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What Is Leadership in 2025?
| From | Aspen Institute <[email protected]> |
| Subject | What Is Leadership in 2025? |
| Date | October 8, 2025 5:15 PM |
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What does it mean to lead?At first glance, the question seems simple. Yet the deeper we dig, the more complex—and urgent—the answer becomes.
Trust in institutions and leadership is in crisis. According to Pew Research, in the 1950s, more than 70% of Americans trusted the federal government. Today, that number hovers around 20%. Globally, the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 7 in 10 people believe government officials, business leaders, and journalists deliberately mislead the public.
Against this backdrop, the question of leadership is not abstract, it’s central to how we meet the challenges of our time.
At the Aspen Institute, we’ve been exploring this question across our seminars, programs, and through two original video series—
[link removed]
Leading Voices and
[link removed]
In Session . Our conviction is simple: cultivating the skills, relationships, and perspectives leaders need to navigate complexity is essential to rebuilding trust and driving meaningful, lasting change.
In conversations with
[link removed]
governors ,
[link removed]
media figures ,
[link removed]
fellows ,
[link removed]
entrepreneurs ,
[link removed]
CEOs ,
[link removed]
artists ,
[link removed]
students ,
[link removed]
political appointees ,
[link removed]
program leads and so many more in the Aspen Institute network, we’ve heard a chorus of insights: leadership is trust-building, communication, empathy, and empowerment. It’s creating space for others. It’s conviction in the face of uncertainty. It’s caring deeply, building adaptable teams, and holding mutliple truths.
And we’ve heard, too, that leadership is often lonely. That it requires courage, humility, and the willingness to listen. That it demands both resilience and imagination.
So what is leadership in 2025? It is all of these things, and more. It is everywhere and in everyone. One truth is clear: the work of leadership has never been more important, and each of us has a role to play in shaping the future.
[link removed]
Leadership isn’t just a title—it’s a practice. At Aspen Institute, we connect and develop leaders across sectors, generations, geographies, and viewpoints, building a community of individuals committed to addressing the world’s greatest challenges. Read more about this work
[link removed]
here .
In Focus: Igniting Leadership
[link removed]
John Renehan is an
[link removed]
Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow and VP, Data & AI with Pratt & Whitney. In
[link removed]
this episode , John shares why authenticity is key to building trust and why giving people a voice is so essential to unlocking a team's potential.
[link removed]
Upcoming Events
Economic Opportunity
Aspen Ideas: Economy
October 20-21, 2025
Newark, NJ
An essential forum that brings the public into direct conversation with leaders, scholars, and innovators shaping our economic future. The agenda and speaker list is now live!. Join us to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, and imagine what’s next for the economy we share.
[link removed]
Register
Tech
Aspen Cyber Summit
November 18, 2025
Washington, DC
Cybersecurity is a global problem with local impacts. From ensuring clean drinking water to protecting financial transactions to supporting free and fair elections, digital security involves everyone, everywhere.The Aspen Cyber Summit is the nation’s premier annual technology and cybersecurity policy gathering. Now in its 10th year, the event brings together leading national and international voices from government, industry, and civil society to create a safer world, online and off.
[link removed]
Learn More
Leadership
2026 Socrates Winter Seminars
February 6-9, 2026
Aspen, CO
Experience a collaborative, weekend-long dialogue with participants from across sectors. Guided by expert moderators, you’ll explore and discuss carefully selected readings that spark reflection and exchange. These are not panel discussions or tutorials—they’re shared inquiries that draw on every participant’s perspective. Seminars are held on the Aspen Meadows Resort campus.
[link removed]
Register
Around the Institute
Leadership
Announcing the WIN Challenge
[link removed]
The $60 million Workplace Innovation Now (WIN) Challenge is a new initiative led by Aspen Digital, a program of the Aspen Institute. Supported by Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates, the $60 million nationwide WIN Challenge aims to discover and scale innovative ideas to help women thrive and everyone win in a rapidly changing workplace.
Have an idea? Register to apply today!
[link removed]
www.winchallenge.org
Leadership
Leadership and Belonging in Rural Communities
[link removed]
“Community leaders are made and not born,” says Donna Daniels, former Executive Director of the Brush Fork Leadership Institute at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Chris Estes, Co-Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, sat down with Daniels to discuss
[link removed]
the necessity of finding and fostering leadership in rural regions and how adopting a practice of welcoming helps communities thrive.
LeadershipCan we truly listen across our differences?
[link removed]
Earlier this year, Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow LB Prevette and Weave Community Liaisons Greg Brady
[link removed]
invited neighbors into conversation to make space for the hard and necessary conversations that weave a community together.
