What I Got Wrong About Leadership - and What It Taught Me About Organizational Design

Facilitated by: Dr. Jennifer Wisdom

Saturday, April 11
4:00pm - 5:00pm CST
Credits Available: 1 CE
Instructional Level: Early - Mid Career, Mid-Advanced Career

After 25 years across healthcare, government, and academia, I’ve had to learn that some of what I believed about leadership was wrong. I once assumed success was driven by individual capability, that empowerment was inherently motivating, and that resilience was a personal responsibility. In practice, these beliefs often masked deeper structural problems. When decision rights are unclear, roles are overloaded, and values are misaligned with daily work, even strong leaders struggle—and burnout follows. This Distinguished Psychologist in Leadership invited talk reframes leadership as the design of conditions, not just the development of people. Attendees will leave with a practical lens for diagnosing organizational misalignment and intervening at the level of system design to improve both performance and well-being.

 Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize common misconceptions about leadership—including assumptions about capability, empowerment, and resilience—and how they show up in practice.

2. Identify signs of organizational misalignment (e.g., unclear decision rights, role overload, values-behavior gaps) that contribute to stress and stalled performance.

3. Create one practical shift in leadership approach that focuses on improving conditions of work, rather than relying solely on individual effort.