The flagship
Nine months.
Eight leaders.
One mountain.
Sustainable leadership starts with the person behind the leader.
Not a one-off leadership training, but an intensive journey that brings together reflection, practice and visible behaviour.
- Live sessions
- Online learning on the platform
- Practice missions
- Buddy and peer consultation
- Organisation visit
- Impact Case
Why this journey
Experience isn’t yet development.
If you’ve been leading for years, you can repeat the same patterns for years. Knowledge, experience and position are no longer enough to hold direction under pressure. Experience only becomes development when you examine it.
That’s why we don’t just ask: what do you do as a leader? But also: who are you when you lead?
- Not a skills training with a set of techniques.
- Not philosophy detached from practice.
- But personal development, always linked to visible behaviour, your team and your organisation.
Turn the question around
-
What you thinkMy team shows too little ownership.
What the journey asksWhat behaviour of mine helps keep this going?
An experienced manager discovers that his need for control unintentionally shrinks his team’s ownership.
-
What you thinkThe organisation needs to steer harder on ownership.
What the journey asksHow does my need for control affect other people’s ownership?
A director talks about the organisation, the people and the culture, until he sees himself in the issue. That’s where his journey begins.
-
What you thinkMy people take little initiative.
What the journey asksHow often do I come up with the solution myself?
A leader sees that his control stems from a need for certainty. He practises being slower to fill in the gaps in meetings.
-
What you thinkI give my team plenty of room.
What the journey asksHow do they experience my silence?
In the group, a leader hears that his silence doesn’t feel like room, but like uncertainty. Intention and effect don’t coincide.
Don’t point outwards first; explore where your own influence begins.
The leadership profile
The person behind the leader.
Behind every role is a person, with beliefs, values, habits and reactions under pressure. That person always listens, decides and reacts along with you. That’s why the journey starts with your profile. Not a label or an ideal, but a mirror.
- Self-imageHow do I see myself?
- Visible behaviourWhat do I actually do?
- Perceived influenceWhat do others notice?
- Direction of developmentWhat does my context ask of me?
Every strength has a shadow.
- Decisiveness
- Thoroughness
- Connecting power
- Ambition
- Calm
Slide up the pressure. You needn’t be ashamed of your patterns. But you are responsible for their effect.
The leadership journey
From Basecamp to The Summit.
Nine months, eight leaders as travelling companions and one continuous movement through the six dimensions of leadership. Drag your flag up the mountain and see what happens at each stage.
Week 1
Basecamp — Departure
The group forms. Your compass, your credo and your personal contract.
Along the way you’ll encounterWe want autonomy, but organisations often try to organise development by telling people they must develop.Paradox 08 · Autonomy paradoxMonth 1
Expedition 1 — Me
Dimension Personal leadership: being able to lead yourself
Self-knowledge, responsibility, resilience and conscious choice.
Along the way you’ll encounterExperience makes us more expert, and can also hold us captive.Paradox 13 · Experience paradoxMonth 2
Expedition 2 — You
Dimension Leading others: making people stronger
Expectations, trust, holding people accountable and ownership in teams.
Along the way you’ll encounterThe very behaviour that made us successful can block our next stage of development.Paradox 14 · Success paradoxMonth 3
Expedition 3 — Us
Dimension Connective leadership: making differences discussable
Collaboration across interests, generations, cultures and professional perspectives.
Then: Leadership Encounter I: at a participant’s organisation.
Along the way you’ll encounterLearning is personal, but you cannot develop yourself on your own.Paradox 16 · Social paradoxMonth 5
Expedition 4 — Change
Dimension Transformational leadership: changing while the work carries on
Combining direction and momentum with attention to people and day-to-day results.
Along the way you’ll encounterWe train the leader, while the environment retrains them every single day.Paradox 15 · Context paradoxMonth 5–6
Expedition 5 — Grow
Dimension Development-focused leadership: giving room to grow
Coaching, giving feedback and preventing help or control from increasing dependence.
Then: Leadership Encounter II: a real strategic challenge.
Along the way you’ll encounterWe need feedback to see ourselves, but feedback makes us vulnerable.Paradox 07 · Feedback paradoxMonth 8
Expedition 6 — Tomorrow
Dimension Visionary and future-focused leadership: giving direction amid uncertainty
Setting a course, exploring scenarios and acting responsibly when the future is not set.
Along the way you’ll encounterWe learn when reality turns out differently than expected, yet that very gap can be uncomfortable.Paradox 04 · Predictability paradoxMonth 9
The Summit
Integration and your personal legacy. Then 100 days on your own, and on day 100 The Return: the proof of change.
