Send us a text

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.

Send us a text

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.

Send us a text

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

♻️ 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.

Send us a text

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 t

♻️ 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.

Send us a text

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

♻️ 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.

Send us a text

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.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Professionalizing Leadership by Barbara Kellerman
• Film: Anora

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.

Send us a text

Richard Barrett is an internationally recognised authority on organisational leadership, and personal, organisational, and societal transformation. He is the President of the Barrett Academy for the Advancement of Human Values®, and the Founder of the Barrett Values Centre®. His lifetime quest for understanding the deeper motivations of human consciousness led him to study organisational culture, psychology, spirituality and the evolution of societal worldviews. This interdisciplinary approach culminated in developing the Seven Levels of Consciousness Model, known internationally as the Barrett Model.

Barrett is an accomplished author, having written 14 books, the most influential of which are “The Values-Driven Organization,” “Evolutionary Coaching,” “The New Leadership Paradigm,” and “A New Psychology of Human Well-Being.” 

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Knowing your values means you know what’s in your heart at the deepest level.”
• “You can’t lead other people if you can’t lead yourself.”
• “The purpose for the soul is simply self-expression.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Rebalancing Society by Mintzberg
• Book: What My Soul Told Me by Richard Barrett
• Book: The Nordic Secret by Andersen &  Björkman 
• Humanity Awareness Initiative 
• Barrett Values Centre 
• Richard Barrett’s art site

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,

♻️ 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.

Send us a text

Since 2013 Dr. Richard Bolden has been Professor of Leadership and Management and Director of Bristol Leadership and Change Centre at Bristol Business School, University of the West of England (UWE). Prior to this he worked at the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter Business School for over a decade and also as an independent consultant, research psychologist and in software development in the UK and France. 

A Few Quotes From This Episode

• “Leadership isn’t always about who holds the role—it’s about what’s being mobilized.”
• “Sometimes we solve problems too quickly, before the right people have even had a voice.”
• “Leadership is a lens—it helps us see what’s often hidden.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Blog: Leading Together: An Invitation
• Blog:  Monsters, Metaphors and Masks: Leadership Insights From Halloween
• Book: Exploring Leadership: Individual, organizational and societal perspectives
• Article:  Why is collective leadership so elusive?
• Article:  Putting leadership in its place: Introduction to the special issue
• Podcast: Cautionary Tales | Tim Harford
• Podcast: BBC Sounds - The Great Post Office Trial - Available Episodes
• Conference: islc2025 - University of St Andrews Business School - University of St Andrews

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.

Send us a text

Dr. Rita A. Gardiner is an Associate Professor, Critical Policy, Equity, and Leadership Studies, Faculty of Education, Western University, Canada. Her publications include articles in Gender, Work and Organization, Business Ethics Quarterly, and Organization Studies. She has published extensively on the topic of authentic leadership including a monograph entitled Gender, Authenticity, and Leadership: Thinking with Arendt. As well, Rita is the lead editor of a new international collection exploring the concept of genderwashing in leadership and diverse organizations. 

Dr. Hayley Baker is an Assistant Professor, School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, Canada. Her scholarly interests include leadership, gender, and sport. Her research has focused on addressing the underrepresentation of women coaches at Canadian universities by exploring normalized institutional practices and processes. Additionally, she has examined the implementation of gender-based violence policies in universities and Canadian sport organizations. 

A Couple Quotes From This Episode

• “I think, put simply, genderwashing is really a myth… a myth of gender equality in organizations.
• “It’s about organizational rhetoric versus lived experience, and we’re looking at the tensions between them.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Book: Genderwashing in Leadership: Power, Policies and Politics
• Book: Leadership Ethics: An Introduction
• Television Show: The Traitors (UK)

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 v

♻️ 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.

Send us a text

Harold (Trey) Carlson has served as chief of staff for NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida since August 2022. In this role, Carlson is responsible for day-to-day operations at Kennedy, helping shape the center's strategic direction while overseeing various policies and initiatives.

Before assuming his current role, Carlson served five years as the Kennedy Space Center legislative affairs manager. He directed KSC’s legislative agenda, interfacing with Congress and the State of Florida legislature and advocating for NASA’s exploration and science mission requirements and Kennedy’s multi-user spaceport needs.

During his tenure as legislative affairs manager, Carlson served several months as NASA’s acting deputy associate administrator for the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs (OLIA) and eight months as the acting director for Legislative Liaison Division within OLIA. 

Previously, he led the development and execution of Kennedy’s master plan that transformed the center from a single-use, government-operated federal facility to a multi-user spaceport providing both government and commercial launch operations.

Carlson is a former U.S. Navy submariner and holds a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and planning from the University of California at San Diego, and a Master of Science degree in public policy and management from the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon University. 

A Quote From This Episode

• "It’s the people element that is the most important—whether you’re making yeast rolls or launching rockets.”
• “I’ve never thought, ‘Why did I do this?’ after investing time in a relationship.”

Resources Mentioned in This Episode 

• Podcast: Jordan Peterson
• Podcast: President’s Daily Brief 
• TED: Ian Bremmer’s 2025 outlook

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.