We’ve written before about the importance of mindfulness to be an effective leader, as well as mindfulness training for leaders. While everything we shared in those posts was valid – and valuable in terms of executive leadership coaching – it is also true that without a well-developed level of emotional intelligence, making an effort to be a mindful leader may be moot.

In an article published by the Harvard Business Review (HRB.org), authors Daniel Goleman and Matthew Lippincott make the somewhat stunning claim that, “Without Emotional Intelligence, Mindfulness Doesn’t Work”.

Considering the popularity of mindfulness training for executives today, this is a real eyebrow raising statement. And yet, my own experience with executive leadership coaching reinforces the validity of their research-based assertion.

As they explain it, “Mindfulness is a method of shifting your attention inward to observe your thoughts, feelings, and actions without interpretation or judgment. A mindfulness practice often begins simply by focusing on your breath, noticing when your mind wanders, and then bringing it back to your breath. As you strengthen your ability to concentrate, you can then shift to simply noting your inner experience without getting lost in it at any point in your day. The benefits attributed to this kind of practice range from stronger relationships with others to higher levels of leadership performance.”

Benefits of Mindfulness Training for Leaders

As we’ve shared before, mindfulness training offers many benefits for leaders and other executives, not least of which are:

• Stronger relationships with superiors, peers, and subordinates
• Heightened output
• Better project outcomes
• Improved crisis management
• Increased budgets and team headcount
• Being trusted with sensitive organizational information
• Positive performance reviews
• Promotions

Yet, as the authors explain the results of their research, and as my own experience shows, “… mindfulness [training] isn’t magic; what was the mechanism at work in these executives’ transformations? One tipoff: several executives in the study reported getting feedback from colleagues that described improvements in areas like empathy, conflict management, and persuasive communication. These, it turns out, are what one of us… has described as core emotional intelligence competencies.”

In other words, mindfulness training (and the practice of mindfulness itself) reinforce and enhance all of the elements of emotional intelligence that are the foundation of leadership intelligence; that is, the wisdom, character, social, and spiritual intelligence required to excel in your leadership role.

While it is certainly true that the practice of mindfulness has value in and of itself, it is probably best for executives to consider it more of a tool for enhancing emotional intelligence and building your understanding of the characteristics required to be an exceptional leader.

If you would you like to learn more about how to be an effective leader through executive leadership coaching in the enhanced use of emotional intelligence in the workplace, my Free Leadership Webinar may be exactly what you need.