Awards at the Global Conference
Each year the ILA is pleased to honor both those who have made significant lifetime achievements to the study and practice of leadership and those who are just beginning their career in the field of leadership. Awardees all play a special role at the conference, whether it is taking the plenary stage, participating in a spotlighted concurrent session, or being honored at a special event.
Don’t miss this year’s Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 15 October, 5:30 PM at the conference hotel. Then check out the agenda to find special sessions with our award winners throughout the conference.
2025 ILA Board Chair Award Winner
Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries
Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change, INSEAD; Founder-Chairman, The Kets de Vries Institute
Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, where he founded the Executive Master Program in Change Management and the Global Leadership Center. He brings unique interdisciplinary expertise combining economics, management, and psychoanalysis to explore individual and organizational dynamics. A pioneer in team coaching and organizational transformation, Kets de Vries has authored nearly 60 books and designed a number of 360-degree feedback instruments including the widely used Global Executive Leadership Mirror, Global Executive Leadership Inventory, Leadership Archetype Questionnaire, and the Organizational Culture Audit.
He has published more than 400 academic papers, over 100 case studies, and hundreds of mini-articles (blogs) for the Harvard Business Review, INSEAD Knowledge, and other digital outlets. His books and articles have been translated into more than 30 languages. Recognized among the world’s leading management thinkers by The Financial Times and The Economist, he has received numerous honors including the International Leadership Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Psychological Association’s Harry and Miriam Levinson Award.
As founder-chairman of the Kets de Vries Institute, he consults globally with major corporations including McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Shell, and Nokia. When not working across 40+ countries, he enjoys exploring remote wilderness areas from Mongolia to the Arctic Circle.
Don’t miss Kets de Vries’ featured session at the conference, “The Leadership Mystique.” Thursday, 16 October 2025, 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM in Room, Palmovka 3.
The Leadership Mystique
Many leaders today are not paragons of rational behavior. Their “shadow side”—comprising internal fears, disillusionments, or unresolved personal issues—hinders progress and transformation. Their behavior can be likened to riding a dead horse: despite all evidence, they cling to the hope that it will somehow rise and run again. When you’re riding a dead horse, the wisest course of action is to dismount.
The real challenge for leaders lies in finding the courage and energy to overcome their self-imposed limitations. Mental health is about having the ability to choose—and more importantly, to make wise choices. Unfortunately, this becomes moot when leaders lack self-awareness. Many are unaware of their own strengths and weaknesses, falling prey to hubris, which often leads to their downfall.
What further undermines organizational excellence is that many leaders fail to bring out the best in their people. Their teams often lack cohesion, functioning in isolated silos. Many workplace cultures resemble psychological gulags—environments where employees feel unsafe or stifled. As a result, very few organizations achieve what I call an authentizotic quality—workplaces where people feel truly alive and engaged.
Anyone seeking to build or lead a high-performance organization must understand the psychodynamics of leadership, team functioning, and organizational culture. Even the most resource-rich organizations—with ample funding, strong market presence, and cutting-edge technology—can falter if leadership fails. Great organizations recognize the critical role of talent and culture, understanding that sustainable success requires attention to both what is visible on the surface and what lies beneath.
2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winners
ILA’s Leadership Legacy Program honors individuals who have made a significant lifetime contribution to the field of leadership through their published works and influential support of leadership knowledge and practice. Each honoree is presented with ILA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and has their work celebrated at our annual global conference.
