Conscious Capitalism Begins with Mindful Leadership

WEBVTT

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortes. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortes. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose Show. Thanks
for tuning in again this week. I'm

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your host, Elise Cortes, joining
you live from Dallas, which is home

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base for me. If you've been
tuning in for a while, you know

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this program is all about helping people
create more meaningful and purposeful lives and equipping

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leaders insight organizations to cultivate meaning and
purpose that elicit's passion, inspired contribution,

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innovation, and persevering performance. I
talk with my guests to draw on their

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expertise and share my own experience consulting, speaking and developing work forces across the

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globe. Before we get into the
program, let me give a shout out

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for, visit rent with right to
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conversations, I hope you walk away
with something you can immediately use in your

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life or your work, and if
I can do anything to help you along

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your journey, go to my website
at a Leascortes dot com and use the

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contact me feature to message me.
Let's open a dialogue and explore what's going

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on for you and how I might
be able to help. Whether you want

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to learn more about how to develop
purpose inspired leadership and meaning infuse culture in

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your organization. You want to see
about joining a catch fire online inspiration accountability

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or master my community to nurture your
own passion and purpose. You're interested in

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the Women on Purpose Thought Leadership summat
and Retreat in Portland, Oregon, September

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eight through eleventh, twenty nineteen.
Or you'd like me to speak for your

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company or conference at any rate.
I'm glad we're connected and thank you for

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listening with us today. Is a
Partner, sayt. She's a life and

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business strategist. She served as an
advisor to help European startups enter the Silicon

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Valley in the US market, working
for EIT Digital. A Partner was also

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appointed as a Fellow on Innovation and
Entrepreneurship in the US Department of State,

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focusing on President Obama's goal of building
entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world, among other

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interesting experiences she's had. Today,
A Partner brings her passion for mindfulness,

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meditation, and yoga to explore the
inner dimension and create a life of purpose,

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passion, and joy. She also
serves as the executive director of the

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Conscious Capitalism Washington, d C.
Chapter. We'll be talking about conscious capitalism

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and the importance of ongoing inner work
and meditation and mindfulness in our leaders our

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leadership. She joined you today from
Washington, d C. A Partner,

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Welcome to working on purpose. Thank
you so much, Alisha, It's an

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honor to be here. Well.
I'm so grateful our paths crossed. As

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you may know, I am a
member here of the Conscious Capitalism Dallas chapter

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and you and I interacted on LinkedIn
about coming on the show, and we

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had some great things to converse over
in some common interests, and I said,

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let's do it, and you said
yes, Yeah. This is one

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of my favorite topics. So especially
working on purpose is everything I live for

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and have for a long time.
So isn't it great that we found this

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community of conscious capitalism. It's a
great community be part of. And with

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that, In fact, Upart,
I really wanted to open this conversation with

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the Conscious Capitalism creto. I just
think it's really fantastic. It's such an

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inspiring way to start. So here's
what it's says, listeners. We believe

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that business is good because it creates
value. It is ethical because it is

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based on volunteer exchange. It is
noble because it can elevate our existence,

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and it is heroic because it lifts
people out of poverty and creates prosperity.

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Free enterprise capitalism is the most powerful
system for social cooperation and human progress conceived.

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It is one of the most compelling
ideas we humans have ever had.

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But we can aspire to even more. Isn't that beautiful? A partna.

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I think it's just great. It's
inspiring, it's something to it's something to

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step into every day exactly, and
it's such an honor that now we can

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you know, it's something that I
played with for probably my entire professional life.

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But I'm so glad we're able to
now talk about it openly in our

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in our work community, you know, and people are actually excited speaking more

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passion and purpose in their work.
Absolutely, And I don't know if there's

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anything in particular that that statement says
to you beyond what we just talked about,

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anything about that statement really inspire and
compel you. Well, I think

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for me, the most important thing
that really inspires inspiring to me and why

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I love this organization is because you
know, we're having a hard time hearing

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you a partner. You think your
connection is not very good. Can you

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hear me a position business all way? Because sometimes business and capitalism it's a

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bad rasp. But if it's done
consciously, that's going to get into the

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deep learning and the wisdom and also
be able to really create less impact.

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Yeah, you cut out there for
a little bit there, so we may

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miss some of that. But before
I forget, let me let me remind

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our listeners, or tell our listeners
that if you are listening live to this

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program right now on W four C, why you can use the chat function

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to interact with us and ask questions
or comment. So those questions almost will

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be directed to me. So if
you want to do so, go for

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it. So whatever you were starting
to stay there might cue up to what

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I was going to ask you next. Anyway, pardon, but I wanted

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us to first talk about conscious capitalism. That's what a lot of this conversation

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today is about. So I think
it's helpful for us to distinguish for our

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listeners what we mean by that.
So you're the executive director of the Conscious

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Capitalism DC chapter. I'm a member
of the Dallas chapter. So help our

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listeners understand what does conscious capitalism mean? How is it different from just dar

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capitalism? Well, also follow apologize
and we will call all books starting the

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staves and what follows me about poplism
that capitalism there's always a major source for

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good. And then there are something
way in which capitalism has helped us risk

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ourselves from poverty, bring good for
you know, helping create massive movement of

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cuying the DUS and now we're able
to actually have businesses and organizations that pride

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themselves on being consciously oriented. So
it's such an important especially in this day

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and age. I think capitalism coming
together is really important because we want to

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create business that is a force for
good. I think somewhere in there we

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lost track of the fact that capitalism
was always intended to help and lift communities

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off of poverty and all and really
allegate some of the big social issues that

