times, such as the current pandemic.
Useful apps to train your mindfulness
An easy and accessible way to train mindfulness are apps. Especially if employees have to stay at home, working with selected apps is efficient and time-saving. The following ones contain instructions for meditation to fight anxiety or stress and, therefore, help guiding you to a more balanced life.
#EYnewnormal – mindful solutions in stressful times
Though personal meetings are impossible, EY specialists are making great efforts to stay in touch with their people, their clients, and with the overall economy. That is why he have launched our #EYnewnormal movement, offering free webcasts, best practices and first-aid instruction on COVID-19-related issues.
Check our #EYnewnormal page to join our movement and benefit from the knowledge. And don’t hesitate to contact us for individual advice. In particular, our People Advisory specialists, will be happy to offer you knowledge and solutions designed to:
- deal with the consequences of COVID-19 in your everyday work
- plan and execute an employee health plan
- install mindfulness in your organization and encourage employees to attend inductions
- mitigate the economic consequences of supply shortages and operational restrictions
