Wharton Leadership Ventures:

Leading from Within: Self-Awareness Initiative

The Fifth Annual Leadership Venture on Self-Awareness will take place during the 2005-2006 academic year in Philadelphia. This webpage will be updated as information becomes available.

Third Annual Leadership Venture on Self-Awareness: Leading from Within

April 9, 2004

Sponsored by Merrill Lynch & Co.
 

Presenters
Agenda

The Wharton Leadership Ventures Program will present its third annual Leadership Venture on Self-Awareness: Leading from Within April 9, 2004, featuring Dr. Deepak Chopra as the keynote speaker. The recognition of self-awareness as the core of effective leadership has transformed individuals, business and institutions globally:  William George, chairman and former CEO of Medtronic, credits his 20-year practice of meditation with his cultivation of self-awareness as the basis of his successful leadership; and the U.S Coast Guard’s Academy has developed a “Self-Awareness Workshop” through its “Innovative Leadership Initiatives” program as a prerequisite for leadership positions.

In that vein, this venture will offer participants  a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding of self-awareness as an internal compass for the navigation of leadership challenges in business and to learn experientially about enhancing their own self-awareness.  While there is no single technique for developing self-awareness, the event will integrate meditation, which has been an effective tool for a growing number of business leaders to engage in the practice of observation of and learning about one’s self to to improve decision-making from a solid foundation, enhance their ability to communicate with others, and optimize concentration. 

Designed as an “interdisciplinary” learning experience, the venture integrates thought leadership, perspectives from business leaders, and the practice of meditation.  More specifically, participants will learn about the role that meditation can play in enhancing leadership abilities from alumnus Barry Rosenstein, WG’ 94, private equity financier and meditation practitioner.  In addition, George Mumford, meditation instructor to basketball coach Phil Jackson and his past (Chicago Bulls) and current (Los Angeles Lakers) teams, will conduct a basic, experiential workshop to familiarize participants with the experience of meditation.  And, in order to integrate these facets into the cohesive framework of emotional intelligence (EQ) of which self-awareness is a component, Professor Sigal Barsade of Wharton’s Management Department will provide the context of her extensive work in emotional intelligence in an interactive session.

Presenters

DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D. Director of Educational Programs, CEO and Founder

	Acknowledged as one of the world's greatest leaders in the field of mind body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. continues to transform our understanding of the meaning of health. Through his creation of The Chopra Center for Well Being in California in 1995, Chopra established a formal vehicle for the expansion of his healing approach using the integration of the best of western medicine with natural healing traditions. Dr. Chopra serves as the Director of Education at The Chopra Center, which offers training programs in mind body medicine (Journey into Healing). The University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has granted continuing medical education credits for this program, which satisfies requirements for the American Medical Association Physician’s Recognition Award. Through his partnership with David Simon, M.D. and numerous health care professionals in both conventional and complementary healing arts, Chopra's work is changing the way the world views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness.
GEORGE MUMFORD, M.Ed
	George Mumford, M.Ed. is a sports psychologist, personal and organizational development consultant, and teacher of yoga, tai chi and meditation. He also worked for five years under Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts. Mumford worked with Phil Jackson to teach meditation to the Bulls; now he travels to Los Angeles to work with the Lakers. Labor Day weekend he led a workshop on insight meditation at the Southwest Yoga Conference held in Austin, Texas.
BARRY ROSENSTEIN, Wharton MBA ‘84
Mr. Rosenstein has spent more than 15 years in the public and private investment arena, most recently as founder and managing partner of Sagaponack Partners. Previously he was founder and head of the investment banking and merchant banking groups of Genesis Merchant Group. Prior to his association with Genesis, Mr. Rosenstein was managing partner of Reatta Partners, a transaction-specific investment partnership, a principal in charge of corporate takeovers with Plaza Securities Corporation and an investment banker with Merrill Lynch. He received his M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and his B.S. from Lehigh University. Mr. Rosenstein is also a CPA.
SIGAL BARSADE, Associate Professor of Management, Wharton
	Sigal's research and consulting involve the influence of emotions and emotional intelligence on work behavior, organizational culture and change, team behavior, executives and their management teams, the effect of personality on managerial performance, and power and politics in organizations. She has written about emotional contagion in groups, emotional intelligence, the influence of dispositional affect on managerial decision making, the fit between individuals' personalities and other's in their work teams, organizational culture, the escalation of commitment in the banking crisis, and the study of power and emotion in organizational behavior.  Current projects include studying the influence of mood and long-term affect on creativity in project teams and . Looking at whether expressed anger is cathartic or catastrophic in groups. Before coming to Wharton, Sigal spent ten years as an assistant, then associate Professor of Management at Yale School of Management.

Agenda

Article on 2004 program:  "Leading from Within Means Learning to Manage Your Ego and Emotions," Knowledge@Wharton, March 26-April 6, 2004.

Program of January 24, 2003

Program of April 19, 2002

This leadership venture is organized by Wharton MBA students: 

About Wharton Leadership Ventures

Wharton Leadership Ventures are experiential learning opportunities for Wharton students and graduates, and managers who have completed a Wharton Executive Education program.  Co-sponsored by the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management, the leadership ventures range from work with the U.S. Marine Corps and the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg to treks in Patagonia, Antarctica, and the Himalayas to the discovery of self-awareness as the foundation of effective leadership.   

The ventures are designed to bring participants into environments where they can learn from the experience of others whose leadership was on the line – and also from their own experience in confronting challenges, solving problems, and leading teams.  More than 500 MBA students and alumni will participate in the 15 leadership ventures scheduled for 2003-04. 

The ventures provide a set of engaged, hands-on experiences for exploring and mastering the capabilities for effective individual and team leadership in business and beyond.  They are intended to assist participants in improving their capacities to think strategically, communicate effectively, and act decisively.  They are designed to foster forward thinking, a bias for action, risk awareness, and fast decisions, and to develop self-awareness.