Inspiring Events
August 2019
Leadership in the era of Artificial Intelligence
Prof. Cem Say shared his vision and insights about what leadership will entail in the era of AI. This off-campus event allowed us visit Boğaziçi University on a nice summer day.
April 2019
“Leadership? No thanks!” – Insights from literature, philosophy, and historical texts on worries about leadership
One of our junior lab members, Hüseyin Tayyip Göktaş presented a summary of his readings and reflections on why leadership positions are avoided throughout history. We appreciated examples of texts and cases from literature, philosophy, and history.
July 2019
Leadership Poems
Dr. Nazmi Ağıl read a series of poems he wrote on Leadership. The poems were inspirational to show that what science can say in volumes, art can say in a few eloquent words.
October 2019
Metalog Training
Leadership Lab members experienced and learned Metalog tools to use them for assessing leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness in more innovative ways. Games we played included elements to imitate VUCA environment and other organizational dynamics.
December 2019
Women and Leadership in Academia
A warm and honest discussion with Prof. Zeynep Direk from the Philosophy Department on the takes and turns of the leadership path for women in Academia.
April 2020
An Online Meeting with Elif Kağıtçıbaşı
We had an online meeting with Elif Kağıtçıbaşı, one of the most prominent women CEOs in Turkey. She shared her past experiences as a women leader and her insights regarding changes in and struggles of leadership during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
July 2020
A Talk with Emilia Bunea on “Leisureship”
We had a highly inspiring online talk with Emilia Bunea where she told us about the new theoretical concept she developed, leisureship. We discussed the role of serious leisure in the development of leadership identity.
October 2020
Leadership in Education
We had a series of meetings on leadership in education with Prof. Dr. Murat Günel, General Manager of Koç High Schools. Our discussions evolved around change management and leadership in the educational context from the perspective of contemporary leadership theories.
December 2020
A Conversation on the Intersection of Clinical Psychology and IWOP
We had a stimulating conversation with Gözde Özbek about the intersection of clinical psychology and IWOP. Özbek, who has an academic and a professional background in both areas, shared her valuable experiences where she had opportunities to combine her knowledge and skills from both areas. We further discussed how these two areas of psychology could and should collaborate.
January 2021
Meditation, Well-Being, and Leadership
We had a fruitful discussion with the team behind the Meditopia app, one of the biggest meditation apps in the world, and talk about how leaders and employees can use meditation tools to improve their well-being and how can we use scientific knowledge to design tailor-made meditation content to help leaders to maintain and increase their mental well-being.
February 2021
Ekrem İmamoğlu & Dilek İmamoğlu visited our Lab to talk about the next generation leadership
We had an insightful meeting with the Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of İstanbul, and his wife, Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu, on next-generation leadership. We talked about the worries about leadership construct (WAL) by connecting it to the discrepancy between leaders emergence and leader effectiveness.
October 2021
Leadership with Horses
As Leadership Lab members, we have gained valuable insights into our leadership behaviors and what it means to be a leader through the highly inspirational Leadership with Horses event.
January 2022
A Conversation with Deniz Sağdıç on Leadership and Art
We hosted the artist Deniz Sağdıç (www.denizsagdic.com) and had a stimulating conversation about science, art, sustainability, and leadership. We discussed what leaders and scientists could learn from artists, which skills that artists have should be acquired by leaders, Sağdıç’s own views on leadership, and where we are in terms of sustainability.
July 2022
Leadership from the lens of Gen Z: An Interview with Elif Darya Kaşıkçı
We hosted 13-year young Elif Darya (sitting next to Zeynep Aycan in the photo) to our lab in August 2022. Elif Darya is a Gen Z who is interested in leadership. Elif Darya talked about her leadership journey as an elected school representative. She described herself as a ‘servant leader’. She says: “I may be a servant leader, but I am not anybody’s servant 
So, I expect my friends to be empathetic towards me just as much as I feel empathetic towards their needs.”