How does a Buddha lead?

Challenges, inspirations, and practices for everyone, who wants to make a difference in the world

A residential retreat with Dharmacharya Dr. Kai Romhardt and active members of the Network for Mindful Business

With Dharmacharya Dr. Kai Romhardt and members of the Network for Mindful Business  

This retreat invites us to expand our understanding of conscious leadership.

The historical Buddha was a strong, fearless, and compassionate leader. His teachings – the Dharma – give us inspiration and direction for our life as leaders.

Much has been written and taught about “good” leaders and still many of us struggle with their own relation to leaders or leading.

You don’t have to be a CEO or the chair of a big organization to be a leader. We are all leaders in certain areas of our life. We maybe involved in the leadership of a bigger, smaller, or very small company. We may take responsibility in other organisations, like charities, schools, clubs, or sangha. There are many realms of  leadership, like leading people, teams, projects, workshops, opinions, and most important – leading ourselves.

Leadership is about vision, values, direction, decisions and much more. It becomes a topic whenever we we want to make a difference in the world and take – or don’t take – responsibility.

Among others, we will touch on the following topics in our retreat:

• What can we learn from the historic Buddha and his ancestors about wholesome leadership?
• How does mindfulness change our way of leading? In which ways can the Buddhist teachings inspire our way of engaging in the world?
• Which other mindskills do we need to develop, and how can we train them?
• What is our motivation to lead or not to lead?
• Which challenges do we face as leaders? How can we handle difficult emotions and deal with loneliness, pressure, conflicts and ambiguity?
• How do the teachings of interbeing enrich our way of thinking and acting in the field?
• What is True Success (for us)? How does a Happy Leader look like?
• How do we relate to “suffering” in people of our organization?
• How do ethical commitments like the Five and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as well as the Mindful Business Commitment help us on our path?
• What experiences have we made with new leadership and work concepts like self organization, holocracy, agile organization, IDG (Individual Development Goals), etc.?
• Which Dharma Doors have been helpful for us? How does our practice change us?

The retreat is open to everyone who is taking active responsibility for our world – starting with oneself Together we will explore our experiences and challenges in the broad field of leadership (and followship). Members of the Network for Mindful Business will share their rich experiences in the field.

There will be a “mindful open space” for participant-driven collaboration. Join us in shaping a supportive business dharma community.

More information about the Network for Mindful Business: www.network-mindful-business.org

Retreat language: English

Location: European Institute of Applied Buddhism/EIAB (Waldbröl/Germany – close to Cologne)

Conditions: EIAB rates plus dana for the dharma teacher

Register directly at EIAB