So is it possible to be at peace in conflict? My answer, rather than a glib response I might have given just a year ago, is still a resounding ‘yes’! But what’s involved? It means looking squarely at the situation and evaluating one’s own role in it – taking responsibility for one’s contribution, replacing blame with dispassion. It means being willing to stay engaged, to not withdraw for fear of making it worse. It means having a deep intent to reconcile different opinions and hurts with one’s own world-view. It means being willing to let go of ‘being right’ and look for the best possible outcome, the win-win.

As always, it starts with the internal passive world of reflection, releasing anger in a safe way – without attack or blame to oneself or another. In the internal world of stillness the thoughts and emotions can dissipate, clearing the way for open and clear dialogue. Here’s my 3-step process to being at peace in conflict:

1. Be still – enter the silence. Bring awareness to your breath. Review the situation that has led to conflict. What role have you played? What role has ‘the other’ played? What can you still appreciate about ‘the other’ party? Observe your emotions as you review the situation.

2. Create a Vision. Ask yourself – What is the highest outcome from this situation? How can I serve as an instrument of peace? Visualise what the best outcome looks like.

3. Ask, ‘What is my next step’? From this place of stillness and reflection, ask – What do I need to do now? It could be as simple as knowing a meeting is coming up with the individual concerned present – and that your next step is simply to smile at them. It can also be bold – approaching them in public and verbally apologising for any part you may have played in the conflict. Only you will know what your next step is (and it could be ‘do nothing’) – but it will come from a place of deep inner knowing, rather than the ‘fight or flight’ stress response that escalates and worsens conflict.

Repeat the above process at regular intervals, and let go of any attachment to outcome. At the end of the day, conflict resolution usually requires one or more parties to reconcile their differences; but how you feel about it is down to your own relationship to it, to your inner being at peace, regardless of how it looks on the outside.

Workplace Conflict – How to be at peace in conflict? is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

Back at my desk, after a magical weekend, I’m left wondering how the sacred can be honoured and celebrated at work. To clarify what I mean by sacred, I’m not talking about religious calendar events or festivals, but rather the every-day occurrences that often pass us by un-noticed, the life-transitions that make up the fabric of an organisation – individual and collective.

I’m working with clients at the moment who are in a race against time in terms of the objectives they are aiming to achieve. The pace of change is so high that staff are at a loss to distinguish between the ‘top priorities’. Luckily for one, we’ve been working hard to ensure that communication is structured and regular, and that the senior leadership team are ‘on board’ and able to articulate the company vision and rationale for each of the strategic projects.

But I think something more is needed. Leaders and managers need to make time for the human dimension of work to shine through. When someone in the team goes through a challenging time – either personally or on the work-front, there needs to be a response. Not just the odd ‘how’s it going?’ between meetings, but time and space to truly allow that individual to feel heard, to share and ‘to be’ with the challenge. Conversely, if there’s an event to be celebrated – either individually or at a team or organisation level, that too needs to shared.

The push-back and challenge will always be ‘lack of time’, but it can be as simple as putting an extra agenda item at the beginning or end of a meeting. Instead of going to the pub, how about a team walk, or a football game? If someone’s lost a close relative to cancer, set up a team charity event to raise money for a hospice, or charity of choice.

Consider how you as a leader or manager could expand your day-to-day activity to recognise and honour the life-experience of the people you work with.They’ll feel heard, respected and valued as a result, and the little time invested will be recouped many times over in good-will.

Workplace Culture – How to Celebrate the Sacred at Work is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

Typical Leadership Paradoxes

A lot of leadership training focuses on recognising the difference between ‘leadership’ and ‘management’. I think the whole dynamic can be summed up in the word ‘paradox’. Here are some examples of paradox that were highlighted at Lego (Paul Evans, 2000):

1. To be able to build a close relationship with one’s staff, and to keep a suitable distance
2. To be able to lead, and to hold oneself in the background
3. To trust one’s staff, and to keep an eye on what’s happening
4. To be tolerant, and to know how you want things to function
5. To keep the goals of one’s department in mind, and at the same time be loyal to the organisation
6. To do a good job of planning your own time, and to be flexible with your schedule
7. To freely express your view, and to be diplomatic
8. To be a visionary, and to keep one’s feet on the ground
9. To try to win consensus, and to be able to cut through
10. To be dynamic, and to be reflective
11. To be sure of yourself, and to be humble

Recognising and learning to manage paradox is a core leadership skill, one that’s developed through self-awareness, reflection, emotional intelligence and honesty about natural ‘comfort zones’. It’s about letting go of attachment and preference, and being comfortable with the ‘and… and’ rather than the ‘either… or’. It’s an art, not a science.