Mats Alvesson
Professor, University of Bath, Bayes Business School, City and St George’s, University of London, Lund University
Mats Alvesson
Mats Alvesson got his PhD at Lund University in 1984. He is Professor of organization studies at the University of Bath, UK and is also affiliated with Lund University, Sweden and Bayes Business School, Bayes Business School, City and St George’s, University of London. Research interests include critical theory, power, management of professional service (knowledge intensive) organizations, leadership, identity, organizational culture and symbolism, qualitative methods and philosophy of science as well as contemporary societal culture. Recent books include The Triumph of Emptiness (Oxford University Press 2022), Re-imagining the Research Process (Sage 2021, w Jörgen Sandberg), Return to Meaning. For a Social Science with Something to Say (Oxford University Press 2017, w Yiannis Gabriel and Roland Paulsen), Reflexive Leadership (Sage 2017, w Martin Blom and Stefan Sveningsson), The Stupidity Paradox (Profile 2016, w André Spicer) and The Art of Less (Bloomsbury 2025, w André Spicer). Alvesson has an honorary doctorate from Copenhagen Business School, is a fellow of the British Academy and the 2023 recipient of the Herbert Simon Award of the Rajk College for Advanced Studies as well as the 2025 INSEAD reward for Rigor and relevance. He is 2023-26 Hans Fischer senior fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at Technical University of Munich.
Don’t Miss, “A Conversation with 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Mats Alvesson,” Thursday, 16 October, 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM in Room, Palmovka 2.
David L. Collinson
Distinguished Professor of Leadership & Organisation, The Department of Organisation, Work & Technology @ Lancaster University Management School, UK
David L. Collinson
David L. Collinson is Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organization at Lancaster University Management School. Previously at the Universities of Manchester, Warwick, St Andrews and South Florida, he is the Founding Co-Editor of the Leadership journal and Founding Co-Organizer of The International Studying Leadership Conference, both with Keith Grint. Collinson’s publications focus on critical approaches to leadership, gender, management and organization. His primary research interests explore leadership & followership dialectics; power, identities & insecurities; gender, men & masculinities; resistance, dramaturgy & conformity and humor, positivity & Prozac leadership. His work has been published in leading journals including Organization Studies, Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Work, Employment & Society, Organization, Gender, Work & Organization, Leadership and Leadership Quarterly. Recent publications examine Critical Leadership Dialectics and Critical Perspectives on Leadership Communication. Collinson is also a frequent contributor to ILA’s Blog, “Leadership for the Greater Good: Global Thought Leaders Explore Today’s Challenges,” and to The Conversation where he discusses leadership as it intersects with music, politics, and masculinity.
Don’t Miss, “A Conversation with 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner David Collinson,” Friday, 17 October 17, 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM, in room, Palmovka 2.
Professor Susan Vinnicombe CBE
Professor of Women and Leadership, Changing World of Work Group, Faculty of Business and Management, Cranfield University
Professor Susan Vinnicombe CBE
Vinnicombe’s particular research interests are gender diversity on corporate boards, and addressing the barriers faced by women aspiring to executive leadership roles. She was Dean of the Fellows of the British Academy of Management 2021-2013 and was presented with the BAM medal for Service and Outstanding Contribution to Leadership in 2024. Vinnicombe has been identified as one of the top ten most influential people in Human Resources in the UK in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. She was inducted into the 50 Thinkers Hall of Fame in 2021. She was a member of the Lord Davies Steering Committee investigating the lack of women on FTSE boards 2010-2015 and the Advisory Board of Sir Philip Hampton and Dame Helen Alexander on the lack of women in the executive pipeline of FTSE companies 2016-2021, and is a member of the Steering Committee of Sir John Parker’s Review of the lack of ethnicity on FTSE boards and a member of the Advisory Board of Dame Amanda Blanc’s Women in Finance Charter. Vinnicombe was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Honours List in 2005 and a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2014 for services to gender diversity.
Don’t Miss, “A Conversation with 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Susan Vinnicombe,” Thursday, 16 October, 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM, in room, Palmovka 2.
Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award
The ILA is pleased to partner with the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond on the Fredric M. Jablin Doctoral Dissertation Award. This award is given annually to a scholar whose doctoral dissertation research, while on any topic and from any discipline, demonstrates substantial insights and implications for the study of leadership. The award was established to honor and celebrate the life of Dr. Fredric M. Jablin (1952-2004), Leadership Studies Professor and E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair at the University of Richmond.
