Dr. Shane McLoughlin is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, where he works in the world-leading Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. He is a leading expert on Aristotle’s concept of practical wisdom, and his work brings together moral philosophy and psychology, character education, behavioural science, differential psychology, clinical psychology, coaching psychology, and psychometrics to explore how people develop the good character and judgement needed to live and act well.

Shane is the author of Practical Wisdom Coaching, published by Routledge, and serves as Programme Lead for the MA in Character Education. His research focuses especially on practical wisdom, virtue, flourishing, measurement, and the limits of “one-size-fits-all” approaches to education, coaching, clinical practice, and human development. Across his work, Shane treats wisdom as a practical capacity: the ability to discern what matters, respond proportionately to complexity, and choose well when no rulebook can do the choosing for us.

A Couple Quotes From This Episode

• "Intelligence is knowing how to do things. Wisdom is knowing whether you should do them."
• "You're finding the right amount at the right time for the context that is conducive to flourishing."

Resources

• Book: Practical Wisdom Coaching

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. William (Willy) Donaldson has over 35 years of experience as a Board member and President and has been CEO of 8 companies and over 30 years of experience in higher education. Willy is the Founder and President of Strategic Venture Planning, a management consulting firm that assists boards, investors and senior management teams maximize results.

Dr. Donaldson is an Assistant Professor in Finance. He teaches Advanced Financial Statement Analysis, Entrepreneurial Finance, Strategic Management, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Systems Thinking, as well as multiple capstone classes. Dr. Donaldson is the Director of the Luter Business Institute.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Managers and leaders don't solve problems, they manage messes."
• "If you don't see the whole system, you're gonna draw a boundary around your job...and you're gonna start optimizing in that space. And that may be great for finance, but it may be disastrous for the whole system."

Resources

• Book: Simple Complexity: A Management Book For The Rest of Us
• Resource: OODA Loop by John Boyd

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Keith Eigel, Ph.D. is the founder of The Leaders Lyceum (lye-see-um), an organization dedicated to leveraging challenges to accelerate the leaderʼs journey to sustained effectiveness. He is co-author of a forthcoming book on personality, leader effectiveness, and leveraging the diversity of perspective for team performance called The Vehicle.  Over the last twenty-five years, his research and writing have had a global reach, being cited in academic and best-selling publications on 5 continents. Keith and his team have honed a developmental curriculum that extends and leverages over sixty years of research to help executive and next-generation leaders measurably advance leader maturity, the best predictor of a leader’s effectiveness. Thousands of leaders from dozens of industries have been transformed by their experiences with The Leaders Lyceum. Additionally, he'sbeen an executive coach to several C-Level Fortune 50 leaders and University Presidents.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• "I don't want my growth to be determined by the whims of circumstance. I want to have some voice, some proactivity in that."
• "Developmental maturity, vertical development, is about challenging the lens that we see the world through. This conversation may make the lens we have tomorrow slightly different. And if it has, that's vertical growth."
• "Learn to embrace your complaint — because it is the thing that we can't help but feel. And wherever our lens is, our pain meets us where we are. Then it opens the door."

Resources

• Book: The Map by Eigel and Kuhnert

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Randal Joy Thompson is a scholar-practitioner and global citizen who has assumed leadership positions and led teams in countries around the world including Cameroon, Morocco, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus, Iraq, Afghanistan, Morocco, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and El Salvador, initially as a Commissioned US Foreign Service Officer and then as independent contractor. Her scholarship has focused primarily on leadership, focusing on women, teams, and the commons. She works with organizations to help facilitate the establishment of autonomous self-led teams as well as to help build relationships among existing team members by creating the environment where they experience the socio-emotional forces connecting them.

In addition to her PhD and MA in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, she earned an MBA from the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, an MA in Political Philosophy from the University of Chicago, an MA in Biblical Exposition from Capitol Bible and Graduate School, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Relationships, not structure, are what create stability now in organizations.” 
• “The team itself is a leader.” 
• “What binds them together are relationships. 

Resources

• Book: The Four Forces: Igniting Emergent Generative Team Leadership in a Complex Perennial World Inspired by Nature and the Dao

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Jonathan W. White is an endowed professor in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author or editor of more than 17 books covering various topics, including civil liberties during the Civil War, the USS Monitor and the Battle of Hampton Roads, the presidential election of 1864, and what Abraham Lincoln and soldiers dreamt about.

Among his awards are the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award (2019), CNU’s Alumni Society Award for Teaching and Mentoring (2016), the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Prize (2015), and the University of Maryland Alumni Excellence Award in Research (2024).

His recent books include A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022), which was co-winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize (with Jon Meacham); Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (2023); Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves (2023); and an exciting new children’s book, My Day with Abe Lincoln (2024).

Quotes From This Episode

• “Lincoln understood you start with something that everyone can agree on.”
• “He believed that persuasiveness is the most important thing for a leader.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book:  Lincoln Home (Images of America)

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Adam Tarnow is a leadership development specialist, keynote speaker, and author of The Fog of Work. With a unique blend of humor, humility, and hard-won insight, Adam helps professionals get out of their own way, navigate complexity, and lead with confidence.

A recovering CPA and former public accountant, Adam now heads up the Leadership Development Practice at PeopleWorks International, where he equips leaders to thrive in today’s fast-paced, people-driven workplaces. He’s spoken to audiences across industries—from manufacturing to professional services to education—and has a gift for making complex leadership ideas simple, practical, and unforgettable.

He earned his accounting degree from Clemson University and holds a “Ducktorate” from Disney University (yes, it’s real… no, it’s not accredited). He’s been married since 2003, is the proud dad of two teenage boys, and believes any day is better when it starts with coffee and a New York Times crossword puzzle.

Whether he’s speaking about leadership, communication, optimism, or culture, Adam’s goal is always the same: cut through the noise and help good people become great leaders.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• "You are being held accountable for outcomes you know you do not fully control.” 
• “I didn’t need a new job. I needed a new system for handling the inevitable stress that goes with leadership.” 
• “Your story doesn’t have a villain. It just has a valley.” 

Resources

• Book: The Fog of Work

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Cameron Mofid is a traveler, social entrepreneur, and speaker who became one of the youngest verified people ever to visit all 195 countries in the world by the age of 25. After struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder for much of his life, Cameron used travel as a form of “real-world exposure therapy,” pushing himself into unfamiliar and uncomfortable environments across the globe. His experiences ultimately inspired him to found Humanity Effect, a nonprofit organization supporting children in Makoko, Nigeria through schools and an orphanage serving hundreds of students. Cameron’s work and story have been featured by Forbes, CNN, People Magazine, and other major media outlets for his message around resilience, uncertainty, gratitude, and service.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “She wasn’t dancing because everything was okay. She was dancing because it wasn’t.”
• “To become best versions of ourselves, we really have to learn to accept and work on all of those things.”

