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Executive Breakthrough

A year-long journey of discovery for the current CEO or CEO succession candidate. Executive Breakthrough unleashes your full potential and accelerates your ability to transform your organization.
 

Can I be the leader I aspire to be?

As CEO, you assume the position with high expectations – of your shareholders, employees, stakeholder groups and yes, yourself. Egon Zehnder’s global survey, The CEO: A Personal Reflection, found that only 28% of internally-selected CEOS and 38% of external hires felt fully prepared for the job. The Executive Breakthrough Program is an opportunity for current and aspiring CEOs to deeply reflect on how to transform both yourself and the enterprise you lead while gaining new perspectives and energy. It is unique, selective, confidential and by invitation only.
 

Fulfilling the human dimension of leadership

Throughout your career, the focus has been on refining your technical capabilities; time for personal transformation and reflection has likely been a lesser priority. The Executive Breakthrough Program, headed by a multidisciplinary team of development experts from Egon Zehnder and Mobius Executive Leadership, will take you on a year-long systematic, transformative journey of personal discovery, development and support to create truly holistic growth and realize your full potential.

The Executive Breakthrough Program helps you discover your authentic leadership style while broadening the behaviors and mindsets to better engage and influence those you lead. During the program’s phases, you identify what is holding you back, and how to strengthen those unique qualities that make you most effective in the CEO or another executive position.

The program combines WINNING FROM WITHIN®, Mobius’s seminal framework on personal transformation from the inside out, with Egon Zehnder’s Potential Model, a proven assessment tool that gauges and quantifies the long-term outlook for leaders to succeed in future roles.  Central to the construct is Egon Zehnder’s Transformational Leadership model – aligning the individual’s personal growth priorities to the transformation agenda of their business.

“I have been on a lot of leadership programs in my time and this has been out of this world. It is too hard to describe in words; you are going to have to come and experience it for yourself.”

Play Marnix Leijten, Managing Partner, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, shares his experience with Mobius' Executive Breakthrough Program.

Marnix Leijten, Managing Partner, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, shares his experience with Mobius' Executive Breakthrough Program.

The Executive Breakthrough Program

Co-created by Egon Zehnder and Mobius, the Executive Breakthrough Program aligns your personal growth priorities with the transformation agenda of your business:

  • Develops a critical baseline of your current mindset, ambitions, passion and purpose. You will become fully attuned to your own personality characteristics and assumptions as well as how others perceive you, including a benchmark against other high-performing leaders. This becomes your leadership baseline – a robust evaluation of competencies, unfulfilled potential and insights into important “blind spots”.
  • Evolves your mindset as you work together with expert faculty and a carefully selected group of participant peers during a five-day Intensive experience, designed to help you understand your own talents, leadership style, authentic gifts and most powerful aspirations. Leaders create a toolkit in tandem with faculty and their personal Development Advisor that becomes the foundation for how they define, sustain and deepen their impact.
  • Ensures readiness for what’s next through the creation of a long-term personal transformation plan for you, both as an individual leader, and as a leader of organizational change. Working with your Development Advisor as coach, mentor and support, over the course of the remaining year, you will fine-tune the personal plan to embed new behaviors and mindsets into day-to-day execution.

"I never imagined how much value I would get from this both personally and professionally! The faculty and how they handled the group and my personal situation was second to none. One of the best experiences of my professional life."

Play Steffen Saltofte, CEO of Acino International, Shares the Value of the Executive Breakthrough Program

Steffen Saltofte, CEO of Acino International, Shares the Value of the Executive Breakthrough Program

A year-long journey of personal intervention

Partnership from Day One

You are paired with an Egon Zehnder Development Advisor who will work intensively with you as your sponsor, advisor, integrator and mentor throughout the year-long journey.

  • Phase I: Benchmark & Baseline
    Our faculty and your Development Advisor work with you to develop your baseline as a leader.  It includes psychometrics and a proprietary benchmark of your capabilities as a transformational leader, measured against other high-performing CEOs and executives. At the end of this first phase, you’ll come out with a Leadership Development roadmap--your compass for the leadership journey ahead.

  • Phase II: Breakthrough Intensive
    A five-day, highly experiential offsite will accelerate your personal transformation by evaluating how you look at yourself, your role and your challenges within your organization. The faculty is led by Mobius Chief Thought Leader, Erica Ariel Fox, author of WINNING FROM WITHIN®, and includes additional seasoned Mobius instructors as well as Egon Zehnder Partners. Participants work with peers and delve deeply into their own journeys. Many view the Intensive as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change both their lives and their leadership approach.

