Absorption, mindfulness key to extraordinary performance

Recently the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrated their fourth Stanley Cup win, culminating with my favourite ice-hockey player, Sidney Crosby, being named the most valuable player.
But that’s not all. What was amazing about this win was the fact that the Penguins did it with a rookie goalie, Matt Murray, playing beyond his years.
He shed some light on the secret behind his heroic performance on ice by saying: “You just try to stay in the moment.”
Jedi or “10x” leaders are able to perform at extraordinary levels because they are “in the moment” or in the state of “flow”. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “flow” is a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work. In the state of flow, doing these things becomes effortless and almost automatic, just like a musician lost in the music he or she is composing.
According to the SHARP model,* for managers and employees to be in the state of flow, absorption – the “A” in SHARP – is key.
Absorption is taking inward control and recognising that peak performance, and peak life experience, result from doing one thing well at any and every single moment in time. Slow things down, increase your awareness and become absorbed.
By being absorbed, 10x leaders are able to raise the level of engagement and fulfilment to make the ordinary extraordinary.
So what’s the trick? The connected world and always-on lifestyle is making this even more difficult.
According to Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, office workers are interrupted or self-interrupt every three minutes during the day, with distractions coming in both digital and human forms. As is common nowadays, we tend to keep one eye on the smartphone during meetings. I admit that sometimes during the day even I operate in this half in, half out mode.
The magic words are “mindfulness training”. According to a University of North Carolina study, Intel in 2012 held a mindfulness training programme called Awake@Intel, in which participants reported that on a 10-point scale, their average levels of stress had decreased by 2 points and happiness increased by 3 points.
Furthermore, they reported a 2-point increase in “having new ideas, insights, mental clarity, creativity, the ability to focus, the quality of relationships at work and the level of engagement in meetings, projects and team efforts”.
Introducing meditation classes within your company is another way to promote mindfulness. Just check with Laszlo Bock, Head of Google’s People Ops meditation classes at Google called “Search inside Yourself”, which now has a waiting list of six months. A word of caution: You might want to experiment with your team before expanding it to the corporate mainstream.
With mindfulness, instead of feeling time deprived and always trying to catch up, suddenly you have this feeling of time affluence. It will enable you to have engaging relationships and fulfilment with work. Companies will see a rise in employee engagement and productivity.

Suvit Chansrichawla, the writer, is next-generation HR consultant under the brand Serendipity & Co, a partner of the Curve Group in Thailand.
*The SHARP model was developed by ex-Harvard professor Tal Ben Shahar and his colleague Angus Ridgway, ex-McKinsey head of |leadership development.