Mindful Leadership - by Michael Chaskalson

COURSE

Mindful Leadership

With Michael Chaskalson

Now as never before, the world needs more mindful leaders. Research tells us that mindful leaders are more resilient. They are better able to collaborate with others. They can stay agile and focused when the going gets tough. And they make better leadership decisions amid complexity. This course comprises a series of 10 talks and accompanying guided meditations. Each week you will listen to a talk and then follow a guided meditation practice. In the days in between talks, you will do around 10-minutes of guided meditation each day. My own published research, carried out with colleagues at a leading UK business school, tells us that leaders who followed the Mindful Leader programme - which informs this course - became less liable to react, more able to respond, when faced with challenge. If you follow this course, my hope and expectation is that - like those who took part in our research - you will become better able to focus, empathise, and see others’ perspectives. I hope you will be more rapidly able to adapt as circumstances shift and change and become better at managing your own emotional responses. In short, I hope you’ll become a better - more mindful - leader.

PerformanceMindfulnessResilienceHealth & HappinessMindfulness MeditationHappinessSecularLeadershipSecular MindfulnessWorkplaceStress & Anxiety

Meet your Teacher

Michael Chaskalson
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Having begun his practice in the 1970s, Michael is a pioneer in the application of mindfulness to leadership and workplace contexts. He is the author of “The Mindful Workplace”, the bestselling “Mindfulness in Eight Weeks”, and co-author of “Mindfulness for Coaches” and “Mind Time”, as well as being a business school professor and founding director at Mindfulness Works Ltd. Michael lives in Cambridge UK with his wife Annette and a bouncy pup who constantly challenges their mindfulness! He consults to organizations around the world on themes related to mindfulness, compassion, and leadership.

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10 Days

1.8k students

4.9 stars

20 min / day

Performance

English

Lesson 1

What Is Mindful Leadership & How Do You Develop It?

This lesson introduced the course and sets out the framework we’ll be working with. We will learn what mindfulness is – and what it isn’t. We will begin to learn how mindfulness is relevant to the leadership task. We will do our first mindfulness meditation practice together – just 5-minutes for this first week – and leave the lesson with a better understanding of the value of mindfulness to every leader’s life, at work and at home. You can find the meditation in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: 5-Minute Mindfulness Meditation".

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Lesson 2

AIM To Lead Well

In this lesson we learn about the AIM Framework that emerged from our Mindful Leader research. AIM describes three key capacities that the leaders who took part in our research developed as they engaged in our programme. AIM consists in the capacities for Allowing, Inquiry, and Meta-awareness. This lesson lays out what these are and how each of them applies to leadership today. We will also undertake our first 10-minute guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: 10-Minute Mindfulness Meditation".

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Lesson 3

Respond More, React Less

It is vital to good leadership that you are better able to respond to people and situations consciously and smartly; that you are less likely simply to unconsciously react. In this lesson we discover the difference between reactions and more mindful responses and learn how the practices we will do on this course enable us to respond more frequently and become less likely simply to react. That can be life-changing.

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Lesson 4

Self-Awareness Is Key

To lead people, you need to connect with them and be able to influence them. You can only influence them if they trust you and they’ll only trust you if they can really see you. For people to really be able to see you, you must be somewhat transparent to them and that can only happen if you know yourself. It’s specially important to know how you feel. In this lesson we discover ways of getting to know ourselves and our own feelings more deeply and clearly. We will undertake another guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation for this session in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: Body Scan".

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Lesson 5

Engage & Stay Open

Leadership can be tough. Sometimes leaders are called on to make really hard decisions – decisions which can impact the lives of others. It’s easy at times like that to fall back on avoidant strategies – trying to get away from what seems difficult. In this lesson we learn ways of turning towards difficulty with an attitude of openness, kindness, and curiosity. We will undertake an accompanying guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation for this session in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: Turning Towards Difficulty Meditation".

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Lesson 6

It’s Just A Thought

Leaders are called on to think clearly. But we all of us carry our own habitual biases that bend our thoughts away from clear seeing and thinking. In this lesson we discover how easy it is to mistake our thoughts for facts and how common biases distort our thinking. We learn to see thoughts for what they are: they are ‘just thoughts’ and we learn ways of choosing whether or not to engage with certain patterns of thinking. We will undertake a guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation for this session in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: Sounds & Thoughts Meditation".

