Strengthen your value as a strategic leader

Strategic leadership is no longer exclusive to top executives. Today's complex business challenges and opportunities demand input from multiple levels of an organization, requiring both leaders and middle managers to think and act strategically.

As a leader, you face high expectations from your team, upper management, executive board, or board of directors. Taking on strategic responsibility requires insight and decisiveness, whether you're shaping the overall strategy, contributing to it, or leading the strategic process within your department.

Even experienced leaders may feel uncertain about strategy development and, more importantly, its execution. While you may already be skilled, there is always room for growth.

The Strategic Leadership and Execution Development Program provide you with practical tools and methods to navigate strategic work. You'll learn how to lead and develop your organization more effectively, enhancing your value as a leader.

Course content

The course spans six months and includes nine intensive days of training, followed by a final networking meeting.

You and your fellow participants will explore the core elements of the strategic process, including analysis, direction, mobilization, and execution. Execution is key to ensuring that the strategy is put into action, not left unused.

The program emphasizes practical learning, offering tangible tools and methods that can be implemented right away, directly connected to your daily responsibilities.

Work on your own strategic project

This course offers a unique opportunity to work on your own strategic project, both during the modules and in the periods between. Your strategic project can focus on your department, division, a case, product, or business area. No matter your focus, it will be rooted in your unique situation and organizational context.

Your project could involve:

Developing a strategy for launching a new business area.
Aligning your project to support the organization's overall strategy.
Managing the execution of an already defined strategy with your team.
Adjusting an existing strategy.

You might not have a specific strategic project in mind at the time of registration or by the first day of the program. No problem. You will receive guidance to help define your strategic responsibility. This support will help you identify opportunities to create and lead change within your organization.

Valuable peer collaboration

Group work sessions provide an opportunity to share experiences and insights with other participants, allowing you to learn from the challenges and solutions of different organizations and their strategic approaches. This exchange can offer inspiration that you can apply to your own organization.

Former participants often highlight that peer collaboration during and after the program has been invaluable for both their professional and personal growth.

Your personal leadership development

Your growth as a leader is a central component of the program, distinguishing it from other strategy courses. With your newly acquired knowledge and skills, you may take on a new role as a strategic leader. The program is designed to help you transition effectively.

As part of the program, you’ll receive a 90-minute coaching session with an experienced instructor, where you’ll explore your personal reflections on being a leader with strategic responsibilities.

Retreat for focus and reflection

The daily demands of leadership often make it difficult to find time for strategic thinking. To give you the space needed to focus, several modules are held as retreats at exclusive venues across Denmark.

These retreats provide a peaceful environment to dive deeply into strategic thinking, free from everyday distractions. In this confidential setting, you can form strong connections with fellow participants, fostering conversations that enrich both your strategic work and personal growth as a leader. The natural surroundings encourage walk-and-talk discussions, and the exceptional catering creates an ideal learning atmosphere.

Target Group

This course is designed for professionals currently involved in strategy or those preparing to take on strategic responsibilities. Strategic work may involve your entire organization, a project, your department, or a business area where you are responsible for developing, driving, executing, and adjusting strategy.

It is aimed at top and middle-level managers. Titles of past participants include Senior Project Manager, Department Head, Police Inspector, Managing Director, Production Director, Team Leader, and Area Manager.

Strategy is about creating common direction and actionability, which applies to all organizations. Participants are all leaders with strategic responsibility, coming from small and large organizations across various industries in both the private and public sectors.

Maximum of 16 participants.

Benefits for you

Enhanced leadership role

Greater insight into your own role and behavior as a strategic leader.
You’ll know how to use your knowledge and skills to create change in your organization.
You’ll be able to manage a strategy from idea to execution and adjustment.

Strengthened position in your organization

You will excel at communicating upward in your organization, becoming a trusted advisor to top management.
You will enhance your leadership skills by effectively guiding your employees in the right direction through strategic initiatives.
You can guide your employees to adopt a strategic mindset, leading to improved results.

Personal development

You’ll gain deeper self-awareness as a leader.
You’ll grow more confident in your role, allowing you to take on greater responsibility.
A coaching session will give you valuable insights into how to be the best leader for your specific situation.

Professional network

In a confidential professional environment, you’ll build a strong network with other leaders at your level.
Stay in touch after the program and actively use the network in your continued development as a strategic leader.