11 Paradoxes of Leadership is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

Soul is critical to business success. David Whyte, the ‘corporate poet’ writes:

“For consultants and management gurus, the soul is a slippery customer. On one hand, it may be dismissed completely… With little understanding of the essential link between the soul life and the creative gifts of their employees, hard-headed businesses listening so carefully to their hard-headed consultants may go the way of the incredibly hardheaded dinosaurs. For all their emphasis on the bottom line, they are adrift from the very engine at the centre of a person’s creative application to work, they cultivate a workforce unable to respond with personal artistry to the confusion of global market change”.

This was first published over 15 years ago. And I think it’s only now becoming clear that the ability to tap into the ‘soul’ at work can be a tool of competitive advantage, of sustainable success and fulfilment.

So what does it take? Here’s a list of soul-foods that can easily be brought into the working environment -

Beauty (flowers, coloured walls, art exhibitions…), Story-telling, Using art to brainstorm, ‘Stream of consciousness’ writing or journaling, Silence and stillness at the start of meetings, Encouraging people to start sentences with ‘I feel…’ as well as ‘I think…’, Fun and laughter, Make a Difference initiatives, Focus on listening, Playing games…  add your own favourites to the list. Let me know what works for you.

How Can You Inject More ‘Soul’ at Work? is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

I’d be delighted to hear your feedback in the comments below.

Roadmap to Customer Excellence is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

1. Holistic Engagement with Employees

In a nutshell, ‘people are viewed as assets to be developed, not costs to be reduced; as sources of creative ideas and pragmatic solutions; and as bringing leadership at their own level to the company’. Employees are frequently consulted on strategic direction, and have a long-term future with the company. Investment is huge – the larger organisations often invest up to 12 weeks’ training in the first year of any employee joining, even after graduation.


2. Improvisation and Adaptability

India’s red tape and bureaucracy is well-known, and demands India’s entrepreneurs and business leaders to improvise and be immensely flexible. India’s business leaders ‘think broadly and act pragmatically, setting grand agendas and then testing through trial and error what works and what does not’. According to Hindustan Unilever’s CEO, India’s business leaders ‘have a much greater ability to cope with uncertainty, they don’t get disturbed by uncertain events, and… tend to be more creative as a result’.


3. Creative Value Propositions

India’s business leaders have ‘of necessity’ learned to be highly creative in developing their value propositions. For example, ‘customer centricity’ is different to the way it is in the West, where the ‘best’ customers are those that deliver the highest profit margins. India’s largest retailer Pantaloon, defined their competitive advantage as being driven by the customer experience, which was tailored to the strict social hierarchy. Nothing too radical there, except that all effort was invested in ensuring this aspect of competitive advantage was driven through every aspect of the business – all staff in each retail outlet was taught to think of the customer ‘at the caste and community’ level.


4. Broad Mission and Purpose

Personal values, ‘a vision of growth’ and strategic thinking was at the core of every business researched. But more interesting is the word ‘broad’ – meaning the sense of pride that India’s business leaders take in not just business success, but also in family prosperity, regional advancement and national renaissance. A core driver in the business is broader ‘societal purpose’ as well as financial reward.

I love these four principles of creating businesses that are highly successful, while also putting employees, customers and society at the heart of their purpose.

What can you learn from them and start to implement in order to set your business apart from the rest?

What the book The India Way can Teach us in Business is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

These days my rides are a little gentler, but I still get so much out of them. This weekend, I pondered the many parallels I could see between off-road biking and living work-life ‘to the full’.

1. Know where you are going:
Needless to say, when you’re in a huge woodland area one track can look very much like another, if you don’t know how you’re going to ‘get out’ you’ll be lost for quite a long while. So – have a vision. Where’s your life taking you?

2. Keep one eye on the horizon, another on what’s right in front of you: Now obviously what you’re doing is glancing up every now and then to anticipate the hill so you know when to change gears, or to check there’s no obstacle such as a fallen tree trunk on the path… but you also have to look right ahead of you, to navigate the tree roots, the dips and the turns. As it is with life – it’s important to have a vision, and to keep your eye on it – but being able to respond appropriately to what’s happening right now is just as critical.

3. Go with the flow, and maintain momentum: As my biking buddy once said, ‘brakes are over-rated’. Mountain biking is easier when you lean into the corners, use the speed from the downhills and avoid ‘panic braking’ – you can fall off the bike! Go with the flow – trust your instincts, make sure that ‘planning’ doesn’t paralyse your progress, and when you’re ‘on a roll’, keep going with it – if it feels effortless and easy, you’re probably on the right track!