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we're facing, you know, au
part. I just am thinking about this,

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and I'm sure I won't get this
right, but I'll get the gist

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of it just about right. So
a couple of days ago I read something

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in the Wall Street Journal. So
this is we're speaking on August twentieth,

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twenty nineteen, and so it's a
couple of days ago. And it had

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something to do with how in the
SEC documentation it used to be that the

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primary directive of companies was to deliver
value for shareholders, and now that's been

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replaced by to also include serving employees, customers, and society at large,

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which I thought was incredible. I
don't know when that happened. Do you

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know anything about this this change?
Oh? No, I didn't know about

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the change, but it should have
been a long time ago, right,

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Yeah, I don't think it was
that long ago, so i'd have to

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I should. Maybe one of our
listeners will be able to take this up

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and let us know. It'd be
great to hear back from the listeners if

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you do find that article on the
Wall Street Journal that we're talking about here.

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So next I want to be able
to bring this back to you again

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because you have really quite a very
unique lens on the world. So why

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is conscious capitalism important to you such
that you were the executive director of the

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DC chapter. Why do that?
There's a lot of other places you can

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come play, Yeah, exactly.
So for me, it's actually really important

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because I am really inspired by all
things conscious and so what that means is

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that I have had a chance to
work in a lot of different corporate settings

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now and I've always been very,
very driven towards success. But by the

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same token, I've always had a
really deep practice, a self practice and

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the self awareness practice. And now
with conscious and capitalism coming together, I

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think consciousness starts with the individual.
So no matter what your role is within

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a company or what you're aspiring towards
Unless and until we create a community of

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consciously aware individuals, it is very
difficult to get into conscious capitalism. And

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I am inspired by the fact that
I can take some of my Eastern wisdom

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around self awareness, self discovery,
mindfulness and so forth and bring it to

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the forefront in a way that we
can create business as a force for good.

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I love that. And again to
make this topic, which maybe for

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some of our listeners who are maybe
new to conscious capitalism, bring it really

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more to a concrete or visible place
for them. How does conscious capitalism serve

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communities? Well, so right now, I mean in the way the organizations

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has grown is pretty tremendous. Actually, I started out with being actively involved

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in the San Francisco chapter and where
I moved to DCS. In a conversation

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with John Mackie, I mentioned that
I would like to, you know,

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bring it to the Washington DC area. And the way it really makes it's

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really important in business today is that
people are actually able to as an organization,

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we have chapters all around the world, So we have sixty plus chapters

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all over the world, and we're
able to bring this whole notion of business

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for good, you know, We
started by the book that John Mackie wrote

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on content capitalism around whole food and
how when you walk into the whole food

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store, the idea is to get
away from just thinking of it as a

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grocery chore, but thinking of it
as a playground for whole healthing way of

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life. So when you walk into
a Whole Foods, you notice that the

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produce section is the larger section,
and it's almost like it feels really good

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to walk in there at the individual, to really connect with the wholeness and

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the things that we're kind of at
the very core of our wholeness, like

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whole foods, you know, healthy
foods and fruits and vegetables and everything that

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contribute to change the whole individual.
And now with this organization we are allowed

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we're taking this whole message all over
the world to talk about how important it

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is to carry that for it.
So it's beyond our diet, but it

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also gets into other realms of our
whole being. And one of the most

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important realms of that is our work
and our professional life. So I don't

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know if you if you remember the
quotes around you know, someone said that

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there are two really important days in
our life. The first and most important

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days when we're born, and then
the second most important day is when we

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find purpose in our life and what
are true purposes? So each one of

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us has a purpose that we are
here for, and once we down into

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that purpose, we are no longer
famous foot stream of pushing ourselves, where

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we are actually being pulled and guided
by our partments. And so I have

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been an organization we really also promote
purpose driven leadership, so people who are

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in line with their purpose naturally become
better conscious leaders and then those kind of

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people are really inspiring to work with
and for I completely agree Uponnan, I

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just have to chime in because,
as you know, a big part of

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the work that I'm doing today is
to help people to discover their passion,

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inspiration, and purpose and bring it
into their lives, into their work,

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and absolutely into their leadership. And
what I've been really focused on of late

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is I heard Karen Hoya say that
right now only one percent of the world

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is fully living their purpose. When
we get to three percent, she says,

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human consciousness will be raised such that
peace is actually possible. So I

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begin to think that, well,
what if our whole reason for being here

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on earth is to discover our purpose
and then to struggle mightily to serve it

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and fulfill it and bring it no
matter what it takes in order to make

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that contribution. What if that's the
whole reason we're here. So I really

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do stand for helping people discover their
purpose because I know the magic of that

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what happens when they do. Absolutely, And I love all the great work

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you're doing. And I mean,
just imagine, I can't believe we're just

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that one percent. So just you
know, in order to get to a

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really consciously awake in society, even
if we can move that needle, just

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like you said, to three percent
or even higher numbers, imagine a world

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that would just where everybody is truly
awakened to their purpose and working. You

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know, we would be able to
create. What we would be able to

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create is probably enormous. I think
it's my would be mind blowing. And

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then that's a that's a that's a
vision in a future that I'm I'm willing

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to get up for every morning and
work toward for sure. So so to

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with that in mind, then kind
of going back to the overall gist of

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what we're talking about here, why
do you think more people don't practice conscious

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capitalism or even work to find their
purpose. Yeah, so that's actually a

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two part answer. So from a
business standpoint, I think what's what happens

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is, you know, when we
are when we live in a capitalistic society,

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a lot of the measurements are around
the amount of money we're bringing in

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and the investor value that the shareholder
value that we're driving towards. So a