  • Phase III: Supportive Continual Learning through the full year of the program
    Following the Intensive and for the remainder of the year, your Egon Zehnder Development Advisor will help you to convert your personal plan into action.
     

“I most appreciated the insight, the challenge, emotionally and mentally. The openness of the group, the support of the group. The fact is, you took us places other courses wouldn't dare go.”

Program Details

Bespoke, by invitation only

The Executive Breakthrough Program is unique, confidential and by invitation only. Designed for current CEOs and senior executives who aspire to be CEOs or are on the successor path, participants are chosen and invited by Egon Zehnder and their respective sponsor organizations.  EBP brings together a small global cohort of participants drawn from complementary backgrounds, based on similarities in experience, potential and their ability to connect and contribute as a supportive group of peers.

The Executive Breakthrough Program takes place over the course of one full year. All venues are scenic, tranquil, and designed to provide beautiful, reflective environments for growth. Global locations and specifics are discussed upon registration.

Play Egon Zehnder's Ricardo Sunderland spoke with mathematician and computer scientist DJ Patil, former Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy, on his EBP experience.

Egon Zehnder's Ricardo Sunderland spoke with mathematician and computer scientist DJ Patil, former Chief Data Scientist of the United States Office of Science and Technology Policy, on his EBP experience.


Executive Breakthrough Consultants

Greig Schneider

Greig Schneider

Boston

Greig Schneider, based in Boston, was Egon Zehnder’s Managing Partner in the U.S. from 2010 to 2016 and served several years on the firm’s Board of… Read more

Edilson Camara

Edilson Camara

Chicago, Toronto

Based in Chicago, Edilson Camara is Egon Zehnder’s Chief Executive Officer. Drawing on his deep experience in natural resources and heavy industry… Read more

Michael Portland

Michael Portland

Chicago

Michael Portland is a member of Egon Zehnder’s CEO and Board Consulting practices and has deep expertise in CEO and C-suite succession, executive… Read more

Julia Nenke

Julia Nenke

San Francisco

Based in San Francisco, Julia Nenke leads the firms Leadership Advisory Practice for North America. As a leadership and transformation specialist… Read more

Ricardo Sunderland

Ricardo Sunderland

San Francisco

Ricardo Sunderland, based in San Francisco, is a senior leadership development Consultant whose life’s purpose is to “connect humanity at… Read more

Valerie Spriet

Valerie Spriet

Toronto

Valerie is a leader in Egon Zehnder’s Global Leadership Advisory and Board practices.  Valerie has deep expertise in CEO succession… Read more

Alain Serhan

Alain Serhan

Montreal, New York, Toronto

Alain advises public and privately held organizations on their CEO succession and Board member transitions. Leadership selection… Read more

Andrew Roscoe

Andrew Roscoe

Dublin Office Leader, London

Andrew Roscoe, based in London, is an active member of the firm’s Board Consulting and CEO practices. Read more

Jill Ader

Jill Ader

London

Based in London, Jill Ader is a Senior Advisor at Egon Zehnder where she provides leadership advisory, board consulting and CEO consulting globally. Read more

Toby Gibbs

Toby Gibbs

London

Toby Gibbs, based in London, advises international companies on talent strategy, assessment, leadership development, and board and executive search. Read more

Sophie Hanson

Sophie Hanson

London

Based in London, Sophie Hanson has deep experience in CEO succession, C-suite and Board succession projects. Her focus is on the consumer sector with… Read more

Fiona Packman

Fiona Packman

London

Based in London, Fiona Packman leads Egon Zehnder’s Professional Services Practice there. Read more

Sven Petersen

Sven Petersen

London

​A German-Brazilian living in London, Sven Petersen advises on leadership talent and development across sectors but spends most of his time in the… Read more

Jacqueline O'Sullivan

Jacqueline O'Sullivan

London

Jackie O’Sullivan, based in London, is a member of Egon Zehnder’s global Assessment and Development practice. Read more

Marie Baudron

Marie Baudron

Paris

Marie Baudron is a trusted advisor to banking and insurance clients. Based in Paris, she has deep expertise in CEO succession and talent management. Read more

David Majtlis

David Majtlis

Amsterdam

David Majtlis is based in Amsterdam. David works on CEO succession, senior executive development and coaching, and corporate governance mandates. Read more

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