Whilst research has been undertaken to better understand the impact of leadership development interventions (Avolio et al. 2009; Martin et al. 2021), it has tended to focus on surface outcomes such as competency development and behavioural change (Hiller et al. 2011), rather than examining more fundamental impacts, such as changes in cognitive framing, emotional recalibration, reappraisal of values and motivational variations.

Although such impacts may be more challenging to grasp (G. Petriglieri and Stein 2012), it is arguably a better proxy for what participants may perceive as truly transformative journeys-developmental voyages of discovery which incite them to undertake deeper reflection and embrace more significant and sustained changes touching their professional and personal arenas on a longer-term basis (Kwok, Shen, and Brown 2020).

There is a persistent lack of understanding concerning the design catalysts and pedagogical choices which serve to stimulate impact, with sustained calls for a more rigorous exploration of ‘‘what is actually being developed or causing the observed change in leadership performance’‘ (Wallace, Torres, and Zaccaro 2021 p.1 citing De Rue and Meyers 2014, p.840).

In this presentation I will share my empirical research based on a case study of a leadership development program and highlight the crucial role programmatic social context plays in driving leadership transformation. The research was conducted using a grounded theory approach leveraging qualitative interviews with 41 participants from a leadership program. The interviews were conducted on average 9 months post program to determine what transformation may have taken place for them and which design considerations underpinned the associated impact.

Keywords: Instructional Design, Executive Education, Leadership Development, Personal Transformation.