Episode 02 · · 50 min
The Power Within
What does leadership look like from the inside — behind the title, the authority and the public role?
In this second episode of Beyond the Turning Point, I speak with Dunya Maumoon, former Foreign Minister of the Maldives, whose career has spanned the United Nations, public service and diplomacy.
We reflect on the values we inherit and the choices we make for ourselves; on women and leadership; and on the difficult decisions that come with responsibility. We also explore the many identities carried alongside public life — as a daughter, wife and mother — and what happens when deeply held values pull us in different directions.
We also explore what remains when a powerful professional role changes or comes to an end, and how identity, family, experience and reflection can reshape our understanding of what leadership really is.
Because leadership may appear to be about the power we are given. But perhaps the leadership that matters most comes from somewhere else: the power within.
The Power Within is a conversation about leadership and vulnerability, duty and courage, family and identity — and the human being behind the public role.
Editing and post-production: Amir Rahimi Rik.
Guests
- Dunya Maumoon — former Foreign Minister of the Maldives
About the podcast
Beyond the Turning Point is a podcast about leadership, identity, change and choice — and the human experience behind the decisions that shape our lives.
We often hear about turning points that changed a life, a career, an organization or even history. But we rarely ask what happens to the person who had to make the choice — and how the decision changed the person who made it.
I’m Akjemal Magtymova. I’ve spent much of my professional life working in global health and international leadership, often in complex environments. I, too, had to make difficult choices — choices guided by a clear compass of shared human values.
In conversations with leaders and professionals who have faced consequential choices, I explore what happens behind and beyond the turning point: the uncertainty before a decision, the responsibility of making it, the price it carries and who ultimately bears that price — and how our choices reshape not only our circumstances, but our sense of who we are.