Mindful Leadership Practices - Can They Make You A Better Leader?

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Do you plan on becoming a successful business leader? Then you need to start by gaining all the essential management and leadership skills in order to drive your company and your teams through the constant challenges offered by the ever evolving business world. However, if you me, I believe apart from these, you also need to develop mindful leadership skills to accomplish your career goals. Read on....

Bill George, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, wrote in a recent The Huffington Post article “From the moment you wake up, you're bombarded with distractions. Emails clog your inbox, requests pile up, and notifications flicker in the background. Within moments your attention is scattered. Given the realities of today's 24/7 world, how do great leaders slow down and focus in order to make thoughtful decisions? Mindfulness.”

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What Is Mindful Leadership?

In it's basic essence, mindfulness refers to the practice of self-observation with a strong focus on your mind as well as inner voice, but without judgment. If you wish to become a mindful leader then you will need to practice journaling, prayer, meditation and jogging by yourself. In our stressful and fast paced lives, mindfulness empowers us remove unnecessary clutter from our minds and strictly focus on things that are important & boost our creativity. Some prominent mindful leaders include Steve Jobs and Arianna Huffington.

As technology has become an essential aspect of our lives, increasing volumes of distractions keep invading inside our minds. This adversely affects our ability to focus on important issues, making it harder for us to think clearly and deal with complex decisions. Hence, now it has become imperative that as a business leader you train yourself to be mindful and enhance you abilities to fully focus on the tasks at hand. George added,

“Becoming a mindful leader isn't easy. There are no five easy steps to do so. A few years ago when I asked the Dalai Lama how we can develop a new generation of compassionate, mindful leaders, he replied simply "Develop a daily habit of introspection".

Why You Need Mindful Leadership

With the help of mindful leadership you can focus on the present moments, recognise and better understand your own feelings & emotions to keep them in your control, especially when you face excessively stressful situation. As a mindful leader you can be more aware of your surroundings, your own existence, and understand the intensity of the action and consequences.

How #business_and_management_courses is changing with the advent of #Mindful_Leadership http://t.co/8Hlp9hX8xd @RomaCorferd

— Shaona williams (@Shaonawilliams1) February 6, 2015

By following mindful leadership practices, you will be able to control how you understand, identify, interpret & react to different scenarios. If you are an aspiring business leader, then practicing mindful leadership will enable you to boost your business and also to support all involved parties to advance.

What Should You Do To Become A Mindful Leader 

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To become a mindful leader you will need to follow several practices that will improve your mindfulness and empower you to better understand yourself. However, implementing those ideologies in to your business will require you to have a strong business knowledge. Moreover, you will also need to possess effective management and leadership skills to identify your own strengths and weaknesses. Hence, you must study a purposeful training programme which will boost your leadership, awareness & mindfulness.

I believe one of the best ways to do this is to pursue a Level 5 diploma in management & leadership online. By studying an online management course you can acquire all the necessary skills and knowledge without investing too much time or money. Thus, you can not only avoid student debt, but you can also manage your time between your work and studies.

An online Level 5 management diploma will help you to gain leadership abilities, understand business better, enhance your focus, and boost your resilience, creativity & productivity. You can then better lead your team and your business towards success and expand operations.

What do you think? Add to the discussion by commenting below.

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Online Learning - A Better Way To Study Business Management

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Planning to pursue a business degree? Then I am sure you are already looking for the best online business programmes available out there. If not, then it's time for you to go online. Nowadays an increasing number of aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders are opting for quality online business management courses instead of traditional B-school programmes. Why? Keep reading to find out....

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 Is Online Education A Threat?

As higher education becomes more and more expensive, learners across the world are now enrolling for online business education courses to earn accredited degrees in an affordable way. In fact the demand for online business study is so strong that most of the leading business schools and universities have started to offer their programmes online. Many institutes fear that online courses and MOOCs have become a threat for expensive executive programmes as most professionals are now moving towards e-learning courses due to their affordability and high levels of flexibility. So if you are planning to earn a business degree or diploma to land the next big promotion, then an online Level 5 extended management diploma will enable you to work and study at the same time. You can easily find a number of recognised courses online offered by reputed business schools and colleges which follow the same curriculum as the on-campus programmes and are held by in-house faculty.

Online Is Simply Better

Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante, head of learning and director of strategic analysis at Ericsson, initially had doubts about the quality of education offered by online courses. He believes that learning in the classroom was a much better alternative as “there is magic when you meet face-to-face. You form great networks.” However, he was open to experiment with online learning and ended up changing his mind. The fact is online business courses cost you only “a fraction of the cost” of studying executive programmes. Moreover, as these highly flexible you will need to invest much less time on your education and effectively balance your work and family. With more than 120 employees pursuing online courses at Columbia Business School since January 2014, Sales-Cavalcante now believes that these courses are highly effective and encourages more staff to study online.

He says that more business will think twice about sending their staff to traditional B-schools as unless there is a strict need for “experiential learning”. He adds “Business schools need to think about how they reinvent themselves and how they leverage technology.” There is no doubt that leading institutes like Wharton, Harvard and Columbia, are now feeling threatened with the vast array of benefits offered by online business study. With advancement of technology and growing credibility of online learning, most schools are introducing a line-up of online programmes. However, I must admit, that these courses are not intended to replace traditional executive courses, but to supplement them.