Resources

• Website - Humanity Effect 
• CNN Article - ‘It was a form of healing’: How traveling to every country helped this American cope with a mental health disorder

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Marshall Ganz is a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and one of the leading thinkers on leadership as collective action.

He began his career as a grassroots organizer during the civil rights era, working with Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later with the United Farm Workers, where he helped build organizing capacity among farmworkers. That field experience became the foundation for his lifelong focus on leadership, organizing, and social movements.

Ganz later transitioned into academia, where he developed frameworks that bridge practice and theory. He is best known for his work on public narrative, organizing strategy, and leadership development through action. His teaching and research emphasize how leaders mobilize others by linking values to action, building relationships, and creating structures that enable collective effort.

He also played a key role in organizing the grassroots structure of the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign, demonstrating how his principles could scale in a national political context.

His work continues to influence leaders across sectors, including politics, nonprofits, and increasingly, corporate environments.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “It’s not enough to have virtuous people. We have to have virtuous institutions.” 
• “Leadership is about accepting responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty.” 

Resources

• Book: People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal by Ganz 
• Book: Dopamine Nation by Lembke

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Eric Kaufman is a Professor, Extension specialist, and associate head for Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education. He developed and now coordinates Virginia Tech’s graduate certificate program in Collaborative Community Leadership.  He also supports an academic major in Community Leadership and Development, as well as an undergraduate minor in Leadership and Social Change.  Eric’s research investigates and promotes collective leadership, with special emphasis on followership, problem solving, and leadership-as-practice.  He is a past president of the Association of Leadership Educators (ALE) and a past chair of the International Leadership Association (ILA) Followership Community.  His professional recognitions include the Distinguished Agricultural Leadership Educator Award from the American Association for Agricultural Education (AAAE).

Brian Zimmerman has served as CEO of Cleveland Metroparks since 2010, overseeing more than 25,000 acres of parks, trails, golf courses, and the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Under his leadership, the organization has added more than 4,000 acres of protected land, expanded access across six counties, added 60+ miles of trails, and revitalized hundreds of acres of Cleveland lakefront. He has also guided major investments in Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, including nationally recognized animal habitats and conservation initiatives. Zimmerman’s work has earned numerous honors, including the 2021 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park Management and recognition as one of Ohio’s most influential civic leaders.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “You cannot control every outcome and you cannot control every person. You have to empower your people to get there.”
• “If I'm surrounding myself with the right people, and I'm empowering them to be successful, we can accomplish great things together.”
• “We need to stop thinking about leadership as something individuals do and start seeing it as something communities build together over time.”

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dan Jenkins, Ph.D., is Professor of Leadership & Organizational Studies at the University of Southern Maine. Co-author of The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning and author of over 75 peer-reviewed publications, his scholarship spans leadership pedagogy, artificial intelligence (AI), followership, critical thinking, and curriculum design. A pioneer in integrating AI into development, training, and education, he develops innovative courses preparing students for digital-age leadership challenges. Dan serves as Co-Founder of the International Leadership Association’s Leadership Education Academy, Associate Editor of the Journal of Leadership Studies, and co-host of The Leadership Educator and Leaders in the Loop podcasts. An award-winning international speaker and facilitator, he engages thousands of leadership educators, scholars, students, and professionals worldwide on innovative teaching approaches and AI integration.

Gaurav Khanna, Senior Manager, Data Science and Digital Journeys, Cisco Systems, has 25 years of experience in technology and entrepreneurship. During the past five years, he has led efforts to automate business workflows using machine learning and deep learning techniques. His work focuses on using large language models and generative AI to transform how users interact with sales acceleration platforms. Khanna is passionate about demystifying complex subjects and is a frequent speaker on AI/ML topics. He received a BS in physics from Yale and an MS and a PhD in materials science and engineering from Stanford.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “We’re beyond the point of innocent wonder about AI.”
• “How do we align human values with machine learning and generative AI?”

Resources

• Podcast: Humans in the Loop

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jay Abbasi is a global keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, coach, and former Tesla leader who helps professionals thrive under pressure without burning out. At Tesla, he led national training programs for over 1,000 employees, and has since coached leaders at Google, Amazon, TikTok, Wells Fargo, and many more. He’s been featured in Forbes Founder, Authority Magazine, and Medium, and is the host of the top-rated podcast Unstuck with Jay Abbasi. Blending corporate experience with deep expertise in mindfulness, resilience, and well-being, Jay offers a powerful message: success isn’t about avoiding challenges, but mastering them with clarity, energy, and purpose.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “When pressure increases, you need to recharge more, not less.” 
• “Resilience isn’t pushing through. It’s managing your energy so you can show up.” 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Jay's Website  
• Jay's Podcast - Unstuck with Jay Abbasi
• Jay's Speaking

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Chris Rehm is passionate about developing leadership capacity from younger ages, rather than waiting until college or adulthood. His early work in schools propelled him into educational administration and consulting, where he gained experience with curricular and organizational alignment, intentional learning outcome design, strategic planning, program evaluation, and technology implementation. Chris is currently Head of School at Wuhan Yangtze International School. 

Joel Wright is a leadership architect, social entrepreneur, innovator, and facilitator of leadership and organizational development. For over 20 years, he has focused on the question: what would the world look like if all people had access to leadership development? He has pursued this mission through the Center for Creative Leadership, the YMCA, Sri Lanka YMCA, Habitat for Humanity, and corporations. While at CCL, he led a team that worked directly with youth through Rotary International, Ravenscroft School, Charlotte Latin School, Milton Hershey School, SMU, and UNC-Chapel Hill. Joel is currently a consultant and the President of the Leadership Forum Community. 

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Leadership is a muscle. The earlier you exercise it, the stronger it gets.” 
• “Teachers don’t need another program. They need a different lens.” 
• “Everything can be leader development. But that’s overwhelming unless you simplify it.” 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• How to Unleash a Billion Leaders: The New Building Blocks for Youth Leader Development by Rehm and Wright
• Expanding the Leadership Equation - by Ellen Van Velsor and Joel Wright
• Developing a Billion Leaders - by Gergen, Wright, and Rego

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Thomas Hill III is the chief executive officer of Kimray, Inc. As the grandson of Kimray's founder, Garman Kimmell, Thomas grew up around the family business and manages the family-owned company with a sense of stewardship and heritage. 

In 1948, Kimray revolutionized pressure regulation in the oil and gas industry by introducing a three-inch pilot-operated back pressure regulator. The company has since grown to be a globally-known manufacturer of a comprehensive line of reliable, smart, and inventive American-made control equipment for safely and efficiently producing oil and gas. Having worked in virtually every department, Thomas has an intimate knowledge of the processes and people involved from start to finish. 

Thomas grew up in a high-performing family, which shaped his belief that people are worth what they can accomplish. This sent Thomas on a long and unfulfilling journey of pursuing success by constantly doing bigger and better things. Life eventually spun out of control, and Thomas hit rock bottom. Unfortunately, this meant Kimray hit rock bottom at the same time. 

