

Practical Wisdom for Leaders with Scott J. Allen, Ph.D.
Scott J. Allen
Practical Wisdom for Leaders is your fast-paced, forward-thinking guide to leadership. Join host Scott J. Allen as he engages with remarkable guests—from former world leaders and nonprofit innovators to renowned professors, CEOs, and authors. Each episode offers timely insights and actionable tips designed to help you lead with impact, grow personally and professionally, and make a meaningful difference in your corner of the world.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 28, 2021 • 50min
Dr. Karl Kuhnert and Dr. Keith Eigel - Vertical Development
Send us a textKarl 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, Cox Automotive, The Federal Reserve, Federal Home Loan Bank, The Robert Wood Foundation, Carnival Cruise Line, AECOM, and The American Cancer Society.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 Quote From This Episode"The higher the level of vertical development the more effective you are in all aspects of life and leadership. In fact, no single factor better predicts you’re effectiveness than where you are on your vertical journey."ResourcesArticle: Transactional and transformational leadership: A constructive/developmental analysis by Kuhnert and LewisArticle: Authentic development: Leadership development level and executive effectiveness by Eigel and KuhnertBook: The Map by Eigel and KuhnertBook: ♻️ 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.

Nov 18, 2021 • 48min
Dr. Jon Wergin - The Deep Learning Mindset
Send us a textJon Wergin has been Professor of Education Studies at Antioch University’s Graduate School of Leadership & Change since 2003, following a 30-year career at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he won awards for both teaching (1996) and scholarship (1998). He was the founding director of the Forum on Faculty Roles and Rewards in the American Association for Higher Education in 1992, and continued an active association with AAHE until 2004, focusing his scholarship on leadership and change in higher education. He is the author or co-author of 18 books and monographs, 13 book chapters, and 64 scholarly papers, and has given invited addresses to more than 100 colleges, universities, and professional organizations on such topics as faculty development, evaluation research, professional education, curriculum development in higher education, evaluation and change in higher education, and department chair development. His most recent book is Deep Learning in a Disorienting World. After nearly 20 years with Antioch, Jon moved to semi-retirement status in July 2020.Quotes I Enjoyed From This Episode"There's a deep learning mindset that gives us permission to continually be curious about the world."(Deep learners) "are driven by a sort of 'humble curiosity,' that there's always more to know. And the result of that knowledge will make for a more satisfying and efficacious life.""It's, putting yourself in that state of what I call 'constructive disorientation.' How do you find that sweet spot between comfort and anxiety? That place where you are just uncomfortable enough to be motivated to examine your feelings and reflect. But not so uncomfortable that you want to pull back, escape, and go to a more comfortable place. It can be a very narrow band."Resource Mentioned in This EpisodePodcast: Growing as Grownups Podcast - Robert Kegan and Keith EigelBook: Caste by Isabel WilkersonFilm: In and Of ItselfAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals with a keen interest in the study, practice, and teaching of leadership. Connect with Scott AllenWebsite♻️ 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.

Nov 14, 2021 • 41min
Dr. Randal Joy Thompson - Proleptic Leadership on the Commons
Send us a textDr. Randal Joy Thompson is a global wanderer who has been moving from country to country working in international development since the 1980s. She has worked and lived in India, Cameroon, Morocco, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Liberia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Jordan and worked short term in a number of other countries. She loves exploring new cultures and working with teams of local nationals who always teach her new things about the world and what is important to value. As a scholar-practitioner, she recently focused on "leadership on the commons." Her book Proleptic Leadership on the Commons: Ushering in a New Global Era was published in October 2020 and her upcoming co-edited book (with Devin Singh and Kathleen Curran) Reimagining Leadership on the Commons: Shifting the Paradigm for a More Ethical, Equitable, and Just World will be published on September 29, 2021. Her 2018 co-edited with Julia Storberg-Walker book Leadership and Power in International Development: Navigating the Intersections of Gender, Culture, Context, and Sustainability won the 2018 Academy for Human Resource Development R. Wayne Pace HRD Book of the Year Award. She has published articles and chapters on women in El Salvador, Afghanistan, Morocco, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Myanmar. Her company, Dream Connect Global, creates networks to help people achieve their dream. She earned her Ph.D. in Human and Organization Systems from Fielding Graduate University, a MA in Philosophy and MBA from the University of Chicago, a MA in Biblical Exposition from Capital Seminary and Graduate School, and a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently a Fellow at Fielding’s Institute for Social Innovation. She is a mother of two sons and a grandmother of five grandkids. To learn more about her work, visit Randal's Website. A Powerful Quote From This Episode"Commoners are living with the values, the relationships, that they would hope society would evolve into. That prefigurative. And it’s a powerful way of change. But when you translate that into leadership, it’s 'proleptic.' Because you have that vision of that perfect society that you want to create. And that vision drives your leadership, it drives the way you are, what you’re being on every level...on the personal level, on the inner relational level, on the social level. Once you have that vision so clear, glim♻️ 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.

