Junior Leadership Program

Start your learning journey with our 14 questions on “leadership identity”. You will gain initial insights into your beliefs and experiences that have shaped your view of leadership to date.

Understand the internal and, above all, external forces influencing companies:

• Explore the concept of VUCA and reflect on how it impacts your personal and professional life (CYNEFIN Framework)
• Identify current global and industry-specific trends that impact your customers’ behavior and your business operations (Megatrend Map & Value Pyramid)
• Define the mindsets and skills required to lead in complex and uncertain times (New Leadership Principles)

Exercise 1: Analyze in groups how external changes in your industry and in the world at large affect the internal structures and processes of your company (Business Model Canvas & PESTLE Analysis)

Change starts from the inside out as talents reflect on themselves and improve their effectiveness as (future) leaders:

• Gain clarity on what leadership means to you and why you (don’t) want to be a leader based on your positive/negative experiences, assumptions, values and beliefs (Reflection Map)
• Reflect on the unconscious parts of your personality and how they shape your leadership identity (Iceberg Model; Deconstructing Realities Process)
• Gain insights into neuroscience to learn how to reprogram your mind and realize the full potential of your (leadership) identity.

Exercise 2: Think about who your hero was when you were 7, 14 and 21 years old and the role models you have today. Realize what you admired about them at each point in time and consider how you can begin to embody these qualities as well (exercise “Develop your hero”). Share this with the group in the next session.

Learn how to drive your personal and professional development at work and in life:

• Identify your personality type and associated strengths (DISC; Strengths Finder)
• Identify areas for personal/professional growth (4 talent quadrants)
• Become aware of the ways in which you unconsciously sabotage yourself (Saboteur Test)
• Practice shifting your behavior pattern from an unconscious reaction to a conscious response (S.O.U.L. process)

Exercise 3: Create a simple and effective plan to develop new (leadership) competencies (Habit Hacking). Form groups of 3 to act as accountability partners for each other by conducting weekly check-ins to monitor and support the development of your peers.

Explore how to communicate well, avoid tension and get your message across:

• Brush up on the basics of good communication, i.e. building rapport, active listening, asking deeper and broader questions
• Become aware of your perception and how you give meaning to people, words and actions (4 ears model & tattoo girl exercise)
• Recognize how cognitive filters influence your communication and reality shaping (role play)
• Understand the nature of conflict (competing needs) and how to deal with tension (non-violent communication process; I-messages vs. you-messages)
• Constructively receive and give feedback (3-2-1 GO)

Exercise 4: Form groups of 3 and practise how to deal with tension (non-violent communication process). As one person goes through the process, the others pay attention to how they phrase their message, pause their thoughts and create transparency to give feedback before switching roles.

Learn to lead and influence, even if you do not yet have a formal leadership role:

• Understand and influence the interest and commitment of relevant stakeholders (e.g. for a project)
• Use the authority of other stakeholders for your project
• Become aware of who and what you can (not) control (circle of influence)
• Identify the relevant tasks, interests, pains and benefits of stakeholders (persona profiles)
• Investigate how you can become an influencer in your organization
• Brainstorm what you can do immediately to take more leadership (15% solutions)

Exercise 5: Take a project you are currently working on and analyze its stakeholders and their engagement. Develop strategies on how you can increase their trust in you and your project to influence their decision-making process (Commitment Game)

Understand the key characteristics of high-performance teams and how to build them:

• Learn the difference between groups and teams and what contributes to teams surviving or thriving (Model of the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team)
• Explore the strengths of different team members and find lines of development (SKATE model)
• Recognize how your beliefs about others affect their behavior and performance (Theory X & Y)
• Encourage performance by providing autonomy and psychological safety (Trust vs. Performance Model)

Exercise 6: Form small groups and participate in a fun and co-creative drawing task to practice collaborating with others while allowing individual freedom within the process (The Beaver Game)

Become a transformational leader who helps teams to help themselves:

• Understand flow and high performance and how to unleash them through purpose, strengths orientation, trust and psychological safety
• Learn to lead groups with a focus on process and structure rather than expertise and experience (3 Leadership Lenses)
• Build your dialogic skills to deepen the connection to and between your team members (The Dialogic Process; 4-player model)
• Acquire coaching skills and practice growing your team (GROW model)

Exercise 7: Form groups of 3 (coach, coachee, observer) and start a coaching process based on the GROW model. Everyone gets the opportunity to practice as a coach, receive advice on a current challenge as a coachee and give 3-2-1-GO feedback as an observer.

Learn how to unleash everyone’s potential through dialogic collaboration:

• Learn the basics of effective facilitation and identify the key characteristics of a good facilitator (SKATE competency model)
• Brainstorm what makes a good workshop/meeting
• Learn how to promote self-organization and autonomy in teams (Liberating Structures), with a focus on process and structures
• Learn about hybrid leadership hacks to get the most out of virtual collaboration

Exercise 8: Identify a complex problem in your organization and choose a suitable Liberating Structure that would help solve the problem. Practice working with this structure and reflect together on how this self-organized way of working together differs from working with a leader who sets the direction.

Develop a new method to convey a message and create impact:

• Understand the three dimensions of a successful presentation (3 cornerstones of storytelling)
• Craft messages and stories that people remember by effectively combining information and emotion (5 Beats Storytelling Framework & Pitch Perfect)
• Practice increasing your presence and authenticity as a presenter by understanding the importance of voice, body language and vulnerability

Exercise 9: Record a short 2 minute video of yourself applying for the position of your current job (Pitch Perfect). The videos will be shared with the group next time to give feedback on your storytelling and pitching skills and to vote for the best pitcher in the group.

Understand the cycle of transformations and your role in individual and organizational transformation:

• Explore the visible and invisible part of your organization, i.e. artifacts, values/beliefs, assumptions (3 levels of culture)
• Develop an ideal vision of the future: What should leadership in your company look and feel like in 3-5 years (Future Group)?
• Summarize your visionary ideas in a structured and inspiring story that you can spread throughout your organization (Impact Map)

Exercise 10: Design a holistic transformation roadmap with detailed interventions on how you can individually and collectively change leadership in your organization (Integral Map)