Open almost any magazine and you can find a photograph of a person meditating. The image is usually part of an advertisement for a hotel, spa, or beauty product. But, meditation is also being used to hawk insurance, breakfast cereals, and vitamins.

There’s money in sitting still (or at least in the promise of serenity).

In the laboratories other images are being revealed.

Breakthroughs in brain imaging technology have allowed scientists to look directly at the brains of meditating subjects. What they see is compelling. Because, meditation changes the brain – in good ways. People who practice meditation literally re-wire their brains in ways that promote clarity, creativity, empathy, and self-awareness.

Lots of folks – particularly in the context of leadership development – consider meditation touchy-feely. By which they mean it doesn’t make any tangible difference. That it’s ephemeral and purely subjective. The data disagrees.

Meditation gets all the way down to the hard wiring of your brain.

In the words of psycho-neurologist Rick Hanson Ph.D. “you can use your mind to change your brain”. When the hard-wiring changes, behavioral change accelerates.

But, despite the overwhelming research data on it’s benefits, meditation is rarely considered a tool for leadership development.

My sense, after 40 years of practicing and teaching meditation and 25 years of working with leaders is that it’s a missing key to accelerating leadership development.

So, don’t let all those advertising images deceive you.

Meditation isn’t about escaping into a permanent spa vacation (as appealing as that can be some days). It’s a powerful inner technology that expands your capacity to function fully and effectively at work and in life.

I’ve written a manifesto on how meditation accelerates leadership development. You can get a copy by going to this link:

meditation manifesto

Let me know what you think.

Let’s  figure out how to bring the power of this inner technology to more leaders. (If you know other people who would be interested in this conversation – please forward them this post.)

• What do you think about meditation and leadership?
• What about it makes sense?
• What are your concerns, doubts, questions?

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