Matters
The skills of the future start inside.
The skills of the future start inside.
Calm under pressure, trust across a team and clear thinking are skills people can build together. The pages ahead show how.
We spent this year listening.
Thank you for opening Mind Matters. This year we listened to the leaders on our Centered CXO panels, to teams during our retreats, and to the people who wrote to us afterward. One idea came up again and again. As AI speeds up the work, the way a leader handles pressure matters more than ever.
That idea shapes these pages. You will also find a few things to try, and we hope they are useful to you and the people you lead.
Varsha Choudhary
Head of Business Development, TLEX Institute North America
Let's connect: excellence@tlexinstitute.com
A year of bringing leaders together
Program impact reflects leaders who rated impact on performance, leading under pressure, team connection, and vision and alignment.
A few of the organizations we have worked with
A few examples from the more than 500 organizations TLEX has worked with. This year, ServiceNow and Western Digital brought the TLEX SKY Immersion Retreat to their teams for the first time.
Others include eBay, Audible, Hitachi Energy, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, GE, Citi, Messer, Cooper Investors and the Open Government Partnership.
Beautifully organized, well conducted and truly had the WOW effect on all the participants.
Our team was engaged, open and excited. We all felt deeply rejuvenated and at peace with each other. And that ultimately built trust, the key ingredient to teamwork.
Where does your pressure go?
AI is making work faster. It is also raising the cost of a rushed decision. This year, the leaders we heard from kept coming back to one skill that sits under all the others.
Pressure always goes somewhere. It comes from a board, a client, a deadline or a new AI target. Then it lands on a leader's desk. What happens next shapes how the whole team works that week.
Some leaders pass it straight down. The email gets forwarded with one line added. The meeting gets moved up. The tone gets sharper. This is normal, and most of us have done it. But the team feels it right away, and they start making decisions from the same tight place.
Other leaders take the pressure in first. They make sense of it, and then they pass down something different: a clear priority and a calm voice. The pressure is the same. What reaches the team is not.
Why this matters more now
AI has changed the speed of work. A draft that took a day now takes a minute. A report that took a week now takes an hour. This is real progress. It also means more decisions reach a leader faster, with less time between them.
At our June Centered CXO session, the panel named the risk plainly. When leaders accept AI recommendations out of habit, their own judgment gets weaker, and it becomes harder to say who is accountable. The leaders who do well will be the ones who stay clear enough to decide what should stay with a person.
In September, Dr. Ilyas Iyoob gave three questions to ask before acting on what AI suggests.
These questions only work if the person asking them has room to think. A mind under strain does not weigh impact. It looks for the fastest way to make the discomfort stop.
The skill no one taught us
Dr. Emma Seppälä of the Yale School of Management made a point in September that stayed with many people in the room. Most leaders have years of training in strategy, finance and their own field. Very few were ever taught how to handle their own stress.
This is the gap. We expect leaders to stay clear under pressure, but we rarely give them a way to do it. So they rely on willpower, and willpower runs out by Thursday afternoon.
The answer is not to remove pressure. Pressure comes with any role that matters. The answer is to build the capacity to hold it. That capacity can be trained, in the same way strength can be trained.
Breath is the fastest place to start. You cannot think your way out of a stress response, because the response moves faster than thought. Breath works on the body first, and a clearer mind follows. That is why every TLEX program starts with breath.
From one leader to a whole team
Capacity starts with one person, but it does not stay there. Dr. Seppälä shared research by Dr. Kim Cameron at the University of Michigan. Highly productive groups often had one person at the center who gave energy to everyone around them. That person made others feel "safe, seen, heard, valued, appreciated."
Ruchika Sikri saw the same pattern at Google, where she led learning programs. People had great food, gyms and doctors on site. What wore them down was not knowing how their work connected to the bigger picture. Google's own research on its teams found that trust between people mattered most.
Try this now. Think of the last time pressure landed on your desk. Where did it go?
Leadership in the Age of AI
Our September panel brought together Dr. Emma Seppälä, Dr. Ilyas Iyoob and Ruchika Sikri, moderated by TLEX faculty member Josette Aggarwal.
Five honest conversations about leading people through change
Centered CXO is our virtual executive panel series. Each session brings senior leaders from technology, finance, science and the public sector into one open conversation.
Leading with Purpose in the Age of Transformation
Preethy Padmanabhan with Sherri Douville, Arun K. Subramaniyan (Articul8) and Bhaskar Maddala
Putting people first is what unlocks innovation and collaboration.
Agile Learning for Growth and Impact Watch
Jennifer Stevenson with Patricia Hargil (Messer) and Mike Williams (Kyndryl)
Leaders need more than knowledge. They need learning agility.
Organizational Culture and Well-Being Watch
Natalie Kaharick with Ishita Aggarwal (Siemens) and Arnulfo Valdivia Machuca (State of Mexico)
Culture is the strongest predictor of sustained performance.
Who Is in Charge, AI or You? Watch
Dr. Vinitha Subbhuraam with Rajneesh Gupta (AlixPartners), Daniel Sloan (RealSplit) and Vidhya Subramanian (Vistara)
Judgment needs practice. Leaders who accept AI's answers out of habit slowly lose their own.
Leadership in the Age of AI
Josette Aggarwal with Dr. Emma Seppälä (Yale), Dr. Ilyas Iyoob (Kyndryl) and Ruchika Sikri (Wisdom Ventures)
How a leader holds pressure shapes how the whole team thinks. Their ideas run through our lead essay on page 6.