If you're interested in fostering leaders like LB Prevette and Greg Brady in your community, Weave is
[link removed]
inviting nonprofits to partner and support local trust builders in 25 new locations . Each partner will get seed funds of $225,000 along with tools, training, access to Weave resources, and peer support
Leadership
Building Businesses That Put People First
[link removed]
"Just continue to believe in yourself throughout all of the ups and downs,” says Jessica Rolph, Henry Crown Fellow and co-founder and CEO of Lovevery. This summer, at the 2025 Resnick Aspen Action Forum, the Aspen Global Leadership Network caught up with Rolph to
[link removed]
discuss building a business centered on social good , sustaining leadership in times of uncertainty, and the value of changing your mind.
Culture
Happening at the Bayer Center
[link removed]
To commemorate the Aspen Institute's 75th anniversary, the current exhibition on view at the Bayer Center, Sculpting the Environment: The Three-Dimensional Art of Herbert Bayer, provides the most comprehensive investigation to date of Bayer’s groundbreaking work as a sculptor and landscape designer. Featuring nearly 100 works, the exhibition showcases Bayer’s innovative site-specific sculptures and influential land art in Aspen and around the world. Learn more and subscribe to the Bayer Center newsletter
[link removed]
here .
In the News
Economic Opportunity
Axios highlighted the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program's bold blueprint to prevent scams before they start, with crucial input from the
[link removed]
the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention .
Economic Opportunity
Merrit Stuven, associate director of the Aspen Economic Opportunities Program, explored in Fast Company how
[link removed]
technology is making some jobs more dangerous instead of safer—and what can be done to change that.
Energy & Climate
Project Play sounded the alarm in Time about the
[link removed]
growing threat of extreme heat for young athletes and the urgent need for communities to adapt.
Leadership
In an op-ed for the The Hechinger Report, Bonita Robertson-Hardy, co-executive director of the Aspen Community Institute Strategies Group, and Josh Wyner, founder and executive director of the Aspen College Excellence Program, detailed how rural community colleges are uniquely positioned to address complex regional challenges and
[link removed]
drive community transformation .
Economic Opportunity
In Fortune, Ford CEO Jim Farley, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute, warned that the United States
[link removed]
lacks the skilled workforce needed to build and sustain the nation’s technology infrastructure.
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
----------------------------------------
This message was sent to [email protected] from The Aspen Institute.
2300 N Street, NW Suite 700
Washington
DC, 20037
US
Manage Your Subscriptions: [link removed]
Privacy Policy: [link removed]
[link removed]
What does it mean to lead?At first glance, the question seems simple. Yet the deeper we dig, the more complex—and urgent—the answer becomes.
Trust in institutions and leadership is in crisis. According to Pew Research, in the 1950s, more than 70% of Americans trusted the federal government. Today, that number hovers around 20%. Globally, the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 7 in 10 people believe government officials, business leaders, and journalists deliberately mislead the public.
Against this backdrop, the question of leadership is not abstract, it’s central to how we meet the challenges of our time.
At the Aspen Institute, we’ve been exploring this question across our seminars, programs, and through two original video series—
[link removed]
Leading Voices and
[link removed]
In Session . Our conviction is simple: cultivating the skills, relationships, and perspectives leaders need to navigate complexity is essential to rebuilding trust and driving meaningful, lasting change.
In conversations with
[link removed]
governors ,
[link removed]
media figures ,
[link removed]
fellows ,
[link removed]
entrepreneurs ,
[link removed]
CEOs ,
[link removed]
artists ,
[link removed]
students ,
[link removed]
political appointees ,
[link removed]
program leads and so many more in the Aspen Institute network, we’ve heard a chorus of insights: leadership is trust-building, communication, empathy, and empowerment. It’s creating space for others. It’s conviction in the face of uncertainty. It’s caring deeply, building adaptable teams, and holding mutliple truths.
And we’ve heard, too, that leadership is often lonely. That it requires courage, humility, and the willingness to listen. That it demands both resilience and imagination.
So what is leadership in 2025? It is all of these things, and more. It is everywhere and in everyone. One truth is clear: the work of leadership has never been more important, and each of us has a role to play in shaping the future.
[link removed]
Leadership isn’t just a title—it’s a practice. At Aspen Institute, we connect and develop leaders across sectors, generations, geographies, and viewpoints, building a community of individuals committed to addressing the world’s greatest challenges. Read more about this work
[link removed]
here .
In Focus: Igniting Leadership
[link removed]
John Renehan is an
[link removed]
Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow and VP, Data & AI with Pratt & Whitney. In
[link removed]
this episode , John shares why authenticity is key to building trust and why giving people a voice is so essential to unlocking a team's potential.
