Grounded Leadership

If you're seeking deeper clarity, balance, and purpose in the age of AI, you're in the right place. Grounded Leadership teaches you to navigate AI with purpose and build an intentional partnership with AI that supports authentic, values-aligned leadership.

Your Journey

8-week In Person Grounded Leader Pilot Program (Menlo Park)

This January, Mathilde will host a free 8-week in-person pilot of the Grounded Leader Program. Each participant will create their own customized AI leadership and career coach via Chat GPT— tailored to their personal values, goals, and growth themes. Weekly in-person gatherings will include meditation, journaling, and group dialogue. Between sessions, participants will gather data for their AI coach and in final weeks engage with their AI coach for further reflection and fine tuning.

This is a co-creative pilot, meaning participants will help shape how the program evolves. Together, we'll explore what it means to integrate human presence with digital intelligence in a mindful, grounded way.

The group will meet once a week for one hour at Willow Workplace, Menlo Park, for 8 weeks, starting in January 2026.

The AI Coach Studio

Curious about building your own AI coach but not ready to commit to the full 8-week program? Join me for the AI Coach Studio, a 3-hour guided, hands-on, and co-creative workshop where working professionals learn how to design, refine, and evolve their own AI coach. In a small group of up to 12 participants, you'll collaborate, experiment, and walk away with the foundational elements of a personalized AI coach you can continue to grow after the session.

The Challenge of Our Time

AI is quickly becoming the default problem-solver, but most tools are designed to optimize for efficiency, prediction, and engagement—not for alignment with your deepest values or inner wisdom. Even when these systems feel personalized, they are calibrated to someone else's framework, not to your unique compass.

The risk is subtle: when leaders lean too heavily on AI, trial-and-error, intuitive growth, and authentic creativity get outsourced. Failure—the very experience that shapes wisdom—gets bypassed. And in the process, leaders risk becoming more optimized, but less original.

That's why the real challenge of our time isn't whether to use AI—it's how to use it without losing yourself.

The most powerful leaders ahead will not be those who blindly adopt every new system, but those who stay grounded, discerning, and self-aware. Leaders who know themselves deeply, and can design AI tools that reflect—not replace—their own clarity, intuition, and purpose.

The Grounded Leader

Weaving human wisdom and AI together requires developing 'grounded leadership'—a way of being rooted in mindfulness, self-awareness, and purposeful action, while guiding AI's use with careful intention.

  • Anchor your decisions in your core values, even as AI reshapes every process around you.
  • Sharpen your intuition so that creativity and innovation aren't stifled by premature reliance on predictive algorithms.
  • Develop ethical foresight for AI-powered initiatives, ensuring your teams remain aligned with a bigger, more sustainable purpose.
  • Design a GPT coach rooted in the self-awareness and habits you've developed during the program.

By the end of this program, you'll develop a clear, purpose-driven vision of the leader you want to be—defining an intentional relationship with AI that supports both your big-picture goals and your day-to-day productivity.

Meet Your Guide: Mathilde

Mathilde - Your Guide

After 15 years in executive search and building our firm, Talent Distillery, I discovered that the best leadership decisions aren't just logical—they're deeply personal. My fascination with how leaders build trust and influence others evolved into an even deeper curiosity: how do leaders themselves get influenced? From early research on coaching relationships to partnering with CEOs and founders at pivotal moments, I learned to look beyond the board's checklist and chase for every shiny trend, instead tuning into what felt right, what aligned with each leader's core values, and trusting those subtle nudges of intuition.

Through hundreds of high-stakes placements and cultural transformations, I witnessed what really makes a leader transformative—not just on paper, but in the messy, everyday moments. I've seen how intuition, when given space to be tested and sharpened, becomes a leader's greatest asset, and how data can either empower or overwhelm.

Two years ago, I began a parallel journey with mindfulwithmathilde, teaching visual meditation and yin yoga. What started as personal practice became profound insight: these grounding practices aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential for leaders navigating constant change and digital overwhelm.

As a small business owner in the AI era, I'm right there in the sandbox with you: tinkering, adapting, and going down more than a few rabbit holes to see what's possible. These adventures taught me as much about staying curious as they did about the importance of coming home to clarity and purpose. I kept asking: "How do I use these powerful tools without losing myself?" and "How do I stay human, centered, and purposeful when everything is moving at warp speed?"

This program isn't just something I teach—it's how I live. If you're looking for honest conversation, practical strategies, and a space to reconnect with your inner leadership, I'd love to walk this journey with you!

Curious if this is right for you?

This program is designed for leaders serious about building a grounded relationship with AI. If you'd like to explore whether it's the right fit, book a complimentary 15-minute alignment call with Mathilde.