Unlock a scientific approach for character and leadership development

In our founder Dr. Wadhwa’s book, “Inner Mastery, Outer Impact”, he describes leadership as an inner choice, rather than an outer dispensation. We define leadership as the discipline of bringing out the best in yourself and the best in others in all situations, in the service of a noble cause. This form of leadership is relevant to all roles, all moments — and across all levels of an organization.

This is where leadership connects with character. Because we are at our “best” when we go beyond ego, attachments, and insecurities to activate our inner core, that space from where our true nature arises.

That’s what exemplary leaders do — they activate a state of deep connection with their core and also help others get to their own core. In history’s transformative moments, certain leaders have rapidly lifted their people to high performance by igniting their core. During India’s nonviolent struggle for independence, Gandhi ignited a remarkable level of calmness in his followers; Churchill during WWII ignited courage in his people; Mother Teresa, compassion; Mandela, conciliation, and Steve Jobs, creativity. These are qualities people latently possess at their core.

People who wish to drive change typically take an outward focus — to change people’s behavior by reforming the policies and procedures, the laws and leaders.

We’ve discovered that exemplary leaders across history, in contrast, affect change at a much deeper level. To reset people’s conduct, they work to reforming their character — to take people closer to their core, the better angels of their nature. Because when people are at their core, they will become open to change, and start to naturally do what’s just and wise and purposeful. Instead of telling people, “You’re bad! Change your behavior now!”, they say, in effect, “Look within — you have this beautiful core to you. You’re virtuous, you’re brave, you’re free. That’s the real you. Let’s go there.”

Whether you’re a parent seeking to teach a child, a movement maker seeking to change social behavior, a hospital administrator seeking to change the culture of your institution, or a business executive seeking to transform your team, the laws of how to inspire change in people are the same. We’ve identified 5 principles that lie at the heart of creating deep, long-lasting, virtuous change. Watch this short clip where our founder Dr. Wadhwa talks about changemaking at a keynote address in Philadelphia given to executives at Comcast, a leading media company.

Mentora’s approach to developing character and leadership involves the following steps:

1. INNER CORE: Invite participants to frame the growth they are seeking into one simple quest — to activate the inner core, the space of highest potential within each individual, in themselves and in those they work with and serve. This is the foundation for success in life and leadership.
2. 5 CORE ENERGIES: Guide participants on how they can get to their inner core by cultivating the 5 energies — Purpose, Wisdom, Growth, Love, and Self-realization. Show them how they can tackle their leadership challenges by activating these 5 core energies in themselves and others.
3. 25+ CORE ACTIONS: Teach participants a set of simple, intuitive actions they can execute — typically in 5-7 seconds! — to activate the 5 core energies. Mentora’s research has revealed 3-7 actions for each of the 5 core energies that are most commonly used by exemplary leaders to achieve breakthrough performance — so we typically teach these 25. We also have 25 advanced actions to help participants continue to lift their game. By mixing and matching these actions, you can create countless behaviors that help you respond in the most effective manner to the ever-new challenges you face at work and in life.
4. PLAN-PREP-PERFORM: Using Mentora’s digital platform LiFT, support participants in planning and preparing for any key event by selecting the intention they will set, energies they will activate, and actions they will execute at the event. By doing this kind of plan-and-prep before the event, our research at Columbia Business School and Mentora is showing, participants can double their performance (likelihood of goal-attainment) in a short period of a few weeks.

Mentora is blazing a new scientific trail in developing an intuitive and personal approach to character and leadership development, by:

1. Integrating the latest science of human nature, across psychotherapy, psychology, neuroscience, social psychology, behavioral economics, and medicine.
2. Maintaining a library of 1,000 moments of exemplary leadership, from among everyday and epic heroes — speeches, presentations, decision-making meetings, difficult conversations, conflicts, and more.
3. Running experiments with students and executives in the flow of life and work.

Our work draws on universal principles found in the world’s great spiritual traditions. Through our scientific model, we are validating and contemporizing these principles and translating them into simple actions. We also offer digital tools to implement these actions designed using the following design principles offered by new science of learning:

• Break complex skills into small actions, to facilitate atomic habit formation.
• Learn and practice in the flow of life and work.
• Pause before major events to get calm and centered, creating space between stimulus and response.
• Walk into situations with the right intention, thoughts, and feelings.
• Be planful about the scenarios that may unfold and the actions you will take.
• Focus on achieving incremental improvements, one event at a time, instead of an overnight transformation.

Contact us if you’d like to learn more about the science behind Mentora’s leadership-in-flow model, the inner core, 5 core energies, Mentora actions, Mentora’s changemaking principles, the pursuit of excellence, and more.