This episode provides a perspective on the fundamental questions that underlie the claims made so far in this podcast:  that there is a dimension of human experience that is meaningfully called spiritual, and that this spiritual dimension is constitutive of great leadership.  This episode is specifically for those who might be skeptical about spirituality and its place in leadership development.  The next episode will then resume with the tools, practices and insights from Ignatian spirituality that can take your leadership and your inner life to a higher level.  

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Ignatius of Loyola founded the Jesuits, one of the most intellectually rigorous and globally impactful organizations in the history of the Catholic Church — and at the center of his own life was a single daily practice he considered truly non-negotiable for himself, for Jesuits, and for anyone who wants to integrate their inner life with their active life in the world.  He called it the Examen.  The Examen is where that integration happens.  Mike McDonnell lays out the Ignatian Examen as a 15-minute daily discipline that builds spiritual depth and practical leadership self-awareness at the same time.   Mike also translates the practice for listeners who are skeptical or still sorting out the God question, without watering down what the Examen is meant to do. 

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Mike McDonnell introduces the CEO Exercises podcast, arguing that the developing your interior life is the highest-leverage investment a leader can make.  The ceiling on leadership isn't external, it is internal.  Most leaders develop strategically, mentally, and physically but neglect their interior life, which quietly limits the clarity of their thinking and judgement, the quality of their decisions, the depth of their relationships, and the performance and fulfillment in the cultures they build.  The show explores integrating deep spirituality with high-stakes business leadership using practical, field-tested practices from 500-year-old Ignatian spirituality, adapted for busy professionals and open to listeners across beliefs. McDonnell shares his background as a three-time CEO and former Jesuit in formation, describing how a realization about the difference between happiness and fulfillment led him to the Jesuits and later back to business with a new framework for leadership. He outlines Ignatius of Loyola’s core ideas—God present and active in all things, discernment through interior movements, and freedom from “disordered attachments”—and explains the podcast’s aim to build consistent interior practice that strengthens self-awareness, humility, empathy, resilience, and clearer judgment.

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