For two decades, Ekta Anand thrived in corporate environments, directing digital product teams at Fortune 500 companies and building her expertise in digital technology for healthcare innovation. With an MBA from Kellogg and a background in pharmacy-related work, she was widely recognized as a disciplined, analytical professional who could navigate complexity with precision. Beneath the surface, however, she wrestled with a persistent sense of hollowness, a subtle inner conflict that ultimately compelled her to explore a more purposeful path and eventually embrace spiritual leadership.
“I was happy, but not peaceful,” Anand reflects. “Inner voices were telling me something wasn’t right, but I didn’t trust them. In corporate, if you stand up and say ‘my intuition says this won’t work,’ people won’t believe you.”
That disconnect became the catalyst for a deeper journey. After being laid off and going through profound personal changes, Anand turned inward. Guided by meditation and spiritual exploration, she began to embrace what she calls “intuitive leadership.” In 2024, she founded Shambhala’s Land, a coaching and leadership development organization dedicated to blending corporate strategy with spiritual wisdom.
Intuition as a Form of Intelligence
Ekta Anand describes intuition as “a combination of conscious data and subconscious knowledge” that allows leaders to see beyond numbers. “Your inner voice is not just imagination,” she explains. “It processes information you may not be consciously aware of: customer behaviors, subtle patterns, even cultural signals. When balanced with data, it becomes a powerful decision-making tool.”
This perspective challenges the corporate tendency to rely exclusively on metrics. Anand points out that many business failures occur not because the numbers were wrong, but because leaders ignored subtle signals that data alone could not capture. “I knew certain decisions wouldn’t work long before results proved it,” she says of her time in corporate. “But I stayed silent. Learning to trust that inner wisdom has changed everything.”
Redefining Success and Leadership
Anand’s coaching practice emphasizes presence over performance. For her, leadership is best measured by peace, fulfillment, and authenticity, alongside revenue. “Success is not just numbers on a spreadsheet,” she says. “It’s about whether you wake up feeling aligned with your purpose, whether you can lead without losing your sense of self.”
Through Shambhala’s Land, she works with executives, early-stage company founders, and professionals who feel disconnected from meaning in their careers. Her approach integrates meditation, subconscious reprogramming, and emotional mastery with practical business strategy. The aim is not to abandon data, but to integrate it with intuitive insight, creating leaders who can navigate complexity with both confidence and compassion.
The Challenge of Making Intuition Visible
One of the greatest barriers to intuitive leadership, Anand admits, is that intuition cannot be “shown” the way a chart or KPI can. This makes it harder to justify in boardrooms. “You can’t give someone evidence for what your gut is telling you,” she says. “The only way to build trust in it is to test it and watch the results.”
She advises leaders to start small, experimenting with intuitive decision-making alongside data-driven choices. Over time, the outcomes often validate the inner voice. “The more you see results, the more you trust it,” Anand says. This process not only strengthens confidence but also reshapes team dynamics, as colleagues begin to respect leaders who model both authenticity and results.
Cultivating Stillness in a Noisy Business Climate
The ability to hear intuition depends on cultivating stillness. She credits meditation and silence as essential practices to strengthening one’s connection to one’s intuition. “We are surrounded by noise,” she notes. “Emails, meetings, constant metrics. People rarely sit quietly and ask themselves what they truly want. Five minutes of breathwork each day can help, but in the beginning, deeper shadow work is necessary to clear inner blocks.”
She also sees this practice as increasingly vital in a business landscape shaped by technology and artificial intelligence. While tools like AI offer efficiency, they cannot replace human empathy, purpose, or intuition. “AI can give you statistics,” Ekta Anand says, “but it cannot tell you your purpose. That comes only from inner wisdom.”
A Human-Centered Future of Leadership
Leadership that feels purposeful is not only possible but necessary. By redefining success through presence, authenticity, and intuitive intelligence, Anand is helping shape a new model for modern leadership.
As automation expands, she believes leaders who cultivate intuitive skills will have a critical advantage. “Technology is valuable, but our human side is becoming more important,” she observes. “The future belongs to leaders who can integrate data with inner wisdom, and who are willing to pause, reflect, and speak authentically, even when it challenges consensus.”
To learn more about her work, connect with her on LinkedIn.
