Leadership is easy when everyone is on board. The real test comes when someone refuses to move. Behavioural expertise is the skill that determines what you do next, and whether it works.
Well-intentioned leadership behaviour keeps running into how people actually think and decide. Here is the behavioural science behind each of these patterns.
Two inspiring days, full of insights and good intentions. Back at the office: the same meetings, the same reflexes, the same behaviour.
Read moreDecisions are made. Then they're discussed again the following week. The meeting is busy, but the direction never changes.
Read moreEveryone says feedback matters. In practice: compliments, vague suggestions and an obligatory 8 in the review. Never the hard truth.
Read moreYou know you should delegate more. Listen more. Stay out of the details. And yet. Monday morning, the same pattern again.
Read moreYou want a self-directed team. You get a team that keeps looking to you before doing anything. The default is dependency, not ownership.
Read moreChange announced. Six months later, the top performers have left. The rest are waiting to see what happens. That wasn't the plan.
Read moreLikeable, empathetic, competent. But the direction you set isn't followed. Having influence and getting people on board are two different skills.
Read moreYou know leadership models. You've learned situational leadership, perhaps even coaching leadership. But what most leadership training programmes don't include is a method for understanding how behaviour actually works. Not the way you want people to respond, but the way they actually do.
You can train a leader in giving feedback. But if team dynamics and organisational culture reward fear of feedback, the training will always lose to context. Effective leadership starts with designing the right environment.
Context > CharacterPeople make most decisions based on feeling, habit and context, not deliberate thought. Leadership training that only addresses the rational brain focuses on the wrong 4%. The real levers are habits and social norms.
System 1 vs. System 2The most powerful leadership development happens not individually but as a team. When your management team develops a shared language, method and behavioural norm, the dynamics shift structurally. That is the difference between training and transformation.
Influence Framework©
Buurtzorg has no hierarchy of managers. Self-directed teams of 10-12 nurses make all decisions themselves: from rosters to care plans. It is one of the most radical leadership experiments in the Netherlands, and it works because the context was designed differently — not because the people are.
We cover this case in the Influential Leadership track and in the Deep Dive Building Support for Change.
Choose the approach that suits you. From a one-day Deep Dive to a five-month programme for your entire management team: every format is built on behavioural science and directly applicable to your leadership challenge.
Over five months, you build a shared language, shared behavioural norms and a shared method as a management team. Not individual training, but a team investment: you work on real challenges from your own organisation, guided by SUE.
You learn the complete Influence Framework, SWAC and all the core tools of Behavioural Design. You work on your own leadership case and go home with a concrete plan you can apply the very next day. Available live and online.
Change fails because of human behaviour, not a lack of strategy. In this one-day Deep Dive, you learn to recognise the psychological barriers that block buy-in, and design interventions that attract people to new behaviour rather than demanding it.
"I already did some behavioural tech-moves, but for some reason this has never been so meaningful and understandable as it is now. Everything fell into place. You gave me a mental structure to tackle a lot of problems and challenges from now on."
"A mind-blowing crashcourse that shifted my way of thinking entirely. It helps me ask new questions and come up with new sort of ideas. The BDA helps you to come up with ideas that truly moves people."
"I decided to attend the Behavioural Design Academy instead of going to Hyper Island or SXSW. I wasn't disappointed. During the 2 days, my eyes opened up. A new way of thinking with unlimited possibilities."
Need to get internal sign-off for a leadership training programme? Here is what concretely changes when you or your management team learn Behavioural Design:
Leaders who understand how automatic thinking works make better decisions under time pressure. They recognise bias, avoid groupthink and design meeting structures that support the right outcomes.
Change initiatives led by managers who understand behavioural design face less resistance. Not because they communicate better, but because they structure the context differently.
One-off leadership training rarely leads to structural change. A programme that gives the entire management team a shared language and method changes the culture from within.
A leadership training programme helps professionals develop their leadership capabilities: from personal leadership and coaching leadership to leading teams through change. At SUE, we work from behavioural science: we teach you how to embed effective leadership structurally in practice, not just what it looks like.
You learn how to influence the behaviour of yourself and others as a leader, based on proven behavioural science. You develop insight into the psychological forces that drive or block collaboration, decision-making and change. And you practise with concrete tools you can apply directly in your team or organisation. No theory for theory's sake.
SUE offers leadership training at multiple levels:
Influential Leadership (management teams): €34,900 excl. VAT for the full 5-month programme, max 16 participants.
Fundamentals Course (individual): €1,490 excl. VAT for 2 days live, or €1,190 excl. VAT online.
Deep Dives: individual from €690 excl. VAT, in-company €7,990 excl. VAT for max 16 participants.
All programmes are EQAC certified and eligible for reimbursement by most employers.
It depends on the format. The Influential Leadership track runs for 5 months. The Fundamentals Course takes 2 days live or is available as a 33-lesson online course. Deep Dives last 1 day.
Behaviour change takes time. Our longer programmes are deliberately designed so that new leadership behaviour gets a real chance to stick. A one-day Deep Dive is an excellent first step.
Personal leadership training focuses on developing your own behaviour, self-awareness and influence, regardless of your role. Management training focuses on skills for leading a team or department.
At SUE, we combine both: effective leadership starts with self-knowledge and behaviour change, and only becomes powerful in the context of your team. The Fundamentals Course lays the personal behavioural science foundation. Influential Leadership builds it together as a management team.
Yes. As an individual, you can join the open Fundamentals Course (2 days live or online) or a Deep Dive in an open group. You learn alongside professionals from other organisations, in deliberately mixed groups of up to 16 participants.
As a management team, the Influential Leadership track is most powerful. You build a shared language and method, and work directly on real challenges from your own organisation.
Because they inspire but don't change behaviour. After two days full of insights and good intentions, you return to an unchanged context. The behaviour that has been rewarded for years pulls you back.
Effective leadership training doesn't just focus on knowledge, but on the environmental factors, habits and social norms that drive behaviour. That is exactly where SUE focuses: we teach you how to create the conditions so that good leadership behaviour becomes the norm.
Ready to invest in leadership that changes behaviour?
