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Finding Real Happiness at Work: Compassionate Leadership, with Sharon Salzberg, Buddhist Meditation Teacher and Author, Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace
Essential Questions for Leaders
I think for those in a leadership position it’s particularly about skills of compassion which we actually consider a skill. It’s considered an emergent property of how we pay attention. So if we change the way we pay attention then this sense of connection, caring, compassion will follow. So one question I really like to ask people to consider is, how many people need to be doing their jobs well so you can be doing your job well? Because we actually don’t live in isolation. We live in connection. The nature of reality is that we’re part of a network. We’re part of an interconnected web. And so the more we realize that, the more we have a sense rather than being lost in self and other and us and them, we have a sense of okay, what can we together do going forward. How can we achieve and be excellent at what we do?
I also think for leaders it’s tremendously important to be able to listen. We can be so caught in our own agenda or preconceptions or assumptions that we almost stop learning and that’s really tragic because the real creativity I think is going to come from a sense of space. It’s a sense of not knowing and having the sense of discovering what’s possible. And that means really listening to one another and listening in general and look in the environment. Listen to the tempo, the feeling of what’s going on. And I think it’s very important to have that sense and be able to help instill that sense in others that in some way we’re in this together. And so people have also told me that maybe at the beginning of a meeting they’ll look around the room at everyone in the room, silently wishing well to everybody there like oh may you be happy and may you be happy and may you be happy and may you be happy. And then they’ll go forward and hold the meeting.
Guided Meditation
In loving kindness meditation rather than gathering our attention around the feeling of the breath, we gather our attention around the silent repetition of certain phrases. The phrases are the vehicle for the heart’s energy, wishing ourselves well, wishing well to others. So this is not a meditation where you have to try to force a certain emotion or feeling. The power of it is in that gathering, being completely wholeheartedly present behind one phrase at a time. It’s a practice of generosity, of gift giving. We’re making an offering. So again you can sit comfortably, close your eyes or leave them open. See if there are three or four phrases that resonate for you. And begin with the offering of these phrases to yourself. Common phrases are things like “may I be happy”, “may I be peaceful”, “may I live with ease of heart with whatever comes my way in life.”
You can use these phrases or other phrases. Just three or four phrases. Gently repeat them over and over again. And here the skill set is the same. If your attention wanders, see if you can gently let go and just come back. See if there’s somebody who comes to mind who’s been like a mentor for you or helped you or inspired you. Maybe they’ve inspired you from afar. Maybe they’ve helped you directly. And if someone like that comes to mind, bring them here. You can get an image of them, you say their name to yourself, get a feeling for their presence. And offer these same phrases of loving kindness to them. Wishing for them just what it is you’ve wished for yourself. And then all beings everywhere, all people, all creatures, all those in existence – those we know, those we don’t know, all beings. May all beings be happy. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings live with ease of heart with whatever comes their way in life. And when you feel ready you can open your eyes.