Cultivating Awareness for Leaders and Life
6-Week Program – Live Online
Due to the impact of Hurricane Helene on our faculty, this program will be rescheduled for early 2025
In today’s high-speed, interconnected world, the most effective leaders distinguish themselves not just by their skills, intelligence and strategic insights, but also by their ability to remain present, adaptable, focused and connected. ‘Cultivating Awareness for Leaders and Life’ is a specialized course designed to deepen your leadership through the practice of awareness.
Awareness is essential for leading with authenticity and sensitivity, as it cultivates a greater understanding of emotions and reactions – our own, and others. It thereby empowers leaders to act thoughtfully, maintain a strong moral compass, and remain steady, adaptable, and effective in the service of inspiring and facilitating meaningful change.
Grounded in scientific research and merging scientific insight with practical exercises, this course will help you begin to cultivate a leadership approach that is self-aware, compassionate, flexible, and impactful. The practical tools that will be offered work to enhance cognitive function, emotional intelligence, and stress resilience – key attributes of successful leaders. Each session is crafted to help you develop a deeper understanding of your mind, emotions, and motivations, translating this awareness into more effective leadership.
Each class will be comprised of short talks, guided practice, group discussion, and Q&A. You are encouraged to attend as many live sessions as possible. For those unable to attend live, an audio recording of the class will be made available.
Program Curriculum
Session 1
Intro to Awareness
The first class will focus on what awareness is, the power of awareness, benefits for leaders, and essential aspects of practice. We will also discuss awareness practice as a support for meeting the challenges and suffering of the world.
Session 2
Being Fully Human: Working with the Body
The second class will focus on how awareness of the body fundamentally supports your practice, what it reveals about change, how practicing awareness of the body deepens your compassion and wisdom, and how being present in your body for all of life (the highs, lows, and in-betweens) can lead to a more grounded and sustainable approach to leadership.
Session 3
Being Fully Human: Working with Emotions
The third class will focus on awareness of emotions, the importance for leaders to be able to work skillfully with the highs and lows of emotion, learning one’s window of tolerance, and strategies for tolerating and navigating difficult emotions.
Session 4
Being Fully Human: Working with Thoughts and Beliefs
The fourth class will explore how awareness is not about getting rid of thoughts, but rather shifts how we relate to them. We will look at the changing nature of thoughts, how thoughts feed emotions, and how understanding your thought patterns and belief systems allows for greater recognition of biases, assumptions, and habitual reactions that may impair effective leadership.
Session 5
The Wise Heart of a Leader
The fifth class will develop a focus on the qualities of a leader’s heart (e.g., lovingkindness, compassion, joy, equanimity) and practices to confidently bring these qualities into your life and work: to turn suffering into compassion, allow sympathetic joy to build stronger, more empathetic relationships, and to remain steady and clear-headed in challenging situations so as to support effective problem-solving and foster a resilient organizational culture.
Session 6
Bringing Your Practice into the World
The final class will focus on bringing your awareness practice more fully into the world, with practical tips for sustaining the enriching application of awareness in daily life and leadership. We will also discuss bringing awareness to your particular choices so they are in alignment with your personal and organizational values, and so you may hold your practice with intention and vision for the benefit of all.
Why take this course?
Adopting awareness as a core component of your personal leadership style not only enhances effectiveness, but also guides teams and organizations into a future where compassion and achievement grow together.
Whether you are heading a team, running a company, or embarking on a personal leadership journey, this course will offer you tools to improve stress management, enhance focus and concentration, foster emotional intelligence, and build resilience.
This course has the power to transform not only how you lead but also how you live, providing you with skills to navigate both personal and professional landscapes with greater awareness, less stress and wasted time, and more effective influence and to lead and live with a renewed sense of purpose and empowerment.
Who should take this course?
Leaders who desire to elevate their leadership to a new level and lead with their full presence.
Anyone looking to refine their own professional capabilities, while also enhancing personal well-being and grounding their leadership in purpose and presence.
We strive to make the course and community available to all individuals and organizations dedicated to compassionate leadership.
What is the tuition for the program?
Tuition for this course is $295. Please contribute what you can. Four options for tuition are available:
Benefactor (support scholarships) at $395
Sustainer (base level) at $295
Partial Scholarship of $150
Full Scholarship of $50 (admin fee only)
Program Faculty
Leisl Bryant – Lead Faculty
Dr. Leisl Bryant is a seasoned, board-certified psychologist with extensive teaching and group leadership experience in which she promotes personal change as a means to healing and improving the world. With over two decades integrating clinical and forensic psychology, ethics and risk-management, non-profit leadership, as well as various meditation, yoga, and earth-based practices, Leisl's life-work manifests a compelling blend of professional intelligence and a caring heart. In the roles of psychologist, consultant, teacher, and mentor/coach, Leisl brings a rigorous and sensitive understanding of personal and organizational dynamics into her efforts to facilitate awareness and growth.
As an alumna of the University of West Florida and Duquesne University, Leisl has worked in a variety of clinical and forensic settings - including hospitals, prisons, courts, outpatient treatment centers, and private practice. She has also trained as a KRI Kundalini Yoga Instructor and been a dedicated student of meditation and growth/expansion practices for many years. Currently she is completing a two-year training program in the teaching of mindfulness through UC Berkeley's Good Science Center, Sounds True, and the Awareness Training Institute.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the format of the online training?
Each live session meets weekly on six consecutive Sundays for 1.5 hours, and audio recordings of that session will be posted shortly thereafter, in case you cannot attend live.
Each class will be comprised of short talks, guided practice, group discussion, and Q&A.
All course materials and additional resources will be posted online and available for downloading. You are encouraged to attend as many live sessions as possible, but you will also reap the benefits of the course if you listen to the recordings.
How many hours of work are required to complete the training? Is there homework?
There are six weekly live class sessions, 1.5 hours each, for a total of 9 hours of group class time. There is no formal homework, however, participants will have access to short, guided meditations to further deepen their learning, if they wish.
What technology is required to access the course?
Live sessions will be conducted on the Zoom platform. You will need a free subscription to Zoom to connect to the course. Zoom may be accessed through computers, tablets, or any mobile phone. If you need further information on Zoom, please visit www.zoom.us.
Do I have life-long access to the course material?
Yes, you will be able to access the materials and recordings at any time in the future.
What is the tuition for the program?
Tuition for this course is $295. Please contribute what you can. Four options for tuition are available:
– Benefactor (support scholarships) at $395
– Sustainer (base level) at $295
– Partial Scholarship of $150
– Full Scholarship of $50 (admin fee only)
What payment methods are accepted for the program?
Payment may be made directly with a major credit card or via PayPal. If you would like us to bill your organization, please email a request to cfclprograms@gmail.com with the subject line “Direct Billing Request - Cultivating Awareness for Leaders.” Please include your name, your organization name and any information we should put on the invoice (contact person or department, purchase order number, or the like.)
Will you refund my fee if I have to withdraw?
If you must withdraw prior to the start of the course, your fees are refundable in full, less a $25 USD cancellation fee.
What is covered in the program fee? Are there any additional costs?
The program fee covers the entire four-week curriculum, access to the live Zoom sessions, and lifetime access to session recordings and program materials. There are no additional fees.