IMD-OWPLIVE22-PostEvent-Report

→Leadership

KEYNOTE

‘MOBILIZE THE FIRE WITHIN’: WARTIME LEADERS REQUIRED FOR AN ERA OF UPHEAVAL

Balancing ‘leadership polarities’ is key to navigating an increasingly uncertain world.

Keynote highlights

The effects of soaring inflation, financial market turmoil and the war in Ukraine have thrust the world into an era of fresh turmoil. To overcome these mounting challenges, it’s clear that strong leadership is going to be critical in increasingly turbulent times. In his keynote OWP session, Michael Watkins, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change, said: “If we’re going to avoid a future of famine, fragmentation, and futility, the best hope we have is to develop the right kinds of leaders – and lots of them.”

Referencing climate change, he added: “We must undertake this work for not just the survival of our societies but perhaps in the longer run our species.” In navigating this volatile environment, he said that leaders needed to challenge complacency: “There is a view that history cycles through good and bad times, through golden ages and dark ages, and an associated belief that this too shall pass,” Watkins said.

MICHAEL WATKINS Professor of Leadership and Organizational Change

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