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INSPIRE – Leading for System Impact supports senior leaders in navigating organisational complexity and shaping institutional transformation. Emphasis is placed on driving reform, managing diverse stakeholders and external partnerships, and leading systemically and across boundaries. Participants align teams and mandates with the broader UN vision, and lead with clarity, humility, and strategic intent.
The UN80 reform agenda and the UN 2.0 vision call for modernised operations and a results-driven culture centred on innovation, data, digital capacity, strategic foresight, and behavioural science. These reforms require not just operational shifts but a fundamental rethinking of leadership and management - leaders who can bridge strategy and implementation, build inclusive, high-performing teams, and lead decisively amid volatility and ambiguity.
In this context, effective leadership is mission-critical. It is not a discretionary investment but a core enabler of wellbeing, accountability, and operational impact. Resilient, principled leadership will carry the UN through today's challenges and prepare it for tomorrow's unknowns. Beyond technical skill, we need adaptive leaders who live our values - integrity, accountability, respect, and inclusion - especially when the pressure is greatest.
Roots to Results: The UNSSC Leadership and Management Pathway is UNSSC's response to these challenges - designed to equip UN personnel at every level with the leadership foundations, management skills, and strategic capability the moment demands. It represents a system-wide initiative developed in close collaboration with UN entities and the UN Secretariat.
The Pathway aims to strengthen leadership and management capacity across the UN while recognising that shared leadership principles must be applied flexibly across diverse mandates, governance arrangements, and organisational cultures.
Track III from the Pathway, INSPIRE - Leading for System Impact shifts the emphasis to institutional stewardship, ethical foresight, and systemic leadership in complex, interdependent environments - moving beyond people and team management to shaping institutional culture, navigating political complexity, and translating uncertainty into opportunity at scale.
Overall Learning Objective
- By the end of the programme, participants will have strengthened their capacity to lead systemic change in complex, high-stakes environments by cultivating strategic foresight, adaptive leadership and influence across teams, organizations and global partnerships - aligned with the UN 2.0 vision and mission.
Modular Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this programme, participants should be able to:
- Assess their leadership agility across thinking, engaging and acting, evaluate where adaptive leadership responses are most needed in their mandate and develop a personalized leadership behaviour plan.
- Apply systems thinking and appropriate frameworks to analyse organizational complexity, select adaptive leadership responses and mobilize stakeholders toward collective progress.
- Facilitate high-quality decisions under uncertainty by engaging diverse perspectives and sustain composure and ethical judgement under pressure.
- Clarify the strategic purpose of partnerships within their mandate, design partnership value propositions and apply high-trust engagement approaches that position their organization as a credible actor in multilateral spaces.
- Apply strategic foresight tools, test assumptions using contrasting futures and identify opportunities to embed anticipatory thinking into their entity's leadership and planning processes.
INSPIRE - Leading for System Impact integrates online and peer-supported learning, 360-degree leadership Assessments and executive coaching into an eight-week, immersive experience. Specifically, it includes:
- Five Micro-learning modules to build foundational insight.
- Five Interactive Webinars (150 min) featuring UN-specific case studies and live dialogue.
- Two 360-degree Assessments to benchmark and measure behavioural growth
- Three individual executive coaching sessions and two peer coaching sessions to deepen reflection and accountability.
- Access to the UNSSC Learning Platform with curated frameworks, readings, and discussion spaces.
- 5 x curated Microlearning Activities (Module 1: Assessing Your Leadership Agility, Module 2: Adaptive Leadership for Complex Challenges, Module 3: Leading with Clarity under Pressure, Module 4: Influencing Systems Through Partnerships, Module 5: Turning Uncertainty into Strategy)
- 5 x 150-minute Interactive Webinars, inclusive of a dedicated ‘Half Hour of Power’ engagement as part of each Interactive Webinars, to further facilitate personalised engagement and interaction between Directors’ and faculty experts
- 3 x 60-minute individual leadership coaching session with a certified executive coach
- 2 x 120-minute facilitated Peer Coaching Sessions
- 1 x “Foundational” 360‑degree Assessment (baseline) aligned to UN leadership competencies
- 1 x “Pulse” 360‑degree Assessment (six‑month follow‑up), supporting reflection and sustained behavioural change
- Access to a network/community of senior UN leaders and alumni
- Access to the dedicated UNSSC Learning Platform with curated resources, including:
- Recordings of all Interactive Webinars
- Curated readings, case studies, strategic tools, and frameworks
- Self-reflection activities and leadership challenges
- Peer coaching model and resources
- UNSSC Certification
INSPIRE - Leading for System Impact is designed for senior leaders (typically D1/D2) who are leading at the organisational level. The Track reflects the strategic complexity of senior leadership roles across the UN System and acknowledges the diverse contributions of leaders operating in varied institutional, contractual, and geographic contexts - including national staff in high-responsibility positions. Its inclusive design ensures relevance to those shaping institutional culture, stewarding organisational change, and exercising influence across boundaries and sectors.
Participants are responsible for setting strategic direction, managing cross-functional influence, and navigating political and interagency dynamics. They are expected to model values-based leadership and drive alignment with the long-term vision and mission of the Organisation.
It is particularly suited for staff who are:
- Leading departments, divisions, or multi-disciplinary teams across entities
- Engaged in high-level coordination, policy leadership, or system transformation
- Responsible for strategic foresight, innovation, and future positioning
- Seeking to deepen their impact as institutional stewards of UN values and long-term vision - and to strengthen their ability to lead change at scale
INSPIRE - Leading for System Impact has a per participant programme fee of USD 3,000, which covers an eight-week curated executive learning experience incorporating the elements specified under "Course contents".
