Executives urged to tap into ‘mind power’

Businesses are being urged to use the psychological technique of mindfulness to improve the performance of employees and teams.

Training provider The Mindful Enterprise, which works with a number of clients in the public sector, is now formally expanding into the corporate world.

The Edinburgh social enterprise was set up by Gary Young,whohas23years’experience in financial services, and chairman Alister Gray of executive coaching business Mindful Talent.

Young already works with business teams at KPMG and recycling business Changeworks and is looking to introduce mindfulness to other employers.

“In the fast-paced, often stressful world of business, the simple power of mindfulness, focusing on the present, is often overlooked,” Young explained.

“Yet mindfulness has been shown to open the door for people to adopt more positive actions that will benefit the individual, their work, education and family.” A number of organisations have seen positive results as a result of employee participation in mindfulness. Transport for London reported a 71 per cent reduction in absence rates due to employee stress and anxiety.

Young has undertaken pilot programmes on mindfulness with a number of schools and 20 per cent of the company profits will go towards partfunding mindfulness courses in others and to provide free training to disadvantaged young people and adults in Scotland. 0 ‘Focusing on present overlooked’ – Gary Young