What steps are you taking to build your emotional intelligence and mindfulness as a leader? An inspirational and mindful leader is aware of their own feelings and their teams’ feelings and how they impact their effectiveness. To become this leader, you must intentionally build your relationships by being accountable and leading with compassion.
In this episode of the Inspirational Leadership podcast, I speak with Marc Lesser, a CEO, executive coach, and Zen teacher known for his engaging, experiential presentations that integrate mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices and training. Before his business and coaching career, Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years, and director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the Western world. He helped develop the world-renowned Search Inside Yourself program within Google – a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders which teaches the art of integrating mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and business savvy for creating great corporate cultures and a better world.
Listen in to learn how to become a better leader by building trust and connection with your team to make it easier to have difficult conversations. You will also learn the importance of bringing awareness and curiosity to your feelings and other people’s feelings to become better at solving conflict.
Key Takeaways:
- How to start appreciating your sacredness to become a better human and leader.
- How to understand other people’s perspectives and our shared humanity with the 3-minute listening exercise.
- How to build trust and connection with your team to make it easier to have difficult conversations.
- How to become more aware of your patterns with conflict to notice when you overreact or underreact.
- How to create psychological safety in the workplace by bringing your vulnerability.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- [01:59] Marc’s background and how Abraham Maslow’s book Toward a Psychology of Being changed his life.
- [07:04] How he was able to bridge the differences between the monastic and the corporate world.
- [10:47] How slowing down and appreciating yourself can improve your productivity and relationship with challenges.
- [15:44] The below-the-line things organizations can focus on to build accountability, care, trust, and compassion.
- [18:37] Why the difficult and necessary conversations in an organization require trust.
- [26:16] The importance of bringing awareness and curiosity to your feelings and others’ feelings.
- [30:24] Marc’s recommendations to help you learn to listen to your feelings and build compassion and accountability.
- [32:32] The efforts you can take as a leader and team to be intentional about working more effectively.
- [37:00] How to create psychological safety at the workplace to allow people to find their stretch zone.
- [39:28] The powerful qualities you need to be an inspirational and mindful leader.
Standout Quotes:
- “It takes some looking inward and some stopping in order to become aware of those beliefs we have beneath the surface.”– Marc [12:08]
- “Beginning an advanced lesson in working with conflict is separating the impact that someone’s words or actions have on us and being curious about their motivation or intention.”– Marc [25:51]
Listen to the podcast here:
Watch the video here:
Resources Mentioned:
- Learn more about Marc and his work here
- Connect with Marc on LinkedIn
- Marc’s new book: Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives
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