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Making Education Affordable And Accessible 

Bharat N. Anand, Faculty Chair at Harvard Business School's online learning initiative HBX says that the rise in affordable and free online content may result in a drop in student enrollment in traditional programmes. This might also affect the revenue stream as well. But as businesses have various requirements, a number of models will eventually coexist, he says.

Another advantage on online business education is that it has substantially expanded the reach of education to numerous students from different parts of the world. Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education, says “In the past, the only option was to send people to campus. But (the costs) limited the number of people who could take the class. The reach that online education has is what organisations find attractive.”

I have no doubt that if you wish to gain the right business skills and knowledge and build your career as a successful business leader, then pursuing an extended diploma in management online is the perfect way to go about it. You can not only earn a degree without running into heavy student debts, nut you will also be able to hone your skills by working and studying simultaneously and getting the best employment opportunities.

What do you think? Are you ready for your online learning experience? Feel free to share your thoughts and views with me by commenting below.

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Online MBA: Climb Up The Career Ladder With Confidence

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Can you earn an MBA degree without leaving your job? Yes. As online education becomes increasingly popular, numerous students from around the world are now pursuing business education degrees online. This has perhaps proved to be a boon for many adult students who need to balance their jobs, family and education at the same time. But are online distance learning programmes worth it? Let’s find out...

Why Study Online MBA?

Anthony Yu, who is pursuing online MBA from Sandermoen School of Business (University of Fredericton), found this mode of learning especially helpful when his wife was about to give birth to their third child. 40 year old Yu, who works as a bank branch manager, says “I always joked with my wife, ‘I might be bringing my computer with me into the hospital room’’.

It has now become a growing trend for most reputed B-schools to offer some kind of business degree online. Apart from a number of online schools, many top-rated, reputed and elite institutes like Queen’s School of Business and Harvard Business School are also providing online programmes to their students.

This can provide the perfect solution for individuals like Mr. Yu who wish to advance their careers by pursuing a higher education degree, without leaving their jobs or barely managing time for their families. Yu says “This (was) a better route for me, for my family, and for work-life balance. You still need to participate in your (live online) lectures and readings once a week (but), really, this was the route for me because of the flexibility it gave.”

Work Full Time, Study Any Time

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 Peter Mersereau, Director of Operations at University of Fredericton, says “The main thing that sets us apart is how our programs are designed. They are created for working professionals; thus, students can study from anywhere in the world, at any time, completely online. The program provides students the opportunity to continue their education without sacrificing career momentum.”

This seems to be the aim of most universities that offer distance learning opportunities via the internet.

Athabasca University also offers a world class online MBA programme that aims to help professionals boost their careers in the direction they want. Dr. Alain May, MBA Programme Director at the university, believes that now is the perfect time to go for online studies. She says “When I first started going to conferences five years ago, once they found out you were from an online school, they would turn around and not talk to you, because they didn’t think you had a lot to tell them. When I’m at those same conferences now and you say you’re online, suddenly you’re the most popular person in the room.”

Fast Track To An MBA

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Dr. May believes that online MBAs offer enhanced accessibility and flexibility, which the traditional universities could even dream of providing. Students who wish to do a full time job and study can easily cater to their professional commitments and pursue an MBA programme online. By pursuing a distance learning top up programme from an accredited online B-school, students can easily manage to study their coursework over the internet from the comfort of their homes as per their convenience. 

Moreover, learners can also study during lunch time at work or during leisure hours. This gives professionals the freedom to study at their own pace. One of the greatest advantages of an online top up MBA is that it allows students to fast track to an accredited MBA degree without investing excessive time or money.

A Collaborative Experience

In fact online learning is often more collaborative than students might think. She says “I think there’s an impression of online education that it’s a person sitting in a room all by themselves, working on their own. The reality is, we are very effective in networking the students so they can collaborate and build. Students work closely together and learn from each other constantly.”

As technology progresses further at an unbelievable pace, numerous universities and colleges are gearing up to improve their online offerings to reach more students worldwide. Dr. May adds “As technologies move, we’re trying to move, as well. We’re moving toward providing mobile applications for students. We try to innovate all the time.”

Mersereau of University of Fredericton says “It’s how work gets done today.” He continues “If someone sees an online MBA as second-rate, they are not prepared to do business in the 21st century. We live in a virtual world today, so I see no reason why someone would need to stop their career momentum to attend a physical location.”

Changing Employers’ Perspectives

Moreover, now recruiters and employers are also recognizing and accepting online degrees more than ever before. A new report from the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration shows that nearly 50 per cent of the surveyed employers believe the format of a degree is not a major factor in the recruitment or promotion of a candidate. The only thing that matters is whether the programme and the degree are correctly accredited or not.

Paresh Mistry, vice-president of the recruiting agency David Aplin Group, says employers are no more concerned about whether candidates earn MBAs online or on-campus. He adds “The working professionals aren’t readily willing to give up a full-time job for school purposes. In all the years I’ve been doing this, I can never recall a client turning down a candidate because of the circumstances surrounding their MBA. I don’t think that’s going to become an issue.”

Climb The Ladder With Online MBA

Online business degrees have enabled professionals like Anthony Yu to pursue their dream careers by getting further education. By studying for a distance learning top up degree in business, many young professionals can acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to climb up the career ladder and boost their careers to great new heights.

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 Mistry concluded “It’s going to make this easier for a lot of students. If technology didn’t evolve to where we’re at today, I’ll tell you right now I wouldn’t have completed my MBA,” he says. “It would not have been possible.”

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