Can mindfulness make us better entrepreneurs?
Mindfulness has become a bit of a buzzword over the last few years. A google search will demonstrate that there isn’t a lack of coverage on the topic, perhaps unsurprisingly by personal development bloggers and YouTube channels, but also increasingly as the focus of academic studies and reputable health publications. The NHS website for example, robustly prescribes mindfulness as an aid to combat stress, anxiety and depression.
Realising that the now science-backed benefits of mindfulness meditation has successfully entered the zeitgeist, entrepreneurs have attempted to bridge the gap between the ancient practice from the Eastern world and the smartphone yielding Westerners of today. Among a plethora of other startups, tech companies like Headspace have positioned themselves as the creators of the “go-to” app for facilitating calm for the busy, urban-dweller; before the first coffee of the day or on the gloomy morning commute.
It’s pretty safe to say that mindfulness is largely acknowledged for its benefits to our mental health. But beyond health, it is interesting to ponder on if and how it can impact us in other spheres of our lives; let’s say in our professional capacities?
If you strip away the titles, most professional roles can be thought of as quite a simple function: identifying problems and coming up with solutions. These solutions of course have to satisfy the needs of others, be they customers, clients, colleagues, communities or beneficiaries. No more does this ring true than in the world of business where ideas are the lifeblood. As someone with some experience of meditation, working in the London startup ecosystem and with a penchant for side-hustling, the question of whether mindfulness can make us better entrepreneurs is of particular intriguing.
My interest on this brought me in contact with Muhammad Malik, a social entrepreneur, startup consultant, and active member of the YSYS community. His work around the importance of mindfulness in the creative process prompted me to enlist his support in running a session on this theme for FoundersDoor, YSYS’ pre-accelerator for young, early-stage founders from underrepresented groups. A bit unconventional perhaps, but something that I envision would equip them with tools that will be of significant value due to the fact that many of whom will be joining the programme at idea stage.
According to Muhammad, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that mindfulness can indeed make us better entrepreneurs and I’ll briefly touch on three modes with which it can contribute to this goal: empathy, creativity and self-awareness.
Note: For a broader exploration of this topic and exercises to assist in implementing these principles in your own work, download Design Thinking and Mindfulness below, a YSYS guide produced for the community by Muhammad Malik.
Empathy
Empathy is probably not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about the startup scene. Capital… scalability… equity perhaps? However, what is most fundamental to any startup is traction from customers. The prerequisite of this of course being a deep understanding of who your customer actually is, which among other things requires a high level of empathy. It may be a surprise to some but empathy is quite a complex construct associated with multiple brain networks and as such, like many functions of the brain, is something that can be trained.
Much research has proven that meditation boosts one’s empathy and compassion for others. Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Centre found that training doctors in mindfulness meditation helped them to listen better and not be as judgmental both at home and at work. For me, the parallels of this as an empathetic entrepreneur implies being better equipped to identify the pain points of your customer therefore allowing you to address them with your business solutions; much in the same way that an empathetic doctor attempts to prescribe the most effective mode of care to a patient based on their symptoms.
Creativity
Startups are all about innovation. How do I provide a product or service that is more effective, more convenient or less costly for the end-user than what already exists? When things have been done in a particular way for so long it is easy to neglect thinking about ways of improving it — which is why disruptive startups are so refreshing and creativity is so intimately tied to innovation. We have all heard the cliché expression, “think outside the box”. Research conducted at the Leiden University in the Netherlands in 2012 found that open-monitoring meditation greatly promotes divergent thinking; a style of thinking which facilitates greater generation of ideas and as such is hugely valuable as an entrepreneur.
Self awareness
In business, an unwillingness to adapt or pivot to meet the changing demands of the market can be costly — the death of Kodak and the relative success of Fujifilm is testament to this.
Often times, this reluctancy can stem from a deeper rooted issue around ego. In one scenario, a founder may have a strong attachment to one of their products despite market testing showing unfavourable results, or having neglected doing any testing at all! This is where ego breeds unjustified confidence. Another example is using resource for vanity projects to make the company or CEO appear “cool” whilst failing to impact customers; or even going as far as compromising the values and integrity of a company in order to capitalise on an ethically questionable revenue generator.
Now ego isn’t all bad — it can be a driver and motivator that keeps you going during the hard times of starting a business (of which there are many). However, unconstrained ego can lead to decision making that alienates your team or your customers. Think — is this decision likely to improve customer or employee satisfaction? If not then consider whether or not it is genuinely a justified business decision.
It is no secret that founding a startup is an exhausting endeavour, one in which mental wellbeing can often be neglected. Evidently, having a mindfulness practice can help in combatting some of these issues which will naturally bleed into your capability of bringing your best self to your startup.
What’s more though, as entrepreneurs and creatives, through mindfulness we can utilise the power of empathy, creativity and self-awareness to orient ourselves towards acting wholeheartedly for the end-users of our products or services in a fashion that truly serves. I would argue that these are the greatest assets that an entrepreneur can possess.