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lot of times people think, well, if we're going to do that,

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we need to stay focused on that
and not got caught up in some of

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these other things. And a lot
of there's a misconception there around if you

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are consciously driven business, you're not
necessarily going to be the most profitable businal

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business, you know, that business. Somehow we lost track of the fact

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that business was always there for good
and not necessarily something that has to be

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so cut throat, not necessarily the
survival of the fittest. But we're creating

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communities and really through healthy computation you're
really able to create innovation and change and

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really create some good in it in
the world. Now, when we get

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into the individual level, I think
truly and totally honestly to find our true

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purpose in this world. It takes
some work, it takes some digging,

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and honestly, it may not be
such that. And at recent my experience

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of God been touched that you're going
to you know, have a curriculum then

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that you're going to follow and it's
going to get you into a degree program

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and then you're going to come and
find a job. And so when you

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get into this arena of really plain
with your purpose on this earth, a

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lot of times it doesn't translate into
a set position and that's scary because it

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really impacts your livelihoods, your ability
to you know, you get pasted it

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all the time in terms of how
are you going to pay your bills?

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What does that look like? We
don't know the beginning it or and end.

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When we're living a carpustrate on life, a lot of times we just

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have to kind of put it on
the sol as it does and evolved,

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and it can get messy. To
your point, that was a great access

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point I think for our listeners,
a partner to help them get access to

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maybe why their purpose hasn't shown up
for them just yet. So thank you

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for that. And on that note, let's take our first break, I'm

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your host, Alice Cortes. We're
on the air with Aparna saying. She

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is a life and business strategist.
She brings her passion for mindfulness, meditation,

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and yoga to explore the inner dimension
and creates a life of purpose,

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passion, and joy with the people
she works with. She also serves as

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the executive director of the Conscious Capitalism
Washington d C. Chapter. She joins

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it today from Washington C. We've
been talking about conscious capitalism and after the

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break, we're going to get into
mindfulness and meditation. Stay with us,

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We'll be right back. Alise Cortes
is a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

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She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring

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her expertise to your organization. She
will help ignite meaningful development within your workforce

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that will increase employee engagement, performance
and retention. To learn more or to

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invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elisecortes

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dot com. She would welcome the
opportunity to help get your employees working on

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purpose. This is working on purpose
with Elise Cortes. To reach our program

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today, send an email to Alise
at a Lascortes dot com. Now back

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to working on purpose. Thanks for
staying with us, and welcome back to

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working on purpose. If you're just
joining us. My guest is a part

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of saying a life and business strategist. Strategist excuse me. She has served

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as an advisor to help European startups
enter the Silicon Valley market working for E

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Digital and today she brings her passion
for mindfulness, meditation and yoga to explore

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the inner dimension and create a life
of purpose, passion, and joy.

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She also serves as the executive director
of the Conscious Capitalism Washington DC chapter.

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She joined it today from Washington e
C. I'm your host, Alis Cortes,

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so a partner for this segment of
the conversation. I wanted to focus

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on mindfulness and meditation, and I
really appreciate the work you're doing in that

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space and couldn't agree more that these
are really strong anchors for each of us

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to develop individual and certainly as leaders. So I know you help leaders develop

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mindfulness as part of what you're offering
today, Will you talk with us first

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about why this practice is so important
as a leader from your vantage point,

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I think it's probably the most important
thing a leader can do. And the

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reason is because the core of it
all is a sense of self awareness and

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discipline. I think a lot of
leaders have a lot of discipline in their

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lives, but really a sense of
self awareness which allows them to connect with

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themselves and which is the single most
important thing before you can connect with others.

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So, as a leader, once
you're self aware, and the more

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and more actually self aware you are, the more enhance your ability is to

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connect with other individuals, whether it
be employees or even your customers or people

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around you. And then people that
are self aware, especially leaders who are

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self aware, are true inspiration and
they're pleasant to be around. They're people

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who you look forward to engaging with
and working for and with. And then

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that actually, in a since translates
into people feeling safer to be more creative

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and more open, and that leads
into a path of innovation and creativity.

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So in organizations, when you have
leaders who are truly self aware, they

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are also the leaders that invite innovation
and inspiration and creativity in the organization.

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And the best example of that is
a leader like a job who although he's

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also known as being somewhat short with
people, but he had a strong self

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awareness and mindfulness practice, strong enough
so that he was able to really think

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outside the box and create lots of
creative different things in different situations. But

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he was still able to be creative
and innovative, and to this day,

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even as long after he's gone,
we are able to really benefit from all

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that creativity. Mm hmmmm hmm.
Yeah. I read his five hundred and

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seventy six page biography, which was
incredibly powerful to learn more about Steve Jobs

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in his life and what he did. In fact, that was why I

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started using Apple products when I read
that. By the way, so for

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our listeners and me, frankly,
how can we or how do we maybe

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help or help ourselves to develop into
into better leaders with developing mindfulness? How

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can we do that for ourselves or
how do you do that with the people

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that you work with? Yeah,
So one thing I suggest is the simplest

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thing is starting to create a little
bit of time for self awareness. So

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with mindfulness age. You know,
mindfulness is a big movement around breath awareness

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and just kind of being aware of
the present moment. So the bread allows

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us to come into ourselves and be
aware of the present moment, movement moment,

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and the way for I recommend for
leaders or individuals as a whole is

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maybe setting up a ten minute practice
before you even begin the day and then

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once you get comfortable with that and
start cultivating a little sense of self awareness

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for yourself, but also then sharing
that practice with your team. So starting,

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for example, each meeting, taking
some time maybe just even in like

