Season 6
Connection at Distance
The Search for Coherence
Position-Power Leadership
Contact is happening more and more - in remote settings. But what about connection? In this episode, three panelists with very different backgrounds have a conversation about this phenomenon of connection when you are not down the hall, but across the campus or the globe. Sebastian Reiche is a researcher who focuses on leading globally, and professor at a top rated business school Timothy Wright is a psychotherapist who has the challenge of client intimacy, remotely. Tom Bohinc is a master-level executive coach who brings unfiltered insights into organizations today. This is a unique combinations. Take twenty minutes to hear how they are thinking.
Voices Episode 99: Leadership’s Fragmentation, Context, and the Search for Coherence In episode 99 of the Prometheus Project’s Voices series, Tom Bohinc convenes six experts to assess the project’s five founding claims seven years after its 2019 start, asking how they land in 2026. Antoinette Weibel - St Gallen Business School, Sebastian Reiche - IESE Business School, Joseph Wisne, Founder- Roto Group, Richard Oxland -PhD/MBA, Barbara Kellerman - Havard Kennedy School of Government. Panelists broadly confirm the leadership industry remains fragmented, with silos between traditions (including global leadership), gaps between research and practice, an overreliance on scientific-management approaches, and training that becomes HR “tick-box” work rather than experiential development. The group debates whether coherent language is possible, emphasizing context, code-switching, and the need for shared frameworks while acknowledging leadership’s interdisciplinary complexity. Discussion extends to defining good versus bad leadership, distinguishing influence, authority, and power, and clarifying accountability versus responsibility. They argue leadership development must address both individuals and structures, consider early-life formation, and explore AI’s risks and potential to shift work toward more human, relational activity, highlighting Prometheus’ “Warmer Voices” practice as a low-barrier, humanizing approach. 00:00 Voices Podcast E99 01:36 The Prometheus Claims 09:20 Clear Language 15:18 Good Leader 25:39 Power, Authority, and Influence 30:39 Accountability 35:38 People or Structures 44:36 Developing Leaders 48:53 AI Fault Line 55:53 Conclusion
Barbara Kellerman, professor at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government and the author of Why We Follow Leaders — and Why We Don't - has long argued that we have to look at leadership as a system; leaders, followers, and context. For any leader, there is at least one follower, she says. Tom Bohinc's Prometheus Leadership System doesn't use the word "follower" — and that's not the only difference between the two approaches. This is a first conversation between them — a primer, with follow-up sessions planned. Barbara uses position (authority, influence, power) as her distinguishing principle and Tom calls this "position-leader". They agree more than they expected: that leadership resists mechanical definition, that the field has focused on the power position for too long, that context matters and so does choice. But listen past the agreement and the seams show. None of it gets settled here. It isn't meant to. These are the fault-lines the work keeps returning to — and the conversation itself, two people of reasonable standing thinking in the open, turns out to be a small demonstration of the thing they're trying to describe.
In episode 99 the guest panel made the observation that if leadership is really a complex system of complex systems - that we have going on in humans and in our world- then the ground for learning and development is vast - and that perhaps it is best thought of over a lifetime. This episode explore that idea - what are the development perspectives across different practitioners and experts - from childhood to, university, to everyday, and the executive suite. This 4o min session is in five chapters: 1) What We Mean by Development, (2) What's Fixed and What's Plastic, (3) The Transformative Experience, (4) Organizations, (5) Childhood — And distinguished panel: Theo Dawson, Lectica (lifespan cognitive science, childhood development, how a mind grows), Deb Helsing, Harvard (adult development inside organizations), Sebastian Reiche, IESE (global leaders and development through business school), and Bruce Loveless, UVA (military leadership and the outdoor expeditions). You host, Tom Bohinc (master-level coach and leadership researcher).