Beyond the Mat

Introduction

Our team faced its biggest challenge of the year: a high-stakes presentation to senior management about a pivotal clinical trial for a new type of cancer treatment.

We had prepared and practiced tirelessly for months—convening teleconferences and web meetings to connect the thirty-five-person team from their offices across the United States and Europe. Now the big day was here. My colleague Jim and I met in our New York City office and ascended to the twenty-fifth floor to deliver a presentation to twenty top leaders in the company. In a matter of hours we would request funding to proceed to a phase-three clinical trial, where our new drug would be evaluated in a large group of patients to confirm its effectiveness, identify side effects, and compare its effectiveness to an existing treatment.

Sure, things looked promising—the numbers were good, and our earlier clinical trials had gone well. If the plans for the phase-three trial were approved by management, successfully conducted, and concluded as anticipated, we would be ready to submit our application to regulators worldwide with the ultimate goal of marketing a drug that would allow more patients access to a desperately needed anticancer agent.

We needed to positively influence the most senior executives in our company to support this final phase of the program; funding goes to those programs deemed to have the best odds of success. This meant securing enough money to conduct a phase-three trial. A quarter of a billion dollars would do.

Welcome to the world of pharmaceuticals. High stakes and high pressure. Lives and profits continually in the balance. In the midst of this pressure I felt reasonably calm and self-assured. My boss had often suggested that I am too matter-of-fact. In reality my temperament is anything but matter-of-fact because I know that there is so much more than money at stake. If we failed to make our case, a potentially life-saving treatment for millions of people could get held up indefinitely. Further, our team’s investment in this program could come to a screeching halt, and those of us working on the team would need to scramble for other positions both within the company and beyond. Demands in the industry are continually high, and circumstances can shift at a moment’s notice. So I often pondered how to best cope with the stress of my job.

I am a pediatric oncologist who has worked in the field of oncology for nearly two decades. I am intimately familiar with why these drugs are necessary and what can happen when an effective agent is unnecessarily delayed due to bureaucratic red tape. So when I said this was a high-stakes presentation, I meant it. It was not only high-stakes, it was also highly personal.

I come from a “cancer family.” Most everyone on my father’s side of my family has had cancer, and the majority ultimately succumbed to disease. My father, a very fit athlete even into his later years, died in a frail condition six months after a diagnosis of advanced kidney cancer. My sister has lived with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) for the past seven years. Interestingly, her primary treatment has been with dasatinib, a drug that I worked to evaluate in children with CML prior to and during the time of her diagnosis. This was a surreal experience—there are only about fifty-five hundred new cases of CML diagnosed per year (that’s rare!), mostly in the elderly, and my forty-eight-year-old sister was diagnosed with the very disease that I was then studying in children.

I too am a cancer survivor. I am a twenty-four-year survivor of stage-one papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. Although I no longer fear dying from this disease, I suffer from dry mouth, dry eyes, and intermittent hoarseness of voice from the complications of surgery and subsequent treatment with radioactive iodine. These symptoms are chronic, and I am reminded daily of my disease as I attempt to live a “normal” life. These reminders are often subtle, such as the need to frequently use eye drops, but they are, nevertheless, reminders. As more and more information has become available about cancer survivorship and the risk of second cancers, I sometimes worry about what’s next for me. However, I have decided not to have genetic testing to ascertain my future risk of certain other cancers. I prefer to limit my stress and anxiety around the diagnostic possibilities that may arise based on these past circumstances. All I can control are my lifestyle choices. One of my choices is yoga.

Believe it or not, I have found that my yoga practice is the answer to coping with stress, both in my personal life and on the job. As I was about to deliver this key presentation I felt calm. Jim, however, was anxious and sweating. His nervousness was palpable. Why the difference? I had learned through my yoga practice to stand tall with an open posture, to breathe though anxiety, and to stay focused on the task at hand. I was not fearful, but rather I embraced this challenging situation with high risk, as I knew I could grow from it.

Supervising a large global drug development program is incredibly challenging, but it offers me the opportunity to help develop new drugs that will serve cancer patients worldwide. And for the past fifteen years the millennia-old physical, mental, and spiritual discipline of yoga has made it possible for me: healing my body by enhancing my ability to handle stress and anxiety and building my resilience, agility, and stamina—thus strengthening my leadership capacity and capability. Yoga has been so effective in enhancing my own life, both at work and at home, that I decided to become certified as an instructor so I could share this passion with others. Since 2012 I have taught others how to thrive through yoga by embodying its principles both on and beyond the mat—the ultimate goal.