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two three minutes as a practice and
just breathing into that moment and just saying,

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you know, welcome to this space, welcome to this meeting, and

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see if anything is arising for somebody
or anybody, and just kind of checking

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in and centering yourself as a team. So as a leader, I think

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it's really important once a leader feels
comfortable and being self aware to start showing

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up that way it works, or
in any situation and just kind of centering

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yourself taking two to three minutes and
just being aware of that moment that you

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are embarking upon. And then that
allows you to have a deeper connection with

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the individual or the groups that you're
engaging with, and it also gives an

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impression that you really genuinely care and
also want to be there a lot of

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times, as you may have noticed, when we get into our speedy mode

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of trying to achieve something, we
forget that you want to really check in

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and we want people to feel like, you know, we do care and

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their opinion matters and we're there for
a reason. Yeah, that's beautiful a

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parton I think any of us,
I don't care how busy you are,

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can somehow find three minutes in a
day to do that is that is very,

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very actuable. Thank you for that. Okay, Now the next thing

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I want to ask you, and
you just brought this up quickly in on

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our phone call, and I purposely
didn't want to hear about it then because

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I want to hear about it fresh
with our listeners. How does mindfulness relate

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to the area of money? Yeah, you know, and I love talking

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about this because I think this is
where the big paradigm shift takes place.

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Consciousness is a really important or once
you become consciously aware, you start to

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recognize that, you know, I
used to I have a deep spiritual practice,

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and I used to think money is
not should not be a part of

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that. Initially because in a lot
of spiritual oriented communities, we tend to

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ignore our money or we do tend
to downplay it play it. But as

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I have come back into integrating myself
into the work world, I realized that

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it's not that money is not important, but it's how we view money.

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So when we come into it from
an abundance standpoint and we really start looking

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at with you know, a lot
of discussions around like the soul of money

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or money as an entity that allows
us to go deeper into all the things

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that are important to us and start
looking at from an abundant standpoint. We're

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viewing money as this larger part of
us, and you know, we're a

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that allows us to chime into and
do the things that are important to us.

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But it also is a really big
part of us being able to share

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our message. So if even for
example, with this movement around conscious capitalism,

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if we didn't have some really impressive
names on our board and people who

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have been truly successful in this capitalistic
society, we would not be able to

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really create the impact that we've been
able to create. So when we start

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looking at money as something that allows
us to plain an abundant mindset, that's

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when we really start to view it
as a tool and really something that you

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know, and once we start cultivating
a really healthy relationship with money, that's

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when we start to see more money
coming into our lives. And I'd like

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to see more businesses view it that
way too, So instead of thinking of

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like, you know, really competitive
and we must get ahead, if we

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think about it as something that we're
putting out that's attracting more money to us,

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or attracting you know, good attracts
good, unlike attracts like. So

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when we start thinking about it in
that kind of a framework, it really

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is a paradigm shift. I completely
agree, and I think you're so right

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on that if you didn't have very
successful leaders and companies within the movement,

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it would be a little less compelling, for sure, or a lot less

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compelling. Such a great point.
All right, well let's move on to

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meditation. Then. The other thing
that that I know that you're really focused

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on in your in your world is
meditation. So first, why do you

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recommend leaders practice meditation? Well,
I think it's at the very very core

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of self awareness practice. So in
order to be consciously aware, you've got

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to begin with yourself. So,
you know, any kind of change that

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Gandhi used to say, change begins
with with with our inner selves. So

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once we start having a meditation.
I think what's happened with meditation is because

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it's so popular people, we tend
to make it really complicated. I mean,

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if you think about it, meditation
is the one thing that is super

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simple. It requires no money,
no external tools, nothing on the external

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side of the world is required.
All you require is a few minutes,

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whether it's five minutes, seven minutes, ten minutes, of just being aware

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of your breath and being aware of
your body and your presence. And that's

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all that's required to create a practice
of meditation. And we've made you know,

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we tend to We have so many
fancy apps out there, and it's

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great to have them because it's really
helped us popularize meditation and make it super

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cool. Now I've seen people put
meditation in their resumes just to give you

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an idea of how popular it's become. So it's definitely a really important tool

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as an individual, but as a
leader, I think it's extremely important because

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when people and I'm so glad that
some of the big leaders out there in

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the world have started sharing the fact
that they've been meditating for like ten fifteen

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years. Mark Benny Hoff and a
lot of other leaders out there are like,

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you know, we've been meditating for
fifteen years, but now it's become

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cool to talk about it in public. So I'm glad that leaders are sharing

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the fact that they have a practice
that allows them to be more self aware

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and self disciplined and really disconnect with
ourselves wherever we are. We don't have

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to be perfect beings, nor do
we have to go into the Himalayas and

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go into a deep meditation practice,
although I do recommend that for people.

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Once we start getting comfortable with having
a smaller practice, a daily practice,

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then I recommend people start playing with
different ways of you know, taking retreat

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every now and then. I'm really
coming into and playing with what it would

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be like to have a longer sitting
you know, where you're sitting for doing

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asylum retreat or doing if that's too
daunting, maybe even just having a couple

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of days like a weekend retreat of
just getting away from a lot of things.

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But one of the more important things
to get away from as a leader

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and as an individual is all the
technology that we're surrounded with. So at

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least one thing is that as you
may agree, we are bombarded with so

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much external information these days. It's
so important is when we can have a

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meditation practice to just get away and
detached from all of that and just center

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ourselves. I completely agree with that, completely agree with that. In fact,

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I don't know if there's any particular
form of meditation that you teacher recommend,

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but I will certainly share that I
have recently begun meditating, doing transcendental

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meditation. And I want to give
a shout out to my previous radio show

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guest now colleague Paul Skinner, because
he mentioned doing meditation and I ask what

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kind and he told me that,
so I began that, and definitely it

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is a way for talk about being
in touch and self aware and helping my

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body to relax and my nervous system
to relax, and then working toward using

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the mantra to get to pure awareness. It is definitely a beautiful addition to

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my life. And I did it, frankly apart it because I was hoping

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to develop greater awareness, consciousness,
and deeper spirituality. But whatever happens happens,

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but I know it's a good contribution
to my life. Definitely, I'm

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so glad you started that. I
actually have my own form of meditation that

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I teach because I've spent a lot
of time living in an ashram in India

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and where I cultivated a deep sense
of stillness and also silence. So I've

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done a really long silence sittings like
twenty one days and so forth, and

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I teach meditation as a really good
tool for self awareness and just also bringing

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teams together. So when individuals come
together in that way, sometimes in the

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work of mind frame we don't think
of that. And then once people come

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together in that way and you start
sharing and connecting, that way creates a

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really deep sense of connection with each
individual on your team. How beautiful,

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How beautiful, and what a great
way, as you say, to respond

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to and shut the outside world out, all the noise of the outside world,

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that just connect meaningfully together. I
think that's beautiful. With our last

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break, here here we go.
I'm Alice Cortez, your host. We've

403
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:38.359
been in the air with a partner
saying she is a life and business strategist.

404
00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:42.039
She brings her passion for mindfulness,
meditation and yoga to explore the inner

405
00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.680
dimension and create a life of purpose. Passion and joy. She also serves

406
00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:49.359
as the executive director of the Conscious
Capitalism Washington d C. Chapter. She

407
00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:52.920
joins today from Washington, d C. After the break, we'll hear something

408
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.920
about how she does her work with
inner work, actually her work with inner

409
00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:21.440
work and leaders. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Alise Cortes

410
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:25.880
is a speaker and engagement and development
catalyst. She designs and delivers professional development,

411
00:32:27.039 --> 00:32:30.880
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring
her expertise to your organization. She

412
00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:37.480
will help ignite meaningful development within your
workforce that will increase employee engagement, performance

413
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:40.799
and retention. To learn more or
to invite Elise to speak to your organization,

414
00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:46.200
please visit her at www dot Elisecortes
dot com. She would welcome the

415
00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:58.920
opportunity to help get your employees working
on purpose. This is working on Purpose

416
00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:02.279
with a lease Quartet. To reach
our program today, send an email to

417
00:33:02.319 --> 00:33:09.160
a lease Ali at a lease Coortes
dot com. Now back to working on

418
00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:13.720
purpose. Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working on purpose.

419
00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:15.279
If you're just tuning in, my
guest is a partner, saying a

420
00:33:15.319 --> 00:33:21.079
life and business strategist, she was
focused. She was appointed to as a

421
00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:24.039
Fellow on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the
US Department of State, focusing on President

422
00:33:24.079 --> 00:33:30.079
Obama's goal of building entrepreneurial ecosystems around
the world, among their other very interesting

423
00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:34.559
experiences she's had across her career.
Today a Partner brings her passion for mindfulness,

424
00:33:34.599 --> 00:33:37.640
meditation, and yoga to explore the
inner dimension and create a life of

425
00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:42.119
purpose, passion, and joy.
She also serves as the executive director of

426
00:33:42.119 --> 00:33:46.119
the Conscious Capitalism Washington DC chapter.
I'm your host, Elise Cortes. So

427
00:33:46.240 --> 00:33:50.319
for this last segment here, Aparna, I would love to be able to

428
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:53.960
help our listeners understand more about what
you need about this ongoing inner work you

429
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:59.519
so recommend and stand for for leaders. So in our in our in our

430
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:02.880
previous station we were talking about coming
on air together, you distinguish the importance

431
00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:07.799
of the inner work of a leader
versus that of traditional leadership. So first,

432
00:34:07.719 --> 00:34:13.920
how would you characterize traditional leaders and
their preparation for leadership? What's that

433
00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:17.159
all about? What's that focus?
Well, so I think traditional leaders and

434
00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:22.239
I actually have an MBA. So
I remember, like in the business schools

435
00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:28.360
and in different settings, we are
taught as traditional leaders to know more.

436
00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:32.599
You know, we're a lot of
the traditional leadership models all about the education,

437
00:34:32.840 --> 00:34:39.199
the information, the work experience as
we've had, and our ability to

438
00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:45.119
kind of showcase that and get ahead
in the world. That traditional leadership models

439
00:34:45.239 --> 00:34:52.920
are all centered around our external achievements
is what I have experienced and noticed.

440
00:34:52.960 --> 00:35:00.639
So now is when I've noticed that
people or even curriculums in universities are shifting

441
00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:06.280
to where the inner work is becoming
more important. So I think in the

442
00:35:06.360 --> 00:35:12.000
traditional leadership style for example, and
coaching is starting to play a big part

443
00:35:12.039 --> 00:35:15.800
in this. In the traditional leadership
styles, I noticed that we were all

444
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:20.639
about, you know, what kind
of companies you work for, what are

445
00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:25.960
achievements? Where did our degrees come
from? And also that actually led to

446
00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:31.039
a behavior of feeling somewhat superior.
You know, I have all these degrees

447
00:35:31.079 --> 00:35:36.840
and this experience, and so therefore
I am the right person for these leadership

448
00:35:36.880 --> 00:35:40.800
positions. As we shift our direction
towards more of a conscious leadership model,

