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INSPIRE - Leading for System Impact | Edition 1
Inspire – Leading for System Impact supports senior leaders in navigating organisational complexity and shaping institutional transformation. Emphasis is placed on strategic foresight, ethical leadership under pressure, and systems influence. Participants align teams and mandates with the broader UN vision, and lead with clarity, humility, and strategic intent.
As the Organisation approaches its 80th anniversary, 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, more 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 represents a system-wide initiative developed in close collaboration with UN entities and the UN Secretariat. It 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 offers a safe, dynamic, and forward-looking space where mid-senior managers can strengthen their leadership and management mindset, enhance critical skills, and connect with peers across the UN System.
Through this experience, participants develop a targeted set of leadership and management competencies essential for navigating the demands of executive roles in the UN. These include self-awareness, fostering psychological safety and inclusion, building team resilience, integrity, learning agility, managing people and performance for results, making effective and unbiased decisions, expanding strategic partnerships, and leading through organisational change.
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, organisations, 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:
- Navigate Organisational Complexity and Lead Adaptively
- Build sense-making capacity and distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges
- Apply systems thinking tools to analyse internal and external complexity.
- Identify leverage points for leadership action in rapidly shifting contexts.
- Strengthen Interpersonal Effectiveness and Decision-Making Using Behavioural Insights
- Enhance leadership self-awareness through neuroscience-informed approaches.
- Make sound, values-based decisions under conditions of uncertainty and stress.
- Apply communication strategies that reinforce psychological safety, clarity, and trust.
- Influence Strategically and Lead through Global Partnerships
- Mobilise strategic partnerships to align resources, networks, and influence with UN priorities.
- Lead across boundaries, institutions, and cultures with credibility and purpose.
- Position their team and organisation as a trusted actor in multilateral spaces.
- Drive Innovation and Shape Future-Ready Organisational Cultures
- Embrace disruption as an opportunity for learning and transformation.
- Model and reinforce a culture of innovation, data-informed leadership, and continuous adaptation.
- Balance empathy and decisiveness when leading teams through uncertainty and institutional change.
- Translate Strategic Insight into Action
- Synthesize lessons from peer exchange, coaching, and case work into a coherent leadership approach.
- Develop and commit to an action plan for sustained behavioural change and organisational impact.
- Align individual development goals with system-level leadership challenges and opportunities.
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 online workshops (150 min) featuring UN-specific case studies and live dialogue.
- Two 360-degree leadership assessments to benchmark and measure behavioural growth (baseline and 6-month pulse check).
- 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.
- Participants also receive a Reflection and Action Workbook to anchor insights, track progress, and sustain behavioural change beyond the course.
- 5 x curated Microlearning Activities (Module 1: Understanding your Leadership Agility, Module 2: Navigating Organisational Complexity, Module 3: Leading with Clarity under Pressure, Module 4: Influencing systems | Mobilising Strategic Partnerships, Module 5: Leading at the Edge: Turning Uncertainty into Strategy)
- 5 x 150-minute Interactive Online Workshops, inclusive of a dedicated ‘Half Hour of Power’ engagement as part of each online Workshop, to further facilitate personalised engagement and interaction between Directors’ and faculty experts
- 1 x 90-minute 360-degree Assessment debrief coaching session with a certified executive coach
- 2 x 60-minute individual leadership coaching session with a certified executive coach
- 2 x 120-minute facilitated Peer coaching Sessions
- 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 Online Workshops
- 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 UN personnel (typically D-1 to D-2) 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.
In specific cases, Inspire - Leading for System Impact may also be opened to National Officer D (NOD) colleagues who are acting as Heads of Office, leading major organisational units, or carrying senior leadership responsibilities equivalent to Director-level roles.
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 stewards of UN values and long-term vision through project implementation
Track III: Inspire 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".
