Dr. Sumona DeGraaf kicks off the LINC C-Suite Summit on Resilient Leadership
Dr. Sumona DeGraaf discussed how humanity and performance are inextricably linked and the importance of standing up for our core values.
In her keynote, “Leadership for a Resilient Workforce,” Sumona shared data and insights from idealis’ Pulse of the Workforce research and connected those findings to the human side of leading through disruption. She challenged executives to rethink resilience not as endurance, but as the ability to stay steady, clear, and connected when conditions are volatile.
Her message centered on three truths:
- Start with your human core. Resilience begins with self-awareness and alignment between personal values and leadership choices.
- Energy is contagious. Clarity, empathy, and purpose cascade from leaders to teams.
- Community is strategy. Connection and collective problem-solving are the strongest antidotes to burnout and volatility.
The conversation that followed with fellow CEOs deepened this theme, highlighting the shared challenges of leading in an AI-driven, fast-moving world and the growing demand for leaders who can balance performance and humanity.
In addition to the keynote, Allison Williams, Chief Learning Officer at idealis., co-led a session on AI Readiness in the Workplace, exploring how organizations can equip their people to adopt new technologies responsibly while strengthening human capability, trust, and adaptability. This session was grounded in the Pulse of the Workforce data and augmented by the experiences of leaders across Higher Education and AI Workforce business leaders.
At idealis., we partner with organizations to build leaders who combine performance and humanity, helping them create systems that scale clarity, trust, and care across the enterprise. The LINC Summit was a powerful reminder that when leaders lead with intention, resilience becomes a shared capacity.
About idealis.
Founded in 2022 with over 20 years of experience in the industry, idealis. exists to bring more humanity to work. Through data driven, human-centered solutions, idealis helps leaders and companies drive high performance, high humanity cultures to unlock the fullest potential of people at work, and in the world.
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