Can Mental Practice Enhance Your Leadership Effectiveness? 

By Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

In the world of sports it is common to hear that a professional actually does mental practice in addition to actual practice to enhance their performance.  I was curious what some of the experts say about imagining yourself performing tasks like giving presentations or training, delivering a difficult message, conducting an interview or being interviewed or going on a sales call.  I know when I deliver both my sales and presentation skills programs I always recommend that people mentally rehearse their presentations.

According to Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj Soin College of Business ,Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio leaders can most definitely improve their leadership effectiveness and master their managerial behaviours.

Research has shown that when someone does both mental and actual practice they achieve better results than by just actual practice alone.  This is not just in the world of sports.  I know personally I have used visualization for many years prior to any program or what I thought might be a difficult situation.  Often people who worry a lot about negative things happening to them don’t realize that they are actually contributing to the likelihood that what they don’t want to happen, will in fact happen.  That is what they mentally rehearsed. 

So how can you use this to enhance your leadership effectiveness?

By mentally rehearsing you experience more confidence as you will be more prepared.  We have all heard the saying “practice makes perfect,” actually that is not 100% true because if you are practicing incorrectly you will not achieve mastery in whatever you are trying to improve on .  With mental practice you are practicing perfectly and it can really increase your confidence even though it is imagined.  The assumption here is that you would already have a certain level of experience or skills for whatever it is you are working to improve upon. Mental practice is effective as a supplemental way to develop your skills and does not replace normal avenues for learning new skills.

Mental practice can also help reduce stress.  By taking the time to mentally rehearse you are giving yourself an edge that can support you to be at your very best.  Think about the areas where you can start to use this in your everyday activities:

• When giving difficult feedback
• When you have to give a very important presentation
• When you are working in areas that you are a little less confident
• Day to day visualize yourself handling everything that comes your way with ease and confidence
• To improve your ability to listen and communicate

The techniques we have been taught to mentally practice for sports can also be applied in business and all areas of your life.

What area are you going to mentally practice to enhance your leadership skills?

A few Tips to effectively create mental practice:

• Find a place where you will be uninterrupted
• Close your eyes, take a couple deep breaths, relax and mentally go through the steps to perform perfectly what it is you want to practice
• Pay attention to as many details as possible
• Actually create the practice in your mind exactly how you want it to go, notice how you feel, what you see, hear or smell (include as many of your 5 senses as possible)
• See yourself successfully completed
• Do this several times (up to seven is said to be most effective)
• Open your eyes, smile and go about your day with new confidence

One of the great things about running the Athena Alliance is the vast amount of knowledge and sharing.  For the summer months I thought I would like to share with you some of the great articles written by my Alliance Members.  Please enjoy the following article submitted by Wendy Woods:

Three Keys to Make 2011 a Great Work Year

Here are three tips guaranteed to increase your engagement and productivity.

Express Gratitude
Work is always filled with challenges so it’s easy to focus on what isn’t working or the endless frustrations.  Expressing gratitude is an easy and quick way to increase your engagement and productivity.  Whether it’s simply acknowledging your gratitude or expressing it to your coworkers, clients or suppliers, research shows that it has valuable benefits.

Specifically employees who express gratitude have greater personal satisfaction, adaptability, and energy. They also promote greater communication and cooperation within their organizations.

How can you express gratitude genuinely at work? (the key here is genuinely) Let your colleagues, boss or clients know when and how they have made your life easier. Also at the end of each day, acknowledge three things you are grateful for no matter how small.

Be Mindful
It’s hard to be focused on the present when there are so many pressures, deadlines, and distractions everyday.  A constant state of multitasking, 7/24 availability and busyness has become the norm.  The assumption is that this increases productivity resulting in greater professional and personal success.  According to the research, these attempts at greater efficiency have the opposite effect making it more difficult to learn, remember or be creative.

So what is mindfulness? The best definition is Jon Kabat Zinn’s “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”  It’s taking things back to basics.  Focusing on and working in the now instead of multiple things, thoughts or conversations at once.

How will mindfulness help you create a great year? The scientific research says it all.  Mindfulness improves areas of the brain responsible for decision making, emotional flexibility, and empathy as well as increasing attention, focus and emotional wellbeing.  It’s also been shown to improve health by lowering blood pressure, boosting the immune system and managing depression and anxiety.

How can you add mindfulness to an already jammed packed day? Start by taking 1 -2 minutes several times a day to focus on your breath.   Push everything else aside and simply breathe where your abdomen inflates when you inhale and deflates when you exhale. This will make you more mindful giving you greater concentration and appreciation of your work.

Laugh More
Laughing more at work, appropriately of course, is guaranteed to help make a great year. Why? First it is a fast stress buster.  According to William Fry of Stanford University, 20 seconds of hearty laughter is equivalent to 3 minutes of hard rowing. Second, laughter facilitates cooperation.  Researchers found that people are more helpful with those they share a laugh.  Finally, laughter increases creativity and innovation which are critical organizational skills.

How can you laugh more with your co-workers? Share cartoons, stories or even laugh at yourself (an easy and safe target).  As long as you are laughing together, never at anyone, then laughter is constructive and everyone benefits.