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Lesson 7

If In Doubt, Be Kind

Part of a leader’s task is compassionately and generously to allow others to shine so that they can realise their own potential and release their energies and creativity in service of a common task. To perform at their best, people need encouragement, appreciation, and recognition. The people you lead or aspire to lead need to know and feel that you care for them and want the best for them. They need to know that you’re concerned for their well-being as much as for their performance. They need to know that you want them to be happy and to do well. For that to be effective, it must be authentic. In this lesson we discover how to uncover and develop feelings of warmth, concern, and goodwill – feelings of loving-kindness – to others, as well as to ourselves. We will undertake a guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation for this session in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: Sounds & Thoughts Loving Kindness -Meditation".

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Lesson 8

Trust Is Precious, Values Matter

We’re living through a crisis of trust. Around the world people have seriously lost trust in governments, NGOs, and the media and only 40% of senior business leaders are trusted by their employees. This matters because there is a direct link between trust and employee engagement and well-being. We trust people when we see them consistently living and behaving in accordance with a set of values – especially through times of difficulty, where they’re called on to make sacrifices. That takes courage and determination. Above all, it calls for high levels of integrity. In this lesson we discover the link between integrity and psychological integration. We learn, amongst other things, how mindfulness practice helps to build that integrity.

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Lesson 9

Listen, Listen, Listen

Without being able really to listen to those you aspire to lead, your leadership will keep on crashing. We all know how frustrating it is at work, not to feel that we’re listened to. In this lesson we discover how our common mental habits get in the way of our ability to really listen to others. No matter how good a listener you may currently be, there is always room for improvement. In this lesson we learn how to give the gift our undivided attention more fully to others – especially to those we lead. We will undertake a guided meditation practice. You can find the meditation for this session in Insight Timer's guided meditations library, under the title "Mindful Leadership: Present Moment Meditation".

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Lesson 10

Quieten Your Ego

Apart from a few exceptional saints and sages, we all have an ego. Sometimes they’re noisier, sometimes they’re quieter. Leading thinkers who study the ego and what enables it to quieten suggest that mindfulness, a sense of the interdependence of living things (including, of course, people), compassion, and a set of values that support our own and others’ growth and development are crucial in helping the ego to quieten. Leaders who have learned to quieten their own egos more readily build open, co-operative, and creative communities around them. People in their teams feel safer and more engaged. In this lesson we learn ways of quietening our egos, and that makes for a more satisfying life – at work and at home.

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4.9 (26)

Recent Reviews

Shelley

Shelley

October 12, 2023

Great course

Fernando

Fernando

September 5, 2023

Solid advice

Louise

Louise

July 15, 2023

I found this course really valuable. It’s inspired me to take up a regular meditation practice and to be more kind and compassionate in my leadership.

Michelle

Michelle

June 12, 2022

Thank you very much for all your knowledge. I found it very helpful.

Mathilde

Mathilde

April 28, 2022

A must course to follow if you are à manager . I Will continue to listen to your meditations. THANK YOU

Michelle

April 20, 2022

Awesome course

Fungi

Fungi

April 2, 2022

Taking a full 10 weeks to complete this course was an exercise in patience but it was well worth it. Listening to Michael and meditating on the various issues he presents has helped me to deal with the everyday challenges of leadership. It has supported me in being more aware, centered and reflective as I navigate often complex situations. Michael was good at responding to my questions and reflections, and for that I am truly grateful 🙏🏾. I highly recommend this course 😊.

M

February 6, 2022

This course is really good. Simple, clear instructions. It was so nice to take things that I have known from previous meditation and see how one can use them in the workplace. Just what I needed. Deep gratitude for this course.

Roberto

Roberto

November 14, 2021

I found the course helpful and clearly explained. I am precisely completing at this time an assignment on leadership, so it was a convenient find! I learned not only about how to be an effective leader, but also better understood the reasons and benefits behind meditation and mindfulness.

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