The Uninvited Guest

A Table I Did Not Set Recently, a dear friend Tony and his partner invited me to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with some friends of theirs. “Hitendra, don’t worry, we know the owner,” Tony reassured me. “They’ve promised to cook you some great vegetarian dishes.” I told him I’d be happy to join them….

I asked 70 MBA executives to close their eyes

In February this year, in my Executive-MBA class at Columbia Business School, I decided to conduct an experiment. I read the students a passage from Jacques Lusseyran — a French boy who lost his eyesight in an accident and then discovered an inner light that guided the rest of his life: “I still wanted to…

On Science, the Soul, and the Space Between

There is a question I have carried most of my life, though for a long time I did not know it was a question. I thought it was simply a tension I had to manage. How do you hold mystic wisdom and material advancement in the same hand? How do you honor one’s inner light…

Prison Diaries Part III: The Closest I Have Felt to God

If you’ve been following this series, you know that a group of 18 incarcerated men at Solano Prison had already woven their place into my heart. (If you missed it, you can find Part I and Part II of the series here.) On the final day of our workshop, they did something I will carry…

Let’s Begin with 12 Principles

Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. One day, in the pre-internet age, I drove from my home in Palo Alto to Yosemite National Park at the invitation of two friends camping there. This was going to be my first time at Yosemite, and I had not seen any photos of the park. I had no…

Who is the most important hero in your life?

Who is the most important hero in your life? Take a moment and pick one — real-life or fictional. I’m curious to know if you ended up picking the same hero that Ben, a successful finance professional in his late thirties, introduced to my executive MBA class at Columbia Business School one day. Here’s what…

Do you know what the dying regret most about their life?

What do you think you’ll regret when you die? A palliative care nurse, Bronnie, shared a powerful finding from her experiences caring for the dying in a 2009 blog post. She had made it a practice, over the years, to ask them, “What is your biggest regret in life?” Her blog was about their five…

Why Gandhi gave his speech without any notes

During a visit to Britain in 1931, Gandhi — an anti-colonial activist who sought to free India from British rule through nonviolent resistance — spoke eloquently before the UK Parliament for two hours. Eknath Easwaran described what happened next: After he had finished, the London reporters clustered excitedly around Gandhi’s secretary, Mahadev Desai. “How is it,” they…

Leading in the Flow of Work

How to tap into the right intentions, words, and actions when you need them.

The Antoinette Tuff story

Excerpt from Dr. Wadhwa’s book, Inner Mastery, Outer Impact.

Learning leadership from the inside out

Financial Times

The anatomy of great leadership is not about mastering predetermined behaviors, but building resonance in a team by taking people to their Inner Core.

How can I become a more empathetic leader? Practice, practice, practice

Fast Company

In order to design effective and sustainable soft-skill trainings, with results that truly stick, we need to fundamentally change what we teach and how we teach.

Redefining D&I: Inspiring Hearts and Minds for Lasting Change

In this webinar, we discover and debate a new approach to Diversity & Inclusion that starts from within, opens up leaders’ hearts, and inspires them to practice inclusion as a way to unlock people’s full potential. Based on work we’ve been doing with forward-looking organizations, this is a warmer, more unifying path that advances D&I in meaningful, measurable, and sustainable ways.

The superpower of the future: Adapting to uncertainty

As organizations adapt and transform, employees are expected to stay agile and resilient, but many are finding it difficult to manage. In this webinar, we look at scientifically-proven strategies that can help you and your team thrive even in uncertain times.

The Missing Core of Employee Well-Being

Many organizational leaders recognize that well-being was a challenge in the pandemic and will be in the post-pandemic world. In this webinar, we discussed how we can define and approach leadership in the right way, and how every employee can take up the mantle of leadership and help improve both their own and others’ well-being.

Influencing Without Authority

Most people now work on multiple teams and some report to multiple managers. In this way of working, it is rare to have the authority to simply mandate that others get on board. Instead, people across the organization must find a way to influence without a uthority. In this webinar, we shared some of the principles of influencing without authority. These principles enable anyone to influence in a way that is authentic to them and helps to awaken true commitment from the other party.

Leadership in Flow Brings Balance to Work and Life

In this interview, Hitendra discusses his leadership in flow model, which harmonizes Eastern spiritual wisdom with Western practical approaches.

What If Your Boss’s Downfall Is Necessary to Get Ahead?

Discover how Mentora LiFT, a GenAI-powered performance coaching tool, is revolutionizing workplace dynamics and helping professionals achieve significant breakthroughs by activating the right thoughts, emotions, and intentions in high-stakes situations.

Is This The Answer To Diversity And Inclusion?

Forbes

Organizations spend about $8 billion per year on D&I training with little to show for their efforts. Not only do traditional diversity programs not work, but recent research shows that
they can even have a negative impact on diversity outcomes. The answer to this deeply entrenched problem a shift from the outer to the inner couldn’t have come at a better time.

Lessons you can learn in business school that aren’t taught in class

CNN Money

Carolyn Disbrow, senior director for brand marketing at CNN, cites an important takeaway for life and leadership from her experience in Mentora founder Hitendra Wadhwa’s class on Personal Leadership and Success at Columbia University.

Why Candor is Good for Business

What’s the secret to consistent winning outcomes? Pixar Studios, responsible for some of the most beloved movies of our time, may hold a key to this question.

Introducing LiFT – Your GenAI-Powered Coach to Accelerate Performance

Introducing LiFT: Always Available. Immediate Impact. On-the-go Learning. Situation-Specific Coaching. Measurable Outcomes.

How to Transform Resistance to Resilience

Discover how Joe, a talented ‘old school’ employee who seemed stuck in his ways, transformed into one of the most valuable assets of his organization.

Seeing people not for who they are — but who they can be

Sharon-Drew Morgen transformed a toxic workplace into a model of trust and high performance. Discover how she sparked this company-wide change.

Building a Culture of Wisdom

Cultivating psychological safety is not enough. This white paper discusses a new framework to help organizations meet today’s hyper-VUCA needs more completely.

The Purpose-Driven Corporation

A number of external forces are pushing corporations towards defining their larger purpose, but what does it take to create a purpose-driven organization?

How Martin Luther King Redirected Anger

Michelangelo’s Masterpiece

Scientific Study on the Power of Storytelling

Benefits of Storytelling

Happiness from Eastern Wisdom

To be effective in your life and work, you must be willing to expand your happiness horizons beyond your own culture. In Arthur’s own life, he’s often looked to India as a source of inspiration on how best to combine material knowledge with metaphysical insight. Arthur and Hitendra Wadhwa, founder of Mentora Institute, discuss how…

How to Use Ancient Indian Wisdom to Maximize Positive Impact in Modern Times

Hitendra Wadhwa, founder of Mentora Institute, helps us to understand the essence of ancient Indian wisdom and how it can positively impact our lives in this modern world. Do these ancient ideas remain valid in today’s times? Is there a place for tradition in our lives and could this ancient wisdom be the answer to…

How Would Lincoln Guide Our Nation Today?

In April 2020, Hitendra Wadhwa happened to read a piece of history from almost exactly 157 years ago. The Civil War was raging and amidst the greatest crisis of their lifetime, what did Lincoln invite people to do? He asked the American people to slow down, step back and make time for a day of…

Channeling Emotions Productively with Hitendra Wadhwa

There are more possibilities to our personality than what 20th century science has confined us to. Latest learnings from 21st century science allow us to break away from the shackles of these limiting beliefs and pursue a path that is more authentic to our true self. Learn more from this podcast by Mentora founder Hitendra…