449
00:35:42.199 --> 00:35:45.719
we are starting to look at things
like, you know, in order for

450
00:35:46.079 --> 00:35:51.400
you to be a conscious leader,
you really have to be able to inspire

451
00:35:51.639 --> 00:35:58.159
and motivate your team, and you
have to be inspiring and motivating to individuals

452
00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:04.039
in general, whether it be yourmployees
or your customers. So that kind of

453
00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:07.639
a mind frame is what I think
of as a more conscious model, where

454
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:14.760
in order to be inspiring and to
be compassionate or even pap into your intuition

455
00:36:14.840 --> 00:36:20.360
and creativity, you have got to
cultivate a deep sense of self awareness,

456
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:27.199
self awareness, some sort of self
discipline and self awareness. Being requires your

457
00:36:27.239 --> 00:36:34.119
ability to really understand your strength,
understand your weaknesses, and really play with

458
00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:37.880
that. So the reason I emphasize
it so much and call it the inner

459
00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:44.360
work is because in some levels it
is work. It's something where you actually

460
00:36:44.519 --> 00:36:52.079
have to go into some practices and
hire a coach or have some sort of

461
00:36:52.199 --> 00:36:58.360
spiritual practice or some different disciplines that
allow you to engage with the good side

462
00:36:58.360 --> 00:37:00.800
of your personalities, your a chief
men, and so forth, but also

463
00:37:01.280 --> 00:37:07.239
things where you feel tested and challenged
and really plain with that and seeing what

464
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:13.480
your whole being is like in different
settings and different situations. Does that make

465
00:37:13.559 --> 00:37:16.480
sense? That does? And I
think the way you distinguish traditional leadership versus

466
00:37:16.559 --> 00:37:20.679
what you're up to and what both
of us are up to was beautiful and

467
00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:23.039
really helps give something to our listeners
and open something for all of us.

468
00:37:23.079 --> 00:37:27.960
So thank you. That was beautiful. And now when we go on to

469
00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:30.079
one of the things that you and
I talked about, is you really emphasize

470
00:37:30.079 --> 00:37:35.440
it. Today's leader, especially a
conscious capitalist, it must cultivate creativity,

471
00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:38.400
compassion, and trust based work.
Completely agree with that. Why do you

472
00:37:38.519 --> 00:37:44.920
think these qualities and values are so
important in today's marketplace and economy. Yeah,

473
00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:49.239
I'm glad you asked that because one
of the big buzzwords we've had around

474
00:37:49.719 --> 00:37:53.440
in the business community for a while
is innovation and in order to be and

475
00:37:53.519 --> 00:38:00.760
companies are spending so much millions of
dollars to become more innovative, to create

476
00:38:00.760 --> 00:38:06.119
a culture of innovation, and hiring
the right brains to make their big,

477
00:38:06.119 --> 00:38:10.239
different products more innovative. In the
US is a leader in the space of

478
00:38:10.280 --> 00:38:15.920
innovation. But the thing is to
get to innovation and innovation, the core

479
00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:22.239
of innovation is creativity. And to
get to creativity you have to be willing

480
00:38:22.679 --> 00:38:28.519
and you have to have a certain
amount of consciousness in the way we are

481
00:38:28.639 --> 00:38:32.760
as individuals. You cannot just force
people to be innovative. It just is

482
00:38:32.840 --> 00:38:38.079
unheard of, right, So in
order for people to be creative, you

483
00:38:38.119 --> 00:38:42.719
know, you have to have a
certain element of trust. There has to

484
00:38:42.719 --> 00:38:46.199
be an ability for people to take
risks. And one of the big things

485
00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:52.679
and the pillar of innovation is the
ability to take risks and to fail.

486
00:38:52.960 --> 00:38:57.360
And you know that's a big for
a lot of word, but in order

487
00:38:57.719 --> 00:39:01.719
once you feel safe to be able
to fail or not succeed, that's when

488
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:08.199
you can take bigger leads and bigger
risks in a business as an individual,

489
00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:12.559
and we in the US in certain
areas, like I've spent a lot of

490
00:39:12.599 --> 00:39:17.119
my professional career in Zoka Valley and
we always talk about failing fast. So

491
00:39:17.880 --> 00:39:22.679
it's great, you know, you
test things out. If you fail,

492
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:27.039
that's it's okay. You switch and
you pivot, and we use a lot

493
00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:30.239
of terminology around that. And really
that really is at the essence of being

494
00:39:30.280 --> 00:39:37.039
able to be innovative and be able
to be creative. So those are some

495
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:39.679
of the big qualities I think that
are really important in today's market place.

496
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:45.639
Innovation will always be important, but
how we get to innovation is what really

497
00:39:45.840 --> 00:39:52.920
That consciousness really allows us to really
cultivate and go deeper with that and create

498
00:39:52.920 --> 00:39:57.000
bigger innovation. So when you look
at things like the Ubers of the world.

499
00:39:57.559 --> 00:40:01.880
You know, that's a huge gift
in the way we you know,

500
00:40:01.960 --> 00:40:06.960
in this whole shared economy play and
that kind of stuff, we can only

501
00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:12.000
get to when we take big risks, when we feel safe in taking big

502
00:40:12.119 --> 00:40:16.920
risk, when we really chime into
our creativity as individuals, we have to

503
00:40:16.920 --> 00:40:21.960
feel safe bringing that to our workplace. Mm hmm. I love how you

504
00:40:22.039 --> 00:40:25.079
distinguish that. I completely agree with
that, and that then that then makes

505
00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:29.679
me wonder, based on what you've
been talking about here, then is there

506
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:32.679
a place for what you've been referring
to as traditional leaders in today's economy?

