Culture as a leadership asset.
Cross-cultural leadership for directors, senior leaders and CEOs. One-to-one executive work built around your own organisation.
The BASIS Leadership Programme
- 1Level 1 · FoundationLeading across difference
- 2Level 2 · PractitionerManaging friction and performance
- 3Level 3 · StrategicYou are hereCulture as a leadership asset
Who Level 3 is for: CEOs and senior leaders
CEOs and managing directors
You lead an organisation with an international or diverse workforce.
Directors across sites and markets
You’re responsible for several countries, regions or business units.
Leaders going through change
A merger, acquisition or restructuring is bringing different ways of working together.
Leaders reviewing people systems
Your appraisal, promotion or reward processes were designed for one way of working.
Situations senior leaders bring to Level 3
- “Head office decides, and the regions quietly work around it.”
- “We’ve acquired a company, and the integration is stalling for reasons nobody can name.”
- “My leadership style works at home and is misread abroad.”
- “The people we promote keep looking and sounding like the leadership team.”
- “Diversity is on the agenda, but it feels like compliance rather than an advantage.”
- “A model that worked in Europe isn’t working in our other markets.”
Anything you share about your team stays confidential.
What senior leaders learn in Level 3
The six training sessions
Leadership that travels
- The problem
- Decisive in one place reads as dictatorial in another.
- What you leave with
- A leadership expectations audit
- Try it this week
- Three structured conversations with your direct reports.
Reading your organisation’s culture
- The problem
- Head-office culture is assumed to be everyone’s.
- What you leave with
- An organisational culture map with friction hotspots
- Try it this week
- Map two units and name one hotspot.
Setting direction and leading change
- The problem
- People can’t follow a direction they can’t see, and change stalls because parts of the business work differently.
- What you leave with
- A one-page direction statement (where we’re going, why, what changes) and a culture-aware change plan, including a merger and acquisition integration checklist. See also post-merger cultural integration
- Try it this week
- Draft both for a change already underway.
From diversity to synergy
- The problem
- Diversity becomes a compliance box, and inclusion fatigue sets in.
- What you leave with
- A synergy review: where difference already adds value and who your bridge people are
- Try it this week
- Give one bridge person a formal role.
People systems: hiring, performance and retention
- The problem
- Hiring, appraisal, promotion and reward assume one way of working, and good people leave.
- What you leave with
- A people-systems check covering bias-aware hiring, appraisal, promotion and retention: what’s global, what’s local
- Try it this week
- Review one system, such as your interview process or appraisal form.
Values, ethics and leading beyond the Western playbook
- The problem
- Imported management models fail locally, values clash, and ethical grey areas get handled case by case.
- What you leave with
- A hybrid-practice review, a values-clash guide, and an ethics guide for cross-border grey areas: gifts and hospitality, favours to family and network, and loyalty vs rules. Plus a speak-up route that works where people don’t contradict the boss
- Try it this week
- Apply all three to one site, market or partner, and agree the speak-up route.
Your leadership initiative
Choose one organisation-level initiative at session 1, lead it across the level, and review the evidence at session 6.
Sustaining yourself
Leading at the top is demanding. Throughout Level 3 your practice log includes a short reflection on energy, pressure and support, reviewed together in sessions 1 and 6. You leave with a plan to sustain yourself as well as the organisation.
Why Brendan for this level
Session 6 draws directly on nine years as a CEO leading organisations in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo — management where the Western playbook often didn’t apply. More about Brendan.
Format and price
Between sessions: you can reach Brendan on Microsoft Teams with questions as they come up, so you’re not waiting for the next session when something happens with your team.
Level 3 FAQs: cross-cultural leadership for executives
Anything else? Ask on a free discovery call.
Book a discovery callHow is Level 3 different from executive coaching?
It’s a structured programme with set outcomes, a tool for every session and a certificate. It’s one-to-one like coaching, but built around an organisation-level initiative you lead and review.
Is it confidential?
Yes. Information you share about your organisation, colleagues and plans is used only to deliver the programme.
Can you come to our offices?
Yes. Level 3 can run as an intensive week at your office, with travel and accommodation charged separately, or online and in Barcelona.
How much time does it take?
Six 2-hour sessions over about three months, plus the work on your leadership initiative between sessions.
Can other members of our senior team take part?
Yes. In-company programmes for a group of leaders are available on request.
Start with a conversation
A 30-minute discovery call to talk about your organisation and whether Level 3 is the right fit.