Leadership Development
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At delaware, you do not just do your job. You work on complex projects, for demanding clients, in an organisation full of sharp minds growing at pace. In that context, leadership is not a nice-to-have. It is literally what makes the company future-proof.
But how do you ensure leadership does not stay stuck in inspiring words? That people do not just attend a training, but actually do something with it? That was the question Ruth Ameye, L&D Manager Belux at delaware, and her colleagues set out to answer.
The question: how do you make learning actually stick?
When Ruth reviewed the existing leadership programmes, the verdict was clear: “We had two programmes you could find in just about any organisation. And when we ran an impact survey, we saw very little transfer to the workplace.”
People were learning, but little was changing in practice. Meanwhile, delaware was growing fast: many young people, experts gradually stepping into leadership roles, an organisation becoming increasingly complex. Frederik-Jan Roose, Enterprise Architect and sponsor of the programme: “The minority become leaders naturally. Most people need support. If we want delaware to keep running well in the long term, we need to invest deliberately in those who lead.”
The conclusion: no light optimisation, but a Tabula Rasa. Back to the fundamental question: what does leadership actually mean at delaware?
Ruth Ameye: “Beanmachine explicitly said: ‘you will experience some safe discomfort’, and you need to think about what you want to get out of this. That was exactly the shift we were looking for.”
A journey built for delaware: Leadership Fundamentals
Before a single learning format was designed, delaware and Beanmachine first developed a shared leadership vision: Leading Self, Leading Others and Leading the Organization. Leadership Fundamentals sits deliberately in the middle layer: Leading Others.
Following a competitive selection process, in which Beanmachine pitched to an advisory board of directors, partners and an external leadership expert, the real work began. A design workshop in Ghent brought together a diverse mix of the target audience to clarify who steps into this programme, in what leadership reality, and what they need. Co-creation as a starting point, not a slogan.
The result: a journey of approximately six months. An intensive multi-day offsite, followed by three deep dives, interim assignments and buddy coaching. What sets it apart from a classic offsite:
The participant is in the driver seat. No passive attitude, but explicit learning intentions based on 360° feedback and self-reflection. A blend of content and experience. Short theory, immediately followed by active processing: exercises, outdoor challenges, buddy coaching. A physical learning journal as the single source of truth containing the leadership vision, all core models and space for personal action plans. In the first cohort, participants spontaneously called it “the bible”.
The programme is co-facilitated by François Toussaint and Roel Lambrichts, complementary in approach, just as delaware believes leadership is never a one-man show.
More conscious leaders, healthier choices
Frederik-Jan sees the impact in his own teams. One colleague who was overextending himself trying to excel on every leadership dimension: “During the programme he discovered what it means to be overloaded. Now he makes more conscious choices. That is not a soft effect, you feel it in how he works and leads.” Another colleague who was initially sceptical: “Afterwards he said: my resistance came because you hit a real sore spot. I genuinely needed this.”
Ruth also sees a broader shift: leadership is no longer reduced to a job title. Technical profiles, architects, people without a formal leadership role, they recognize themselves in the programme. “Making leadership more natural: stronger, more conscious and more shared. That is where we want to go.”
At delaware, Leadership Fundamentals is not a programme layered on top of reality. It is a journey that starts from the real context, the organisation’s own leadership vision and the way delaware looks at people. No hero story about the one great leader but a deliberate choice for collective, complementary leadership.
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