Thomas's story does not end there. Through significant pain and loss, he began the long and difficult road of recovery that transformed his life and leadership. Today, Thomas enjoys sharing his story with others who can benefit from the lessons he has learned. He is committed to carrying the message of Recovering Leadership to other "addict leaders" and practicing these principles in his personal life.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “Making money is easy. Making money without harming other people is hard.” 
• “I wasn’t a leader. I just needed people to do what I needed them to do.” 
• “The more transparent I am, the more people want to follow.” 
• “Leadership is not about knowing what to do. It is about developing people who know what to do.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Recovering Leadership: Musings of an Addict Leader by Thomas Hill

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Attend The Global Conference in Toronto, October 28-31.

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

John Bernatovicz is a husband, father, brother, entrepreneur, author, and lifelong Northeast Ohioan. Over the last 15 years, he has started or been an owner of six business ventures and is the president and founder of Willory, a staffing and consulting firm solely focused on HR and payroll.

As the president and founder of Willory, John focuses on transforming organizations to meet their full potential. Through Willory, John ensures his clients have the best talent in their HR and payroll department and optimize the technology supporting companies’ number one asset: people. With over 20 years of experience within the payroll and HR niche, John is uniquely qualified to drive Willory into a leadership position within the HR and payroll staffing and consulting space.

John has focused his working career on understanding the needs of his clients, candidates, and partners. He is not satisfied until he finds what his clients and candidates are looking for. Plus, he thrives on instilling enthusiasm, growth mindsets, and accountability in the Willory team. John strives to win and build successful businesses that go above and beyond the expectations of his clients, candidates, staff members, and competitors. This sets a standard for the firm to provide a high quality of service and build exceptional relationships. Willory has achieved great results, including NorthCoast 99, Weatherhead 100, Crain’s 52, and Inc. 5000.

A Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “You’re not going to lose your job because of AI. You’re going to lose your job to someone who uses AI better than you.” 
• “Every single person in the world is a leader. People are paying attention to what you’re doing.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: HR Like a Boss by Bernatovicz
• Events: Disrupt HR

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Melisa Buie is a problem solver, author, and operational excellence leader known for making complex systems work better. Her work spans advanced technologies such as lasers and semiconductor equipment, as well as large-scale global manufacturing and business systems.

Melisa’s career sits at the intersection of engineering innovation and operational performance. She has held key roles with leading organizations in the semiconductor and photonics industries, including Lam Research, Coherent, Applied Materials, and Advanced Energy. As Global Director for Lean Operational Excellence at Coherent, Inc., a $2B global photonics solutions company, she led initiatives that advanced both engineering performance and enterprise-wide transformation. Earlier in her career, she served as a Member of the Technical Staff and Engineering Manager at Applied Materials and Advanced Energy, and as a Research Scientist with Science Applications International Corporation at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where she focused on theoretical laser systems.

In addition to her industry leadership, Melisa is an author and educator. She wrote Problem Solving for New Engineers: What Every Engineering Manager Wants You to Know in 2017, drawing on her experience bridging industry and academia. She also taught graduate-level courses for nearly a decade at San Jose State University in the Department of Biomedical, Chemical, and Materials Engineering, where she helped develop the next generation of engineering leaders and problem solvers.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “If it’s safe to fail, then it’s safe to learn and grow.” 
• “Experimentation is something that leads to a lot of failure.” 
• “Part of the reason we don’t like failing is because of all the emotions that come with it.” 
• “You’ve got to separate the story you make up about the failure.” 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Faceplant: Free Yourself From Failure's Funk by Buie and colleagues
• Book: Problem Solving for New Engineers: What Every Engineering Manager Wants You to Know by Buie

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Elisa Mallis is currently the Global Vice President of Global Research, Innovation and New Content Creation at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®), a top-ranked global provider of executive education. The organization uses research to develop people into better leaders, transforming individuals, teams, organizations, and societies.

She has over 20 years of experience as a business leader focused on transformational change, human capital strategy, and sales and marketing. She is known for her ability to successfully blend a focus on purpose and values with practical actions and results. Growing up between countries, Greece and the United States, her journey has taken her to work and live in 16 different countries, with the last 17+ years based in Asia, including Beijing, Sydney, and Singapore.

Dr. Cynthia Cherrey is President and CEO of the International Leadership Association (ILA), a global community committed to increasing quality research, teaching, and leadership practices contributing to the world's common good. As president of a multi-sector and global professional association, she promotes rigor and relevance of leadership at the intersection of theory and practice. Previously, Cynthia was Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Vice President for Campus Life at Princeton University.  

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Leadership has become more of a team sport.” 
• “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.” 
• “Leadership is becoming less about having all the answers and more about being able to say, ‘I don’t know.’” 
• “We need to double down on human connection.” 

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Article: Moving Beyond the Why: 4 Knowledge Shifts for Global Leaders by Mallis and Hardy

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Joel Rothaizer is a psychologist, executive coach, organizational consultant and leadership development specialist. He’s Board Certified in Organizational & Business Consulting Psychology, and a Master Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. His book on leadership, called Clear Impact, has been strongly endorsed by Ken Wilber. The head of Integral Zen calls it the most integral book on leadership he’s ever read.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Without a practice of reflection, you cannot build leadership capacity. Period. End of story.” 
• "What happens in our sessions has zero meaning unless you’re applying it.”
• “Do you start your day with an intention of who you want to be?”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Episode #1 - Rethinking The Polarity Map with Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Episode #2 - The Wake I Leave with Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Trey Anastasio - His Story About Drug Court

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration 

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph. D., is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and former director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of more than a dozen books and more than 100 research articles and book chapters on leadership, assessment centers, organizational psychology, and social psychology. He's served on the editorial boards of The Leadership Quarterly, Leadership, Group Dynamics, and Journal of Nonverbal Behavior.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Social intelligence is knowing how to be and knowing what to do in social situations.”
• “Emotional intelligence is a subset of social intelligence.”
• “As leaders go higher in the hierarchy, their listening tends to go down.
• “In this time of AI, make the human connection.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Blog: Psychology Today

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Mark O’Donnell is a highly successful entrepreneur, CEO, and Expert EOS Implementer™. He is the current Visionary and CEO of EOS Worldwide. Named to the 2022 and 2023 Inc. 5000 as one of America’s fastest-growing companies, as well as to the 2022 Inaugural Inc. Power Partner list, EOS Worldwide has helped thousands of entrepreneurs all over the globe get everything they want from their businesses.

Mark has also served as Head Coach for the company. He has helped more than 100 companies achieve their goals and get what they want from their businesses.

As a serial entrepreneur, Mark has founded and sold multiple successful businesses. His passion for helping people live their ideal lives led him to his current mission of assisting 1,000,000 people with tools like those found in the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS®).