[link removed]
Upcoming Events
Economic Opportunity
Aspen Ideas: Economy
October 20-21, 2025
Newark, NJ
An essential forum that brings the public into direct conversation with leaders, scholars, and innovators shaping our economic future. The agenda and speaker list is now live!. Join us to explore new ideas, challenge assumptions, and imagine what’s next for the economy we share.
[link removed]
Register
Tech
Aspen Cyber Summit
November 18, 2025
Washington, DC
Cybersecurity is a global problem with local impacts. From ensuring clean drinking water to protecting financial transactions to supporting free and fair elections, digital security involves everyone, everywhere.The Aspen Cyber Summit is the nation’s premier annual technology and cybersecurity policy gathering. Now in its 10th year, the event brings together leading national and international voices from government, industry, and civil society to create a safer world, online and off.
[link removed]
Learn More
Leadership
2026 Socrates Winter Seminars
February 6-9, 2026
Aspen, CO
Experience a collaborative, weekend-long dialogue with participants from across sectors. Guided by expert moderators, you’ll explore and discuss carefully selected readings that spark reflection and exchange. These are not panel discussions or tutorials—they’re shared inquiries that draw on every participant’s perspective. Seminars are held on the Aspen Meadows Resort campus.
[link removed]
Register
Around the Institute
Leadership
Announcing the WIN Challenge
[link removed]
The $60 million Workplace Innovation Now (WIN) Challenge is a new initiative led by Aspen Digital, a program of the Aspen Institute. Supported by Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates, the $60 million nationwide WIN Challenge aims to discover and scale innovative ideas to help women thrive and everyone win in a rapidly changing workplace.
Have an idea? Register to apply today!
[link removed]
www.winchallenge.org
Leadership
Leadership and Belonging in Rural Communities
[link removed]
“Community leaders are made and not born,” says Donna Daniels, former Executive Director of the Brush Fork Leadership Institute at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky. Chris Estes, Co-Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, sat down with Daniels to discuss
[link removed]
the necessity of finding and fostering leadership in rural regions and how adopting a practice of welcoming helps communities thrive.
LeadershipCan we truly listen across our differences?
[link removed]
Earlier this year, Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow LB Prevette and Weave Community Liaisons Greg Brady
[link removed]
invited neighbors into conversation to make space for the hard and necessary conversations that weave a community together.
If you're interested in fostering leaders like LB Prevette and Greg Brady in your community, Weave is
[link removed]
inviting nonprofits to partner and support local trust builders in 25 new locations . Each partner will get seed funds of $225,000 along with tools, training, access to Weave resources, and peer support
Leadership
Building Businesses That Put People First
[link removed]
"Just continue to believe in yourself throughout all of the ups and downs,” says Jessica Rolph, Henry Crown Fellow and co-founder and CEO of Lovevery. This summer, at the 2025 Resnick Aspen Action Forum, the Aspen Global Leadership Network caught up with Rolph to
[link removed]
discuss building a business centered on social good , sustaining leadership in times of uncertainty, and the value of changing your mind.
Culture
Happening at the Bayer Center
[link removed]
To commemorate the Aspen Institute's 75th anniversary, the current exhibition on view at the Bayer Center, Sculpting the Environment: The Three-Dimensional Art of Herbert Bayer, provides the most comprehensive investigation to date of Bayer’s groundbreaking work as a sculptor and landscape designer. Featuring nearly 100 works, the exhibition showcases Bayer’s innovative site-specific sculptures and influential land art in Aspen and around the world. Learn more and subscribe to the Bayer Center newsletter
[link removed]
here .
In the News
Economic Opportunity
Axios highlighted the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program's bold blueprint to prevent scams before they start, with crucial input from the
[link removed]
the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention .
Economic Opportunity
Merrit Stuven, associate director of the Aspen Economic Opportunities Program, explored in Fast Company how
[link removed]
technology is making some jobs more dangerous instead of safer—and what can be done to change that.
Energy & Climate
Project Play sounded the alarm in Time about the
[link removed]
growing threat of extreme heat for young athletes and the urgent need for communities to adapt.
Leadership
In an op-ed for the The Hechinger Report, Bonita Robertson-Hardy, co-executive director of the Aspen Community Institute Strategies Group, and Josh Wyner, founder and executive director of the Aspen College Excellence Program, detailed how rural community colleges are uniquely positioned to address complex regional challenges and
[link removed]
drive community transformation .
Economic Opportunity
In Fortune, Ford CEO Jim Farley, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute, warned that the United States
[link removed]
lacks the skilled workforce needed to build and sustain the nation’s technology infrastructure.
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
----------------------------------------
This message was sent to [email protected] from The Aspen Institute.
2300 N Street, NW Suite 700
Washington
DC, 20037
US
Manage Your Subscriptions: [link removed]
Privacy Policy: [link removed]
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