Reo Watanabe - The Evolving Self

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Reo is a leadership developer and researcher. His dream is to strengthen world peace by promoting leadership not only at an individual level but also at a systemic level. He teaches adaptive leadership using the case-in-point pedagogy in the U.S.A. and Japan. His research focus is on the intersection of leadership development and adult development. He is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego, the oldest doctoral program in leadership studies in the U.S.A. He is also a Researcher at Keio University, one of the premier universities in Japan. Reo is a certified scorer of Robert Kegan’s Subject-Object Interview and a trained facilitator of the Immunity to Change and the case-in-point pedagogy. 

Reo is one of the founding members of the International College of Liberal Arts (iCLA) in Japan. iCLA was established in Yamanashi in 2015 to educate future global leaders from Japan through an innovative liberal arts curriculum with a world-class Japan Studies Program.  

Before iCLA, he was Research Associate in the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and conducted a comparative analysis of leadership development in the U.S.A. and Japan.

Reo has various leadership experiences as an entrepreneur. In 2001 he founded a digital marketing firm, Dentsu Razorfish (formerly called Digital Palette) in Tokyo and Osaka, and had served as Chief Executive Officer for nine years. During the period, he formed a capital alliance with Razorfish in the U.S.A. and served on the Razorfish global leadership team for three years. He also served on the Board of Directors of Cyber Communications, the largest internet media agency in Japan, and Fractalist China, a leading mobile marketing company in China.

Reo holds an M.P.A. in Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School, an M.B.A. in Marketing Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Economics from Hitotsubashi University in Japan.

A Quote From This Episode

• "In a sense, I was not mature enough to deal with the complexity of the challenge I faced as a leader."

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• Reo's Website 
• Resource: Minds at Work
• Resource: Action Inquiry Leadership
• Book: Polarity Management by Barry Johnson
• Speech: William Shatner upon returning from space
• Fun Fact: The Stars in Orion's Belt 

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals with a keen interest in the study, practice, and teaching of leadership. 

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