In Service of Holistic Human Leadership
A transformative leadership journey
for those ready to grow from within.
Elevate Leadership Development
Elevate Leadership Development was created to help leaders pause, reflect, and rediscover what it truly means to lead. In a fast-paced and complex world, leadership requires more than technical expertise. It calls for clarity, authenticity, and the ability to connect deeply with others. Elevate provides a space for leaders to step back from the demands of daily work and reconnect with purpose, presence, and the human side of leadership.
Designed as an immersive and experiential journey, Elevate guides participants through self-discovery and growth across three dimensions: Leading Self, Leading Others, and Leading to Leverage the Organization. Through mindfulness, reflection, and action-based learning, leaders strengthen awareness, resilience, and impact. Each participant leaves with a renewed sense of clarity and a personal roadmap to lead with confidence and purpose.
Why Elevate
In today’s world, knowledge is no longer the differentiator. Information is everywhere. And yet, true leadership is increasingly rare. What now sets great leaders apart is how they show up as human beings: their presence, authenticity, and ability to build trust and connection in an environment of constant change. Leadership today requires far more than expertise or skill. It calls for awareness, empathy, and the courage to lead with clarity in complexity. Many leaders have the experience and ambition but little space to pause, reflect, and realign with their deeper purpose.
Elevate Leadership Development was created to provide that space—a sanctuary for reflection, renewal, and growth. Through mindfulness, experiential learning, and guided reflection, the program helps leaders:
- Reconnect with purpose and inner clarity
- Reveal the untapped potential that makes them unique
- Build confidence to navigate uncertainty and lead with authenticity
- Cultivate presence, balance, and resilience
- Strengthen self-awareness and emotional intelligence
- Foster genuine human connection that inspires trust and belonging
How Elevate Works
Elevate brings together reflection, feedback, and action through a holistic, human-centered approach to leadership development. The experience engages mind, body, and emotion, allowing leaders to connect insight with meaningful behavior change.
The Elevate experience includes:
- Immersive Learning Facilitators guide small, trusted cohorts through experiential sessions that encourage honest dialogue, shared discovery, and personal insight.
- Mindfulness and Somatic Awareness Daily mindfulness, body-awareness practices, and movement help leaders strengthen focus, balance, and emotional presence.
- Action Learning Real-world challenges are explored through reflection and peer dialogue, allowing participants to turn experience into lasting leadership practice.
- Feedback and Reflection Structured feedback, including the 360° Leadership Circle Profile, supports deeper self-awareness and growth.
- Holistic Growth Environment The retreat setting fosters openness, renewal, and meaningful connection, helping leaders integrate new perspectives and sustainable practices.
By the end of the journey, participants leave with renewed clarity, practical tools, and a grounded roadmap to lead with purpose and impact.
Masterclass
A transformative four-day journey that helps leaders grow from within, integrating 360° feedback, reflection, and experiential learning across three dimensions: Leading Self, Leading Others, and Leading to Leverage the Organization.
Leading Self
Elevate begins with the leader within. Participants gain deep self-awareness through 360° feedback, guided reflection, and experiential exercises. They explore their values, motivations, and leadership identity while strengthening emotional intelligence and resilience. The focus is on cultivating authenticity, balance, and clarity to lead with purpose and presence.
Leading Others
The second stage centers on how leaders build trust and influence. Participants learn to communicate with empathy, empower teams, and navigate difficult conversations with confidence. Embracing paradoxes and expanding leadership capacity to go beyond "this OR that", to "this AND that". Through interactive dialogue and peer learning, they develop the ability to inspire others, foster accountability, and create conditions where people thrive together.
Leading to Leverage the Organization
The final stage widens the lens to organizational impact. Leaders learn to align people around a shared vision, navigate complexity, and drive change with agility and integrity. This part of the journey integrates systems thinking, strategic awareness, and real-world problem solving to strengthen influence at every level.
Before the Program
Before the core of the Program’s Masterclass, Participants complete a Leadership Circle Profile (360° assessment) and engage in a personalized one-on-one pre-program coaching call to define personal and business goals and leadership priorities.
Masterclass Retreat
At the core of Elevate is a four-day immersive retreat designed to help leaders reflect, reconnect, and grow. Each day blends mindfulness practice, experiential learning, and peer dialogue in a setting that fosters focus, renewal, and meaningful connection.