Along the way you’ll encounterRelapse feels like failure, yet it contains valuable information.Paradox 18 · Relapse paradoxThe route book
From The Call to The Return.
The journey begins before the first session: the moment you’re willing to bring yourself along. A hundred days after The Summit you come back, with proof of what has changed.
Off to Basecamp
A conscious start, not an intake. You finish with a first direction of development and a contract with yourself.
- Personal kick-off conversation
- First reflection assignment
- Leadership profile
- Kahuna Development Compass
- Practical case from your own work
- Development contract
- Conversation with your organisation
The route book, stage by stage
What you do along the way.
Every stage has a goal, set working methods, modules in the Academy and a paradox you’ll encounter. Together roughly 171 hours over nine months, about four hours a week, most of it in your own work.
Hours are an indication per participant. You partly choose Academy modules yourself, to fit your learning question.
Week −4The Call± 2 hours
You say yes to the journey, and to yourself.
Working methods
- Invitation and first personal assignment
- Meeting your Partner
Week −3 to 0Starting point± 5 hours
Knowing where you stand, and what others see in you.
Working methods
- Intake conversation (coaching)
- Baseline assessments in the app
- 360° feedback from those around you
- Choosing your Impact Case
Online in the Academy
- Leadership Pipeline assessment
- Big Five
- Emotional intelligence
Week 1Basecamp± 18 hours
The group forms. Your compass, your credo and your personal contract.
Working methods
- Two days live with your fellow travellers
- Choosing a buddy
- Learning group for peer consultation
Online in the Academy
- Mindset: growing as a leader
The paradox along the way
Learning is personal, but you can’t develop yourself on your own.Paradox 16 · Social paradoxMonth 1Expedition 1 · Me± 16 hours
Being able to lead yourself: self-knowledge, responsibility, resilience and conscious choice.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Practical mission
- Peer consultation
- Coaching session
Online in the Academy
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Developing with ACT
- Mindset: growing as a leader
The paradox along the way
Experience makes us more expert and can also hold us captive.Paradox 13 · Experience paradoxMonth 2Expedition 2 · You± 15 hours
Making people stronger: expectations, trust, holding to account and ownership.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Practical mission: 72-hour conversation
- Peer consultation
Online in the Academy
- Situational Leadership
- Feedback and feedforward
- Building trust
Month 3Expedition 3 · Us± 15 hours
Making differences discussable and collaborating across boundaries.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Team assessment with your own team
- Peer consultation
Online in the Academy
- Psychological safety in your team
- The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
- Conflict management
The paradox along the way
We need feedback to see ourselves, but feedback makes us vulnerable.Paradox 07 · Feedback paradoxMonth 4Leadership Encounter I± 10 hours
Learning in a fellow traveller’s organisation: seeing how things work there.
Working methods
- Organisation visit to a participant
- Reflection report
- Coaching session
Month 5Expedition 4 · Change± 16 hours
Direction and movement, while the work simply carries on.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Kahuna Change Lab on your Impact Case
- Peer consultation
Online in the Academy
- Leading through the transition
- Leading Change in 8 steps with Kotter
- Dealing with resistance
Month 5–6Expedition 5 · Grow± 15 hours
Giving room to grow: coaching and feedback without dependency.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Kahuna Growth Challenge
- Coaching session
Online in the Academy
- Goal-oriented coaching with GROW
- Solution-focused coaching
- The 9 Grid Talent Matrix
The paradox along the way
To grow, we must be willing to feel less competent for a while.Paradox 05 · Competence paradoxMonth 7Leadership Encounter II± 12 hours
A real strategic challenge, with each other as a think tank.
Working methods
- Kahuna Council
- Presentation to a client
- Peer consultation
Online in the Academy
- Strategy development
- Stakeholder management
Month 8Expedition 6 · Tomorrow± 15 hours
Giving direction in uncertainty: choosing a course and exploring scenarios.
Working methods
- Live expedition day
- Exploring the future with your team
- Coaching session
Online in the Academy
- Good to Great
- Agile leadership
- The Competing Values Framework
Month 9The Summit± 18 hours
Integration and your personal legacy. In goes the flag.
Working methods
- Two days live
- Follow-up assessments in the app
- Presenting your Impact Case
The paradox along the way
To move forward, we have to stop.Paradox 17 · Reflection paradoxAfter the SummitKahuna 100 Days± 8 hours
A hundred days onwards on your own, with your buddy and the app.
Working methods
- Weekly check-in in the app
- Buddy conversations
Online in the Academy
- Free choice from the Academy
The paradox along the way
Relapse feels like failure, while it holds valuable information.Paradox 18 · Relapse paradoxDay 100The Return± 6 hours
Proof of change: what do others notice?