Most of us think of this ancient, mind-body, Indian-born tradition as a fitness hobby, a gentler alternative to trendy options like SoulCycle or CrossFit, useful for those of us, mostly women, often professional, looking to relieve stress and fight time’s effect on our bodies.

But my experience as a leader operating at a high level in corporate America has shown me that yoga—both its physically challenging asanas (postures) and its profound, far-reaching philosophy—is a rich, robust technology for personal and professional development. All you need to begin is a willingness to engage and possibly a yoga mat. You can even do plenty at your desk. It won’t freak out your coworkers (they will want to do it too).

Yoga is my secret weapon. My personal practice—typically thirty minutes or less each morning—gives me the strength, poise, flexibility, and groundedness to lead with confidence in demanding environments where mistakes cost lives and fortunes.

Senior management at my company is infamous for derailing teams—presenters are rarely able to complete their presentations in the face of an endless barrage of interruptions.

The day prior to this high-stakes presentation we spent the morning reviewing the slides and agreeing on key discussion points. I knew we were ready to go, but the team kept evaluating and re-evaluating its decision making. At this stage the team members were just adding to their own anxiety. It wasn’t helping any of us to feel more prepared.

Seated Twist

Sit in your chair with your spine tall and straight, keeping both feet on the floor and your knees facing forward. Take a deep inhale. On the exhale twist to one side from the bottom of your spine, engaging your abdomen and rolling your shoulder blades back and down while gently grabbing the side of the chair that you’re twisted toward. Keep your chin lined up with the center of your chest. Breathe here for five to eight breaths, seeing if you can grow your spine longer with each inhalation and can deepen the twist with each exhalation. After five to eight breaths, return to center and do the other side.

Reflecting on what I’ve learned in more than a decade of yoga practice I took several deep, grounding breaths, reviewed the slides one last time to ensure that there were no remaining considerations, and left.

Rather than dwell on the challenge ahead, I decided to invest my energy in some needed self-care. I went to a sushi bar for lunch. Then, on the spur of the moment, I bought a ticket to a Broadway show. I had a seat in the third row, and the play was terrific. I left the theater feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, and I returned to my hotel room and got a good night’s sleep.

The next morning was our big day. I woke at 5:00 a.m. as usual. Then I went to the gym. I sat on a stool in the back of the locker room—the gym is not too busy at that hour—and meditated for a few minutes. Yogic mediation has helped me to expand my conscious awareness and has given me more freedom and empowerment in my life. Then I ran on the treadmill for a half hour, focusing on keeping a slow, even breathing pattern and clearing my mind. I don’t typically run with headphones while listening to music, as I appreciate the quietude and being disengaged from noise for a while. I concluded my time at the gym with a twenty-minute asana practice, again focusing on my breath to support the movements—inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. I left feeling open, light, and awake.

After my morning yoga practice I showered, got dressed in a well-tailored power suit, and ate a healthy breakfast (yes, these things—personal presence and good nutrition—are part of living your yoga practice, as you’ll find in the coming pages). I walked over to the office, ready to take on the management team. I was confident, alert, and poised.

My colleagues and I entered the conference room. There were no name cards in front of the twenty members of the senior leadership team, and I knew only a few. I greeted those nearest me and sat with no trepidation at the head of the table.

All eyes were on us. After a pause the head of our program spoke first. Her anxiety was palpable; she failed to even introduce the two of us responsible for delivering the presentation on behalf of the team.

Great, I thought. Here I am, a relative unknown trying to get a room full of strangers to give me lots of money. And I can’t even get introduced properly.

Luckily the time I’d spent on my yoga practice that morning and for so many mornings before it helped me side-step that flare of annoyance and stay in the moment. Jim began the discussion. After he finished speaking I paused, took a deep breath, and then continued the proceedings with confidence. I knew that we “owned” the room. This was “our day.”

After all, the senior management team and I were equals as human beings. We were on the same team. We had the same goal of serving patients while supporting the needs of the corporation. Looking through eyes clarified by the philosophy and practice of yoga instead of seeing the management team as “them,” I saw “us,” a room full of allies and friends.

I explained the issues at hand, the options on the table, the plan we had in mind, and the choice we thought they should make. No one interrupted me. When I finished you could hear a pin drop in the room. Silence. Engagement. They were thinking about what they’d heard.

