How To Lead With Authenticity & Ease - by Dr. Femke E. Bakker

COURSE

How To Lead With Authenticity & Ease

With Dr. Femke E. Bakker

There is a strong call for authentic leadership these days. We want leaders who are real, honest, and thus, trustworthy. This call suggests leaders to “be themselves” in order to be authentic, but is this a sound advice? Being authentic as a person means being true to yourself. Authentic leadership, however, means being true to the folks you lead, which is an important difference. Leading people, whether they are with few (like in your own family or small business) or with many (like in a large organizational or corporate setting, or in politics), means that you need to expand beyond your authentic self and consciously bring authenticity into your leadership role. This course dives into the question. What is an authentic leader? And how can you become one? No matter the leadership role you have today, in this course you explore and determine what kind of authentic leader you want to be. To guide this process, the course offers a framework of eight authentic leadership foundations to consciously determine how you want to translate your authentic self into your role as a leader. Through the use of meditation and visualization you will explore the value of this framework for yourself, and learn the tools to step into your authentic leadership role with confidence. If you have worked on yourself, and have been connecting with your authentic self, and you're now ready to take that connection to the next level - the interaction with others -then you'll probably like this course. This exploratorative work distinguishes itself from the more rational-based leadership trainings that are out there, because the framework invites you to dive deep into your authentic self and do some soul searching. It's pretty easy to think up how you would like to be as a leader, but as long as that idea isn't backed up by a connection with who you truly are, it's hard to become an authentic leader. Be therefore ready to explore with your heart and gut who you truly are, then reflect upon the foundations to bring your authetic self forward into your leadership role. Femke E. Bakker, Ph.D. relies on her expertise as a professor in political psychology, her previous experience as a professional actor, and her knowledge as a meditation teacher to bring together insights of scientific studies, acting methods, and meditation techniques to guide you towards your authentic leadership role. The course is based on a workshop Femke offers to corporate and executive teams.

AuthenticityLeadershipWorkplacePsychologyScienceGentle RepetitionSelf Inquiry (I Am)LoveHealth & HappinessPerformanceStress & AnxietyScience

Meet your Teacher

Dr. Femke E. Bakker
Netherlands

Femke Bakker, Ph.D. is a meditation teacher from the Netherlands. She also works as a professor political psychology at Leiden University, where she teaches and studies (political) leadership, decision making, and political behavior from a psychological perspective. Over the years, Femke has been most interested in how diversity of individuals can explain political outcomes. Her research has received several awards, including the highly prestigious ECPR Jean Blondel Prize. In 2019, she received the PEACE-Grant from the esteemed Mind and Life Institute to study the impact of meditation on political behavior. Femke teaches meditation at Lila Meditation to people who want to perform and feel better in life and at work. She comes from the perspective that learning to meditate should be easy, pleasant and personal. Femke also teaches her students to see meditation as a power they can apply to grow and learn in life. She currently facilitates several meditation courses, corporate meditation workshops, and private meditation coaching. She also offers guided English and Dutch meditations at Insight Timer. Another Insight Timer course created by Femke is 'How to Tolerate Challenging Behaviors and Opinions'. Femke's mission as a teacher and as a researcher is to create awareness of the beautiful diversity among individual beings. She believes that understanding and embracing this diversity is a personal choice of free will, but a choice that can ultimately lead to the understanding that we are all together in this.

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10 Days

3.3k students

4.8 stars

17 min / day

Authenticity

English

Lesson 1

What Is Authentic Leadership?

In this first session, we’ll set up the core understanding for this course and start to explore what authentic leadership means to you personally. It all starts with your authentic self. You will learn a meditation technique that guides you in a quiet and deep meditative state and that will open you up to connect with your authentic self. This process of connecting with who you truly are will be the basis of the work to discover and shape your authentic leadership role.

