A peer learning community built on one idea: everyone can lead.

LeadIN brings people together across backgrounds, levels, and borders to grow their leadership — not through hierarchy, but through each other.

80K
Hours most of us spend at work over a lifetime — and why this matters
18
Cohorts run across Washington DC and Dubai
~200
Alumni in the LeadIN community across two cities
87%
Of the global workforce not engaged at work — the problem LeadIN sets out to change

Why LeadIN

The leadership problem hiding in plain sight

We spend 80,000 hours of our lives at work — and most of us do it disengaged, underutilized, and unseen. Organizations invest in the few and ignore the many, then wonder why their cultures don’t shift. LeadIN starts from a different premise: leadership is not a personality type, a title, or a corner office. It is a mindset, and it belongs to everyone.

Leadership is

A Mindset

Everyone has the capacity to lead, regardless of age, title, or formal authority. LeadIN guides people of all backgrounds to develop a leadership mindset and chart their own, unique path.

Leadership is

Social

We learn most effectively when we learn with and from others. LeadIN creates a safe, trusting environment where people come together to grow — and to support each other’s transformation.

Leadership is

Practice

Like learning an instrument, developing as a leader takes continuous effort. LeadIN makes it possible for people to build and integrate leadership practices into daily life — habits that actually stick.

The Flagship Program

LeadIN Core

LeadIN Core is a 10-week in-person cohort program that brings together professionals of diverse fields, backgrounds, and experiences to learn with and from each other. Groups are kept deliberately small — 8 to 12 participants — to create the intimate, high-trust environment where real change happens.

Over ten weeks, participants discover their strengths, develop their emotional intelligence, and adopt a leadership mindset — not through lectures, but through conversation, reflection, and peer accountability. The most powerful teacher in the room is often the person sitting next to you.

LeadIN Core is offered free of charge: a social enterprise model that puts access to development ahead of ability to pay.

Read the Program Overview →

Dubai Chapter — LeadIN Core crosses an ocean through Mohamed Ali, a DC alumnus who becomes a core collaborator and brings the program to Dubai. Four cohorts run there, growing the community across two continents and two very different professional contexts.

10
weeks per cohort, fully in-person
8–12
participants per group
14
cohorts in Washington DC
4
cohorts in Dubai, UAE
~200
alumni in the LeadIN+ community
Free
offered at no cost to participants

Organizational Work

Growing teams, not just individuals

LeadIN also works inside organizations — helping teams build trust, improve collaboration, and create cultures where people can do their best work.

Impact on StaffImpact on the Organization
Identify and apply top strengths at work, improving individual performance and engagement Illuminate team strengths and opportunities for greater alignment and more effective teamwork
Increase emotional intelligence and capacity to relate to colleagues in constructive ways Build trust, improve interpersonal relationships, and increase collaboration across the organization
Build greater self-awareness, confidence, and tangible leadership skills Foster a culture of learning, sharing, accountability, and mutual support
“Everyone is relating to their strengths; more people are communicating; people value one another on a different level. Working with LeadIN brings more synergy to the team, and humanizes our status. It has been a fabulous experience for us all.”

Voices from the Community

What participants say

“The program’s emphasis on a strengths-based approach to leadership makes a tremendous impact. Now I understand that I operate at my optimal when I intentionally focus and leverage my inherent strengths.

Nyasha — Social Sector Professional

“LeadIN helps me find the confidence to apply for a more senior role at my company — and to get it. It connects various types and levels of leadership in one coherent, human way.

Anjana — Healthcare Researcher & D&I Expert

“My cohort helps me understand not only how to do what I do better, but why I do it. LeadIN gives you the opportunity to apply your whole self to leadership — and its blank space makes room for the kind of creativity you can be proud of.

John — Program Director

“Professionally, being part of LeadIN gives me ideas about how to build a positive learning community where I work. Personally, it gives me a renewed sense of accountability for identifying goals and forming practical steps to reach them.

Corey — Program Director

“It’s a space to grow alongside other professionals and carry those tools into the world. I recommend it for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of themselves and others.

Beth — Strategic Analysis Professional

“What I appreciate most about LeadIN is the diversity of perspective. Everyone has a very different background, which presents so many opportunities to grow — personally and professionally.

Durecia — Entrepreneur

The People Behind It

About LeadIN

Zarko Palankov Founder

Zarko Palankov

Zarko is a facilitator, organizational learning practitioner, and transformation consultant working at the intersection of communities of practice, leadership development, and systemic change. He founded LeadIN on a guiding conviction: human potential is routinely suppressed by hierarchy, power imbalance, and extractive structures — and that creating conditions for people to discover and apply their strengths is one of the most powerful levers for change.

Bulgarian-born, US-educated, now based in Madrid. His current work includes leading the Communities of Practice program for the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population practice and ongoing organizational development work with UNAIDS.

🌍
Dubai Chapter Lead

Mohamed Ali

Mohamed comes through the LeadIN Core program in Washington DC before becoming a collaborator, partner, and the force behind LeadIN’s expansion to Dubai. He combines leadership development with design thinking to help teams become more human-centered, emotionally intelligent, and inclusive.

His work spans the humanitarian and energy sectors across the UK, Kenya, Yemen, Qatar, Nigeria, and the UAE — a trajectory that gives him both the context and the conviction to bring peer learning to new geographies, and to do it with depth.