Empowering First-Time Leaders to Drive Performance in a Transforming Financial Industry

Building leadership capability for a future-ready workforce

‍

To strengthen leadership capability in a rapidly evolving financial environment, the bank partnered with Lepaya to design the Kickstart Leadership Programme - a comprehensive development journey for first-time leaders that helps the company build a strong and sustainable leadership pipeline that directly enhances productivity, engagement, and organisational health.

Business  need

‍

Preparing new leaders for the realities of modern banking

‍

A leading Dutch bank recognised that strong leadership is essential to navigating digital transformation, rising customer expectations, and increasing regulatory complexity. Insights from the Organization Health Index (OHI) showed that effective leadership significantly impacts employee engagement and team performance.

‍

However, moving from an individual contributor role to leading teams presented significant challenges: managing former peers, coaching employees, motivating teams, and aligning diverse stakeholders.

‍

As Saskia, Talent Management & Leadership, explained:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a noticeable disparity in the performance of our leaders—some excelled, while others struggled. This underscored the importance of equipping our first-time leaders with robust people skills.”

‍

Many first-time leaders echoed these challenges:
“Since I was previously part of the team I now lead, I had to learn how to shift from being a team member to a leader.” — Sebastiaan, Product Lead

Training solution

‍

The Kickstart Leadership Programme

‍

To address these challenges, the Kickstart Leadership Programme - developed with Lepaya - was created to help first-time leaders adapt, innovate, and lead with purpose. Built on three core pillars of leadership success, the programme helps leaders:

‍

• Transition confidently from operational roles to leadership roles
  
• Motivate and coach teams effectively
  
• Build strong relationships across stakeholders
  
• Strengthen feedback, communication, and conflict-management skills
  
  

Leaders highlighted the focus on interpersonal awareness:

‍

“The training helped me become more aware of the interpersonal layer—group dynamics, emotions, and finding common ground.”

Yvette

Product Lead

The programme combines theory, practice, and peer learning through:

‍

• Power Hours – High-energy inspiration sessions
  
• Buddy Boosts – Peer coaching and exchange
  
• Practice Sessions – Real-life case simulations with professional actors
  
  

These practical sessions proved invaluable:

‍

“Training with actors was very confronting, which is the best way to learn… I could hear myself saying things and immediately realize, ‘This is not good.’”

Sebastiaan

Product Lead

‍

“Practicing with actors was incredibly valuable… these hands-on sessions really helped bridge theory and practice.”

Yvette

Product Lead

Impact

‍

Stronger leaders, healthier teams, and cultural transformation

‍

Since launching, the programme has trained 120 first-time leaders, delivering:

‍

1. NPS of 57
   
2. 8.7/10 programme rating
   
3. Improved leadership capability reflected in stronger OHI scores
   
4. Higher levels of team engagement and retention
   
   

Impact measurement is rigorous, including pre- and post-surveys, OHI analysis, team feedback, and interviews.

‍

Saskia describes the measurable results:

‍

“Self-assessments, team feedback, and improvements in OHI scores indicate enhanced managerial effectiveness and higher levels of engagement and retention.”

‍

Participants report major improvements in communication, coaching, and navigating difficult conversations:

 “Active listening, handling emotions, providing feedback, understanding communication styles - these skills really help me guide conversations more effectively.” Yvette

‍

 “Learning different convincing methods was very useful… helping me get others to think along with me.” Sebastiaan

‍

The programme is driving a broader cultural shift toward feedback, collaboration, and performance.

‍

Looking ahead, the bank plans to evolve the programme to address hybrid work, adaptive learning, mentorship, and emerging leadership trends.

‍

As the HR Director shared:
“The Kickstart Leadership Programme is a great example of how we support our first-time leaders… It’s fantastic to see how this programme is shaping our future leaders.”