Nov 6, 2021 • 41min
Dr. Ellen Burts-Cooper - Building (Virtual) Teams
Send us a textDr. Ellen Burts-Cooper is the senior managing partner of Improve Consulting and Training Group, a firm that provides personal and professional development training, coaching, and consultation. Improve has been featured in Time Magazine, Black Voices, Smart Business Magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Cleveland Jewish News, Cleveland.com, and Crain’s Cleveland Business. Ellen works across numerous industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, education, retail, utilities, governmental agencies, not-for-profit, and small businesses.Dr. Burts-Cooper is on faculty at Case Western Reserve University in the Weatherhead Executive Education Program and The Institute for Management Studies (IMS). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of First Federal of Lakewood and Sea-Land Chemical Company. She is the author of the books aMAZEing Organizational Teams: Navigating 7 Critical Attributes for Cohesion, Productivity and Resilience and Canine Instinct: A Guide to Survival and Advancement in Corporate America.Previously, Ellen served as a Senior Vice President and Senior Director of Operational Excellence, IT Performance Management, and Governance for PNC Financial Services. Prior to the financial services industry, Ellen worked in the electronics industry where she led global teams in several functions at 3M Company in St. Paul, MN.She earned a BS in chemistry from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, AL, her Ph.D. in organic/polymer chemistry from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, her MBA from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business, her Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification from 3M Company, and her Multicultural Competency and Wellness Certificate from the National Wellness Institute.Ellen is also an active volunteer and supporter for a host of community-related organizations across the US and provides college scholarships through her fund at The Cleveland Foundation. She is a member of the Private Directors Association and the National Wellness Institute.A Powerful Quote From This Episode"I want teams to be more productive, more cohesive, and more resilient. That is my life's work."Resources Mentioned in♻️ 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.

Oct 30, 2021 • 37min
Sadhana Hall - Work On It Until You Become It
Send us a textSadhana Warty Hall’s commitment as both a teacher and practitioner of leadership reflects a deep dedication to justice and empowerment, both locally and globally. She has applied her experience in management and strategic thinking to community development at institutions ranging in location from New Hampshire and Vermont to Tuvalu, Armenia, and Bhutan. As the current Deputy Director of the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College, she manages overall operations. She conceptualized the curricula of high-impact co-curricular leadership and mentoring programs and now oversees them. In recognition of her work, Sadhana received Dartmouth College’s Sheila Culbert Distinguished Employee Service Award, the Australia Government’s Endeavor Executive Leadership Award to adapt and implement leadership curricula for Australian Indigenous communities, and acceptance into the Fulbright Specialist Program. Over the past few years, over 25 students in the Center’s leadership programs, who have also participated in other organizations throughout Dartmouth, have gone on to receive awards including the Rhodes, Truman, Fulbright, Knight Hennessey, Schwarzman, and Pickering scholarships. She is the co-author of Teaching Leadership: Bridging Theory and Practice (2018) and her second book, Leadership Blueprints: Adopt, Adapt, and Adjust was published in July 2021. She earned an M.A. in history from the University of Rajasthan, India, and completed an M.P.H. in public health from the University of North Carolina.Resource Mentioned in This Episode/Book by Gama PerruciILA's General Principles for Leadership ProgramsGlobal leadership: A transnational perspectiveQuotes From This EpisodeOn the passing of Gama Perruci - "I feel he lives with us and lives through the students, the faculty, the alumni, that a♻️ 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.