Session 6, in person in Austin
A small, invitation-only evening on how attention shapes every decision. Ask us for a seat.
Mastermind California: The Human Operating System
Founders and leaders gathered for an evening of practice and honest conversation about leading well under pressure.
Where leaders came together with us this year
Filiz Odabas-Geldiay on rewiring leadership for sustainable performance
Filiz, TLEX Executive Advisor, represented TLEX in conversation with Ümran Beba. Filiz has spoken at the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State, and she has been recognized among the Nation's Top 90 Women Mentoring Leaders. Watch on LinkedIn
"AI Won't Replace Leaders, It Will Expose Them" in Entrepreneur, and "The Next Leadership Advantage in AI Is Breath."
A talk at AIMed 25, and a conversation on resilience and purpose at work on the Outcomes Rocket podcast.
What changes when a team practices together
This year, new teams in enterprise software and data storage brought the TLEX SKY Immersion Retreat in house for the first time. After every retreat, we ask people what changed for them. The same three shifts came up again and again.
said they manage stress better
reported a clearer mind and better focus
said they listen better and consider other perspectives. In one retreat, every participant said they feel more connected to their colleagues.
Ranges show the lowest and highest result across this year's retreats. The scale runs from 0% to 100%.
At one pharmaceutical company, the share of people reporting high stress fell this much within a month.
The 5Cs we build in every leader
Our programs unlock people's highest potential by expanding personal energy and building awareness grounded in five qualities. Each one gets harder under pressure, and each one can be trained.
Clarity
Seeing what matters and making the call, even when pressure rises.
Connection
Building trust so people speak up, ask questions and work as one team.
Commitment
Owning the outcome and following through when the work gets hard.
Creativity
Giving the mind enough room to find new and better answers.
Courage
Speaking up, taking on new challenges and having the hard conversation.
Pathways with TLEX
Experiential, science-backed trainings for leaders and teams. Each program delivers value on its own. Together, they go deeper. Your choice: pick any one or more pathways, or choose Lead at Full Potential, our complete 8 to 10 week package.
SKY Immersion Retreat
THREE 3-HOUR SESSIONS. Participants learn SKY Breath Meditation and leave able to self-regulate on their own, with stronger relationships and centered leadership.
Inner Workshop Sessions
1 TO 4 HOURS. Live workshops on trust, communication and leading through change. Easy to scale across teams. See the topics on page 17.
Leadership Development
Leading Self, Leading with Others and Leading for Impact, built on our Awareness, Belonging and Commitment approach and decades of practice.
Lead at Full Potential
An 8 to 10 week journey for executives, leaders and teams. It starts with the retreat and continues with weekly sessions that link the practice to real work, so it becomes a habit and grows into lasting leadership skill.
Ongoing support with SKY: one year of the TLEX Flow app and a biweekly newsletter that keeps the learning going.
Add-ons that keep the practice going
Each add-on works alongside any program. Choose what fits your team.
TLEX Flow app
Guided breathing, SKY practice, micro moments, desk stretches and mindful meetings, with offline access. Included for a year with the retreat.
Digital library
100+ guided breathing, movement and meditation sessions and short Insights videos, ready to share across your organization.
Biweekly newsletter
A newsletter for all staff, built around themes that match your goals.
Follow-up SKY sessions
Group practice after the retreat, so the habit sticks.
Introductory Experience
A 60-minute guided session for 30 to 40 people who want a first taste.
Mastermind event
A two to four hour gathering with a fireside chat, a workshop and a keynote.
Assessment
We measure stress, energy, focus and connection with a pre-assessment, a post-assessment, and again after 90 days of practice integration.
Tap the topics your team needs most.
Clarity under pressure
Every leadership skill that matters, such as judgment, listening and creativity, gets harder under stress. So TLEX starts there. SKY is a guided breathing technique that calms the body's stress response. It is not a one-time event. It is a skill people keep.
A Yale-led randomized trial found SKY improved six outcomes, including stress and social connection. Most people feel the shift in the first session. After three sessions, they can reset on their own, anytime. People use it to calm down and refocus before a hard conversation, a deadline or a client call.
Sources and full citations: tlexmindmatters.com/research-on-sky
A one-minute reset
Breathe in as the circle grows. Breathe out slowly as it shrinks. A longer out-breath helps the body settle.
This is a simple paced breath for daily use. The full SKY practice is different, and certified TLEX faculty teach it live.
Where does your team stand?
Answer each statement for your team as it is today. Your answers stay on this page.
Answer all six to see your focus
You have answered 0 of 6.
Simple habits. Lasting results.
Six simple habits, practiced together, are what turn a good session into change that holds. Turn the page to try them.
Six habits that turn effort into lasting results
At TLEX, we believe human performance extends beyond productivity. Lasting performance comes from six connected habits. Each one builds on the last, and together they turn scattered effort into intentional, high-impact results. Tap each habit to see how to try it today.
Pressure always goes somewhere. Leaders who hold it first give their teams room to think.
AI makes work faster, so a clear mind matters more than ever. Every important decision still rests with a person.
Capacity can be trained. Breath is the fastest place to start, and people feel the shift in the first session.
Change lasts when a team practices together and keeps practicing, and we measure it along the way.
Think of the most important decision your team will make this quarter. What state of mind do you want them to be in when they make it?
Book a free 30-minute call. We will listen first, then suggest a pathway that fits your goals.
Book your callexcellence@tlexinstitute.com
Mind Matters, Fall 2026. TLEX Institute helps organizations build leaders and teams that stay clear, connected and high-performing under pressure.