It typically takes twenty-four to forty-eight hours for management to decide on program funding. And yet I felt no surprise twenty minutes after the discussion had concluded when we received the green light.

It was the fastest funding decision any of us had ever seen at the company.

Yoga continues to enhance my effectiveness as a leader—the discipline, the community, and the practice have helped me to become more engaged at work and to better manage my team. As a leader I focus not only on results but also on people, their individual needs, and how to help them recognize their individual and collective value to the success of the organization. Yoga has helped me ensure that I don’t take things too personally, that I can accept the wins and the losses with detachment and with the same grace and ease. I have developed an intuitive sense of my strengths as a negotiator and an influencer. I am better able to let things go and to move forward through success and failure, keeping both at the proper size and proportion.

Yoga, writes Mahadev Desai in his introduction to The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi, “enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly.”

Our Western view of yoga is that it is a discipline composed of a series of pretzel-like physical exertions done to get fit and flexible, usually with some token Sanskrit words thrown in here and there to keep things interesting but somewhat elusive. Yoga is also an industry, one worth billions of dollars each year: the market is rife with swanky supplies and trendy clothing as well as exclusive yoga retreats in exotic places. A 2016 Yoga in America study showed that annual practitioner spending on yoga classes, clothing, equipment, and accessories rose to $16 billion, up from $10 billion over the past four years.

Yoga is now promoted for nearly everything—from helping people recover from injuries, to reducing anxiety and depression, to aiding practitioners in staying toned and fit. I read recently that I can better bond with my dog through doga—yes, that’s yoga with your dog. Don’t have a dog? Never fear. A cat shelter outside of Atlanta hosted a yoga class with felines; it was a great hit! Live in a rural area? Forget Downward Facing Dog—try Downward Facing Goat! Classes are popping up all around the country that actually include yoga alongside farm animals. It often seems like everybody and their mother (or brother) is either practicing yoga or planning to change careers and training to become a certified yoga instructor.

But at its heart yoga is neither fashion nor fitness (and, as fun as doga may sound, yoga is not meant as an avenue to bond with our pets!). What most people refer to as yoga is but one aspect (asana, or “postures”) of a much larger, interconnected system. Along with the postures comes breathwork, concentration, observances, withdrawal, restraints, and meditation—all components of the complete practice. Yoga is a practical philosophy of self-observation and inner inquiry. The concept of self-awareness or knowing oneself is central to both yoga and leadership.

My study and practice of yoga have greatly impacted my understanding of leadership and how I lead. The purpose of this book is to distill the essential lessons of the yoga sutras into a meaningful framework for leaders at all levels. The yoga sutras, despite being at least four thousand years old, are as relevant today as they were in ancient India. They offer ways in which you as a leader can bring greater focus, clarity, and self-awareness to your leadership approach. My goal is to help you to change the way you think in order to change the way you act. The good news: if you practice yoga or want to start a practice, that’s great! Even if you think yoga is not for you, keep reading. You don’t need to be an ardent yoga practitioner to understand and implement this framework. Why? Yoga tells us that we are our own best teacher or guru. This book provides you with structure, support, instruction, and encouragement. When you can define what leadership means to you and use your learnings to support your evolution as a leader, you will not only be more self-aware and present for your life, but you will also communicate more effectively and better influence those whom you lead.

The eight limbs of Ashtanga yoga map the journey one takes when studying and practicing yoga. The eight limbs support an aspirant in drawing his or her consciousness from an external focus to an internal focus. The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali are the 196 Indian sutras, or aphorisms, that the Hindu scholar Patañjali compiled from even older traditions. The right means are as important as the end goal, according to Patañjali. He enumerates these means as the eight limbs, or stages of yoga for the quest of the soul:

This book is organized in the same order as the eight limbs. In the following chapters I will lead you through the steps to developing a yoga mindset of your own that will help you lead yourself and others in a more effective and sustainable way, one that brings you joy and bliss in your life and work. By reading and assimilating the content of this book you are beginning a journey into a world of profound wisdom and sage advice that will transform you as a person and a leader. It will unlock your professional potential. It will reduce stress. It will increase your happiness at work and in your personal life.

People will start asking you what you’re doing to achieve the obvious change in attitude and demeanor—they’re going to want to know your secret.

The following pages will give you the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to transform your life and improve your overall satisfaction at home and at work.