Oct 23, 2021 • 54min
Dr. Kelly Peterson - The Impact of Those Stories
Send us a textDr. Kelly Peterson is an industrial psychologist and consultant whose 25+ years of practice specialty includes a wide range of organizational development strategies and design solutions. Her expertise includes leadership development, diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI), executive coaching, culture change management, strategic planning, performance assessment, management and organizational effectiveness facilitation, design, and consultation. She has worked with 1,000s of leaders in Fortune 100 companies globally, from corporate boardrooms and executive leadership teams to frontline managers. Peterson has consulted in an array of business industries, including consulting with The Walt Disney Company, designing and facilitating leadership engagements across the enterprise both nationally and globally for over 12 years. She has also facilitated leadership engagements for Coca-Cola, Hitachi, UCLA, Los Angeles County, and Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. Specifically, she has led DEI engagements for Honda Motors, Honda Manufacturing, Phillips, BMG, Comcast, Viacom, 3D Systems, and Southern California Edison, amongst others.Her leadership experience includes six years as senior partner and founder of Syzygy Global Consultants, Inc., seven years in a variety of HR management roles, including diversity and inclusion, employee relations, and training and development for Sony Pictures Entertainment, and three years as Chairperson of the doctoral program in psychology and organizational management and consulting at Phillips Graduate University. She has been on faculty for UCLA’s Technical Management Program and The Economic Development, Leadership Institute at College of the Canyons. She has a doctorate of psychology in organizational management and consulting from Phillips Graduate University and is a graduate of the University of Southern California, Human Resources Development Master Trainer’s Institute. Kelly is a Coro Fellow and graduate of Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Business Program through Babson College.Learn more at: https://transitions2transformations.com/A Powerful Quote From This Episode"I realized that a lot of what's missing from the work is the actual stories and the impact of those stories in the workplace."Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeScholar: Dr. Jean Lippman-BlumenShow: High on the Hog Show: Never Have I EverMusician: Miles Davis Kind of BluePodcast: This American LifeAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ♻️ 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.

Oct 17, 2021 • 38min
Wiley "Chip" Souba, MD - A Mountain With No Top
Send us a textWiley “Chip” Souba, MD is Professor of Surgery and Adjunct Professor of Medical Education at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Chip is recognized for his innovative approaches to teaching leadership and his conviction that most of the barriers to great leadership are not external, but rather within. Thus, his emphasis is on the inward journey of leadership. He lectures, conducts workshops, and teaches courses on leadership around the world. He has published extensively on diverse topics such as leading yourself, personal and organizational transformation, barriers to effective leadership, resilience, and the language of leadership. Dr. Souba has served as Dean of Medicine and Vice-President for Health Affairs at two universities, Dartmouth and Ohio State. He has also served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Penn State, Chief of Surgical Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Professor of Surgery at University of Florida. Dr. Souba is a summa cum laude graduate of Muskingum College and an AOA graduate of the University of Texas Medical School in Houston, where he also did his general surgery training. During his surgical residency, Dr. Souba completed a fellowship in surgical research at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and earned a Doctorate in Science in Nutritional Biochemistry at the Harvard School of Public Health. He subsequently completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas. Dr. Souba’s clinical interests are in surgical oncology. He has been regularly ranked as one of The Best Doctors in America by his peers and has been recognized for his clinical expertise by Boston Magazine. He was funded by the National Institute of Health for 20 years to study amino acid metabolism in catabolic diseases. He has published 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals, has served as Editorial Chair of American College of Surgeons Surgery, and was Co-editor of the Journal of Surgical Research for 20 years. Chip’s passion for developing leaders stems from his deep conviction that there is something about being human at this stage of our evolution that most human beings have not yet discovered or fully penetrated, the awareness of which would transform their lives and ultimately the world. He is committed to making that something available to as many people as possible. You can learn more about Chip's writing and work at www.theinwardjourneyofleadership.comQuotes From This Episode"I have come to believe that if you are not solid and square in here, you can't be as effective as you would otherwise be. I think leadership is an activity that involves people and moving them and organizations forward to a better place. But it has to be anchored in here.""You're always becoming a leader...you never become one, just like you never become a parent, you're always becoming a parent.""You have to want people ♻️ 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.

Oct 7, 2021 • 38min
Sharna Fabiano - Lead & Follow
Send us a textSharna Fabiano is an internationally recognized tango artist. Over the course of her twenty-year dance career, she toured over a dozen countries, designed partner-based movement courses for undergraduates, and founded a nonprofit tango school in Washington, DC. She is an outspoken advocate for the study of both leading and following roles independent of gender, a training practice that builds empathy, inclusion, and creativity. Sharna brings her deep understanding of the leader/follower dynamic in social dance into the professional sphere with original coaching programs that help professionals and teams collaborate more successfully. Sharna earned her MFA in dance from UCLA and lives in Los Angeles.Our First ConversationSharna Fabiano - Connect, Collaborate, CreateSharna's Latest BookLead & Follow: The Dance of Inspired TeamworkSharna's PodcastLead & Follow PodcastQuotes From This Episode"My life as a social dancer showed me that superior work, not to mention the most satisfying work comes not from everyone leading all of the time, but from leaders and followers working together." Leaders and Followers - "On either side, there needs to be that healthy commitment and engagement.""Power can be organized in a way that's more harmful/violent, or more supportive, protective, and nurturing...I think we're maybe always going to be on that spectrum somehow, as a human family."Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeBook: Sapiens: A Brief History of HumankindBook: Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsFilm: The InventorFilm: LFGFilm: weworkPodcast: Gaslit NationAbout The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals with a keen interest in the stu♻️ 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.

