Menzies Leadership Forum Rethinking Leadership Development For a Changing World || with Dr Toby Newstead + Professor Ron Riggio + Dr Polly McGee
Oct 17, 2025
Join Professor Ron Riggio, an expert in transformational leadership from Claremont McKenna College, and Dr. Polly McGee, a pioneer in trauma-responsive leadership from Disruptive Consulting. Together, they explore why traditional hero leadership is outdated. They advocate for adaptive and ethical approaches, emphasizing collective sense-making to tackle complex challenges. Polly highlights the importance of psychological safety and leadership grounded in connection. Gain insights into evolving leadership development and the need for continuous human capability over mere titles.
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Leadership Is A Collective Co-Creation
- Leadership is co-created by leaders and followers, not just a heroic individual.
- Professor Ron Riggio argues leadership development must include followers and the collective capacity.
Leaders Are Neurobiological Systems
- Human leaders operate as neurobiological systems shaped by lifelong experience and safety needs.
- Dr Polly McGee warns intellectual knowledge fails under stress unless practised into neural pathways.
Threat Drives Us To Strong Leaders
- Under threat people default to following powerful figures for perceived safety.
- Polly explains this is an evolved binary safety response that can override intellectual values.