Tuesday May 06, 2025
S4-Ep13b: From Turbulence to Triumph: ILA’s Keys to Adapting Your Leadership

Guest: Cynthia Cherrey, President & CEO, International Leadership Association
The turbulence you see in the world now isn’t going away. Your leadership style must change to meet it.
Fortunately, guest Cynthia Cherrey sits at the very center of both the most effective real-world leadership practices and the latest cutting-edge leadership theories. In this episode, she shares the leadership development information that really works – and that you need – learned from global leaders successfully navigating and thriving in our increasingly complex world.
Here's what Cynthia and host Maureen Metcalf cover:
- The need for adaptive leadership, or why you can’t settle in to just one leadership mode your entire career anymore;
- The significance of global interconnectedness, which won’t (indeed, can’t) go away despite tariffs and isolationism in various countries; and
- The importance of being conscious of your own personal and professional purpose to keep you anchored through turbulence.
For more of Cynthia’s insights and wisdom, check out these other episodes with her:
- Navigating the Global Storm: Rethinking Leadership
- Redefining Leadership: How You Have Global Impact
- Living Models for Reimagining Leadership
For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re onTikTok, Threads, and Twitter, too!
RESOURCES:
Learn more about Cynthia’s work with the International Leadership Association on their website at https://ilaglobalnetwork.org/.
Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.
Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI, or check out the Kindle version at https://amzn.to/44buVz8 . The audiobook version is now available at https://amzn.to/4dTCleZ.
Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.
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OUR PODCAST TEAM:
Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Executive Producer: Dan Mushalko
Graphics Editor: Stacia Rogan
(Information requiring higher security clearance than you have): Jenna Reik
CONNECT WITH US:
YouTube: @InnovatingLeadership
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/ILI-LinkedIn2
Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com
Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating!
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About Our Guest:
Cynthia Cherrey is President and CEO of the International Leadership Association (ILA), a global community committed to increasing quality research, teaching, and practices of leadership contributing to the common good around the world. As president of a multi-sector and global professional association, she works at promoting rigor and relevance of leadership at the intersection of theory and practice. Previously, Cynthia served as Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Vice President for Campus Life at Princeton University.
Dr. Cherrey speaks to non-profit and for-profit organizations around the world and writes in the areas of leadership, organizational development, and higher education. Cynthia’s interests and research explore new ways to live, work, and lead in a knowledge-driven, interdependent, global culture. A sought after advisor, Cynthia serves on the editorial board of Asian Women and the President’s Advisory Group at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a Fellow at the World Business Academy, a Royal Society for the Arts Fellow, and a recipient of a J.W. Fulbright Scholarship.