Oct 2, 2021 • 39min
Dr. Elena Antonacopoulou - Phronesis
Send us a textDr. Elena Antonacopoulou is the founder and director of GNOSIS an international, interdisciplinary, and independent research and leadership development Institute. She has held full-time Professorial appointments at the Universities of Liverpool, Manchester, and Warwick and currently holds Visiting Professorial appointments at Western University, Canada, University of Lincoln (UK), and the Royal Norwegian Airforce Academy (Norway). Her scientifically rigorous collaborative research in management and organization studies has earned her many research grants, awards, and accolades recognizing the impact of the ideas developed. Her principal research expertise lies in the areas of Strategic Change, Organisational Learning and Resilience, Knowledge, and Crisis Management with a focus on leadership implications. Elena’s work is published widely in international journals including Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management, Journal of Management Inquiry, Management Learning. She has co-edited 5 books including two new volumes (Sensuous Learning for Practical Judgment in Professional Practice) advancing innovative learning modes that enhance the impact of management practice. She has been elected and served in multiple leadership roles in the top professional bodies in the management field and has received several awards for her outstanding leadership and service contributions and teaching excellence. She is frequently invited to deliver keynote speeches at international conferences, and deliver workshops that inspire and promote action choices that serve the common good. She is a certified coach from the International Coaching Federation.Connecting with ElenaGoogle ScholarLinkedInQuotes From This Episode"Phronesis is a creative act, especially when navigating the unknown...It's not just what happens when we're faced with dilemmas, paradoxes, and crucible moments. Of course, that's where our strength of character shines and guides our action choices, which is why we mark it as an act of practical wisdom.""Practise is about repetition, not replication. I emphatically highlight in my work the distinction between repeating and replicating. I draw on Deleuze, who asserts that repetition is always about the difference. Hence, for me practising is about the leap of faith.""Reflexivity is this moment where we are in a situation fully present. So we show up, and we are experiencing it by allowing ourselves to feel and participate as an insider, at the same time, simultaneously, as we have the capacity to extrapolate and see it from an outsider's perspective.""Sensuousness is the secret intelligence that I don't think we've even begun to tap into, which is so important to phronesis. I call it CORE (Centeredness, O♻️ 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.

Sep 24, 2021 • 55min
Dr. Keith Grint - Mutiny and Leadership
Send us a textKeith Grint has been Professor Emeritus at Warwick University since 2018. He spent 10 years working in various positions across a number of industry sectors before switching to an academic career. His first undergraduate degree (Sociology) was from the Open University in 1981, and his second (Politics) from the University of York in 1982. He received his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1986. He was Jr. Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University between 1985 and 1986 and a Research Fellow there from 1986 to 1987. Between 1986 and 1992 he was Lecturer in Sociology at Brunel University, and between 1992 and 1998 a Fellow at Templeton College, then University Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour, at the School of Management (now Saïd Business School), Oxford University. Between 1998 and 2004 he was University Reader in Organizational Behaviour at the Saïd Business School, and Director of Research there between 2002 and 2003. From 2004 to 2006 he was Professor of Leadership Studies and Dir. of the Lancaster Leadership Centre, Lancaster University School of Management. Between 2006 and 2008 he was Professor of Defence Leadership and Deputy Principal, Shrivenham Campus, Cranfield University. He was Professor of Public Leadership at Warwick Business School from 2009 to 2018.He is a Fellow of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and Professorial Fellow of the Australian Institute of Police Management (AIPM). He is also a founding co-editor with David Collinson of the journal Leadership, and co-founder of the International Studying Leadership Conference. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2012 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science Warwick University in 2013. He received the Chief Constable’s Commendation for Contribution to Police Leadership in 2018 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association in 2018.Recent Books by Keith Mutiny and LeadershipLeadership: A Very Short IntroductionLeadership, Management & Command: Rethinking D-DayThe Arts of Leadership Connecting with Keith♻️ 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.