Episode 157: Marc Lesser

From Zen teacher and Zen Mountain Center director to CEO and workshop leader at many of the world’s leading businesses, like Google, SAP, and Genentech, Marc Lesser has brought mindfulness-based leadership trainings to the forefront of business.

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Marc Lesser is a CEO, Zen teacher, author, and leads trainings and talks worldwide. He has led mindfulness and emotional intelligence programs at many of the world’s leading businesses and organizations including Google, SAP, Genentech, and Kaiser. He is currently CEO of ZBA Associates, a company providing mindfulness-based leadership trainings and creating community by supporting ongoing groups. Previously, he served as CEO and co-founder of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, whose core programs he helped develop within Google. Marc was a resident of the San Francisco Zen Center for 10 years and former director of Tassajara, Zen Mountain Center. He currently leads Mill Valley Zen, a weekly meditation group. Marc has an MBA degree from New York University.

3 Key Points

• The more we have power, there’s a tendency to have less and less empathy. As a leader, it takes practice to stay in touch with the feelings of the people we’re working with.
• Noticing that a situation is uncomfortable allows you to take steps from there to find solutions.
• Empathy is the practice of connecting to the pain, the suffering, of others and at the same time not falling into contagion. So much of our common humanity is connecting to the pain of others.

Quote

We all only have one career: developing your own self-awareness and helping others.

What We Talked About

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• 01:18 – how did you come to this leadership work?
• 06:08 – an unusual skill set to teach mindful leadership in large companies
• 07:30 – the full catastrophe
• 9:47 – the impact of the 7 practices of a mindful leader
• 10:30 – overview of the 7 practices
• 11:36 – the 1st practice: Love the work
• 13:18 – what trips people up about the first practice?
• 15:15 – the 2nd practice: Do the work
• 16:25 – the challenges of adopting compassion
• 20:32 – the 3rd practice: Don’t be an expert
• 25:14 – the 4th practice: Connect to your pain
• 27:15 – the 5th practice: Connect to the pain of others
• 29:28 – building a culture
• 30:30 – the 6th practice: Depend on others
• 31:35 – leadership and the reality of relationships
• 34:24 – the 7th practice: Keep making it simpler
• 35:55 – the paradox of letting go of wanting things to be different vs. social activism, wanting to change the world

Actionable Tips

1. Don’t be so tossed around by your own stories, by your own interpretation of reality.
2. Have a regular meditation practice. Practice the power of presence.
3. Bring awareness to be less reactionary.

Resources Mentioned

• MarcLesser.net
• Buy Marc’s book, Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen
• New World Library, Marc’s publisher
• Tassajara Zen Center
• Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

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