Smile. Breathe. Listen.

As a busy executive, you might think you don’t even have the hour it takes toSmile. Breathe. Listen: The 3 Mindful Acts for Leaders. Here are some highlights that might just encourage you to read the entire book or at least recommend it to your team.

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Smile.

• We are hard-wired to smile. We’re even smiling in the womb. Kids smile like crazy, and mirror neurons allow us to “catch” smiling from others.
• Smiling is good for your long-term health and for a longer and more engaged life.
• Smiling reduces stress, helps us work better, and makes people want to be around us.
• The “Duchenne” smile—a smile that engages the muscles of the eyes as well as those of the mouth―is viewed as genuine and authentic.
• Smiling makes us appear more likable, courteous, and competent.
• Leaders who smile put people at ease, spread positive emotions like a virus, and create an environment in which people can do their best work.

Breathe.

• Breathing is automatic. However, leaders who understand how to control their breathing will be much more effective.
• Mindful Breathing is the “Big Switch” that helps us move from mental rumination or anxious thinking to more a more thoughtful, relaxed state.

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a research-based, highly successful program based on mindful breathing and consistent, regular practice.
• Regularly sitting or lying quietly starts the “practice” of mindfulness.
• The impact of mindful breathing can be seen in our personal, team, and corporate health.
• Leaders who learn mindful breathing not only help themselves become better people but also help those around them to do the same.

Listen.

• Listening is a skill possessed by the very best leaders.
• Listening represents an important gift that every leader can give―a leader’s time and attention are highly valued by those around the leader.
• Good listening consists of presence, technique, and practice.
• Presence is demonstrated when leaders are fully engaged, focused, and not distracted when talking to people.
• The Speaker-Listener Technique focuses on the listener fully understanding the speaker’s concerns.
• The Ladder of Inference demonstrates how anyone, including leaders, can jump to conclusions based on their own often erroneous assumptions and beliefs.
• Despite a prodigious amount of data and statistics about how important listening is, a number of leaders—in business, medicine, and any other profession—have poor listening skills.
• Unfortunately, the prognosis for whether people will become more focused, better listeners is not good, because of technology intrusions (emails, texts, phone calls vying for our immediate attention.