Leadership today is no longer about having the right answers. It is about staying upright in continuous disruption, when pressure is constant, certainty is scarce and tensions don’t disappear.
At StreetwiZe, we work with leaders who operate in this reality every day. Our leadership development is grounded in real-world experience and focused on helping leaders make conscious choices in complexity.
Over the past decades, the world has shifted into what we now call a permacrisis:
an ongoing wave of global shocks — health, climate, war, energy, technology — that overlap and reinforce each other.
In this reality, leaders are expected to:
These are not problems to solve once and for all. They are paradoxes to navigate, day after day.
Traditional leadership models, built for more stable times, often fall short here.
They promise control, clarity or best practices, while leaders today must learn to stay effective in tension, not despite it.
More than 20 years ago, StreetwiZe started learning about leadership in the most unexpected place: the streets.
Working with street-connected children, growing up in daily survival mode, we observed how they navigated uncertainty and chaos. Out of necessity, they developed powerful capacities to stay focused, recover from setbacks, find creative solutions and cooperate without losing themselves.
We translated these observations into what we call the Street Skills, foundational leadership capacities, shaped by real life under pressure. They form the grounding layer of StreetwiZe leadership:
Seeing possibilities and opportunities, even when circumstances are harsh or discouraging.
Recovering from setbacks, staying present under pressure and continuing despite uncertainty.
Finding new paths and solutions when familiar approaches no longer work.
balancing self-interest with collective success, knowing when to collaborate and when to step forward.
Leading in complexity is not about defining your leadership style. It is about making conscious choices in situations where values collide and no option is perfect. Leaders increasingly ask themselves:
This shift, from knowing to choosing, marks the move from the Leadership foundations to Balanced Leadership. Balanced Leadership is the ability to stay effective while navigating permanent tension. It means:
Balance here does not mean compromise. It means: knowing where to stand, when to act and how to stay aligned with purpose under pressure.
Balanced Leadership is not a trait. It is a set of trainable capabilities that can be developed through experience, reflection and intentional practice.
Self-awareness is a necessary starting point, but it is not enough. At StreetwiZe, advanced leadership development helps leaders move from insight to action by strengthening four core Balanced Leadership capabilities.
sustaining performance through energy, connection and support
holding opposing perspectives and creating meaningful direction
switching perspectives and staying adaptable under pressure
building safety, openness and psychological strength within teams
These capabilities are practiced in real situations and embedded in daily leadership behaviour.
At StreetwiZe, leadership development is never off-the-shelf.
We design tailored leadership journeys in close co-creation with organisations, always starting from their reality, challenges and ambitions. These journeys:
Leadership development is not an add-on alongside the job. It becomes part of how leaders think, decide and act.
Every journey is unique, but most follow a clear rhythm that balances structure and flexibility.
Leaders step out of routine environments and into situations that confront them with real complexity, pressure and choice.
Structured reflection and collective dialogue deepen self-awareness, challenge assumptions and turn experience into insight.
Hands-on experiences that provide deep leadership insights.
A personal leadership compass and action plan for continuous growth.
Practical leadership capabilities are strengthened — from decision-making under pressure to integrative thinking and relational agility.
Strengthening core leadership competencies to stay grounded and effective in uncertainty
Developing leaders' ability to navigate paradox, make consious choices and lead with humanity in complexity.
Learning is anchored in daily leadership behaviour through application, follow-up and alignment with the organisational context.
Practical cases that align with your organisation’s environment, reinforcing decision-making and impact.
Interactive sessions that strengthen self-awareness, peer coaching and shared accountability.
Each journey is guided by experienced facilitators and anchored in clear learning objectives, while remaining adaptive to context and group dynamics. There is structure, but no standardisation. The journey adapts to the leaders, not the other way around.
StreetwiZe has partnered with organisations such as AG Insurance, Projective Group and Elia to design leadership journeys tailored to their specific contexts and challenges.
These collaborations differ in form and scope, but share one ambition:
strengthening leadership capacity that holds in complexity: under pressure, over time, and across the organisation.
IT Young Pro’s
Can you provide a program that allows AG Insurance's Young Pros in IT to further develop themselves and build essential skills as part of their onboarding process? Specifically, can you emphasize the development of their people skills?
Certainly! With our program, we focus on the holistic development of AG Insurance's Young Pros in IT. We start by working on their personal mission, values, and talents, emphasizing street skills such as Resilience & Agility and Positive Focus. Once they have a solid foundation, the Young Pros collaborate as a community to define and develop projects that they find meaningful for the organization. Along the way, they gain valuable insights into project management and enhance their presentation and persuasion skills. This approach ensures comprehensive skill development and a strong sense of community among the participants.
Lead Smart
How can young professionals in the tech and consulting sector develop strong leadership skills while staying connected to their values and fostering a culture of performance and collaboration? As part of Exellys' Lead Smart program, the challenge was to enhance leadership training by integrating real-life experiences that encourage self-awareness, team dynamics, and result-driven leadership.
The programme begins with an experiential learning journey in collaboration with community institution De Zande, where participants engage closely with youth offenders. This unique setting challenges them to confront their own assumptions, emotional responses, and coping mechanisms. Through structured reflection, participants gain deeper insights into their leadership style and core values. This self-exploration forms the foundation for the rest of the programme, where they develop a personal leadership action plan that is further refined in the following workshops.
The leadership development journey is built around three key questions:
By combining real-world experience, structured reflection, and practical leadership tools, the program equips participants to become self-aware, adaptable, and impact-driven leaders.
Change management
Can you provide a program that equips our participants with the skills to navigate the uncertain terrain of change, enabling them to effectively manage and lead change processes within Elia Group? We're looking for a holistic approach that includes real-world project experience and emphasizes the human aspects of change leadership.
The Faraday Program is structured as a journey that gradually builds participants' insights and experience in change processes. It comprises several phases, throughout 10 months:
Phase 1: An immersive leadership expedition in Iasi, Romania, fostering self-awareness, networking, and teaming.
Phase 2: Covers the basics of change leadership and change management.
Phase 3: Focuses on co-creating change, selecting projects, and building project teams, with insights from Elia Group change testimonials.
Phase 4: Prepares participants for project execution, emphasizing change planning, rollout, and storytelling in a change leadership context.
Phase 5: Concentrates on making change sustainable and understanding interaction preferences.
Alongside tailored leadership journeys, StreetwiZe organises a limited number of open leadership expeditions in collaboration with refugee centres.
Leadership is best learned through action. Join an immersive learning environment where leadership development goes beyond theory, ensuring real growth and impact.
Step into a three-day co-creation journey alongside refugees and explore what it really means to lead through connection. This powerful experience will challenge your assumptions, grow your self-awareness, and strengthen your ability to unite, empower and inspire diverse teams.
All StreetwiZe profits support MobileSchool.org. Every leadership journey contributes to opportunities for street-connected children worldwide.
That connection is not symbolic. It's where our work began, and why it matters.
All profits generated by StreetwiZe are invested in MobileSchool.org to develop the talents of street children worldwide.