Mark is a lifelong learner and an alumnus of Albright College, Northeastern University, and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives outside Philadelphia, PA, with his wife, mother-in-law, three children, and his one-hundred-pound dog, Blue.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “What gets measured gets done. What gets measured and reported goes exponential.”
• “Speaking a common language is part of getting all that human energy rowing in the same direction.”
• “It’s just a very simple, proven system.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Data: Harness Your Numbers to Go from Uncertain to Unstoppable by O'Donnell & others
• People: Dare to Build an Intentional Culture by O'Donnell & others
• Issues: Remove Friction, Fast Track Your Growth, and Ignite Your Greatness by O'Donnell & others

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. David M. Rosch is an associate professor in agricultural leadership, education, and communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he teaches leadership theory and studies the impact of leadership development on young people. He has been repeatedly recognized for teaching excellence and received his college’s Teaching Excellence Award. Dave serves as editor of the Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship and has held numerous leadership roles within the International Leadership Association and related organizations. He has authored more than 50 scholarly works and earned his PhD in higher education from Syracuse University.

Dr. Daniel M. Jenkins is a professor of leadership and organizational studies at the University of Southern Maine, where he teaches leadership, organizational theory, and research methods. He is co-author of The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed works on leadership education and development. An award-winning international speaker and facilitator, Dan has engaged thousands on topics including leadership pedagogy, followership, and artificial intelligence. He serves in multiple leadership roles within the International Leadership Association and related professional organizations, and earned his doctorate from the University of South Florida.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “There’s no stable track in leader development because people are complex.”
• “We don’t need to talk about whether leadership matters. We need to understand how.”
• “Instructional strategies are the vehicle through which we facilitate leadership learning.”
• “Know why you are selecting the tools you are using.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Moving the Needle: What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Developing Leaders by Rosch, Allen, and Jenkins

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Barbara Kellerman is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Center, and a member of the Kennedy School faculty for over twenty years. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Christopher Newport, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She also served as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A. M.Phil., and Ph.D. (in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. At Uppsala (1996-97), she held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is author and editor of many books. Kellerman has also appeared on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review.

From 2015 to 2023, she was listed by Global Gurus as among the “World’s Top 30 Management Professionals.”

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “He is an inveterate bad boy who is not content unless he is stirring the pot.”
• “Follower is the only antonym of leader we have. And sometimes followers become leaders.”
• “The importance of context is as real in politics as it is in organizational life.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Barbara's Blog
• Book: Leader's Who Lust by Kellerman
• Book: Bad Leadership by Kellerman
• Book: The End of Leadership by Kellerman

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Ira Chaleff is an author, speaker, and executive coach in the greater Washington, DC, area. His extensive experience with the US federal government includes directing and chairing the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, where he is now Chair Emeritus. 

Ira co-authored the original handbook for newly elected Members of Congress, now in its fifteenth edition, and has facilitated over a hundred retreats for congressional offices. He has led and participated in Democracy strengthening programs in Asia and West Africa and consulted for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Eastern Europe.

He has been an adjunct faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute and a visiting leadership scholar at Churchill College, Cambridge University in England. Ira served two terms on the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association and is the founder of its Followership Community.

Ira speaks on courageous followership and intelligent disobedience at a wide variety of institutions, including the US Department of State, the US Naval Academy, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, the European Commission of the EU, and many others.

Quotes From This Episode

• “Sometimes it’s courageous to conform. Discernment matters as much as courage.”
• “Followers are as responsible for bringing out the best in leaders as leaders are for bringing out the best in followers.”
• “If followership education only teaches compliance, should we be surprised when adults conform to poor leadership?”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: The Courageous Follower by Chaleff
• Book: Intelligent Disobedience by Chaleff
• Book: To Stop a Tyrant: The Power of Political Followers by Chaleff

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Paul Crick is grounded in, and informed by, the principles, wisdom and practice of the martial art of Aikido, which he applies as a powerful discipline for mastering his craft as a seasoned, transformational coach. Through this lens, he supports leaders and teams to carve out their own distinctive path to success.

With over two decades of hard-earned personal and professional experience working internationally as a consultant and coach, Paul specialises in enabling clients to navigate uncertainty and periods of intense transition and growth, amplifying clarity, confidence and impact at moments that matter most.

Developing leaders and teams from the inside out, and helping people work together more effectively at scale, are areas where he consistently excels.

Paul’s international corporate consulting experience spans the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. He has worked with senior leaders on organisational transformation programmes across Fortune 500 and FTSE 250 companies, public sector institutions and voluntary organisations.

Paul’s coaching philosophy is grounded in GRACE, providing a confidential, judgement-free space in which individuals and teams can explore, think and grow.

As an accredited coach, he blends an eclectic mix of evidence-based tools and practical psychology to support lasting transformational change.

Quotes From Developing Leaders and Leadership

• “If you’re not grounded in your body, if you haven’t got that alignment between mind, body, and your physiology, then it becomes difficult to create and stand up for something.”
• “Acceptance is facing up to the reality of what’s coming at you and figuring out how to redirect that energy in a way that restores harmony.”
• “Find the practice that works for you. Grounding can look very different for different people.”
• “When your actions, presence, and values align, that’s coherence.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Newsletter: GRACEWorks on Substack
• Paul's Media Kit
• Free Masterclass: GRACE Under Pressure
• Audio: 5-Minute Clip on the 'G' of the GRACE Framework

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Peter Weiss is a leadership mentor, former CEO, and founder of MindKaizen. He works with senior leaders operating under high pressure and complexity, helping them strengthen their inner operating system so they can meet today’s demands with clarity and stability. His work focuses on staying grounded under pressure, acting in line with personal values, and protecting the relationships that matter most.

Originally from Germany, and with a background in bioengineering and an MBA, Peter spent decades leading and transforming organizations across Asia. He founded and led the Kaizen Institute Thailand and later turned around and successfully sold a manufacturing business.

Peter is the creator of the ShinKaizen program, which blends ancient contemplative disciplines with applied neuroscience to develop the inner skills required for whole and effective leadership. He lives on a self-sufficient homestead in rural Thailand and works globally with executives, founders, and leadership teams.

A Quote This Episode

• “Many leaders believe Kaizen is something you delegate. That belief is the problem. Tools never changed a culture. What changes culture is how leaders show up when things get tough."

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Well-Being and Personal Growth by Bruno A. Cayoun 
• Book: The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Toby Newstead is a respected leadership scholar and practitioner at the University of Tasmania, located in lutruwita on the lands of the palawa and pakana people. With a background in corporate change, leadership development, and professional communications, she brings practical expertise to her academic, coaching, and consulting work.

An internationally recognized researcher, Dr. Newstead specializes in virtues-based leadership development, leadership ethics, and leadership in the volunteer sector. Her research appears in top journals. In 2023, she published a book titled Leadership and Virtues: Understanding and Practicing Good Leadership.

