Last week I did not speak for 3 days straight. I sat in meditation for 30 minute intervals four times a day followed by 15 minute intervals of walking meditation. The rest of the time I silently worked on my writing and mindfully completing my tasks in and around the meditation hall.

As I sat in a cross-legged, half-lotus position for 2 hours a day, my mind frequently screamed at me to quit, to get up and leave, but instead my response was to try harder. Trying harder is how I was raised, and is the strategy utilized by a majority of us in contemporary society when approaching life’s opportunities and trying to overcome life’s obstacles. The problem is trying harder is a waste of time and effort.

Bearing down on my task, and figuratively digging in my heels to “sit” better only caused my experience to be more painful, and more ineffective. This problem was not going to be solved be applying more effort, only not trying to try would allow me to “sit” without pain. Although counter-intuitive to most Americans, there are many situations where letting go and not trying so hard is the answer to elevating performance.

Leaders need to understand this principle. Demanding, yelling, and using force as a motivator does little to increase productivity, spark creative problem solving or boost employee engagement. Repeated direction by the leader to try harder is nothing more than wasted effort. It is an example of how, as W. Edwards Deming says, “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” It is a fact that employees disengage emotionally long before they leave physically. Bad systems based in greed and immediate gratification for the shareholder have taken their toll on internal stakeholders, and they have become disengaged by the millions.

Leadership needs to provide vision and remove obstacles so that others can be free to solve problems, and gain mastery. Effort should be directed towards a system that embraces trying out solutions, not one that tries to apply the same solution more aggressively. When given autonomy and support individuals intuitively begin pushing boundaries and innovating, their effort is more productive because it is invigorated by a sense of purpose. Conscious leaders embrace core human values as a guiding principle to pilot their teams past mediocrity to brilliance. Interviewing 1709 CEOs from 64 countries and 18 industries, (from September 2011 to January 2012) IBM identified that the top organizational attribute to draw out the best from their workforces was ethics and values (65%), followed by collaborative environment (63%), and purpose and mission (58%); these findings are part of IBM’s 2012 study Leading Through Connections.

Leadership then, should be guided and grounded in ethics and values so that an environment of trust is created in which worthy and profitable results are produced. High-trust organizations provide three times the total return to shareholders than do organizations with low trust. (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence November 2009)

Trying harder to excel or produce better results utilizing the command and control tactics of the past decade is wasted effort. It has resulted in a global financial collapse, high rates of employee dissatisfaction, and unprecedented wealth disparity effectively destroying the middle class in America. What is needed is a holistic approach by leadership that drives profits while standing on a platform grounded in consciousness. It is as Albert Einstein stated, “The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Always connecting the unconnected,

Mike Watson

@emcmike