Adrian Popa | Courage, Adversity and Self-Transcendence in Leadership

Adrian Popa, associate professor of Gonzaga University, joins host Maril to discuss resilience, community and the deeper dimensions of leadership. Drawing from his experiences as an immigrant, clinician, researcher and educator, Adrian explores how leaders can navigate uncertainty with existential courage and servant leadership while fostering transformation at both personal and organizational levels.

Key Takeaways:

00:00 Introduction.
02:54 Personal transformation as a driver of organizational change.
10:54 Balancing personal agency with creating space for the autonomy of others.
14:12 The role of psychological courage in fostering self-sufficiency.
20:12 Measuring leadership success by the growth of others.
23:47 Building collaboration through trust, shared accountability and recognition.
30:09 Viewing adaptability as an essential aspect of hardiness.
34:58 Recognizing and nurturing the potential in others.
39:09 Using self-reflective questions to guide leadership choices.

Resources Mentioned:

Adrian Popa
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-b-popa/

Gonzaga University | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/school/gonzaga-university/

Gonzaga University | Website
https://www.gonzaga.edu

"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4069.Man_s_Search_for_Meaning

"What is Servant Leadership?" by Robert K. Greenleaf
https://greenleaf.org/what-is-servant-leadership/

Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety
https://amycedmondson.com/

"Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
https://www.amazon.com/Outliers-Story-Success-Malcolm-Gladwell/dp/0316017930

 

ABOUT LET GO & LEAD

Let Go & Lead is a leadership community created by Maril MacDonald, founder and CEO of Gagen MacDonald. Maril brings together provocateurs, pioneers, thought leaders and those leading the conversation around culture, transformation and change. Over the course of the past 14 years, Let Go & Lead has existed in many forms, from video interviews to resource guides to its current iteration as a podcast. At its core, it remains a place where people can access a diversity of perspectives on interdisciplinary approaches to leadership. Maril is also working on a book incorporating these insights gathered over the past several years from global leaders and change makers.

Maril has interviewed over 140 leaders — from business to academia and nonprofits to the arts — through the years. In each conversation, from personal anecdotes to ground-breaking scientific analysis, she has probed the lessons learned in leadership. From these conversations, the Let Go & Lead framework has emerged. It is both a personal and organizational resource that aims to serve the individual leader or leadership at scale.

ABOUT GAGEN MACDONALD

At Gagen MacDonald, we are dedicated to helping organizations navigate the human struggle of change. We are a people-focused consulting firm and our passion is improving the employee experience — for everyone. For more than 25 years, we have been working with companies to create clarity from chaos by uniting employees across all levels around a single vision so they can achieve results and realize their future.

We have been a pioneer in bringing humanity to strategy execution, leading in areas such as organizational communication, culture, leadership and employee engagement. Our Vision is to lift all humanity by transforming the companies that transform the world.

 

Full episodes also available on:

Apple Podcasts: 
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/let-go-lead-with-maril-macdonald/id1454869525 

Spotify: 
https://open.spotify.com/show/5Gaf7JXOckZMtkpsMtnjAj?si=WZjZkvfLTX2T4eaeB1PO2A 

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Gagen MacDonald is a woman-owned, human-focused transformation consulting firm and trusted partner to the C-suite. We specialize in internal communications, employee engagement, culture change and leadership developme nt. Learn more at http://www.gagenmacdonald.com.

#LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalChange #CorporateCulture #EmployeeEngagement