The Leader Lab

6Pause

You've now learned most of the core BUs you'll need to include in your very own Swiss Army knife of manager excellence. That's a lot of cognitive work. So let's take a quick break before we move onto the next BU.

Practice Station

Try an exercise (from the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine) that's popular among a wide range of professions, from yogis to Navy Seals. Starting with the lower left-hand corner of the rectangle in the image, use one finger to trace the left, vertical line up to the left-hand corner, while slowly inhaling and counting to five. Next, trace your finger from the upper left-hand corner to the upper right-hand corner, while slowly exhaling and counting to seven. Then, inhale slowly while tracing down the right side for five counts. And exhale slowly while tracing across to the left side for seven counts. Make your way around three times.

How was that? While this exercise takes about one minute to complete, most people report feeling significantly refreshed and relaxed. This is the surprising finding we came across in our manager research at LifeLabs Learning: the most productive managers take the time to do … nothing. As lifelong ...