Thought Leaders
 A Deeper View of Leadership

Dr. Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in integrating Western medicine and natural healing traditions, said he first appreciated the true power of a leader when he was a boy and Jawaharlal Nehru came to his Indian city. As millions gathered on the streets, the first prime minister of independent India threw a rose from his lapel to Chopra's mother. She kept the flower in a vase in her study for 3 weeks as visitors came to look reverently at it and then distributed the petals to her close friends. "Why was it so special?" the young Chopra asked his mother. Her reply: "It represented the soul of India." Chopra observed that Nehru, and by extension the flower, "was the deepest representation of a collective aspiration — yearning to be more than what they were."

In that moment, Chopra realized that a true leader can exert a force that transcends simple cause-and-effect mechanics. "A great leader is the symbolic soul of a group," he said. "The leader acts as a catalyst for change and transformation. Leaders and followers co-create each other, forming an inevitable spiritual bond. The leader exists for the followers and the followers for the leader."

Chopra, the lead speaker at a conference sponsored by Wharton Leadership Ventures (WLV) that explored the deeper foundations and impact of leadership, said "I think we are seeing a need for leadership that comes from a deeper level." While other WLV programs have taken MBA students and executives to rugged mountaintops of Everest, boot camp at Quantico or treks in the Antarctic regions, this session explored a fascinating inner terrain in a day-long program on Leading From Within.

Yoga and Meditation: Lessons from a "Born Again" Corporate Raider

Barry Rosenstein, founder and managing partner of JANA Partners, a $2 billion hedge fund in San Francisco, cut his teeth in the company-eat-company world of 1980s corporate takeovers. Shortly after graduating from the Wharton MBA program, he became a protégée of Asher Edelman, one of the central players in the era of the hostile takeover. Rosenstein's colorful career included a prolonged and exhausting battle for a Texas company that made cowboy boots and bricks, highly profitable investments in the fledgling cellular industry, and a very successful venture in auto salvage before setting up his San Francisco hedge fund.

But a wind-surfing accident in 1992 that left his upper-left side paralyzed was a turning point in his personal and professional life. A top neurologist urged Rosenstein to go into surgery the next day to repair four ruptured disks, but surgery didn't feel right. He sought out other options and ultimately discovered yoga.

He has never had the surgery but has no pain and has never been in better physical shape. He now practices yoga 2 to 3 hours per day, heading to work early in the morning and returning to yoga practice at 4 pm until dinner. "I've been doing this for more than 12 years now, and it is still an adventure," he said. "I'm confident I will be doing this until the day I die."

The practice has done more than remove his pain; it has changed the way he approaches his work and life. "My business career, personal life, and spiritual life are triangulated," he said. "I used to spend a lot of time doing things that were not productive. Now I am doing what is necessary to the best of my ability."

In an industry that is notorious for infighting and volatile egos, his organization has had zero turnover in staff. "That is one of the things I am most proud about," he said. While he still engages in takeovers, they are not so hostile. Rosenstein, who jokingly refers to himself as a "born-again corporate raider," notes that, "Today we work more with management to convince them of the logic of the deal and create a dialogue with them. We treat them with respect."

Sports psychologist George Mumford also urged participants to engage in regular meditation, at the same time every day. As he began working with professional athletes such as Julius Irving and Michael Jordan, he found that what made them good was their ability to know themselves and operate on a higher plane. "When the mind, body, and soul are in synch, things happen."

Emotional Intelligence: Waiting for the "Second Marshmallow"

While there are many formal definitions for emotional intelligence, it might be described as the ability to wait for the second marshmallow, said Sigal Barsade, Associate Professor of Management at Wharton. She described an experiment in which a Stanford researcher left 4-year-olds in a room alone with a single marshmallow on a plate. The children were told that they could eat the marshmallow, but if they waited until the researcher returned, they would receive two marshmallows. Some ate it immediately, others agonized and finally gave in, but others held their emotions in check to receive their reward. After waiting 18 years or so for the children to grow up, the researcher found that children who waited for the second marshmallow were better adjusted, doing better at school, were more adventurous and more dependable. "Emotional intelligence is using your emotions to think intelligently, and thinking intelligently about emotions," Barsade said.

The work of Howard Gardner, Daniel Goleman, and others has shown that "emotional intelligence" can often be a more important factor in success than IQ. "IQ predicts very little except how well we do on the SAT, GMAT, or other standardized tests," she said. "It is lucky if it predicts a quarter of success."

Barsade identified four key factors in EI:

  1. The ability to perceive and express emotions accurately: "Your ability to read other people's emotions is a critical first step," Barsade said. "Employees prefer to be with others who can read their moods."

  2. The emotional facilitation of thinking: Moods influence attention, memory. and decision making. Studies by Barsade and colleagues found that students in a more cheerful mood used more analytical tools to make better decisions.

  3. Understanding and analyzing emotions using emotional knowledge: If you know that layoffs cause anger, you can anticipate that people will get angry and do something about it.

  4. Managing and regulating emotions in yourself and others to promote emotional and intellectual growth: "A lot of your job as a leader is to help create a mood in the people around you," Barsade said.

The good news for those who feel like they need to enhance their emotional intelligence is that these skills can be learned. Baseline personality may account for about a quarter to a third of emotional capabilities, so there are many ways that people can improve their emotional intelligence, she said.

Your Soul Profile

Chopra asked the MBA students in the session to find three words or phrases in response to each of seven questions that define their own "soul profile":

  • Can you describe in three words your purpose in life?

  • Can you name three instances of a peak experience in life?

  • What is your contribution to the world?

  • Mention names of three people that you consider your heroes or heroines?

  • What are the qualities that you most admire in others?

  • What are your unique talents?

  • What are the qualities you best express in your relationships?

"This is your soul profile," he said. "These 21 words or phrases would give me an idea of you as a soul. It answers the question: Who am I? The soul is the confluence of meanings, relationships, archetypal themes."

Interested in learning more or participating in a future Executive Education Program on this subject? Please send us an e-mail, and we'll include you in updates and in a possible virtual focus group.

 

    

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