Often our leaders are encouraged to minimize distractions and maintain a streamlined focus on what is important. However, there is an alternative strategy that may be just as — if not more — effective, according to social psychologist Ellen Langer, PhD, the first tenured woman in the Harvard University psychology department.
Dr. Langer's strategy is simple: Be mindful. Rather than taking a laser-vision focus on the goal, Dr. Langer suggests leaders leverage context — in the boardroom, with staff and when making strategic decisions.
In a recent Q&A with strategy+business, Dr. Langer shared her views. Here are four key takeaways for executive healthcare leadership.
1. Most problems stem from inattention. Pay attention to your own context as well as your organization's context. Noticing even minute changes can help you make informed decisions to generate the context you want for yourself and your organization.
2. Provoke leaders and staff to be mindful. Don't write a script for yourself or for staff. Mistakes will be made, people will purposefully break rules and unexpected challenges will arise. However, most employees are acting in a way that makes sense from their perspective, Dr. Langer says. Try to see that perspective because it will help you understand your employee's value and harness their strengths.
3. Distractions and deviations from the original plan are opportunities. The best approach a leader can take, according to Dr. Langer, is to reward a mindful response to failure. Things will go wrong — instead of punishing the failure, reward the response to failure. If something goes wrong again and again, it is likely there is an opportunity to innovate or find a new business solution.
4. Recognize failures and put them in new context. Leaders should not stress about whether they made the right decision or not, Dr. Langer says. Instead, they should pay attention to how their decisions are being received so they can make them work and improve them without changing course.
"Mindfulness is very powerful. When we're mindful, noticing more things, it's literally and figuratively enlivening. In a work situation that encourages mindfulness, we enjoy being there, we are healthier, it costs less and there are fewer accidents," Dr. Langer told strategy+business.
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