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Lesson 2

Building Authentic Relationships

In today’s session you’ll learn about the relational aspect of authentic leadership. There is no leader without others, people who are led, sometimes also called followers. We'll discuss how to relate to your followers and then, briefly introduce the eight authentic leadership foundations we will work with over the next days to shape your authentic leadership role. We'll meditate a bit longer with the meditation technique you learned in day 1, to get quickly into a deep and quiet meditative state from which you can connect with your authentic self quite easily.

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Lesson 3

Foundation 1: Self-Awareness

In this session, you will learn the first and core foundation of our work: Why and how self-awareness is the key to authentic leadership. To be an authentic leader, you’ll need to be able to reflect on your strengths and limitations, in order to learn and grow as a leader. Self-awareness is a crucial foundation that is needed to explore the other foundations of becoming an authentic leader. In this session, you’ll learn to connect with your true self, so you can reflect on yourself and calibrate your insights with your authentic leadership role at any moment.

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Lesson 4

Foundation 2: Awareness Of Others

In this session, we’ll take a look at the second foundation: the awareness of others. As a leader, your followers tend to look to you before they act and expect you to set the right tone before any action. This brings a responsibility to know your followers and make sure that they feel seen and heard. Cultivating awareness of them will prove to open new ways to interact. You’ll learn a meditation technique that can help you to become present in the here and now, which is a wonderful starting place to interact from and listen to others authentically.

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Lesson 5

Foundation 3: Kindness & Compassion

In this session, you’ll explore what the meaning of kindness and compassion is for you as an authentic leader. To be able to lead others, it’s important you can understand where they are coming from and understand what they need. When people experience problems or hardship, they tend to look at their leader to take it away from them. It’s the task of an authentic leader to be there and to listen with compassion. Kindness and compassion for others generally starts with the ability to be kind and compassionate to yourself. You’ll learn a meditation technique that helps you to cultivate and foster feelings of kindness and compassion for yourself and for others, to be used whenever you need it.

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Lesson 6

Foundation 4: Open-Mindedness

In today’s session we focus on the fourth foundation: open-mindedness. Open-mindedness is closely related with the first three foundations, awareness of self and others, and compassion. Better said, without being aware of yourself and feeling compassion for yourself and others, it’s really hard to be open-minded. We’ll discuss why open-mindedness is necessary to become an authentic leader and how it can help to counter our biases and limiting beliefs. We’ll meditate once again with a loving-kindness practice, since that is the most effective and fastest technique to cultivate what is necessary to have an open mind.

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Lesson 7

Foundation 5: Clarity

In this session, we dive deep into the importance of clarity, the fifth authentic leadership foundation. What distinguishes authentic leaders from other leaders is the clarity with which they communicate. Whether it's the values they build on, the reasoning that lies beneath the decisions they make, or simply about what they stand for, clarity helps their message to be received and accepted. To communicate with clarity, it’s of importance to first find clarity for ourselves in respect to the message we want to convey and how this message relates to the foundations of the authentic leadership framework. We'll use a guided meditation that will teach you how to find clarity over confusion and how to translate inner clarity to outer clarity.

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Lesson 8

Foundation 6: Accountability

In today’s session, we discuss the importance of accountability for an authentic leader. Consistency toward one’s values and prior statements is often emphasized in leadership trainings, because it is equated with being trustworthy. However, when you start to lead from your authentic place, and you strive to consciously keep an open mind, it’s not unlikely that you will change your position on certain issues. In this lesson we discuss how accountability can help you communicate your new insights with the people you lead. For this to work, we rely on the self-awareness practice you learned in the third session and use a guided visualization to investigate what accountability means to you personally.

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Lesson 9

Foundation 7: Values

In this session, you will learn to deliberately choose which values you will be building on as an authentic leader. Values, our seventh foundation, are not only the connection between your authentic self and your authentic leadership role, these are also the backbone of your leadership role. These values need to be evident and clear to you, so that they can guide your work and be embedded within your leadership discourse. However, to understand and feel what your core values are, you need to go deeper than just thinking about them. Through a guided meditation you will explore what the most important values are to you, so you can start to rely on these authentically as a leader.