Working methods
- Return day
- Second 360° feedback
- Choosing what’s next: alumni, coaching or masterclass
The paradox along the way
What feels good while learning isn’t always what teaches best.Paradox 11 · Learning illusion paradox
The foundation
Six pillars. Take one away.
The journey rests on six pillars. They correct and strengthen each other. Tap a pillar and see what goes missing.
All six are standing.
Awareness without application stays in your head. Application without reflection becomes experimenting without learning. Lifelong learning keeps everything moving.
Awareness
Seeing what’s happening, in yourself and around you.
Without awareness, behaviour stays automatic. You react out of habit and call it experience.
Requires: honesty
Responsibility
Taking ownership of your influence.
Without responsibility, insight stays non-committal.
Requires: ownership
Connection
Making contact, listening and staying present when tension rises.
Without connection, leadership becomes distant and responsibility harsh.
Requires: attention
Reflection
Turning experience into insight.
Without reflection, experience becomes repetition.
Requires: slowing down
Application
Trying out new behaviour in real conversations and decisions.
Without application, learning stays abstract.
Requires: practice
Lifelong learning
Leadership is never finished.
Without lifelong learning, development fizzles out.
Requires: discipline
Six dimensions
What a leader needs.
The pillars carry how you learn. The dimensions are where you grow: one per expedition.
- Personal leadershipbeing able to lead yourself
Self-knowledge, responsibility, resilience and conscious choice.
- Leading othersmaking people stronger
Expectations, trust, holding people accountable and ownership in teams.
- Connective leadershipmaking differences discussable
Collaboration across interests, generations, cultures and professional perspectives.
- Transformational leadershipchanging while the work carries on
Combining direction and momentum with attention to people and day-to-day results.
- Development-oriented leadershipgiving room to grow
Coaching, giving feedback and preventing help or control from increasing dependence.
- Visionary and future-oriented leadershipgiving direction in uncertainty
Setting a course, exploring scenarios and acting responsibly when the future is not set.
In your rucksack
- Kahuna Departure Conversation
- Kahuna Impact Case
- Kahuna Change Lab
- Kahuna Growth Challenge
- Kahuna Council
- Kahuna Journey Box
- Kahuna 100 Days
- Kahuna – The Summit
How you learn along the way
From event to new choice.
The journey also unfolds between the sessions: in your meetings, your decisions, your response to tension. Every experience goes through the same cycle. An example from practice: the meeting that keeps getting stuck.
- 1EventWhat actually happened?
The weekly meeting is sluggish. People stay silent, decisions are left hanging.
- 2MeaningWhat did I think, what did I do, what did I avoid?
He reads silence as a lack of engagement. So he steers harder and fills in the answers.
- 3InfluenceWhat was the effect on others?
The team goes even quieter.
- 4New choiceWhat will I do differently next time?
Slow down, ask questions, let silences be. More conversation emerges.
Encounter
The group as a mirror.
Others reflect back what you can’t see yourself. You discover you’re not the only one with doubt, a need for control or trouble letting go.
Experience
Practising where it counts.
What you see, you try out straight away. First in a practice conversation, then in your own meeting: ask three questions before you respond.
The guide
Not a teacher, therapist or assessor.
Your guide helps you slow down, reflect and practise. They safeguard both safety and sharpness, and never take over your development.
Safe, not non-committal. Sharp, without judgement.
Embedding
After the summit the real work begins.
You see the value of the journey later: when the diary fills up again and old patterns push back. That’s why embedding doesn’t start at the end, but at the conscious start. Five anchors hold new behaviour in place.
- LanguageWhat isn’t put into words, you don’t hold on to.
- BehaviourWhat do I do differently, and how do others notice?
- RhythmWithout repetition, development stays incidental.
- RelationshipOthers mirror, remind and set limits. Embedding isn’t a solo project.
- ContextYour work environment has to leave room to hold on to new behaviour.
Relapse is part of it.
Relapse isn’t failure but development information. The goal isn’t: never relapse again. It is: recognise it sooner, understand what causes it and choose again faster.
- The anchor
In every one-to-one, first three exploratory questions, only then a solution. Two team members may call him out on it.
- After three weeks
Relapse. In a crisis he pulls everything back to himself again. He brings it up instead of hiding it.
- Months later
Team members take more initiative. His role shifts from problem-solver to developer.
The leader is the message.
Words give direction, behaviour gives proof. What you repeat every day becomes what you leave behind in people, teams and the organisation. A leader who takes legacy seriously does not tie everything to himself. He passes on an attitude.
For the organisation
Personal, but not private.
You don't send leaders on a programme. You become co-owner of the environment in which their development lands. Ask for ownership but reward control, and learning becomes fragile. That is why the journey begins with your intention.
For organisations- The intentionWhat is the journey for, for your organisation?
- The contextWhich culture and which behaviour do you reward today?
- The participantsThe right people, at the right moment, well prepared.
- The journeyConscious start, profile, encounter, experience, reflection.
- Lasting effectIs the language being used? Do leaders keep practising? Is new behaviour being noticed?
- QualityNot just measuring satisfaction, but what colleagues notice.
And AI?
A mirror, not a verdict. Between sessions, AI helps you organise experiences, prepare conversations and ask better questions. Never as a replacement for the encounter, the guide or the leader's own moral choice.
The Kahuna Credo
What we stand for.
Our conviction, our direction, our responsibility. In twelve sentences.
- Leadership developsNot through a position, power or experience alone. But by continuing to learn, reflect and take responsibility.
- Quality starts with leadershipAn organisation never becomes better than the quality of its leaders.
- Self-aware leadershipIf you don't know yourself, you cannot inspire, develop or give direction to others.
- Lead by examplePeople don't follow what a leader says. They follow what a leader does.
- Trust connectsTrust over control. Connection over hierarchy.
- The best leaders ask the best questionsThey create the conditions in which others find their best answers.
- Better leaders make better decisionsResults are not a goal in themselves, but the consequence of good leadership.
- Technology supports, the leader gives directionAI does not replace leadership either.
- People make the differenceOrganisations develop as people develop.
- Wisdom grows through experience and reflectionThat is why leadership is a lifelong development.
- Integrated developmentModels, practice, reflection, coaching and AI in one line. Not to create dependence, but to shape your own compass.
- Development with lasting effectNot leadership training, but leadership development. In people, teams, organisations and society.
Everything changes. Except the importance of inspiring leadership.
The book that goes with the journey
All of it on paper.
Dutch Kahuna Leadership Journey
Sustainable leadership begins with the person behind the leader
The thinking behind the journey, set down by Evert P.J. van Engelen on the basis of his conversations with Henk Berendsen. Twenty-seven chapters on the journey, the pillars, guidance, embedding and what a leader leaves behind. For leaders, guides and organisations.
View all 27 chapters
The foundation
- 1Why the Dutch Kahuna Leadership Journey exists
- 2The design philosophy
- 3A journey, not a training
- 4The leadership profile
- 5The six pillars
- 6The transformation
- 7The structure of the journey
The journey
- 8The conscious start
- 9The development environment
- 10The role of the guide
- 11Reflection as the engine of development
- 12The power of encounter
- 13Learning by experiencing
The lasting effect
- 14From personal development to organisational development
- 15The learning leader
- 16Embedding sustainable development
- 17The culture of continuous learning
- 18Leadership as exemplary behaviour
- 19Leadership as legacy
The whole and the future
- 20The integrated architecture
- 21The journey that keeps going
- 22The future of leadership
- 23The role of AI within the journey
- 24The lasting value of the thinking
- 25Implementation
- 26Quality as an ongoing responsibility
- 27Closing reflections
For the participant
From insight to visible leadership
- The question behind your leadership
- The person behind the leader
- Six transitions in behavioural change
- Six dimensions as the basis for modern leadership
- Making the journey visible in practice
- Your next step
For clients and HR/L&D
From strategic challenge to visible leadership
- Start with the strategic challenge
- Explore the context in which leaders learn
- From organisational question to development design
- Organise development as a journey
- Make sure development becomes visible
The books will be published soon. The eighteen paradoxes of learning run through them like a common thread. Start with the paradoxes now.
Take one question with you
- Which of my strengths also has a shadow side under pressure?
- Where does my intention not match the effect others experience?
- Which patterns are so familiar that I hardly see them any more?
- What do others notice of my leadership when I'm under pressure?
- Where do I take responsibility, and where do I still point to circumstances or others?
- Which development question feels important, but also uncomfortable?
- Which culture do I reinforce with my behaviour, consciously or unconsciously?
- What do I want not only to understand, but visibly start doing differently?
- Which pillar needs the most attention right now?
- What do I leave behind in people, teams and the organisation?
- How do I keep learning now that I already have a lot of experience?
- How do I avoid being present without really starting?
17% Only 17% of all managers take the initiative for their own development. From “I have to be here” to “I have something to explore here”.
Are you one of them? Plant your flag.
Press and hold the button: your flag goes up and we schedule an introductory call. Rather try it yourself first? The platform is free for 5 days.