Benefits for your organization

Strategic actionability

A leader prepared to drive the organization forward strategically, fostering a unified direction.
The capability to refine and advance the organization's or department’s strategic approach.

Commitment to strategic responsibility

A committed leader eager to assume greater strategic responsibilities.
Enhanced accountability and ownership of strategic initiatives.
Improved understanding of how to allocate internal resources effectively.

Strengthened professional skills and employee motivation

A strategic leader with the skills to effectively inspire and mobilize their team.
Organized advancement and enhanced performance.
A leader equipped with modern strategic methods, fresh knowledge, and actionable tools.

Effective Strategic Partner

An effective collaborator for addressing current strategic challenges, leading to improved decision-making, motivation, and increased value creation for the organization.
Greater engagement and deeper understanding of the organization's long-term objectives.

Module 1 – 3-Day Retreat:

Your role in leading the strategic process

Overview of the strategic process and the critical decisions involved.
Understanding your role as a strategist and how your behavior impacts strategic outcomes.
Your specific strategic challenges and potential actions.

Understanding Our Organization and My Area of Responsibility

Analyzing the current state to gain strategic insights.
Challenges and psychological factors that complicate assessing the organization’s situation.
Techniques to align all stakeholders and foster a shared understanding of the situation within your area of the organization.

Personal coaching

A 90-minute coaching session with an experienced program instructor, aimed at exploring your personal reflections as a strategic leader. The coach will help you clarify specific goals to work on throughout the program.

Module 2 – 2-Day Retreat:

Developing strategy and determining our direction

Overview of how to select strategic direction and guide the process.
Understanding the value of classical strategic tools and how to prioritize them in your specific context.
Introduction and practical exercises in determining the optimal level of involvement in the strategic process, choosing communication styles, and designing the process.
Gaining insight into hidden dynamics, including decision-making processes and tactical maneuvers within your organization.

Module 3 – 2 Days at CfL in Copenhagen:

Strategic Planning, Execution Strategies, and Leadership Throughout the Process

Introduction to strategic planning tools and execution methods.
Evaluating the need for changes in organizational structure, incentive systems, leadership culture, and other factors that may either hinder or accelerate the process.
Examining leadership preferences in managing change, including both conscious and unconscious decisions that influence leadership behavior.

Module 4 – 2-Day Retreat:

Implementing Strategy and Enhancing Agility in Change Management

Introduction to methods for communicating direction and determining the level of autonomy in execution.
Developing strategic agility through flexible budgeting, goal adjustments, and adaptive actions.
Insights into leading during the change process, managing disagreements within the leadership team, maintaining momentum, and addressing potential conflicts.

Networking Meeting – 1 Day at CfL:

During the networking day, we will reinforce learning and apply methods within your organization, focusing on a selected theme and individual sparring. The morning will focus on a strategic topic chosen by the participants, featuring presentations and reflections from the instructors or a CfL expert consultant. After lunch, instructors will facilitate individual sparring on strategic issues from each participant's organization.

This event will take place at CfL in Østerbro, Copenhagen, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Following the networking meeting, the program will officially conclude. Participants may choose to establish a leadership network to continue meeting by mutual agreement.

Before each module, you will receive preparatory assignments that may involve strategic elements within your organization or specific questions to consider. There will also be a test to assess your decision-making style and that of your leadership team. All practical details regarding the event, time, and location will be provided well in advance.

After the modules, you will receive tailored recommendations for articles or books to further support your areas of development.

Throughout the program, you will be guided by two instructors who are experienced leaders with specialized expertise in strategic leadership.

They have supported hundreds of strategic leaders in developing, formulating, and executing strategies. They understand the challenges of crafting a strong strategy and, more importantly, implementing it effectively within an organization. Their experience spans advising and teaching leaders at all levels, across small and large, public and private organizations.

Meet the instructors who may guide you through the program:

Strategic Leadership consultant - Organizational Psychology - Annette Elgaard Bøttger

Strategic Leadership Consultant Henrik Graungaard

Head og Leadership Consulting Michael Tolstrup

Seniorrådgiver - Organizational Psychology - Pernille Grove

Several modules will be held as retreats, offering ample space for reflection, learning, and building confidential connections with other participants. Enjoy learning in beautiful settings such as:

Sinatur Sixtus in Middelfart

A location with breathtaking views over the crystal-clear Fænøsund.