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Lesson 10

Foundation 8: Vision, Your Daily Dose

In our last session, we wrap up our exploration of the authentic leadership foundations by discussing the role of the last one: vision. Envisioning outcomes (e.g. how you want to shape your leadership role, or a new project you would like to develop in the near future) is an important tool in the authentic leader’s toolbox. We'll discuss the conditions that will serve bringing your vision to fruition. After that, you’ll learn a meditation that consists of three different meditation techniques you've learned the last days: 1) to become present 2) to connect with your authentic self, and 3) to envision what you would like to create. This daily practice will serve you on your path to authentic leadership. We close with the understanding that being an authentic leader is a lifelong process of self-reflection and vision - a process that can be supported by the tools of this curse.

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4.8 (91)

Recent Reviews

Karis

Karis

September 4, 2025

This course allowed me to find that hard to grasp ribbon that runs between my inner spiritual world and my outer professional world with a surprising authenticity.

Viviana

December 27, 2024

Concise, practical and profound.

Byron

Byron

September 3, 2024

Brilliant. Insightful and practical

Olivia

Olivia

July 7, 2023

Excellent and wise! Thank you!

Kieran

July 1, 2023

Thought provoking course with a wonderful final meditation

Nikhil

Nikhil

December 27, 2022

It’s extremely beneficial and highly recommend this ! Just in awe of it!

Christian

Christian

September 9, 2022

This was truly the best ride; I shall be back soon! I am so grateful!

Hank

Hank

April 25, 2022

Excellent course. The insights, the presentation, and the production are all spot on. Thank you.

Willow

Willow

February 16, 2022

I am just starting in a new and unexpected leadership role and this course really helped me to cultivate and articulate how I want to show up for myself and others in that space and provided tools to come back to as needed moving forward. Thank you!

Claudio

December 25, 2021

This was good: mainly introspective, let me realize things about leading I hadn't fully understood yet. One small annoyance is that she sometimes treats participants as if they had never meditated before

Brooke

Brooke

December 10, 2021

I love this class, I will definitely be coming back to listen again and reflect to connect with my authentic self and inner leader. Thank you 🙏

Fungi

Fungi

November 15, 2021

Wonderful course. Femke is warm and wise and very responsive, she really cares and takes the time to respond to comments and questions in a detailed helpful way. I found this course just when I needed to hear her wisdom. The course is well structured and the lessons build on each other, with good time for meditation in each lesson which is really great. Highly recommended!! Thank you Femke 💖😊🙏🏾.

David

David

October 26, 2021

As part of my MBA at QUT (Australia), I am reading up and learning a lot about becoming a better leader in our digital, fast-paced world working with global remote teams on multiple projects. This course proved to be a most insightful and helpful resource on my path. It puts great theory into practice that feels authentic and real.

Eva

Eva

September 18, 2021

Great course! Wonderful balance between theory & practice. Inspired to think deeply about the self and who you would like to be as a leader & as a human

Sandra

Sandra

June 4, 2021

What a gift this wonderful course is. The visualisation techniques worked so well for me. I’m clearer now on my authentic values and vision and so inspired to continue to use and apply what I’ve learned. Thank you Femke.

Sandy

May 14, 2021

This is an inspirational course for any leader. It’s one I intend to return to time and again. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

Bárbara

Bárbara

April 28, 2021

I loved it, I want to continue practicing and become a better leader

Phoenix

Phoenix

April 5, 2021

I learned so much! Thank you. I especially liked the lesson on biases and qualities important for finding aligned followers. ❤

Ron

Ron

March 22, 2021

Such a Great Course. I Love tying my Meditations with my Leadership skills. This is something that I really didn't do before this course. Thank you so much Femke for sharing your Beautiful gifts and experience with Me and the Universe. I will definitely use these tools and techniques daily. Namasté Goddess Femke 🙏❤🧡💛💚💙💙💜🕉

this.is.zdenka

this.is.zdenka

March 22, 2021

Dear Femke, Thank you for this nice a joyful journey. I'm an actress and becoming a leader is my dearest vision - to inspire others to live their dreams. Greetings from the Czech Republic, Zdeňka

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