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Leadership development matters. An organisation can be a force for positive change only when its people are empowered to lead, inspire and motivate change.

Effective leadership skills not only drive the decision-making process, but also shape the trajectory of your organisation. Your fresh-faced team members today are tomorrow’s leaders, so developing the right skills and capabilities to become a positive leader is vital to long-term organisational success. 

RSM's customised and in-company programmes for organisations pinpoint the exact leadership challenges that your teams face, and equip your people with the skills and knowledge they need to create positive impact.  

Key leadership challenges of the next 5 years

Leading impact

A leader's true purpose is to create positive impact on their organisation, and their environment. Over the next decade, careful attention will be paid to how leaders respond to the needs of society, make positive impact, and communicate that impact to the world. 

Leading change

Business is becoming more turbulent, and technological disruptions are increasingly common in all industries. True leaders can anticipate change, mobilise their organisation, and guide their people through change. 

Leading diversity

Teams are now more diverse, and leaders must be able to connect with a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds. Competencies of understanding, listening and supporting will become key skills for leaders of diverse teams.

Leading culture

Our understanding of organisational culture is evolving rapidly. After unprecedented upheaval in previous years, leaders must drop all their assumptions about their culture and reimagine how they lead their people towards success.

Your leadership experts

All of our leadership programmes are built from the innovative knowledge and practical tools developed by our RSM leadership experts. Made up of renowned academic researchers and industry leaders from around the world, RSM's leadership experts have a diverse range of specialist knowledge in areas such as digital leadership, organisational change and strategic management. Below are just a few of our experts in leadership.

Dr Hannes Leroy

Hannes Leroy is a full professor of leadership development at RSM and academic director of the Erasmus Centre for Leadership. His expertise is in authentic and inclusive leadership and how to develop it. He brings people out of their comfort zones to build leadership skills and effective team performance. He has published research on the key ingredients for effective leadership development.

Dr Barbara Banda

Barbara Banda is highly skilled coach for senior leaders and is a visiting faculty member at RSM. She’s a specialist in delivering education for leadership development, business strategy and organisational change, and has led large-scale strategic change projects for multinationals, government departments and non-profits. She has a PhD in Management Learning from the University of Oxford.

Dr Dirk van Dierendonck

Dirk van Dierendonck is a professor of HRM, organisational psychologist, and dean of faculty at RSM. His expertise includes servant leadership and leadership development, wellbeing, happiness and burnout. Dirk translates academic knowledge into practical tools for HR professionals, and his research has been published in leading journals on management, organisational behaviour and human resource management. 

Professor in customised leadership programmes at RSM.

Dr Julija Mell

Assistant professor Julija Mell’s research focuses on collaboration over cognitive, geographical, cultural and structural boundaries in teams and networks. She teaches organisational behaviour, teams, leadership and social networks at all levels, and has a PhD in organisational behaviour from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a diploma in psychology from Humboldt University Berlin.

Antonie Knoppers

Antonie Knopperstrains individuals and teams on leadership and personal development, communication and presentation. He co-authored Leading with Presence (Emerald Publishing 2021) and wrote How To Have Effective Zoom Meetings—And Make Them Less Boring (Forbes 2021). He teaches at RSM, Nyenrode University and the University of Maastricht. He holds Master’s degrees in International Economics and Finance, and Fine Arts. 

Read the latest academic insights in leadership at RSM

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