507
00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:39.239
And if so, where what circumstances? Well, I think traditional leadership,

508
00:40:39.280 --> 00:40:45.440
I mean, there are still some
really core uh principles and traditional leadership.

509
00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:51.320
One is like, I mean,
it's nice to have the education and so

510
00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:54.000
forth, But now we're we're learning
that more and more you don't need the

511
00:40:54.079 --> 00:41:00.559
traditional models of education like the you
know, the Ivy League educations and so

512
00:41:00.679 --> 00:41:06.239
hard necessarily to have a successful business. In fact, a lot of leaders,

513
00:41:06.280 --> 00:41:08.239
I mean you look at Mark Zuckerberg, and a lot of people have

514
00:41:08.360 --> 00:41:15.320
dropped out of college to create these
super successful businesses. So, you know,

515
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:21.760
I think traditional leadership has a lot
a few valuable skill sets that we

516
00:41:21.800 --> 00:41:27.199
can still bring and have and cultivate. One of them is our ability to

517
00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:34.440
really take to learn from our mistakes. So when you do have experience,

518
00:41:35.480 --> 00:41:38.679
that's when we start learning from our
previous mistakes and we start taking more calculated

519
00:41:38.800 --> 00:41:45.159
risks, and we're able to then
leverage that and still put frameworks, and

520
00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:50.880
you know, traditional leadership allows us
to have kind of some frameworks and principles

521
00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:54.440
so that when we are being super
creative, we're still able to take that

522
00:41:54.559 --> 00:42:01.480
creativity and bring something to the marketplace. I think as where it's really valuable

523
00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:06.480
having some frameworks. You know,
we have like things like in the startup

524
00:42:06.480 --> 00:42:10.039
world, we have the lean startup
model, and those are frameworks that allow

525
00:42:10.159 --> 00:42:15.719
us through in a calculated way,
take risks and learn and then still bring

526
00:42:16.440 --> 00:42:22.840
some tangible products to markets. Wow, that's really I appreciate how you package

527
00:42:22.920 --> 00:42:28.079
that and situated how these different perspectives
can work together and complement each other.

528
00:42:28.119 --> 00:42:31.880
That's fantastic. And as this conversation
was playing out in my mind, I

529
00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:35.840
was thinking about what we might want
to talk about. That just drew me

530
00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:37.599
to another thing that I wanted to
ask you about given your space. So,

531
00:42:38.199 --> 00:42:42.639
among other things, I'm a social
scientist. I care about what happens

532
00:42:42.719 --> 00:42:45.199
with the world, the people,
and I'm always an inquiry about that.

533
00:42:45.679 --> 00:42:51.119
And I'm increasingly aware of the shift
between genders in society. As more women

534
00:42:51.159 --> 00:42:55.280
earn college degrees, they're increasing their
earning power and many becoming head of their

535
00:42:55.280 --> 00:43:00.719
households, and increasingly more men are
opting to stay home for the children.

536
00:43:00.800 --> 00:43:06.679
And so I'm wondering is there some
there's whispers on hearing about is there testosterone

537
00:43:06.679 --> 00:43:09.000
being washed out of men in this
society today? As we talk about you

538
00:43:09.039 --> 00:43:14.960
know, mindfulness and meditation and conscious
capitalism such. What's your view on this

539
00:43:15.039 --> 00:43:22.159
conversational topic? Wow, this is
a really interesting topic. We could probably

540
00:43:22.199 --> 00:43:27.400
have a show off were good.
Yeah, our especially book of Us being

541
00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:31.199
Women. I think that, you
know, finally we're getting to a stage

542
00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:36.960
where we're starting to level out the
playing field a little bit when it comes

543
00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.840
to a gender bias and so forth, we're I mean, we're so far

544
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:45.480
away from it, but I think, you know, with more and more

545
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:52.039
there's people as a competitive advantage,
businesses are making it easier for women or

546
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:59.960
people to work from home. People
are there making it easier and providing opportunity

547
00:44:00.519 --> 00:44:05.719
for even if you're not working from
home, you know, providing coaching and

548
00:44:05.800 --> 00:44:12.880
a lot of support in organizations that
allow us to make sure that we are

549
00:44:12.880 --> 00:44:19.800
being supported so that women are not
feeling so tapped when they're in the professional

550
00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:23.519
workforce and they're also mothers and they're
wearing all these different hats, so that

551
00:44:23.519 --> 00:44:29.800
can be really draining and straining.
So you know, really, I think

552
00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:36.639
now workforces and businesses are allowing and
creating a framework where we can show up

553
00:44:36.679 --> 00:44:42.440
as whole individuals and really leverage tools
that we need to become more whole.

554
00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:50.840
Notice like well being is becoming a
really important part of corporate offerings and actually

555
00:44:50.880 --> 00:44:54.880
a part of that. I teach
a lot of corporate mindfulness, meditation and

556
00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:01.800
even for a bout of yoga because
it allows people to disengage and engage with

557
00:45:01.920 --> 00:45:06.679
themselves in a way where you know, once you bring your body into it,

558
00:45:06.719 --> 00:45:10.679
you're sure to have a whole other
level of awareness and intelligence. But

559
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:15.679
you know, I think it's really
allowing women to flourish more in the workplace.

560
00:45:16.760 --> 00:45:20.920
There are things being set up,
I mean we're still a little ways

561
00:45:20.920 --> 00:45:23.960
away. It would be great to
see our first female president come on board

562
00:45:25.119 --> 00:45:30.920
at some point, and that will
really help us level out the playing fields.

