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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!

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