From Leadership Development to a Leadership Culture
How a decade of Transpersonal Leadership development helped Jacobs Foundation embed a culture of leadership, learning and shared responsibility across an international organisation.
Everyone needs to be a leader.
For Jacobs Foundation, this became more than an aspiration. Over a decade, it became a way of working.
Since 2016, LeaderShape Global has partnered with Jacobs Foundation to develop leadership capability across the organisation, supporting a sustained journey from developing individual leaders to building a leadership culture.
BUSINESS IMPACT
Developing leadership capability and organisational culture
10 Years
Leadership development and coaching partnership, 2016–2026
2016–2023
Transpersonal Leadership Journeys and LEIPA development
4 Countries
An international foundation operating across Europe, Africa and South America
2021
Highly rated organisational culture in the Great Place to Work Culture Survey
The partnership has supported Jacobs Foundation in developing leadership capability, encouraging shared responsibility and embedding Transpersonal Leadership within its organisational culture.
THE ORGANISATION
An international foundation with an ambitious purpose
Jacobs Foundation is an international charitable foundation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with operations in Ghana, Colombia and Côte d’Ivoire.
Its purpose is to give every child the evidence-based education they need to thrive. Having surpassed CHF 1 billion in philanthropic giving, the Foundation has developed sophisticated impact-financing mechanisms to support evidence-based approaches to children's education.
Delivering this purpose requires an organisation capable of learning, adapting and empowering people to make effective decisions.
THE CHALLENGE
Creating a culture where everyone can lead
Jacobs Foundation recognised that achieving significant and sustainable impact required more than strong technical expertise. It needed people throughout the organisation to have the confidence and capability to take responsibility, make decisions and lead from wherever they were positioned.
The Foundation therefore embraced a powerful principle: everyone needs to be a leader.
The organisation wanted to:
- Develop leadership capability at every level.
- Enable accountability and decision-making to sit with those who had the relevant expertise.
- Encourage initiative, innovation and personal responsibility.
- Build stronger relationships through trust, transparency and collaboration.
- Create a learning organisation with a shared leadership philosophy.
The challenge was not simply to develop individual leadership skills, but to establish the behaviours and values needed to make distributed leadership work across an international organisation.
LEADERSHAPE'S APPROACH
Developing the whole person
At the heart of the partnership has been Transpersonal Leadership – developing leaders beyond a focus on personal achievement and self-interest, towards a wider sense of purpose and responsibility.
Between 2016 and 2023, employees across Jacobs Foundation participated in versions of the Transpersonal Leadership Journey, supported by LEIPA – the Leadership and Emotional Intelligence Performance Accelerator development tool.
Leadership beyond self
The approach focused on helping people understand their behaviours, recognise their impact on others and develop the awareness to act effectively in different situations, guided by values and a purpose beyond personal interests.
Five areas of development
01. Emotional Intelligence
Increasing awareness of emotions, behaviours and their impact on others.
02. Spiritual Intelligence
Developing a deeper connection with ethics, values and purpose.
03. Self-Awareness
Understanding individual personality traits, strengths and behavioural patterns.
04. Relationships and Trust
Building the openness, transparency and collaboration needed for effective relationships and difficult conversations.
05. Purpose Beyond Self
Moving beyond ego and connecting individual contribution to a purpose greater than personal achievement.
The leadership programmes were complemented by individual and team coaching, including work with senior executives, directors and co-CEOs. Coaching continued through 2026, supporting leaders in addressing personal and organisational challenges.
EMBEDDING LEADERSHIP CULTURE
From leadership programmes to organisational culture
The real opportunity was not simply to run leadership programmes. It was to change the way the organisation worked.
The journey began in the international division in 2016. When the Director of International Operations became co-CEO in 2019, the ambition expanded to establish Jacobs Foundation as a learning organisation and embed Transpersonal Leadership across the Foundation.
The emphasis was not on everyone behaving in the same way. Instead, people developed greater awareness of their own behaviours and sensitivity to how they needed to respond in different situations.
Creating the conditions for shared leadership
- Encouraging people to take responsibility and make decisions.
- Developing a common language around leadership and values.
- Recognising and respecting different personalities and perspectives.
- Building trust and transparency across the organisation.
- Making honest conversations and constructive feedback more natural.
THE POWER OF PURPOSE
Leading beyond ego
One of the important insights from the journey was the role of ego. For many people, becoming a truly effective leader means moving beyond the instinct to protect personal status, success or interests.
A purpose beyond oneself – for the greater good – can provide the foundation for doing that. For an organisation dedicated to improving children's education, this creates a powerful connection between individual leadership and organisational purpose.
THE OUTCOMES
Leadership development alongside organisational progress
A Shared Leadership Culture
The leadership journey helped establish a common leadership philosophy and encouraged people throughout the Foundation to take responsibility, collaborate and make decisions closer to where relevant expertise and knowledge sit.
Organisational Development and Impact
Alongside the leadership development work, Jacobs Foundation developed advanced impact-financing mechanisms for children's education and reported exceeding its challenging evidence-based targets year after year.
Recognition of Organisational Culture
In the 2021 Great Place to Work Culture Survey, Jacobs Foundation scored very highly. The survey highlighted the connection between programmes, activities, values and strategy, alongside the strength of its learning-organisation concept.
Leadership Beyond the Foundation
Employees who moved into senior roles in other organisations took their experience and understanding of Transpersonal Leadership with them, extending its influence into other sectors.
A Learning Organisation
The Foundation's emphasis on trust, transparency and personal development helped create an environment in which different perspectives could be valued and difficult conversations approached more constructively.
THE JOURNEY
A decade of transformation
2016
LeaderShape Global begins working with Jacobs Foundation across its international division.
2016–2023
Transpersonal Leadership Journeys and LEIPA development are delivered across the organisation.
2019
The ambition expands to establish Jacobs Foundation as a learning organisation and embed Transpersonal Leadership across the Foundation.
2021
Jacobs Foundation scores very highly in its Great Place to Work Culture Survey.
2016–2026
Leadership programmes are complemented by individual and team coaching, including work with CEOs and directors.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS
Hear more about the Jacobs Foundation journey
Explore further insights into the Foundation's leadership philosophy and the role of Transpersonal Leadership in its development.
A Discussion Between the Co-CEOs
A conversation offering further perspectives on Jacobs Foundation and its leadership approach.
Watch the Discussion →The Impact of Transpersonal Leadership
A 2022 interview with one of the Foundation's co-CEOs about the impact of Transpersonal Leadership.
Watch the Interview →THE BIGGER PICTURE
Leadership is not a position. It is a way of being and behaving.
The Jacobs Foundation experience demonstrates how Transpersonal Leadership can move beyond individual development programmes to become part of an organisation's culture.
When leadership is distributed, people can take responsibility and make decisions closer to where relevant knowledge and expertise sit. When this is combined with emotional and spiritual intelligence, trust, transparency and a purpose beyond individual self-interest, it creates the conditions for a more effective and fulfilling organisation.
For Jacobs Foundation, the journey has been about developing not simply better individual leaders, but a leadership culture capable of supporting its wider purpose: enabling children to thrive through evidence-based education.
TAKE THE NEXT STEP
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Jacobs Foundation's journey demonstrates how developing leaders at every level can help create lasting cultural change. Discover how LeaderShape Global can help your organisation strengthen leadership, align culture with purpose and achieve sustainable performance.
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