The Enlightened Executive

What's your current process for making a complex, high-stakes decision as a leader? Do you conduct extensive research? Rely on your intuition? Ask for advice from trusted parties?   Most decision-making models include some version of each of these components. But few actually guide you through a specific, logical research process — and fewer still include built-in cognitive bias challenges. That's...

Want to know the secret to becoming a better negotiator? It starts from within. Pay attention to people who annoy you or whom you wish you could be more like. They are mirrors for the parts of yourself you may have rejected.   This is the first step Erica Ariel Fox recommends leaders take to become better negotiators. Erica is the author of Winning From Within, which outlines a contemporary approa...

Would you rather deliver a message on video or over email? Many leaders would choose the latter. It's natural to feel skittish about appearing on camera as a leader. Many people judge themselves about how they look in videos or feel a lack of confidence on screen.   But according to Todd Hartley, the CEO of WireBuzz, this is missing the point. Video works because it's the most human form of conten...

Who would you be without your ambition to attain success? Is your ambition driven by the need to create financial stability or make your mark on the world? Many leaders would candidly cite those motivators as the reason for their success.   Patrick McKenna was no different. He had built his incredibly successful career as an investor and entrepreneur — motivated by a desire to leave his small home...

John Rampton shares his strategies for staying "overly relaxed" at work, how he overcame a life-changing injury, and how leaders can develop a relaxed mindset in the workplace. He is a successful serial entrepreneur (currently running Calendar.com), motivational speaker, and expert blogger at Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., and more. John has proven that leaders can lead from a place of certainty that...

If you're being faced with overbearing amounts of stress or have been recently triggered by past trauma, this 10-minute Havening exercise will help you deal with your anxiety.   We are led through this exercise by Stephen Travers. Stephen is the Director of U.K. and International Havening and is passionate about teaching others how to use Havening in their lives.    "Havening helps us to be at our...

According to Bill Adams, CEO of the Leadership Circle, a "high-control" leadership style incurs a high energetic cost for everyone. Leaders inevitably cast a long shadow on their organization, affecting far more than their direct reports. This shadow can either be healthy or unhealthy, and leaders are generally unaware of the shadow. But there's no denying that it exists.   Listen to our interview...

Joey Klein, the founder and CEO of Inner Matrix Systems: a personal mastery training system for high achievers, shares: How to accurately assess your emotional state How to become more sensitive to the emotional needs of your team An exercise to get into a state of "centered neutrality" (relaxed, clear, and calm)   Many leaders have wellness routines that include activities like going to a spin cl...

Launching a company without a clear mission statement is a recipe for disaster. Yet, so many of us walk around as individuals without a clear "mission statement" for our lives… and then wonder why we don't feel fulfilled or motivated.   This lack of life purpose is what Rabbi Jacobson views as one of the biggest problems leaders face today, with consequences for both their professional capabilitie...

This week's guest Lisa Holmes, Chief Business Strategist for Strategic Performance of Los Angeles, discusses how leaders can improve their wellness. Many leaders are extremely organized and plan each aspect of their day, but don't consider planning time to devote to their health.   You have probably heard that "you are what you eat," but many leaders do not prioritize their nutrition. Busy schedul...

If you're not embodying your authentic self, your team will sense that and begin to lose trust in you as a leader. The solution? Accessing your original thoughts and getting quiet through meditation.   In this week's episode of The Enlightened Executive, Dina Kaplan joins Susan to discuss how meditation helps you become a more authentic leader. Dina is founder/CEO of The Path and a certified medit...

Often the best companies to do business with are also likely the best companies to work for.    We discuss the link between employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) with Shep Hyken , customer service and experience expert, bestselling author and the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations, who has helped hundreds of major companies create an inspiring and engaging team cultur...

  If you've ever been told to "just relax!" during a high-stress situation, you know exactly how un helpful that advice is.  This week's guest, Dr. Rollin McCraty, Ph. D. is the Director of Research of the HeartMath Research Center at the HeartMath Institute. According to Rollin, what leaders should be practicing is not "relaxation," it's coherence . So what is coherence? Dr. McCraty and Susan lea...

Underlying emotions are inseparable from our everyday lives. What kind of impact do your emotions have on your leadership capabilities? Of course emotions have their role in the workplace— but dragging our emotional baggage into the office is detrimental to the both our health and the health of our organization.   Today, Dr. Bradley Nelson, a holistic physician and one of the world's foremost expe...

Is artificial intelligence really going to change everything in business? If we look to recent implementations of AI in the workplace, the answer is yes.    Computational social science is a groundbreaking new field that allows AI technology to discover human behavior and help leaders improve their performance. In this episode of The Enlightened Executive, we dive into this topic with David Shrier...

How do your past wounds impact your leadership? Many leaders are carrying core wounds from childhood into their professional experiences, and one modality to unwind those wounds is through Ayahuasca; go to The Enlightened Executive blog post [link here] to hear more about it. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew from two vines found in the rainforest. A shaman who is experienced in working with this p...

Executives are sometimes faced with overbearing amounts of stress. Not only is stress an inevitable aspect of being a leader, at times past trauma can also impact the way executives deal with conflict. Enter Havening: a groundbreaking neuroscientific tool to help heal triggers from trauma, anxiety, and phobias. The process helps people process feelings of unresolved anger, fear, or inadequacy, and...

A "face reader," someone skilled in dissecting the details of our expressions, can help decipher people's true motivations and intentions. To some degree, we all use face reading every day in our interactions with people. We call it reading body language. But the face can tell us so much about what a person is thinking, feeling, and wanting, and this can be useful in hiring, identifying problems w...

Did you know that every company is an extension of its leader?   Many parts of your personality and past experiences show up in your organization in ways you cannot even imagine. This manifestation can lead to different problems, but the most surprising aspect of this mechanism is that you may not even realize that you are the cause of it.   The EQ Profile is designed to help you bring light to th...

A graduation, the death of a loved one; huge life changes are normal for all of us. What's not healthy is an inability to adapt to such changes. Our guest, Seminar Leader for Landmark, Erin Snyder joins us today talking about actively listening for healthy connection, and how listeners can develop to lead their own lives.

Today we decode the enneagram, and put it to work for our benefit as leaders. Beatrice Chestnut, PhD, MA is a licensed psychotherapist, executive coach, and business consultant based in San Francisco, CA. She has a PhD in communication studies and an MA in clinical psychology. A leading global thought leader on the Enneagram system, Beatrice has been studying the Enneagram system of personality si...

Dandapani is a Hindu priest, entrepreneur and a former monk of 10 years. He joins us from his 33-acre spiritual scantuary and botnaical garden in costa rica. Today, we focus...on focus.   www. Dandapani.org