563
00:45:30.039 --> 00:45:34.599
But in the business world, I
think women are being more supported.

564
00:45:35.599 --> 00:45:39.239
Also, the way we are viewing
the roles of men and women, it's

565
00:45:39.320 --> 00:45:44.760
changing, just as you mentioned about
the earning power of women and increasing,

566
00:45:45.679 --> 00:45:51.320
and so men are actually sometimes feeling
okay to be able to stay at home

567
00:45:51.400 --> 00:45:54.039
and take care of the kids if
that's what inspires them, and that's what's

568
00:45:54.079 --> 00:45:59.840
being pulled. They're being pulled that
way. So you know, some of

569
00:45:59.880 --> 00:46:06.679
these old gender biases are being are
being kind of falling away, and we're

570
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:12.840
allowed to be whole whoever and however
we wish to show up in the world.

571
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:15.559
I really appreciate that. I'll just
quickly come it because they're almost out

572
00:46:15.559 --> 00:46:21.639
of time. I am very interested
and attracted to the idea of androgyny from

573
00:46:21.639 --> 00:46:25.320
the sense that I love that.
I think it's wonderful when women can embrace

574
00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:30.239
their masculine energies and men can embrace
their feminine energies. And to me,

575
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:35.239
maybe that gets to what you're speaking
of the whole person. That's what I

576
00:46:35.280 --> 00:46:38.639
would hope that we're navigating too.
So thank you for dancing with me on

577
00:46:38.679 --> 00:46:42.320
that question. I just wanted to
dangle it out there and see if what

578
00:46:42.320 --> 00:46:45.079
we could kick up. So thank
you. That was beautiful. So our

579
00:46:45.159 --> 00:46:47.840
last question here we have time for. You know, this show is about

580
00:46:47.840 --> 00:46:52.320
helping people across the globe more meaningfully
and purposely connect with their lives and their

581
00:46:52.360 --> 00:46:54.559
work. What would you like toly
listeners with today? You know, the

582
00:46:54.599 --> 00:46:58.920
one thing that I would love to
have our listeners listen to. There are

583
00:46:58.920 --> 00:47:01.800
a lot of fancy works out there. There's mindfulness, there's meditation, there

584
00:47:01.800 --> 00:47:05.280
are all of these things out there. What I would like to leave a

585
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:08.599
listener with is, in order to
be a conscious individual, or even have

586
00:47:08.719 --> 00:47:14.760
a self awareness, discipline and practice, simply start to engage with your heart.

587
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:21.119
More so, I cannot emphasize enough
the importance whether you're a man from

588
00:47:21.480 --> 00:47:27.000
woman, whatever background you come from, the importance of really dying into your

589
00:47:27.159 --> 00:47:31.079
own heart and really looking at that
as a way of showing up as a

590
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.199
whole being. We spend a lot
of time as professionals in our head we

591
00:47:37.320 --> 00:47:42.079
want to all achieve and I get
that totally, but really listen to your

592
00:47:42.119 --> 00:47:45.000
heart, especially when you look for
purpose at work? What is your heart

593
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.519
telling you every now and then?
Time take some time and just even walk

594
00:47:50.559 --> 00:47:54.400
out into the nature and start listening
to your own heartbeat and your own heart

595
00:47:54.719 --> 00:47:59.920
tweets and messages, and then let
them light you up from the inside out.

596
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.840
That is beautiful. And then I
would I just have to add that

597
00:48:02.880 --> 00:48:06.199
if you're going to listen to your
heart, then you're can be grateful that

598
00:48:06.239 --> 00:48:07.920
it's beating as it is each and
every day. What a beautiful way to

599
00:48:07.920 --> 00:48:12.360
finish. Aparna, thank you so
much for joining us and sharing your wisdom,

600
00:48:12.760 --> 00:48:15.760
your heart, your soul with us
today. Thank you, thank you

601
00:48:15.800 --> 00:48:21.119
for having me Ailie. I really
enjoyed it. I love talking about purpose.

602
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:23.320
Yes, me too. Listeners.
If you want to learn more about

603
00:48:23.320 --> 00:48:27.639
a Parna Saying or connect with her
or the work she's doing, the best

604
00:48:27.639 --> 00:48:30.880
way to reach her as her email, it's a Parnasaying at gmail dot com.

605
00:48:30.960 --> 00:48:36.719
Let me spell that for you.
It's a p A r n A

606
00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:42.719
s ai n at gmail dot com. Parnasaying at gmail dot com. Last

607
00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:44.519
week, you you missed the live
show, you can always catch it be

608
00:48:44.519 --> 00:48:46.880
a recorded podcast. We were on
the air with Adrian Court. She's the

609
00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:52.960
chief human resources officer at Alchemy,
a digital banking company of five hundred alchemists,

610
00:48:52.039 --> 00:48:57.119
known for their intentional culture that inspires
meaningful work, connectingness, innovation,

611
00:48:57.199 --> 00:49:01.199
and retention. She shared with us
just open open Robe what they do there

612
00:49:01.239 --> 00:49:07.239
and really is desiring to be able
to get more people creating meaningful cultures like

613
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:07.840
that, which is part of the
work that I do as well, so

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wanted to showcase her for that reason. Next week we'll be on the air

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with Mike Ross talking about how he
turned himself around after serving time in prison

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in the large and full life he
has since created. Afterwards, see you

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there, Remember that work is at
least through of our life, So let's

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work on purpose. We hope you've
enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to

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tune in to Working on Purpose featuring
your host Alis Cortes, each week on

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the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This
week, find your life's purpose at work