Innovating Leadership:
Co-Creating Our Future

Hosted by Maureen Metcalf

Conversations with global thought leaders on leadership, culture, and innovation—designed for executives navigating complexity and building resilient organizations.

Transformational Leadership & Ethics

Episode Description

Ron Riggio tackles a foundational question: are great leaders born or forged? Drawing on the four-decade Fullerton Longitudinal Study, he identifies childhood characteristics that predict later leadership capability, showing how early developmental factors shape adult capacity. He connects those findings to transformational leadership theory and, crucially, to the ethics that should underpin it, making the case that developing leaders and developing ethical leaders are inseparable pursuits.

Key Takeaways

The born-or-forged question is best answered with evidence, not assumption.
The Fullerton Longitudinal Study links specific childhood characteristics to later leadership capability.
Early developmental factors meaningfully shape adult leadership capacity.
Transformational leadership and ethics are deeply intertwined, not separate concerns.
Understanding developmental roots helps organizations cultivate leaders more intentionally.

Why This Episode Matters

Executives come away with research-grounded insight into how leaders develop and why ethics must be woven into transformational leadership from the start.

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Featuring

Ron Riggio

Episode Topics

Ethics & Moral Decision Making • Leadership Capability & Maturity • Measurement & Evidence

Podcast Air Date

February 19, 2019

Episode Duration

43min

Watch the episode

Season 5

Episode Number 6

Episode Content:

Are great leaders born, or forged?

Ron Riggio followed up on the four-decade-long Fullerton Longitudinal Study to uncover the childhood characteristics that indicated later leadership qualities. Those results further informed his work on transformational leadership. He discusses his findings with host Maureen Metcalf…as well as the interplay between transformational leadership and ethics.

Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy:

Becoming a Better Leader: Daily Leadership Development with Ron Riggio
Do No Harm: Ethics for Leaders with Terri O’Fallon
Ethics & Problem-Solving: Leadership Theory & Practice with Joanne Ciulla and Keith Grint

Resources:

Ron has many books on leadership. For more on this episode’s topic, read Transformational Leadership (Print = https://amzn.to/489QvV6, Kindle = https://amzn.to/3uv9gVg). He also writes about the latest topics in his Psychology Today blog, Cutting Edge Leadership, at https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/cutting-edge-leadership.

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. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane. Hardback (https://amzn.to/48Doh6j) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/48YCRF4)
Nerve: Lessons on Leadership from Two Women Who Went First by Martha Piper & Indira Samarasekera. Paperback (https://amzn.to/3tOtzg4) and audiobook (https://amzn.to/41OYdT5)
Jilly Truit murder mysteries by Beverley McLachlin:
- Full Disclosure – https://amzn.to/46TxW6Q (paperback) https://amzn.to/46VDL3Q (audiobook)
- Denial – https://amzn.to/46YCbhs (paperback) https://amzn.to/3GJc0AA (audiobook)
Women and Leadership: Journey Toward Equity by Sherylle J. Tan & Lisa DeFrank-Cole

NOTE: As an Amazon partner, we may make a small commission from books you buy through these links.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy

Agape Capitalism: Can Ethics & Profit Coexist in Business? with Jim Grote and Tom Grote
Do No Harm: Ethics for Leaders with Terri O’Fallon
To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice, & Purpose with Ron Carucci

Guest(s):

Ron Riggio

Guest(s) Bio:

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. He is the author of more than a dozen books and more than 100 research articles and book chapters in the areas of leadership, organizational psychology, and social psychology. Ron is the former Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. He has served on the board of numerous journals and writes the Cutting-Edge Leadership blog at Psychology Today. At the 2020 International Leadership Association’s annual conference, Ron was one of two people awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Transcript