Batch 1 of the Leadership and Mindfulness programme at Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy unfolded as a dynamic 12-week journey that brought together reflection, practice, and leadership development in a sustained and purposeful way. Building on the momentum of the course, BALPP hosted two well-attended policy dialogues on leadership and mindfulness, opening the conversation to the wider public and anchoring it in lived leadership experiences. These dialogues drew a strikingly diverse audience, ranging from members of the religious clergy and university students to civil society practitioners and corporate professionals, creating a rare shared space where perspectives from across society met, challenged, and enriched one another around the question of mindful leadership.
Education Policy Analysis
Overview
This course integrates mindfulness practice with emotional intelligence to develop leaders who are self-aware, emotionally regulated, compassionate, resilient, and ethically grounded. Participants cultivate inner clarity and translate it into effective leadership, communication, and decision-making across professional contexts.
Course Outline
Week 1. Foundations of Mindfulness and Leadership Awareness
This opening module introduces mindfulness as a practical discipline grounded in both secular and contemplative traditions. Participants examine how awareness interrupts automatic behaviour and establishes the basis for ethical, attentive, and credible leadership presence.
Week 2. The Mind, Brain, and Emotional Conditioning
This week explores how habits of mind are formed through stress, emotion, and neuroplasticity. The focus is on recognising automatic emotional reactions and developing the capacity to pause, choose, and respond deliberately in leadership contexts.
Week 3. Embodiment, Stability, and Inner Strength
Attention shifts from cognition to the body as a stabilising anchor for awareness. Participants learn how embodied mindfulness supports emotional regulation, inner steadiness, and a grounded leadership presence under pressure.
Week 4. Mindfulness at Work and Relational Intelligence
This module applies mindfulness directly to professional and institutional settings. It focuses on conscious communication, relational awareness, and sustaining clarity and presence amid complexity, workload, and interpersonal demands.
Week 5. Working with Discomfort and Difficult Emotions
Participants are guided to engage discomfort rather than avoid it, developing emotional maturity and resilience. The week examines how leaders relate to resistance, uncertainty, and challenge with patience, courage, and insight.
Week 6. Emotional Awareness and Self-Regulation
This week deepens emotional literacy by examining thoughts and feelings as transient experiences. Emphasis is placed on self-regulation, compassion, and emotionally informed decision-making in leadership roles.
Week 7. Resilience, Insight, and Transformational Leadership
The focus expands to sustained resilience and wise leadership in uncertainty. Participants integrate breath, body, emotions, and insight practices, using structured awareness tools to navigate complexity and change.
Week 8. Integration, Ethics, and Wider Application
The concluding module consolidates learning into an integrated leadership approach rooted in awareness and ethical responsibility. Mindfulness is framed as a form of service, extending from personal practice to organisations and society at large.
Course Details
- Classes are held every Saturday starting from April 18th, 2026.
- Duration: 8 weeks
- Time: 9:30 AM – 1:00 PM
- Mode: Hybrid Learning (Online and Onsite participation allowed)
- Location: BALPP Premises at BMICH.
Course Fee
- Early Bird Offer – Rs. 20,000 (valid until 20th March 2026)
- Standard Rate – Rs. 25,000