Arrival and Welcome
The work of personal transformation starts before you even arrive at our partner’s beautiful location, The Green Farm, Quinta das Carvalhas, in Portugal. Our curated work starts with a confidential development session with one of our faculty coaches. It marks the beginning of a journey of self-discovery exploring the contours of your best version of yourself.
Leading Self
What is my personal leadership narrative and how do I leverage this to create an Inner Compass? How do I develop an operating system based on the transcendent values that propel me as a leader? How do I integrate practices in self-care, wellness, determination and resilience to manage my energy in service of leading others?
Leading Others
The second day focuses on developing relational intelligence. How do I lead through the art of Brave Conversations and Listen to Understand? How do I lead as “Leader as Coach?” What is the essence of building the atmosphere in my teams that cultivates and grows the talent of others?
Leverage the Organization
What is “leading with purpose”? How do I navigate complexity through the paradoxes of leadership influence? How can I exercise “power” and “trust” hand-in-hand? How do I stay true to myself while integrating into a larger whole? Guided by our faculty, you will bring your real-life challenges to work through your own specific business issues in real time, and in a safe cohort environment: this is not someone else’s business case, it’ll be yours.
Closure and Departure
The objective of the final day is to bring the depth of the week’s journey into a renewed sense of meaning of your leadership in a voice that’s uniquely yours, both authentic and compelling.
Day 0
Arrival and Welcome
The work of personal transformation starts before you even arrive at our partner’s beautiful location, The Green Farm, Quinta das Carvalhas, in Portugal. Our curated work starts with a confidential development session with one of our faculty coaches. It marks the beginning of a journey of self-discovery exploring the contours of your best version of yourself.
Day 1
Leading Self
What is my personal leadership narrative and how do I leverage this to create an Inner Compass? How do I develop an operating system based on the transcendent values that propel me as a leader? How do I integrate practices in self-care, wellness, determination and resilience to manage my energy in service of leading others?
Day 2
Leading Others
The second day focuses on developing relational intelligence. How do I lead through the art of Brave Conversations and Listen to Understand? How do I lead as “Leader as Coach?” What is the essence of building the atmosphere in my teams that cultivates and grows the talent of others?
Day 3
Leverage the Organization
What is “leading with purpose”? How do I navigate complexity through the paradoxes of leadership influence? How can I exercise “power” and “trust” hand-in-hand? How do I stay true to myself while integrating into a larger whole? Guided by our faculty, you will bring your real-life challenges to work through your own specific business issues in real time, and in a safe cohort environment: this is not be someone else’s business case, it’ll be yours.
Day 4
Closure and Departure
The objective of the final day is to bring the depth of the week’s journey into a renewed sense of meaning of your leadership in a voice that’s uniquely yours, both authentic and compelling.
After the Program
Leaders continue their journey through individual 1:1 coaching with Elevate facilitators. These sessions help translate insights into daily practice, strengthen new habits, and align personal growth with organizational goals. Additional team coaching or integration support is also available for organizations seeking to embed learning more broadly.
For Whom
For Individuals
Elevate is designed for leaders who find themselves at a threshold moment: stepping into greater responsibility, expanding their leadership scope, or evolving into a new version of themselves. Participants often arrive at a point where the familiar ways of leading no longer suffice, and a deeper, more authentic approach is needed.
The program is ideal for leaders who want to:
- Navigate a transition into a higher or more complex leadership role
- Deepen self-awareness and align their leadership with personal values
- Strengthen relationships, empathy, and influence across teams
- Develop strategic clarity and presence to lead through complexity and change
- Integrate well-being, balance, and mindfulness into their leadership practice
- Lead with authenticity and inspire others through genuine connection
In addition to what individuals benefit in their personal development as leaders this is also an opportunity to experience an inner journey of individual reflection and expansion, and an outward journey focused on expanding organisational impact, mapping stakeholders and developing strategies for greater influence and results
For Companies
Our clients are international, they have globally dispersed operations, and range from privately held companies to the world’s leading brands. What clients want are tailored solutions to their environment, yet based on the years of experience that the Elevate faculty has accumulated in Individual and Group leadership Development.
