IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INSEAD LIFELONG LEARNING
“At a certain point in life, people transition from 'time to live' to 'time left to live.' This shift creates a new sense of urgency about identifying the purpose of our existence. And as people confront this challenge, they come up against a set of fundamental human needs that collectively define how we experience the meaning of our existence: belonging, purpose, competence, control, and transcendence. Thinking about these five pillars of meaning can help you reinvent your life.”
Quo Vadis: The Existential Challenges of Leaders by Professor Manfred Kets de Vries
Throughout one’s working life, there are shifts and changes. We journey through first, second and even third careers. Personal, professional and leadership development accompany and support us on our way.
But there comes a time, be it at the end or in the middle of our career, when this development journey begins to slow down or even ends altogether, and yet paradoxically we are faced with one of life’s biggest inflection points: What’s next? Where am I heading?
In partnership with INSEAD Lifelong Learning and exclusively for INSEAD alumni, the Quo Vadis LRCs are inspired by experiences and ideas gathered from decades of coaching leaders, designed to accelerate your thinking and planning for the future during a career inflection point – whatever your Quo Vadis challenge may be: re-evaluation, reinvention or retirement.
Working with a small group of peers and facilitated by a senior coach, the five-week programme provides a reflective space to explore the essential pillars of meaning (purpose, belonging, competence, control and transcendence) as they relate to your life and work, and catalysts to help you steer yourself towards the next phase.
You will join a group of 5 executives who will meet virtually with a coach every week for a total of five sessions of 1,5 hours each. The Quo Vadis LRC coaches are senior Associates of the Kets de Vries Institute who bring extensive experience coaching global executives in transition. Sessions will be run based on the coaching methodologies pioneered by Professor Manfred Kets de Vries at INSEAD.
To register, follow the link to the registration form and select from the available dates. If you don't see a date that works for you, please contact the programme coordinator.
In preparation, you’ll be asked to complete a reflective questionnaire about your Quo Vadis challenges and selected pre-readings.
Exclusive programme for INSEAD alumni.
The programme is oriented to experienced executives who, for whatever reason, are re-evaluating life and preparing for a new phase. When forming groups we will pay attention to level of experience, geographic location, specialisations and industries to bring together diverse perspectives in an enriching peer learning group. Please only apply if you are able to commit to the five sessions.
Location Work Experience
Sector
Why do participants join?
Participants in mid-career and facing dilemmas and uncertainty about their immediate future path
An opportunity to ‘reset’ their priorities for their next phase
"I don’t find it meaningful or exciting to continue on the current trajectory and I am looking for options"
Examples of career inflection points
Participants have gone as far as they can in their present role and are seeking a new purpose, asking themselves the question “Now what?”
Several participants, particularly women with younger kids, have passion and purpose as to what they want to do but struggle with selfishness that they feel in exercising ‘Control’ in the 5 Pillars
To get more meaning into what they were doing or get clarity in terms of their career path- stay or change. If they stay, why or why not
How does the program help?
The process helps to identify which of the 5 pillars to focus on in order to get clarity on their journey
The LRC had raised participants self-awareness and the need for greater introspection as to what their true purpose and motivation really is
Participants have said they had a clear outcome as a result of the LRC and that they would (or already had) initiate the steps to pursue that outcome
They felt bonded with each other and chose to meet again in three months to share what they have done since the LRC and to help each other with any challenges they are facing
‘The process accelerated the transformation I'm going through and it encouraged me to be more playful. The most effective element was the psychological safety in the group that the coach was able to create almost instantly.’
‘The personal session is very interesting but actually a lot of insights come from listening to the others battling with similar issues.’
‘Listening to the hypotheses and deeper questions of my peers, which reflected somehow their own issues, biases, and ways of thinking, but nevertheless provided valuable perspectives different from mine.’
‘It was very effective and insightful, to get into a group who is sensitive in both looking for meaning in life and who have a high stake in business. Most of my experience with coaching have a bias towards one or the other. It was very suitable for me to have both being discussed and addressed, as a group and individually.’
‘The structure for each individual to present their challenges and obtain good feed-back was clear. The coach constantly provided food for thought based on the discussion and in preparation of the next session to elaborate further on topics.’