Dr. Newstead is an established executive leadership coach and deeply engaged with industry and community. She regularly delivers impactful workshops, keynotes, and facilitation sessions. Dr Newstead’s research, teaching, coaching and facilitation has local and international impact, shaping the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Quotes From This Episode

• “We cannot develop other people; we can only facilitate their learning and assess if they learned.”
• “Leadership involves relationships, influence, shared purpose, and collective effort. That’s the stuff that has to be there.”
• “Leadership isn’t the answer to everything; there are times when management or command responses are what the situation calls for.”
• “Followership isn’t an afterthought; you don’t have leadership without both leaders leading and followers following.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Poem - The Blind Men and the Elephant
• Book - Learning in Adulthood

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. David V. Day holds appointments as Professor of Psychological Science and Leadership and serves as the Academic Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College in California (USA). He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and book chapters, many pertaining to the core topics of leadership and leadership development and is the author of the recent book titled “Developing Leaders and Leadership: Principles, Practices, and Processes.” David received the 2024 Eminent Scholar Award from the Network of Leadership Scholars at the Academy of Management and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association.

Quotes From This Episode

• “AI can absolutely substitute for management. Leadership is a different question.”
• “The future is not whether AI can lead. It’s when.”
• “Expert power increasingly favors AI. That changes everything.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• David Day on Google Scholar
• Article: Fired by Bot at Amazon: ‘It’s You Against the Machine’
• Book: Everyone Culture by Kegan and Associates
• Film: Her
• TED Talk: Ray Dalio 
• Personality Assessment: PrinciplesYou 
• Blog Post: Nick Cave's response on AI generated songwriting
• Website: Lovoitcs

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Nick Hart is the Principal at Horizon English School in Dubai, part of the Cognita global network of schools.  Nick holds an MBA in International Educational Leadership and has authored two books on educational leadership, focusing on its cultural and impact domains.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Schools are complex adaptive systems, not complicated machines."
• “There is no such thing as a follower; everyone nudges the organization toward purpose.”
• “Feedback loops in schools might not show up for weeks, months, or even years.”
• “Leadership isn’t a hero up on the balcony, it’s about helping others hold ambiguity.”
• “Designing decision clarity early is one of the most powerful things you can do as a leader.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Creating a Strong Culture and Positive Climate in Schools by Hart
• Book: Impact: A five-part framework for making a difference in schools by Hart
• Article: DAC Model 
• Article: DARE Model by McKinsey
• Article: Elliott Jaques’ Levels of Work
• LinkedIn: Richard Clayton
• LinkedIn: Stefan Norrvall

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Karl W. Kuhnert, Ph.D. is Professor of the Practice of Organization and Management in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. Karl’s research focuses on how leaders cognitively, interpersonally, and emotionally develop over the life course.  Karl has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles, 13 book chapters and made over 100 conference presentations, and served on numerous editorial and review panels.  He teaches industrial and organizational psychology, leadership, organizational change, and professional ethics.  Karl has won numerous awards for teaching and research. Karl also regularly teaches leadership development in the Executive Ed. Programs at Emory, UCLA, HEC Paris, and UGA. He has served as a consultant with many large and small corporations, non-profit and government organizations including, United Parcel Service, The U.S. Dept. of Treasury, Siemens, The Jet Propulsion Lab, and Cox Automotive.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Every time I have done this, it has freed up experts to do the work they actually want to do.”
• “Tacit knowledge is lived wisdom—it’s what makes an expert an expert.”
• “AI is a tool, it is not truth.”
• “We need to ask how judgments are made, not just whether AI can render them.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Personal Knowledge by Michael Polanyi
• Book: The MAP: A Practical Guide to Leadership Development by Keith Eigel & Karl Kuhnert
• Article: Training Innovative AI to Provide Expert Guidance on Prescription Medications by Kuhnert
• Article: Teaching Leadership: Where Theory Bridges Practice by Kuhnert

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Misha Rubin is an executive “What’s Next” strategist who helps C-level leaders and high-achievers break income ceilings, land strategic leadership roles, and navigate bold career pivots while regaining meaning and momentum. Grounded in 15+ years as a Wall Street advisor and former EY Partner, he’s led $100M+ transformations and coached hundreds of executives to breakthroughs in compensation, clarity, and career strategy. His work is results-focused, built around executive positioning and decision-making, and supported by a proprietary tool that brings vision, clarity, and next-step confidence.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “We are CEOs of our careers and our lives, and somehow we tolerate not having a strategy for them.”
• “The slow lane is gone. If you are in a slow lane, that’s not a great place to be nowadays.”
• “You have to be nimble and bold to meet the needs of the future.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Loving What Is by Byron Katie 
• The Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum 

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
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🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Joel Rothaizer is a psychologist, executive coach, organizational consultant and leadership development specialist. He’s Board Certified in Organizational & Business Consulting Psychology, and a Master Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. His book on leadership, called Clear Impact, has been strongly endorsed by Ken Wilber. The head of Integral Zen calls it the most integral book on leadership he’s ever read.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Helping leaders see the logical next step is the easy part. Helping them see why they do not take it is the art.”
• “Whatever you are biased toward, you lose the value of it when you over-privilege it.”
• “Everything goes better as a polarity. There is not a single value you can come up with that is not better understood as a polarity.”
• “People will integrate a tool at the level of complexity they live at.”
• “A polarity map is inherently developmentally energizing. It temporarily helps people think at a higher level than they would on their own.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Clear Impact by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: Guaranteed to Optimize Your Leadership Effectiveness in Minutes a Day by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: The Wake I Leave by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
•  Article: Co-Responsibility: The Essential Foundation for Effective Performance Collaboration by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: Organizational Leader: Do You Really “Think Systems”?
• Book: Cloudless Mind: Conversations on Buddhahood by Dan Brown

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Joel Rothaizer is a psychologist, executive coach, organizational consultant and leadership development specialist. He’s Board Certified in Organizational & Business Consulting Psychology, and a Master Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. His book on leadership, called Clear Impact, has been strongly endorsed by Ken Wilber. The head of Integral Zen calls it the most integral book on leadership he’s ever read.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “You leave a wake in every interaction. The real question is not just what kind of wake you left, but whether you even noticed.”
• “Thirty seconds before every conversation, set a task goal and a people goal. That one habit can catapult your leadership capacity.”
• “Performance isn’t about you or me — it’s about how we’re doing together. Start a performance conversation with that and everything shifts.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Clear Impact by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: Guaranteed to Optimize Your Leadership Effectiveness in Minutes a Day by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: The Wake I Leave by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
•  Article: Co-Responsibility: The Essential Foundation for Effective Performance Collaboration by Dr. Joel Rothaizer
• Article: Organizational Leader: Do You Really “Think Systems”?
• Book: Cloudless Mind: Conversations on Buddhahood by Dan Brown
• Ted Talk: Everyday Leadership by Drew Dudley

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Andrew McMasters is an actor, director, and consultant who helps leaders and teams strengthen communication, collaboration, and presence through the power of performance. As the author of Listening Without Agenda, he blends acting techniques with business strategy to create authentic, engaging, and effective leadership.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Actors learn to use their bodies to communicate. Leaders forget that their body is one of the tools they use.”
• “Make your scene partner look good. That is what creates true collaboration.”
• “In improv, you cannot hold on to your agenda. You have to build something together.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Andrew's Website
• Book: Slow Horses

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jon Macaskill is a retired Navy SEAL Commander turned speaker, mindfulness teacher, and leadership coach. Over his 24-year military career, he led special operations organizations ranging from 16 men to over 2,500 people. Today, he blends hard-earned military lessons with mindful leadership tools to help individuals and organizations grow through resilience, grit, and compassion. At the heart of it all, he uses his voice, presence, and past (especially the hard parts) to help others unlock their potential.

