Miyen’s talking points on

“MINDFUL LEADERSHIP IN DEVELOPING RESILIENT LEADERS AND PREVENTING BURNOUT”

In the November 2022 segment with Miyen, she has touched very briefly on the 3 important qualities of MINDFUL LEADERSHIP = Mindfulness, Compassion and Service

In this segment, she will dive deeper into looking at how these 3 qualities, putting them together, can be a powerful way for leaders to improve the way they lead themselves, their people, and organization.

In addition, for the last 3 decades there is a large body of research that has shown effectiveness of mindfulness and compassion practices in the various setting i.e. medical, mental health, education and workplace.

Mindfulness – Ground-breaking scientific research has supported various benefits of practicing mindfulness: better physical health; reduced stress; improved concentration and memory; improved interpersonal relationships; and increased happiness and life satisfaction.

Compassion – Rapid expanding research demonstrates that compassion and self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional resilience/wellbeing, less stress, anxiety, depression, maintenance of healthy habits such as diet and exercise, and satisfying personal relationships; provides emotional strength and resilience – to bounce right back from challenges in our lives, keep an optimistic attitude and stay healthy.

MINDFUL LEADERSHIP

 MINDFULNESS helps you to understand how your mind works, to become more self-aware, and helps you with enhancing focus and build resilience.

A mindful leader understands life difficulties and complex situations i.e. physical and mental health/psychological impacts at workplace and also very aware of their own vulnerability and the vulnerabilities of their employees.

When leaders are AWARE of their vulnerability and ACCEPT them, they tend to be more BALANCE (calm, clear, confident) and can learn how to adapt, to be flexible/agile esp. in facing and managing any challenges that arises including managing the vulnerabilities of their employees e.g. know how to identify symptoms of employees facing challenges and know how to render support after identifying the symptoms of employees facing challenges, including burnout among some employees due to the prolonged and suppressed stress over the prolonged period of Covid-19 pandemic.

 COMPASSION is not about being soft. It’s about understanding people at an emotional level, and truly caring about their well-being.

This is where a compassionate leader (and mindful), who has clearer understanding/clarity of the life difficulties and complex situations can cause prolonged and suppressed stress leading to the onset of burnout, and truly cares about the employees well-being will implement people-centered and wellness-focused policies in the organization that leads to healthier employees with higher engagement, loyalty and performance from them.

 A commitment to SERVICE – It’s one of the cornerstones of a people-centered organizational culture, where leaders provide the trust, space and support that the  people/employees need to thrive. This is an important “ingredient” for the organization to thrive even though there are life difficulties and complex situations.

For more details on MINDFUL LEADERSHIP refer to this book The Mind of the Leader by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter who interviewed more than 1,000 leaders and found that practicing mindfulness, helped those leaders engage with their employees, create better connections and improve company performance. While compassion in leadership leads to higher engagement, loyalty and performance from the employees

For more details on MINDFULNESS:

The skills of mindfulness were based on the many ground breaking research of Mindfulness- based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course pioneered by University of Massachusetts Medical School (Center for Mindfulness, in Medicine, Health Care and Society) and Mindfulness-based
Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) course pioneered by Oxford University (Oxford Mindfulness Foundation).

For more details on COMPASSION and SELF-COMPASSION:

The skills of compassion and self-compassion were based on the many ground breaking
research of Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) course pioneered by Dr Kristin Neff (University of Texas) and Dr Christopher Germer (Harvard Medical School), providing a powerful tool for developing emotional resilience.

BURNOUT

• is not specifically limited to those working in the frontlines, more a reaction to the
demands of one's job and environment.

• is “a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion” caused by long term
involvement in emotionally demanding job and environment (caring for family/multiple
roles/etc.)

• 3 elements (based on Maslach Burnout Inventory)
– Emotional Exhaustion (also affect mental and physical)
– Depersonalization (feelings of cynicism and detachment)
– Reduced (diminished sense of) personal accomplishment

The prolonged Covid-19 pandemic have heightened the likelihood of employees experiencing BURNOUT symptoms due to blurring of boundaries between employees' personal and work lives; unexpected increase demand of work and living; high demand on technology (internet/skills/etc.), etc.

Miyen, a clinical psychologist and one of Malaysia’s foremost proponents of the application of psychology, mindfulness and self-
compassion, for individual, couple, family, workplace and community, for more than 27 years.

Pioneered Employee Assistance Program (EAP) in Malaysia since 1999, written 2 articles on EAP Development in Malaysia for an international publication,
providing EAP, corporate training, coaching, crisis intervention, psychotherapy, psychological assessment, ad hoc lecturing and supervision, mindfulness and self-compassion interventions in managing stress, burnout and enhancing resilience and wellness.

She has professional memberships in Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology, Employee Assistance Professionals Association, Asia Pacific Employee Assistance Roundtable and Malaysia Association for Mindfulness Practice and Research.

Also a trained teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion with Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, USA and an apprentice teacher of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy with Oxford Mindfulness Foundation, UK.

Over the years, her work has been featured by various local newspapers, magazines, radio and TV (regular guest for 4 years on Bella NTV7,
women’s talk show).