Elevate began its journey as a company-dedicated program delivered to a single client. Sometimes our clients deployed the Elevate program across a group of leaders such as all the “General Managers” across the company. Other times clients chose to focus on their High Potential population within a single region. Elevate has also been integrated as a stand-alone component to complement the client’s internal Leadership Development. Irrespective, we take pride in our capacity to adapt the core of the Elevate program to curate a unique experience for our clients.
The sponsors of Elevate are often a combined partnership between those responsible for Global Talent Development and P&L leaders. Typical benefits for companies sponsoring an Elevate program include creating a common leadership language, building momentum behind enterprise-wide transformation, and uniting key leadership roles across boundaries and functions. If you would like to learn more about the program, whether it may be relevant for your organization, and how might it be adapted to your world, contact us.
” This masterclass is not about teaching leadership. It is about becoming a leader by discovering an own voice, embracing a unique leadership style, and stepping forward with confidence and authenticity. “
Our Philosophy
At the heart of Elevate lies the conviction that profound leadership transformation begins within. To lead others effectively, one must first cultivate self-awareness, curiosity, and an inner sense of purpose. Leadership, in our view, is deeply human. It cannot be mastered through techniques alone but evolves through reflection, experience, and the courage to face complexity and uncertainty. In Elevate, we weave together modern leadership science, timeless wisdom, experiential learning, and somatic practices to help leaders reconnect with their values, deepen emotional intelligence, and embody authentic presence. The program provides a protected space to explore vulnerability, build resilience, and develop a leadership style that is both grounded and inspiring.
Our philosophy: leadership is not just a role – it’s a way of being. To access it, we must step beyond our comfort zones and long-practiced behaviors. Therefore, we believe that:
Space and nature matter
New perspectives and neural connections arise when we step away from daily noise. We therefore choose our masterclass settings deliberately—close to nature, nourishing in diet, and supportive of reflection.
Embodiment is essential
Many leaders spend much of their time in their head- and by and large make logic-driven decisions. Reconnecting with their bodies enables deeper insight, intuition, and presence.
Agency and Resourcefulness
Finding your voice, shaping its uniqueness, and uncovering what is already present emerges when we take the time to dig deeper. We already have what is needed, but do we know how to self-actualize to our full potential? Leadership exists at every level.
Real challenges are the classroom
We work with live business dilemmas and approach them from new and different angles to translate learning into real-world impact.
Our Team
Elevate Leadership Development is guided by an experienced team of international facilitators and coaches who bring decades of leadership advisory, coaching, and organizational experience across industries and cultures.
Verena Renze-Westendorf
Verena is deeply passionate about the human side of leadership and what enables people to thrive. She began her career at Accenture
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Then spent more than 15 years at Egon Zehnder helping build and expand the firm’s Leadership Advisory practice across Europe and the US. She later joined Kienbaum as Managing Director to lead their Family Business Advisory Practice.
Today, she works as an executive coach, team facilitator, and succession advisor, supporting leaders and family enterprises through moments of transition and growth. Verena holds an MSc in Business Administration from the University of Maastricht and completed her coaching education with Meyler Campbell and Henley Business School in the UK. She lives with her family outside Düsseldorf.
Manuel de Miranda
Manuel began his career at Bain Canada. He then held commercial and executive roles at Shell across Europe, Asia and Africa, and later at Holcim-Lafarge (NYSE) in the US.
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Subsequently he became a partner at Egon Zehnder in New York and founded that firm’s Washington DC office. For the past decade his focus has been on executive and team Coaching, and Sr. Leadership Development. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Theory from Cambridge and certifications in Executive Coaching and Health & Wellness Coaching from Georgetown. While attending university he served as a Tank Commander in the Reserves. Today, he splits his time between Washington DC, Lisbon, and Paris.
Joana Domingues
Joana began her career with McKinsey&company as a management consultant and later as a global expert with the Organization and Leadership Practice.
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She has been working internationally as a Leadership Development Facilitator and Executive Coach for 20 years, primarily with senior executives and top management teams. She is part of Outsight, Mobius, and McKinsey’s global coach pool, and serves as leadership faculty at Católica-Lisbon SBE in Executive Education programs and The Lisbon MBA. She holds an MBA from INSEAD, and is Trained in Voice Dialogue, