Author: Svea von Hehn & Johanna Rauls
Svea von Hehn & Johanna Rauls
Reading time: 19 minutes
Synopsis
In Achtsamkeit und emotionale Intelligenz in Organisationen (2023), you will learn how mindful actions and good emotional management help create a healthy and effective work culture. We will show you, using scientific facts and practical methods, how you can use mindfulness and emotional intelligence in your daily work.
What’s in it for you: Strengthen your team with mindfulness.
Maybe you know this feeling: Your calendar is full, and emails keep coming. But at the end of the day, you feel like you did a lot, but achieved little. These moments show how stressful and busy the world of work has become.
At the same time, something is missing: being mindful with each other, making calm decisions, and finding purpose in our work. But how can we get these good qualities back when things get faster and more complex all the time? For the authors, the answer is clear: by becoming more mindful.
In this summary, you will learn what mindfulness really means. You will also see how it affects not just you, but whole teams and companies. As always, there are practical examples and clear tips on how to use it.
Blink 1 – Changes outside need changes inside.
If you had to describe today’s world in one word, it would be change. Work, technology, teamwork – everything is changing fast. New tools, hybrid teams, constant reorganization. But in the middle of all this, one thing is often missed: If everything is changing outside, something must also change inside.
Two key skills to keep up with these changes and stay healthy are mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Mindfulness means knowing what is happening right now: inside you and around you. Emotional intelligence is the skill to handle these feelings wisely. It means understanding and managing your own emotions, and also understanding how others feel.
Many companies now know this. But often, it’s just a few meditation classes or posters with words like “resilience” and “mindful leadership”. The real change needs to go deeper: It’s about making mindfulness and emotional intelligence a natural part of daily work.
Imagine you are in a team meeting, and a big decision needs to be made. The mood is tense, and people’s opinions clash. A mindful moment here could be this: You notice you are getting annoyed inside. You take a deep breath and quickly feel what is upsetting you.
Then emotional intelligence comes in: You need to decide how to handle the emotions you feel – your own and those of others. Do you want to react right away in the meeting, or should you listen first? And if you do react, how can you do it respectfully but firmly?
The key is to take small breaks. Take three deep breaths before you start a conversation. In a tense situation, take time to understand what is happening. These breaks can change everything. They can stop things from getting worse and help people truly connect. This is important because teams that work with empathy are proven to be more innovative, creative, and resilient. They trust each other more, take responsibility, and can still act well when under pressure. Bonus tip: Studies show that leaders with high emotional intelligence not only lead better, but are also happier.
You should not just use mindfulness in meetings. You should bring it into your daily life. Start the day by truly feeling how you are for two minutes. Add small mindfulness breaks into your day. And ask yourself every evening: “How empathetic was I today?”
To practice mindfulness and emotional intelligence, you don’t need to book an expensive retreat or read many expert books. All you need is regular practice. Then, over time, your attitude will change naturally.
Blink 2 – Mindfulness as a base for good teamwork.
If you want to understand how mindfulness and emotional intelligence work in companies, start with yourself: Get to know your feelings.
Every emotion has a purpose. Joy shows you what makes you strong. Anger tells you a boundary has been crossed. Fear warns of danger. Sadness helps you let go. When you learn to see your feelings instead of pushing them away, you gain a deeper kind of intelligence – emotional intelligence.
In today’s work world, showing many different emotions is often not welcome. We are told to be objective and look professional. But this cuts us off from the power that our feelings hold. Mindfulness helps you allow these different feelings. Ask yourself daily: What am I feeling right now, and why? Even this small moment of honesty can release tension and bring clarity. This is very valuable, because if you know what feelings guide you, you can choose how to act. This stops you from reacting quickly without thinking, and gives you strength in tough times.
Focus is like clarity’s younger brother. In a world full of distractions, your mind needs anchor points. How do you create them? Here is a simple exercise: At the start of the day, set an intention for yourself. For example: “Today, I want to truly listen” or “No matter how busy it gets, I will stay present”. Each time stress grows and you feel like you are losing control, remember your intention. This brings you back to the present moment again and again.
But mindfulness is not just about you; it also affects the people around you. Here’s a practical tip: In a conversation, don’t ask for solutions right away, like “What should we do?”. Instead, ask about feelings: “How do you feel about this right now?” Or try an empathetic phrase in your next feedback meeting, like: “I can see this topic means a lot to you.” Such small sentences build trust.
If you want to go deeper, look for moments to have a ‘deep talk’. This can start during a coffee break, with a simple question like: “What has inspired you lately?”
Sometimes it’s not easy to be mindful, especially when things go wrong. But stress is part of life – how you deal with it is key. Here’s a trick: If you notice your heart rate goes up, consciously focus on your feet for a few breaths. Feel the ground below you. This brings you back from your busy thoughts to the present moment.
By the way, this is not just a feeling. Science studies show that regular mindfulness practice changes how your brain reacts to stress. The prefrontal cortex, which helps you control yourself, becomes more active. The amygdala, your stress center, calms down faster.
Blink 3 – A fear-free atmosphere makes the team stronger.
Team meeting: You are suggesting a new project. Then you see a colleague roll their eyes. Right away, the mood is bad. A key thing is missing: psychological safety.
Psychological safety is feeling safe to show yourself, without fear of being laughed at, rejected, or punished. It happens when people listen to each other instead of judging. It also happens when leaders see mistakes as chances to learn. If someone in a meeting says, “I think we went wrong,” and nobody rolls their eyes, that is psychological safety in action.
Mindfulness helps a lot with psychological safety. It makes us aware of small signals: body language, unspoken tension, and the general mood in the room. With psychological safety, another thing grows: an agile mindset. Here, agility is not just about Scrum boards and daily stand-ups. It’s an attitude: curious, ready to learn, open to change. People with an agile mindset see mistakes as useful data, not as failure. Instead of “Whose fault is it?”, they ask: “What can we learn from this?”
To help this way of thinking, it’s good to try small experiments. At the end of each project, you could start a ‘Learning Session’. In this, each person shares three things: What went well, what did not go well, and what I want to do differently next time? If done regularly, these actions build trust. And agility becomes part of the culture.
Leadership plays a special role here. Mindful leadership is not about control. It’s about connection. Instead of “Why didn’t you reach your goal?”, it asks: “What do you need to reach your full potential?” In daily work, this could mean supporting an overloaded colleague, or listening quietly when someone shares their frustration.
For example: A leader notices in a video call that a team member is unusually quiet. Instead of rushing through the agenda, she pauses briefly and asks: “Are you okay?” The moment might last only 30 seconds. But it changes how things feel, because the team member feels truly seen.
Finally, let’s look at two things that make every team stronger: connection and transparency. Connection grows through honest talks and supporting each other. Transparency means clear roles, clear goals, clear tasks, and also: honest but respectful feedback.
If you build these things as a team, you will not work next to or against each other. You will work with each other. Then, group intelligence will appear.
Blink 4 – The I-SNAP-I Method: Making mindfulness a company culture.
When people and teams start to act more mindfully, the whole company changes. But for this change to be more than a short trend, it needs direction and structure. The I-SNAP-I model offers just that: a guide that helps cultural change. It turns it into real daily practice, step by step.
The first step is Identification: People should see themselves and their company in the change. Imagine an energy company wants to become more sustainable. Many employees support this, but they are not sure what it means for their daily work. Identification here would mean finding out together: Who are we as a company right now? And what do we truly stand for?
In workshops, the team could tell stories that make them proud. Or they could share times when they felt what sustainability means to them. This creates a feeling of belonging and purpose. People don’t connect with a slogan. They connect with an attitude they help create.
The next step is about Stakeholders. These are all people who are affected by the change or help shape it. Imagine a city government wants to be closer to its citizens. Instead of only involving top management, they invite employees from service, tech, and administration. They hold open talks to hear what being close to citizens means for them. They also ask what problems they see and what ideas they have. These talks help people understand more and make change feel real.
Next is working on Needs. These are the things people require with the changes. Maybe the team finds out they don’t need new tools, but rather more trust. A quick ‘needs check’ can work wonders here: Each team member names what they need to stay motivated. More talks, more appreciation, less control.
Building on this, Actions are developed. For example, a trading company tries starting every Wednesday morning with a five-minute check-in. In this, each person says what they want to focus on this week. Such small experiments make mindfulness a fixed part of the daily work routine.
In the next step – called Steering the Project – we see how mindful companies handle speed. Imagine a marketing team is planning three big campaigns at the same time. After a few weeks, the management notices everyone is stressed. Deadlines are missed, and the mood changes. Instead of just continuing, the team decides: “Next month, we will focus on one campaign. We will purposely move the other two.” This lowers the pressure, quality gets better, and there is enough energy left to start the next projects with motivation.
And finally, it’s about Impact. Real change is not seen in numbers, but in how people act. When people start to regularly ask for feedback, talk about problems sooner, or be more present in meetings, then mindfulness has become part of the culture.
Blink 5 – Mindfulness as a Company Booster: Serious Practice or Strange Nonsense?
Maybe you are thinking: Mindfulness sounds good, but is it just some spiritual belief in the end? No, science has shown the opposite in recent years. Today, we know quite well what happens in the brain, body, and in how people interact when they start to act more mindfully.
A main effect is seen in focus and concentration. When you regularly practice putting your attention on the present moment – like on your breath or what you are doing – you train your brain like a muscle.
Researchers at Harvard University showed that just a few minutes of mindful breathing daily can make the prefrontal cortex more active. This is the part of the brain responsible for focus, self-control, and making decisions. In practice, this means: You stay focused even when your inbox is full or ten things try to get your attention at once.
Another area that sees effects is how we deal with stress and anger. Studies by neuroscientist Britta Hölzel show that regular mindfulness practice measurably calms the amygdala, which is your stress center. People who practice mindfulness react more calmly to anger or criticism. They are less carried away by emotions and return to a clear state of mind faster.
The effects on the body are also interesting. For example, regular mindfulness practice can make your immune system stronger. No joke! Researchers have proven that people who meditate show more activity in certain antibodies and get sick less often. Blood pressure and heart rate also become stable. This is because the body learns to stop being tense all the time. You can imagine this like a reset for your nervous system: a daily “cool down” that makes you stronger over time.
Besides these body effects, many people say they feel better emotionally. This might be because mindfulness strengthens your connection to positive emotions. When you more consciously notice how a moment feels, like your first coffee in the morning or an honest talk, your inner experience changes. Small happy moments become easier to see, because you don’t miss them as you rush through your day.
The social effects of mindfulness are also proven by science. For example, neuroscientists have found that mindfulness activates brain areas linked to empathy and compassion.
All this shows: Mindfulness is not spiritual belief. It is a real practice that helps many parts of life. It helps your personal feelings, your relationships with others, and both your private and work life.
Conclusion
Today, mindfulness and emotional intelligence are seen as key skills for teamwork and leadership. They help us think clearly, communicate better, and act well even when under pressure.
To keep up with constant change as a company, it’s not enough to just bring in new tools or strategies. Employees and leaders should also learn to better see their own impact: on themselves, on others, and on the whole company. If we learn to pause, listen, and react carefully, we change how the team works together.
This also helps each person, because science has now proven: Regular mindfulness boosts focus, lowers stress, improves memory, strengthens the immune system, and encourages compassion. These are the best conditions for productive and strong teamwork. It’s also a strong reason for companies to actively support mindfulness. Because then they stay stable even in unsure times.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/achtsamkeit-und-emotionale-intelligenz-in-organisationen-de