Steven Zhou
Assistant Professor, Claremont McKenna College
Steven Zhou
Steven Zhou, is an Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Claremont McKenna College, where he leads the STATS Lab. His research focuses on leadership, psychometrics and quantitative methods, and careers. With over 20 peer-reviewed publications and $40k in research funding, Steven also brings experience from industry roles in HR, analytics, and consulting. He is passionate about bridging the academic-practitioner gap through rigorous, applied psychological science.
The paper session will take place, Friday, 16 October, 9:15 AM – 10:15 AM, in room, Berlin 3.
Congratulations to Steven Zhou, Ph.D.
Zhou will be presenting, “The Dark Side of Shared Leadership: An Application of Agent-Based Modeling Based on Lab Experiment Data,” a paper based on his dissertation, “The Negative Effects of Shared Leadership: An Application of Agent-Based Modeling Based on Lab Experiment Data,” at the conference.
His dissertation investigates the underexplored “dark side” of shared leadership (SL), a model in which leadership roles are distributed among team members. While prior research has highlighted SL’s benefits, this study identifies potential negative outcomes – relationship conflict, role overlap, and transition failure – depending on the type of SL structure employed (simultaneous, distributed, or rotated). Using a novel hybrid approach that combines lab experiment data with agent-based modeling (ABM), the study simulates thousands of team scenarios, varying leadership configurations, team size, personality fit, and task complexity. Results reveal that certain SL forms can amplify negative outcomes, particularly when not aligned with team or task characteristics. Findings emphasize that while SL can be effective, it is not universally beneficial and must be carefully tailored to context. This work advances SL theory by operationalizing its structural dimensions and offers a methodological contribution by demonstrating the utility of ABMs in organizational psychology research.
SAGE Most Publishable Leadership Education Paper Award
The ILA is pleased to partner with SAGE Publishing on the Most Publishable Leadership Education Paper Award. The award is given each year to the best presentation submission to the Leadership Education stream.
Jemilia Davis
Program Director & Clinical Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Davis directs the Human and Organizational Leadership Development (HOLD) undergraduate program, where she partners with student leaders through courageous conversations and experiential learning. As a qualitative scholar–practitioner, her research explores how senior leaders in higher education shape equitable outcomes for historically excluded communities through their perspectives, practices, and policies. She is especially interested in critical case study methods that examine leadership in action.
Cole Smith
Graduate Program Assistant, PhD Student, Human and Organizational Leadership Development (HOLD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education
The presentation is currently scheduled for Friday afternoon. Check the App for the exact time and location.
Congratulations to Jemilia Davis & Cole Smith
Davis will be presenting, “True to Our Word: Lessons Learned From a Leadership Program Evaluation.”
Overview: As workforce demands evolve, it is essential for leadership programs to engage in meaningful evaluations to ensure that our learning outcomes are truly realized. This session will examine how the Human and Organizational Leadership Development (HOLD) undergraduate degree program collected student data to ensure that the curriculum effectively prepares them for a workforce that increasingly values organizational leadership skills. We will share our comprehensive program evaluation plan, the steps we implemented, the data collected from three cohorts, and changes made from what we learned. Participants will engage in a discussion about promising practices around data collection in program evaluation in their contexts. Additional Details: The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2025) emphasizes how swiftly technological advancements, shifting demographic trends, and evolving workforce expectations reshape the leadership skills essential for organizational success. Employers anticipate that 39% of workers’ core skills will change by 2030, highlighting the urgent need for leaders who can adapt to data- and AI-driven decision-making, digital transformation, and human-centered leadership practices. Several postsecondary institutions are strategically evolving their programs to equip students with a balanced mix of analytical thinking, resilience, collaboration, and equity-minded leadership—skills that rank among the most critical for future workplaces. These innovative programs are leading the charge in bridging the gap between theory and workforce demands, ensuring that graduates are prepared to navigate the complexities of modern organizations.