Leadership Skills of the Future
Great leadership requires knowing what actions are required for the present context.
With Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) leaders can start to…
interrupt automatic stress responses or unhelpful coping strategies
pay attention to current context or environment is asking for
choose actions that are aligned with their leadership values and goals
Present moment awareness and cognitive defusion are two components of ACT that can help anyone experiencing experiential avoidance or have difficulty responding effectively during moments of crisis, build crisis resilience.
Crisis resilience is one’s ability to respond effectively during moments of crisis, even when experiencing discomfort. Like psychological flexibility, where one responds in line with their values even when it may be easier, and/or more reinforcing to not.
The goal is not to eliminate internal states of frustrations, self-doubt, or fear of failure, but to help ensure that these internal states don’t drive behaviour.
So, instead of reacting to unimportant information or historic self-imposed rules such as “I must always have the answer”, leaders gain the ability to respond more effectively to the situation in front of them.
Present moment awareness helps to keep us in the here and now, instead of living in our heads, thinking about the past or future. Remaining present helps to attune to the specific environments and contexts to better respond to expectations, instead of responding to thoughts of the past or future, and current physiological internal states that lead to avoidance.
Second, consider that uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are normal human experiences, and automatic thoughts often come up, such as “I can’t fix this”, “this is impossible”, which usually aren’t helpful. When a leader is fused to their thought “this problem is unsolvable”, they are more likely to stop trying and withdraw.
However a leader who practices defusion recognizes a thoughts as simply a thought, “I’m having the thought that this is unsolvable”. This helps to create space to act more in alignment with values and the current context, rather than acting from an emotional place. A leader who practices cognitive defusion will continue to engage in problem-solving because persistence aligns with their leadership values.
Lemon Exercises
Practice present moment awareness and cognitive defusion to build leadership flexibility.
Present Moment Awareness Exercise:
Imagine cutting open a bright yellow lemon. Then imagine biting into a piece of it. Notice the physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions that you are experiencing. For example, salivation, muscle clenching, thinking “so sour!”. Notice how thoughts (like thinking about a lemon) can create real physical reaction, but they are not commands you need to do anything with.
Cognitive Defusion Exercise:
Try repeating the word ‘lemon’ for 30 seconds. Notice how the meaning of the word fades, and it becomes just a series of sounds. Notice how the words and thoughts (repeating ‘lemon’) lose their emotional impact when we are able to step away from them.
The Bottom Line
By cultivating psychological flexibility, leaders become better equipped to guide their teams through uncertainty, maintain performance under stress and model values-driven behaviours. ACT doesn’t eliminate the stress, it teaches leaders how to lead effectively through it.
