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—Leading Voices and 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 governors, media figures, fellows,
entrepreneurs,
CEOs, artists, students,
political appointees,
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.
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 here.
In Focus: Igniting Leadership
John Renehan is an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow and VP, Data & AI with Pratt & Whitney. In
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Leadership Leadership and Belonging in Rural Communities
“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
the necessity of finding and fostering leadership in rural regionsand how adopting a practice of welcoming helps communities thrive.
Leadership
Can we truly listen across our differences?
Earlier this year, Aspen Institute Civil Society Fellow LB Prevette and Weave Community Liaisons Greg Brady invited neighbors into conversation to make space for the hard and necessary conversations that weave a community together.
Leadership Building Businesses That Put People First
"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 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
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
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 the National Task Force on Fraud and Scam Prevention.
Economic Opportunity
Merrit Stüven, associate director of the Aspen Economic Opportunities Program, explored in Fast Company how technology is making some jobs more dangerous instead of safer—and what can be done to change that.
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 drive community transformation.
Economic Opportunity
In Fortune, Ford CEO Jim Farley, in collaboration with the Aspen Institute, warned that the United States lacks the skilled workforce needed to build and sustain the nation’s technology infrastructure.
