The Other Way 039: Mindfulness for Type A people with Zen teacher, author, & 3x CEO, Marc Lesser
Marc Lesser is a CSO, executive coach, and Zen teacher known for his engaging, experiential presentations that integrate mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices and training. He is the CEO of ZBA Associates, an executive development and leadership consulting company, with a client roster that includes Google, Twitter, Genentech, San Francisco Airport, Kaiser Permanente, Global Fund for Women, and Beneficial State Bank.
He founded and was CEO of three highly successful companies and has an MBA degree in business from New York University. Prior to his business and coaching career, he was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for ten years, and director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen monastery in the Western world.
Marc helped develop the world-renowned Search Inside Yourself program within Google – a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training for leaders which teaches the art of integrating mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and business savvy for creating great corporate cultures and a better world. Deeply rooted in science, the program has been taught to thousands of executives worldwide. Building on the success of the Search Inside Yourself program, Marc founded and served as CEO for 5 years of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, which offers programs, tools and content on mindfulness-based emotional intelligence, empathy, compassion, resilience, leadership with training programs in over 50 countries.
Marc’s books include Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself, Less: Accomplishing More By Doing Less, and Z.B.A. Zen of Business Administration.
💫 We cover :
- Striving vs. surrendering
- How to be both competitive and ambitious but also practice Zen
- The difference between compassion vs. “positive thinking” when it comes to success
- The science behind self empathy vs. affirmations when it comes to success
- Compassionate accountability: what it looks like in the workplace
- Mission driven leadership
- How to tap back into your mission if you’ve lost it
- Plus SO much more!
💫 Mentioned in this episode:
- Marc’s new book: Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships
- Kristin Neff
- Search inside yourself leadership program from Google
💫 To connect with Marc: