The Centered Leader: Sometimes your heart has the answer your mind has been looking for

By Katherine Lewis

In the third installment of my “Centered Leader” series, I’ll show you how to tap into your heart center and become more creative and intuitive when faced with scenarios that prove too stubborn for a straightforward or logical approach. If you haven’t had time to read everything in the first and second parts of the series, don’t worry, you are still in for a treat. 

As an executive coach, I understand the complex and often chaotic business environment that C-suite leaders face every day. My clients say they are told to meditate to help them slow down, reduce anxiety and problem solve, but then admit they don’t have time for all that.

I’ve found them to be more receptive when I share what are called haptic practices, involving light touch and deep breathing, that can quickly and discreetly be used at the office, while working from home or before a meeting or presentation. Requiring much less time than classic meditation, these techniques can still help you feel present in the moment, with your awareness shifted to the body rather than the mind. Where you are placing your hands shifts the focus of energy and the state of awareness you have access to in the body.

Let me explain more about two of my favorite techniques for getting out of your head and into your heart, allowing other aspects of your awareness to become part of your toolkit.

1. Heart Center Medication 

This simple meditation, like all of the haptic practices I teach to my clients, is like a “medication” that can help you combat the amygdala hijack, or the fight/flight/freeze reaction, and approach business tasks feeling less defensive and more in control. I learned these easy methods years ago when working with Dr. Ann Marie Chiasson, MD, an integrative medicine practitioner who works with Dr. Andrew Weil at the Center for Integrative Medicine in Arizona. 

Heart Center Medication is a good practice to use when you are preparing to deliver critical feedback. This is one of the hardest things for a manger to do effectively. Many are either too harsh or they sugar-coat things too much and the message doesn’t get through. I tell my clients that the trick is to deliver from a place of compassion, recognizing that feedback is a gift. Delivering from a  place of compassion is more effective, easier to do and removes discomfort.

The idea is to come not from a place of judgement but from a place of curiosity. When you combine judgement + curiosity + compassion, you get discernment and understanding. This is the best way to ensure your critical feedback is constructive. As you cross your hands and place them over the center of your heart, close your eyes and relax. The heart center has four attributes: compassion, innate harmony, healing presence and unconditional love. Repeat these attributes silently as an inner mantra while you breathe deeply. Do this before going into a feedback discussion – whether you are giving it or receiving it. 

 This practice will help you focus on being curious, allowing yourself to listen very closely to the person’s reaction to your feedback and ask open-ended questions about what they took away from it. As a leader, think about how the conversation will impact the person’s work in the organization. 

2. Thinking Is the Longest Path to Solutions

Picture this scenario: you and your team are tasked with finding new ways to grow your customer base. You’ve been at it for a while but have had no breakthroughs. You can feel that ideas are no longer flowing, and you sense that morale is sinking. Our innate desire to find solutions through thinking limits us to solving problems based on past experiences. A more creative way to solve problems is to use other aspects of our awareness. 

For this practice, place your left hand on your solar plexus and your right hand on your heart. Breathe deep, feel and see the situation you want to solve. This technique takes you out of your head and allows you to tap into your intuition and imagination. 

Using this method opens up more creative solutions to problems, which research shows increases the likelihood of success. Michael Bungay Stanier, author of “The Coaching Habit,” is well known for using great questions to build great leaders. When leaders ask, “And what else?,” they are opening the door to more options, leading to better decisions and more positive outcomes. On page 4 of this document from the website for Stanier’s development and consulting company, Box of Crayons, he explains that decisions based on a binary choice (should we do “this” or “that”) have a 52% failure rate. Adding just one more option decreases the failure rate to 32%. 

Remember that when you find yourself overthinking a problem but not coming up with the solution. Try the simple haptic technique I just taught you to keep the pathway to new ideas clear. 

I’d love to help you and your team become problem-solving powerhouses. Reach out and see how I can help: katherine@lewisrushassociates.com