What Is the Best Mindful Business Strategy?

Mindfulness garners a lot of recent attention. Wisdom 2.0, a conference that blends mindfulness with technology, leadership, and culture, hosted over 2,400 participants earlier this year. Attendees come from all over the world to learn and engage in developing meaningful mindfulness practices.

A new area for mindfulness is how business strategies are developed. Strategy development and mindfulness are a great combination, and the best mindful business strategy starts with a simple concept – Be present.

Being present is a simple idea. However, many businesses are not present, especially when it comes to making a decision and moving forward with a strategy. The next generation of leaders are using mindful practices to gain meaningful results.

Strategically Stuck

[wcm_restrict]Businesses usually spend a reasonable amount of time conducting research, building spreadsheets, and presenting findings. Where things break down is making a decision on what to change and when to implement. Businesses get stuck.

What happens is ongoing discussions and a certain unwillingness to commit resources. The strategic step forward is frozen, and nothing happens.

Being Present: A Business Strategy

A business may be present in the discussions, but they are not being present in implementing a strategy. A direction needs to be selected, and then committing resources to implement the strategy is a vital next step. Changes will always be present:

• Market shifts
• New competitors
• Better distribution models
• Partnerships formed

The un-mindful thing to do is not to be present within the changes. Sitting on the sidelines is not being present.

A mindful strategy is to begin to build the add-on product, the new product, the new service offering, or whatever the strategy entails. Being present in the moment with a new strategy translates into being in the arena – leading, learning, adapting, and succeeding. Strategies will never be right the first time. However, by never being present with a new strategy means you will never be able to adjust, adapt, and capture new growth.

Mindful strategies are not action for action’s sake. Quite the opposite. Mindful strategies take the time to understand and evaluate what is relevant and then act on what is learned. Mindful strategies are in the presence of change, making a business statement in what we offer.

The key point is: By being present with the strategy, we will make more progress than if we are absent. What we start will likely change. Without starting, our presence is absent, and we will lose market traction and will be in a constant catch-up mode.

Millennials: Mindful Strategists

Millennials are adopting mindful practices. With their presence, they are not impatient. Millennials are patiently doing the work in the presence of strategic change. They are not waiting for certainty. Instead, Millennials know that if the work is not done now, opportunities will be missed. Continuing to be present during implementation means they can flex as new information is absorbed.

Millennial leaders know the power of building instead of waiting for the perfect time. As they build, they adapt. Being present means business relevance for the long term.

Older generations need to adopt a mindful strategic approach and embrace the next generation in their strategic efforts. The power of generational mindfulness will empower your business strategy to a new level of performance and market significance.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Jon Mertz is one of the Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business and highlighted as one of the Leaders to Watch in 2015 by the American Management Association. He also is the author of Activate Leadership: Aspen Truths to Empower Millennial Leaders. Jon serves as vice president of marketing at Corepoint Health. Outside of his professional life, Jon brings together a community to inspire Millennial leaders and close the gap between two generations of leaders. Follow him on Twitter @ThinDifference or Facebook /ThinDifference