Franziska Hauck

One of the most important steps to take is to make sure that contributors have the necessary bandwidth. For instance, the strategic cycle should be integrated and harmonized with all other activities throughout the year. Also, it helps to free individual team members of workload and to balance it out more evenly across the team during that time. A heads-up every year additionally makes sure that team members have the strategic planning on their radar and can be proactive with their ideas and input.

Define for yourself which resources you are happy to channel into your network - and which you won't. This can range from small favors to generous advice, for instance in the form of mentorship. Later on, people from your network will be happy to give back generously in return. The best opportunities often come from long-cultivated relationships.

Start with the high-level senior stakeholders - even before you think about a strategy. No change can happen without buy-in from senior management. Or it can, but it won't be very effective. If the strategy is not drafted and executed separately, but is baked into the overall organization's strategy, all stakeholders see the importance. Senior leaders have the most impact in the company and can positively influence several layers with their behavior and signals.

Psychological safety in your leadership program cannot be underestimated. Leadership, and management in particular, is a lonely and ambiguous business. Genuine exchange, vulnerability and ultimately learning can only happen if learners can share openly without fearing repercussions. To ensure safety in a leadership program it is imperative to build trust, for instance by the mentors signaling vulnerability themselves. Active listening can also help. For leaders who rely on accommodations those are to be provided.

Mutual support, knowledge sharing and supervision are key in leadership development! That being said, none of those approaches can work without psychological safety among said leaders. And cultivating an environment where leaders can be vulnerable and feel safe to fail is a different kind of beast. My experience is that first and foremost, we need to ask the right questions. "What do you need to feel safe? How can we enable that?" Ideally, this comes form the leader of leaders. Then, we need to listen carefully and implement the answers as much as is possible. Individualization, authentically living your true self (role model behavior) and proactively signaling trust follows.