4. Focus and be present: As I learned the hard way, whilst riding along pondering these metaphors, if you lose focus you can crash! Focus is the ability to invest all your attention and resources into one activity at a time. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing else happening at the same time. On the contrary, our sub-conscious is processing information and cultivating the right conditions for us to generate results, even if we’re not consciously focusing on them at the time. But when we consciously focus on what we’re doing (called mindfulness in some spiritual traditions) we ensure that we are offering ourselves fully to the task at hand – which usually means quicker and better results.

5. Smile and have fun!: Love life! It truly is a gift, and although it is a cliche, life really is too short not to make the most of every day. What makes you smile? Do you enjoy your work, or is work a ‘drag’? If it is, look at what changes you might need to inject some meaning, joy and purpose to ‘bring it to life’.

Finally… is there an activity or sport that you’re passionate about? Look at why you’re passionate about it, and see if you can find your own ‘life metaphors’ to help you live more fully.

Work-Life Success & the Mountain Biking Metaphor is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

Thirdly – the mental level. Mentally speaking calming words while you inhale and exhale is a great way to become ‘present’. In yesterday’s post (scroll down) I included a very short verse from Thich Nhat Hanh that is short, simple and very effective.

Affirmations are also a wonderful way to remind you of your intent. Write your own affirmations – positive declarations of your intent to bring the Truth of your practice into your everyday work experience. For example, if you are experiencing conflict with a particular colleague, and struggle to communicate with Love, the following could be useful: ‘I am mindful of every thought that crosses my mind, and every word that passes my lips. I speak from a place of Truth, knowing that it is not just what I think and say, but how it is said that determines the outcome of this situation’. If you mentally repeat your affirmation throughout the day, it acts as a reminder to hold on to what you have prioritised as your intent, rather than the story and the drama distracting you.

These three exercises – intent, breath-work and affirmations are all tools to help you integrate your spiritual practice into your work-life. It takes commitment and practice, the rewards are subtle on a day-to-day basis, but in the long-term make a difference between a miserable work-life, and one filled with purpose, joy and fulfillment.

Using Affirmations to Improve Communication at Work is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

The second level of integrating your spiritual practice with your work-life is to physically take the practice off the mat and into the office. No, this isn’t about suddenly stretching out into ‘triangle’ pose in the middle of a meeting, or standing in ‘tree’ pose to regain your balance!

Breath-work is not only extremely powerful to calm the emotions, it’s also non-intrusive and virtually indistinguishable to anyone else in the room. My favourite breath exercise is that of breathing in through the nostrils for 3 counts, and exhaling for 6. If you can stretch to 4 – 8 or more, that’s great – it’s about doubling the exhale to calm down the nervous system. Great for stressful conference calls, when you’re running from one meeting to another or after rushing for a train. If you are on your own, then simply shutting your eyes while doing the exercise, standing up and stretching out, or gazing out of a window to look at the horizon will also help you re-connect to your ‘being-ness’.

Finally, here is a fabulous prayer by Thich Nhat Hanh which you can use in conjunction with breath. It’s so quick and subtle nobody at work will notice you doing it. And yet it’s power lies in its simplicity.

“Breathing in, calming

Breathing out, smiling

Breathing in, I feel alive

Breathing out, I smile to life”

Tomorrow is the final part of this series – the mental aspect of integrating your spiritual practice with work.

Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress at Work is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321

This can be especially true if you work in a high-pressure environment, or run your own business. External pressures become the focal point of attention – whether it’s fear of redundancy, overwhelm, or lack of sales; whatever is your biggest concern will consume your mind and zap up any bliss you may have experienced just a few short hours ago. It’s one thing to mentally know that you are a ‘human being, not a human doing’, but how on earth do you experience the Truth of this while facing the realities of day-to-day work and life.

There are three levels of answer to this conundrum – one energetic, one physical and one mental.

I mentioned the first one above – an energetic intention. More precisely, the word ‘intent’. I have of course made the assumption that you do want to take your practice into your every-day life. Every true spiritual path has an element of prayer, stillness, and reflection at its core. So the question becomes – is your intent to live your spirituality from moment to moment – is your intent to bring it into every interaction, and to have it as the basis for how you approach all challenges? Intent is different from ‘desire’. We can ‘desire’ to live a certain way, we can ‘wish’ things to look different. Intent takes that desire, or wish, and turns it into a commitment. It means ‘no’ is not an option. Are you truly committed to living your spirituality, to infusing your every-day life with what you practice, and to ‘step out’ on what you know?

Reflect on what your commitment level is, and how you can deepen your commitment to integrate all aspects of your life – spiritual, work and home. Tomorrow I explore physical tools to help you connect to your spiritual practice at work.

How to Bring Your Spiritual Practice to Work is a post from Joolz Lewis. Your Access Code to unlock special content on The Corporate Hippy is LYWLYL321