I am an Agile and NeuroMindfulness Coach, and I love how these two aspects coexist in my way of showing up at work every day. More than profoundly influencing how we live our life, Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for our Agile Coaching mission.
I am writing this article to provide a few science-based pieces of evidence why even the most skeptical of us should give it a shot.
Taking a step back to what it means to be a successful Agile Coach: as Lyssa Adkins put it, it means to take on the dual flavor of coaching and mentoring. We are coaching to help someone reach for the next goal in their life, and, at the same time, sharing our ideas and experience guiding them to use agile well.
As a coach, one of the primary challenges we face is presence. ‘Maintain presence’ is also one of the updated core ICF competencies and it’s described as being conscious and present with the client, employing a style that is open, flexible, grounded, and confident.
Neuroscientist Amishi Jha, describes Mindfulness as nothing else then a mind training to focus our attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non judgementally, and with a quality of curiosity and kindness. This, as opposite of our autopilot default mode, where our mind seems designed to be most of the time.
Practices like Meditation allow us to literally re-wire our neurological paths and thicken areas of the brain associated with attention. Gaining presence is a fundamental prerequisite of active listening, a necessary step on our intention to establish trust and partner with the client.
Jumping to the second flavour of Agile Coaching: acting as a mentor, we want to lead our team through change in order to enhance agile maturity, foster cross-team alignment, and increase business value.
Studies showed how Mindfulness improves resiliency and work engagement, while also reducing overall stress levels, thereby enhancing employee well-being and organisational performance. Once again, the key seems to be developing the ability to direct the mind at will: Dr. Amishia Jha explains how mastering awareness and meta-awareness - namely, being aware of where our awareness is at right now - would unlock for us the capacity of deciding how much attention we want to associate to a specific fact or event, potentially a source of stress.
More researches from the University of San Francisco, also showed how Mindfulness influences the increase of empathy, a quality we know being fundamental to meet your team where they are to advise them at best. The study observed therapists practicing meditation achieving a felt sense of the client’s inner experience, communicating their awareness of that felt sense, and being more present to the pain and suffering of the client.
If you’d like to start integrating some practices in your office for you and your colleagues, here there are some ideas:
- apps for guided meditation like Headspace for Work or Meditation Oasis
- online courses like Mindfulness Daily @ Work, a free 40-days online guided training by Jack Kornwell
- organizations like Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, holding different programs for both individuals and workplaces, or the NeuroMindfulness Institute, also offering different levels of coaching certifications.
Although associating Mindfulness and Agile Coaching isn’t still exactly mainstream, I hope I managed to show how the relationship between the two is actually backed up by science and proven to help our teams throughout our Agile journey.
You can start practicing Mindfulness in as little as 10 minutes a day.
Consistency is the only requirement.
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