A  Couple of Quotes From This Episode

• “Being nice feels good in the moment. Being kind is longer lasting.”
• “I would rather not pick a side and join the two sides than pick a side and divide us.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Jon's Website
• Book: Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia. 
• Book: Lifespan by David Sinclair

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Sabina Nawaz is the author of YOU’RE THE BOSS: Become the Manager You Want to Be (and Others Need) and an elite executive coach who advises C-level executives and teams at Fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions around the world. Sabina routinely gives speeches each year and teaches faculty at Northeastern and Drexel Universities. During her fourteen-year tenure at Microsoft, she went from managing software development teams to leading the company’s executive development and succession planning efforts for over 11,000 managers and nearly a thousand executives, advising Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer directly. She has written for and been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, NBC, Nasdaq, and MarketWatch.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• “It’s not power that corrupts. It’s pressure.”
• “As our job expands, the added pressure to perform corrupts our actions, and our increased power will blind us to the impact of those actions.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: You’re the Boss: Become the Manager You Want to Be and Others Need by Sabina Nawaz
• Forbes Article: “Under Pressure: Why Stress, Not Power, Corrupts Leadership Actions” by Sabina Nawaz on Forbes
• Book: Creative Acts for Curious People by Sarah Stein Greenberg

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Sunil Puri is a thought leader with over two decades of experience in leadership development, sustainability, and data analytics. Currently serving as the head of research and engagement at the Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC) in Singapore.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Most leadership decisions today are not either/or. They are both/and."
• “Doing well by doing good. If it's doing well and doing good, then doing good becomes an afterthought.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Grow the Pie by Alex Edmans
• Book: Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Singapore — the largest and the most active international business association in Singapore and Southeast Asia representing over 650 companies. Hsien is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, member of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Advisory Board, Vice President of the Precision Public Health Asia Society, board member and fundraising committee chair of TalentTrust, board committee member of SATA CommHealth and advisory committee member at the Singapore University of Social Sciences School of Business.

A  Quote From This Episode

• "The truth is Singapore itself is a very small market…And yet its influence and its ability to do more for the rest of the world is really impressive.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It: Learning Moments from an Everyday CEO of a Multi-Billion-Dollar Company, Garry Ridge & Martha Finney. 
• Book: Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A by Garry Ridge & Ken Blanchard.

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jonathan Reams, PhD, is currently doing action research projects exploring how to scale micro-skill development for habituating core leadership practices. He approaches this work drawing on experiences from holding a position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 2007 until 2024, serving as editor-in-chief of Integral Review from 2005 to 2023, and being chief creative officer at the Center for Transformative Leadership and Adeptify.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Life will teach you better. The curriculum is all around you.”
• “If your inner weather is turbulent, others can feel it. You can’t hide your state of being.”
• “Leadership starts with regulating your own noise so you can notice the needs of others.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Article: Amal and Berndt’s paper on the knowing–doing gap
• Edgar H. Schein: Helping: How to Offer Give and Receive Help
• Dynamic Skill Theory – Kurt Fischer
• Book: BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits
• Book: James Clear’s Atomic Habits
• Book: Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. 

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jonathan Reams, PhD, is currently doing action research projects exploring how to scale micro-skill development for habituating core leadership practices. He approaches this work drawing on experiences from holding a position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 2007 until 2024, serving as editor-in-chief of Integral Review from 2005 to 2023, and being chief creative officer at the Center for Transformative Leadership and Adeptify.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• "Leadership isn’t about position—it’s about behavior in the moment.”
• “We need proprioception of thought—awareness of our thinking as it arises.”
• “The feeling of being time-starved is an interpretation, not a fact.”
• “It’s not about a thousand skills to master; it’s about cultivating processes for clean thinking and wise action.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Article: Amal and Berndt’s paper on the knowing–doing gap
• Center for Creative Leadership’s DAC model
• Dynamic Skill Theory – Kurt Fischer
• David Bohm’s work on the proprioception of thought
• David Wagoner’s poem Lost
• Book: BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits
• Book: James Clear’s Atomic Habits
• Book: Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change
• Book: Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jonathan Reams, PhD, is currently doing action research projects exploring how to scale micro-skill development for habituating core leadership practices. He approaches this work drawing on experiences from holding a position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) from 2007 until 2024, serving as editor-in-chief of Integral Review from 2005 to 2023, and being chief creative officer at the Center for Transformative Leadership and Adeptify.

A  Few Quotes From This Episode

• "You may think your inner state is invisible, but you can’t hide it.”
• “The success of the intervention is primarily due to the interior condition of the intervener.”
• “Resilience isn’t about bouncing back to normal—it’s about expanding your capacity.”
• “Leaders create the weather. Your energy is the signal everyone else reads first.”
• “Knowing about something isn’t the same as learning how to do it.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Article: Amal and Berndt’s paper on the knowing–doing gap
• Book: An Everyone Culture by Kegan and Lahey
• Book: The Outward Mindset by The Arbinger Institute
• Book: Theory U by Otto Scharmer
• Organization: HeartMath Institute
• Tool: MindLog by Theo Dawson

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

John Dailey – A high school diving coach for more than 45 years, John is known for his infectious energy, big-hearted mentorship, and focus on building confidence and resilience in young athletes.

Chris Whritenour – A trailblazing coach and former University of Minnesota diver (and its first female coach). Chris broke barriers as one of the first women to sign a collegiate athletic letter of intent and has spent decades inspiring divers (especially young women) to believe in their own strength.

Dennis Pluth – A passionate former diver and coach for nearly two decades, Dennis blends tough love with deep care, challenging athletes to take ownership of their growth while celebrating the lifelong community the sport creates.

Bret Beecher – A lifelong coach who began at 15 and has led athletes from high school to collegiate levels, Bret treasures the long-term relationships with his divers and the joy of watching them grow into confident, accomplished adults.

Quotes From This Episode

• "Diving is 85% mental, 15% physical—we spend an awful lot of time running around inside these kids’ heads.” — John Dailey
• “You can tell when someone’s genuine, just by showing up every day and making them believe they can.” — Chris Whritenour
• “Diving accepted me for who I am." — Dennis Pluth
• “Whether you finish in last place or first place, the kids will never forget the experience they had from their coaches and teammates.” — Bret Beecher

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Nicole Ferry is a tenure-track assistant professor at Copenhagen Business School. Drawing on her background in cultural studies and critical theory, her research examines the ideological and gendered discourses of leadership and leadership development across diverse contexts. 

