Perspectives: a five-session leadership programme at a global technology company
Twenty senior leaders. Ten countries. One question underneath the brief.
What happens to a leader's good intention when something is at stake?
A programme designed for one of the world's largest technology companies. The brief centred on how leaders genuinely welcome and use different perspectives, particularly when pressure, hierarchy and decision authority enter the room. This case study shows how the work was thought about, and why it was never going to be a series of workshops.
Reframing the brief
This was never a communication-skills programme.It was a programme about the psychology underneath the behaviour.
A different perspective is rarely heard as information. Under pressure it lands as a question about who the leader is, and that is what the body responds to first.
Every voice in the room runs a quiet cost-benefit on candour. The design had to change the maths, not just invite honesty.
Decision rights alter the conversation before anyone speaks. Leaders learned to see the effect their position has on the room, and to design around it.
The same strengths that earned the seat can quietly block the culture the leader is trying to create. Naming that pattern without shame was central to the work.
The lens behind the design
The Intention Gap
The space between how a leader intends to respond and what actually happens when something is at stake. The framework behind all of Sope's leadership work treats the moment of challenge as an identity moment rather than a skills moment. The programme therefore examined what leaders did under pressure, not what they knew about listening.
Five connected sessions. One direction of travel: from practitioners to architects of the environment around them.
Between the sessions, in real work
What the experience was built from
- 01Behavioural science
- 02Workplace psychology
- 03Live experimentation
- 04Peer feedback
- 05Case studies
- 06Manager involvement
- 07Digital learning resources
- 08Individual coaching
The goal was never 20 better individuals, it was a changed environment: what leaders make visible, what they make routine, and which stories travel across the organisation.
Client
Global technology company
150,000+ staff worldwide
Participants reported
Participants valued the insight report, the practical framework and the pacing, and used the work with their teams and with external partners.
Participant ratings, session feedback and post-programme interviews.
This is for you if
- Your leaders are capable and experienced, but under pressure their intentions and their impact have drifted apart.
- Your people have 360 fatigue, and you need feedback that is quick to give and useful to receive.
- You want development that shows up in how decisions get made, not just in a workbook.
- You want work tailored to your business, language and priorities rather than generic leadership development.