At its essence,
A leader is about influence,
Whether it's influencing our families,
Influencing our environment,
We influence.
The question is,
Do we influence more often for better or for worse?
Ms.
Martorano has been redefining corporate culture by helping leaders live and work with more clarity,
More creativity,
And more compassion.
I spent the last 16 years as a vice president for General Mills,
Spring of 2000.
I was responsible for getting FTC clearance of the acquisition of Pillsbury.
We were working seven days a week,
18-hour days,
Every day,
Nonstop.
That began an 18-month period in my life where personal tragedy and professional challenge came together in this perfect storm of an extraordinarily difficult time.
My mother,
Who had been ill,
Passed away.
And unbelievably,
Six months after that,
My father passed away unexpectedly.
There was no time for me to grieve for my parents because I was responsible for making sure that 10,
000 people didn't lose their job.
And then finally,
The deal passed through,
And I was profoundly aware that something had been lost,
Something was missing,
And I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was.
I was sent a workshop,
The power of mindfulness,
An intensive retreat for executives.
I would ultimately go,
And that began the journey.
Sometimes we feel like the only way to get through our lives is to be on this kind of autopilot.
You know,
We chuck off the to-do list,
But we're not really there for any of it.
I like to meditate with purposeful pauses.
How does a cup of tea become a meditation?
Easily.
If when you go to make your cup of tea,
You're simply making that cup of tea.
So every time my mind might go off,
I'm going to bring my attention back to the sound of the boiling water,
The sound it makes when I pour the water into the teapot,
The aroma of the tea leaves,
The warmth of a cup in my hand,
The taste of my mouth.
It's actually that redirection that begins to strengthen your mind's ability to be focused.
We have this amazing wealth of wisdom within us,
And it gets covered over by being distracted.
Yet we have this innate capacity in our mind to reflect,
To actually allow that inner wisdom to arise and to help us make those conscious choices.
I started to see how different it was making me as a leader.
People around me were seeing a change.
At General Mills,
Something about my story resonated with them,
So they were willing to see if they could bring it to their lives in a way that made sense for them.
And that's how the ripple effect started.
One small step.
We're dedicated to bringing mindful leadership curriculum to people around the world.
It doesn't take a monumental shift.
The small step,
The small change is really important to us beginning to turn into the kind of society that we need.