She has published in Journal of Business Ethics, Leadership, Management Learning, Gender, Work and Organization, and Academy of Management Learning & Education. Her current work explores the competitive and cultural dynamics of the leadership industries, as well as contemporary approaches to gender-based leadership development.

Quotes From This Episode

• “If men don’t connect personal identity work to gender and power, we won’t achieve equity.”
• “It’s a privilege not to have to think about how your gender shapes your leadership.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Article: Men’s Leadership Development: A Framework for Advancing Gender Equity in Leadership Development
• Television: Adolescence
• Television: Men
• Film: Coherence 
• Television: The Bear

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Scott Ritzheimer has helped start nearly 20,000 new businesses and nonprofits, and with his business partner started and led their multimillion-dollar business through an exceptional and extended growth phase (over 10 years of double-digit growth all before he turned 35. 

He founded Scale Architects to help businesses across the country identify the right growth strategies and find the right guides to get them on the fast track to Predictable Success and stay there as long as possible.

He now travels across the country to speak to and consult with founders, CEOs, and their teams to help them not only grow but scale their businesses and do it all without the hustle.

Quotes From This Episode

• “The problem isn’t a lack of information; it’s knowing which information to act on right now.”
• "Pulling lessons from your future into your present only adds weight and slows you down.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: The Founder’s Evolution by Ritzheimer
• Framework: Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies 

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Jonathan W. White is a professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author or editor of 17 books covering various topics, including civil liberties during the Civil War, the USS Monitor and the Battle of Hampton Roads, the presidential election of 1864, and what Abraham Lincoln and soldiers dreamt about.

Among his awards are the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award (2019), CNU’s Alumni Society Award for Teaching and Mentoring (2016), the Abraham Lincoln Institute Book Prize (2015), and the University of Maryland Alumni Excellence Award in Research (2024).

His recent books include A House Built By Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022), which was co-winner of the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize (with Jon Meacham); Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (2023); Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves (2023); and an exciting new children’s book, My Day with Abe Lincoln (2024).

A Quote From This Episode

• "Viewed from the abolition ground, Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull; but measured by his country, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Book: Measuring the Man: The Writings of Frederick Douglass on Abraham Lincoln
• Article: Flag burning has a long history in the U.S. — and legal protections from the Supreme Court

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Wayne E. Mayer, CEO of When Everything Matters (WEMCo), is a Strategic Sustainability Consultant who advises global companies, governments, and non-profits. He helps organizations transform business models into authentic Sustainable Development partnerships. He brings over 20 years’ experience designing and leading Corporate Sustainability. Dr. Mayer helps clients embed Sustainability into governance, culture, and leadership. He works across industries and offers extensive involvement in the mining sector. 

His approach tethers company practices to megatrends and positions companies as leaders in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. Dr. Mayer also works as a Duke Corporate Education Educator and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Duke University Center for International Development, and has taught for the Duke Environmental Leadership and Business & Environment programs. He also teaches graduate courses for the University of Denver’s Environmental Policy & Management and Global Community Engagement programs.

A Quote From This Episode

• “Sustainability is really a mindset as opposed to a department.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• 📗 Firms of Endearment by Sisodia
• 📗 Full Spectrum Thinking by Johansen
• 📗 The Man Who Broke Capitalism by Gelles 
• 📗 The War Below by Scheyder
• 📗 Ingrained by Robinson

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Barrett Keene is the Senior Director of Talent Development at Stanford Health Care. He previously served as Director of Talent Development at Intuit, where he led teams that develop leaders in Silicon Valley and across the world. Before Intuit, Barrett worked at Tesla as an executive coach and the Head of Leadership and Talent Development for Tesla’s Engineering organizations. In addition to Barrett’s work as an internal Leadership and Talent Development leader, Barrett spent four years helping nine Fortune 100 companies develop their leaders and employees with Accenture Strategy and the previous eleven years as an independent leadership development consultant within more than 80 organizations.

Before joining Accenture, Barrett completed a PhD at Cornell University focusing on Transformational Leadership and Behavioral Integrity and a Master of Business Management while teaching middle school and high school in Miami and Tampa. Barrett lives with his wife and children in Palo Alto, California.

A Quote From This Episode

• “We’ve skipped over transactional leadership for too long, but without those foundations, the staircase of leadership falls apart.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• 📗 Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't by Pfeffer
• 📗 The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations by Kouzes and Posner
• 📗 Leadership Processes and Follower Self-Identity by Lord & Brown

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jennifer Garvey Berger designs and teaches leadership programs, coaches senior leaders and their teams, and supports new ways of thinking about strategy and people. In her four highly acclaimed books, Unleash Your Complexity Genius (co-authored with Carolyn Coughlin), Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, Simple Habits for Complex Times (co-authored with Keith Johnston), and Changing on the Job, Jennifer builds on deep theoretical knowledge to offer practical ways to make leaders’ organizations more successful, their work more meaningful, and their lives more gratifying. Jennifer has worked with senior leaders in the private, non-profit, and government sectors worldwide (like Novartis, Google, KPMG, Intel, Microsoft, Wikimedia, and the New Zealand Department of Conservation).

Jennifer is a co-founder and CEO of Cultivating Leadership. She has a masters and a doctorate from Harvard University. Formerly an associate professor at George Mason University, Jennifer learned about deep change more than a decade ago when she turned down the tenure offer and moved to a small seaside village in New Zealand with her husband, two kids, and the family dog. While she still considers herself a Kiwi by choice, you can find her in the French countryside, where she has bought a house with eleven friends who live in community and try to keep the dog from terrifying the cats.

A Quote From This Episode

• “My job is to admire that meaning system and hold space for that meaning system to grow a little bit. My job is not to fix it…”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• 📗 Changing on the Job (Second Edition) by Jennifer Garvey-Berger
• 📗 Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems by Adam Kahane

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Cathy Carroll learned about family business leadership the best way you can – by leading her family business. After a twenty-year corporate career, she left United Airlines to lead her father’s business and instantly recognized a difference between leadership in a family business vs leadership in a large corporation.  

Founder and President of Legacy Onward, Inc., Cathy Carroll is a family business leadership coach and author of Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business With both Love and Logic. She also trains advisors serving in family enterprises, as well as coaches who maintain their credentials with the International Coaching Federation.

Cathy earned certificates in both Leadership Coaching and Executive Facilitation at Georgetown University, an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BA at Boston College.  She is also a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) in the ICF.

An active member of the community, Cathy currently serves as Vice-Chair the Board of the Purposeful Planning Institute and co-founder & Treasurer of A Leg To Stand On which provides prosthetic limbs to children in developing countries. 

