Values Based Leadership

The challenge

Our client believes engaging with early-career talent is one of the most impactful ways to shape the future of any organisation.

The habits people form early in their careers tend to stay with them. Graduates who understand what they value and how they want to lead are better placed to make confident decisions, handle uncertainty and grow into the leaders the organisation will need.

They wanted to create an event and valuable space to share leadership perspectives, spark curiosity and support the development of the next generation of professionals.

The format brought its own challenge. This was a 150-strong global graduate community, and it was virtual over two days. Keeping a large, international audience engaged online - and making the experience feel personal rather than like a broadcast - meant the design had to give every participant something to do, discuss and take away.

Our approach

TLH designed and delivered a programme that enabled each participant to explore their leadership style, using a personal purpose statement as a practical anchor.

Rather than being just an exercise, it gave each participant something tangible to guide their decisions and behaviours in their day-to-day role. A purpose statement written in their own words is something a graduate can return to when a decision is unclear or the pressure is on.

Together, we focused on:

• How confidence works and helps people to bridge uncertainty
• Exploring your Inner Leader and the role of values - each person identified their own values and why they were important to them
• Building a purpose driven statement that could help shape them as leaders and support more confident decision-making through uncertainty
• Understanding more about the brain and how it works which gave credibility to the insights and concepts being shared with them

The neuroscience mattered. For an early-career audience, understanding why confidence and values work the way they do made the ideas more credible and easier to apply.

The sessions were built to be interactive despite the virtual format. Breakout groups gave participants smaller spaces to discuss ideas and share perspectives with colleagues from around the world, before bringing their thinking back to the main room.

The outcome

The engagement was high from a group who seemed hungry for knowledge and to share how they think about things.

The sessions were rich in conversation and the breakouts provided a chance for good discussions, with ideas being shared back in the main room. Graduates from different countries and parts of the business found common ground in the questions they were asking about leadership, values and purpose.

The feedback scores were extremely high.

Most importantly, the learning didn't end with the event. Every participant left with their own purpose statement, and the global graduate community were tasked with putting it to work the very next day - turning two days of exploration into a practical guide for how they lead from the start of their careers.

• A personal purpose statement for every graduate
• Leadership insight grounded in neuroscience
• Purpose put to work the very next day