There’s a natural tendency to view different elements of our lives as being unique and distinct from one another: what we do at home, or what we do as part of our personal growth journey, is somehow fundamentally different from what we do at work. So what can we do, both as individuals and a collective, to bring those same mindful traits into the workplace? That’s the question that we explore during this episode with Marc Lesser.

There’s a natural tendency to view different elements of our lives as being unique and distinct from one another: what we do at home, or what we do as part of our personal growth journey, is somehow fundamentally different from what we do at work. So what can we do, both as individuals and a collective, to bring those same mindful traits into the workplace?

That’s the question that we explore during this episode with Marc Lesser. Marc is currently the CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company. He was the founding CEO of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, and helped develop the world-renowned Search Inside Yourself (SIY) program within Google – a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders which teaches the art of integrating mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and business savvy. 

Marc Lesser is also the author of 4 books, including Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen. He was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years, and director of Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the western world.

Our conversation focuses on:

• Why large organizations should care about mindfulness specifically, and personal growth generally.
• The competitive advantages of mindfulness.
• The ways that mindfulness practices could be misused in the workplace.

If you’d like to start making real, positive changes to your brain and your life, but you don’t have a lot of extra time, then you may want to check out my new program: Just One Minute. Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price.

Topics:

• 01:01: From Zen to NYU.
• 03:27: Stories from the Zen kitchen.
• 08:51: Compressing “big” lessons into understood words.
• 11:32: Does “no-gaining mind” work in a capitalist context?
• 18:08: What moves you from your home base?
• 20:23: What is the benefit of having more mindful leaders?
• 23:35: Critiques of mindfulness.
• 27:30: The most common questions, and most powerful tools.
• 32:04: If you could go back in time and tell yourself something, what would you say?