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “I have to get comfortable with disappointing people. That’s my growth edge as a leader.”
• “A polarity is like breathing — you can't inhale without exhaling. In leadership, you need both.”
• “An overused strength becomes your biggest liability.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• 📗 Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business With Both Love and Logic
• 📗 Polarity Management by Johnson
• 📗 Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm by Buhner
  🎬 Key & Peele’s Luther the Anger Translator

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Amal Ahmadi is an Associate Professor and Program Coordinator at the College of Business and Management, American University of Bahrain. She holds a PhD in management from Henley Business School. Her research focuses on leadership and leadership development, and currently revolves around investigating cognitive, affective, and behavioral mechanisms surrounding leadership and leadership development.

Dr. Bernd Vogel is a professor in leadership and the founding director of the Henley Centre for Leadership, Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. He holds a PhD in Management from Leibniz University Hanover. His expertise is in strategic leadership to mobilize and maintain energy in organizations, multi-level leadership, leading transformations, culture and change, and the future of leadership and leadership development.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Leadership programs give you a platter of fruit; the real work is choosing what to eat and when.”
• “Structured reflection shouldn’t be optional; it has to be part of our day-to-day.”
• “There’s a dormant, inactive capacity in managers that just sits there if we don’t create space for it to breathe.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: The Knowing-Doing Gap by Pfeffer & Sutton 
• Book: Professionalizing Leadership by Kellerman
• Book: The Nazi Mind by Rees 
• Podcast: How to Fail with Elizabeth Day
• Organization: Inner Development Goals initiative 

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Max Klau is a consultant, author, speaker, and Integral Master Coach based in Boston, Massachusetts.  He received his doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2005 with a focus on civic leadership development.  He served as the Chief Program Officer at the New Politics Leadership Academy (NPLA) from 2016-2024.  NPLA is focused on bringing more servant leaders into politics, and Max designed leadership programs that have graduated more than 2,500 servant leaders to date.  

Previously, he was the Vice President of Leadership Development at City Year, the education-focused AmeriCorps program.  He is the founder of the Center for Courageous Wholeness and his second book, Developing Servant Leaders at Scale, will be published in August 2025. He lives outside of Boston with his wife and two children.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “One of the reasons our world is so divided is because we’re divided from ourselves.”
• “We’ve hit the limits of how much change we can make without getting serious about owning our shadow.”
• “If we don’t confront the shadow, it controls us from beyond our awareness and shows up in the systems we lead.”
• “Service turns pain into power when we use the gifts of our struggle to serve others.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Developing Servant Leaders at Scale by Max Klau 
• Book: Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness by Greenleaf
• Book: Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
• Book: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
• Organization: Inner Development Goals 
• Podcast: Living Myth with Michael Meade

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Cynthia Pong, JD, is an award-winning executive coach and speaker who empowers women of color leaders to advance their careers into positions of power. A Forbes Contributor and LinkedIn Top Voice for Job Search and Career, she has been featured in HBR, The Atlantic, and on NBC, CBS, NPR, and more. 

As Founder and CEO of Embrace Change, Cynthia leads an elite, all-BIPOC team who provide specialized coaching and training programs for high-performing women of color up to the C-suite. Equipped with Cynthia’s strategic guidance, her clients break down barriers, lead with authenticity, and have collectively negotiated over $750K in salary increases. Her Anthem Award-winning Leadership Accelerator program has propelled women of color to prestigious fellowships, promotions, and top graduate program admissions. 

Cynthia’s book, Don’t Stay in Your Lane: The Career Change Guide for Women of Color , has cemented her as a foremost voice on career advancement, negotiation, and thought leadership.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “I’ve coached over 350 women of color—those numbers taught me it’s never a skills gap but often a confidence gap.”
• “It’s not about a deficit in ability; it’s about being so hard on ourselves we won’t experiment or make a mistake.”
• “One-on-one tailored strategic support from an executive coach is the single best investment of your scarcest resource: time.”
• “We have to change from doing to leading—mastering tasks won’t teach you how to inspire others.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Don’t Stay in Your Lane: The Career Change Guide for Women of Color 
• Cynthia's Forbes Contributor Page
• Cynthia's Assessment: Cynthia's Leadership Skills Quiz 
• Book: Never Split the Difference 
• Website: Anton Gunn’s Leadership Works
  
  

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Jenn Zella is the Co-Founding Principal and Chief Visionary Officer of CID Design Group, an intentional design firm that creates authentic interiors and inspired brands that engage, elevate, and endure. With a deep-rooted passion for collaboration, the creative process, and what she terms Conscious Design, Jenn believes in the power of design to make the world a happier, healthier, and more beautiful place.

With over 25 years of experience and stemming from a long family legacy of design, architecture, development, and construction, Jenn has been a catalyst for CID’s growth and evolution, earning recognition as one of the Top 100 design firms by Interior Design Magazine for eight consecutive years. 

As a thought leader and creative visionary, Jenn frequently speaks nationally, sharing insights on future-forward and human-centric design, leading with heart and purpose, building a culture of trust, and coaching creativity. She has championed the intersection of design and well-being, creating spaces that support individuals in becoming their best selves. She also embodies this philosophy by integrating well-being into CID’s Blue Zone Certified workplace, including a dedicated Wellness Studio that prioritizes holistic health, mindful movement, and self-care.

With a team based in 11 states and 30 cities, CID has taken a bold approach in the design industry, embracing a predominantly virtual creative workplace, redefining how we design, collaborate, and fuel culture leveraging deep tech and high trust.

Jenn believes in leading and creating with love, with an open mind, and in collaboration with others. None of us are as smart as all of us.

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Having fun is elemental to being our best and to enjoying the journey together.”
• “Engage, elevate, endure—that’s our mantra for everything we create.”
• “Physical presence in a seat at a desk does not equate to accountability.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in studying, practicing, and teaching leadership. Plan for Prague - October 15-18, 2025!

About  Scott J. Allen

• Website
• Weekly Newsletter: Practical Wisdom for Leaders
• Blog

My Approach to Hosting

• The views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are views to consider, and I hope they help you clarify your perspective. Nothing can replace your reflection, research, and exploration of the topic.

♻️ Please share with others and follow/subscribe to the podcast!
⭐️ Please leave a review on Apple, Spotify, or your platform of choice.
➡️ Follow me on LinkedIn for more on leadership, communication, and tech.
📜 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter featuring four hand-picked articles.
🌎 You can learn more about my work on my Website.

Dr. Barbara Kellerman is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Center, and a member of the Kennedy School faculty for over twenty years. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Christopher Newport, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She also served as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A. M.Phil., and Ph.D. (in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. At Uppsala (1996-97), she held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is author and editor of many books. Kellerman has also appeared on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review.

From 2015 to 2023 she was listed by Global Gurus as among the “World’s Top 30 Management Professionals.”

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Leadership is learning lifelong...just like medicine or law.”
• “You don’t develop leaders overnight.”
• “Because the (leadership) industry is so profitable, nobody really wants to break up the existing model.”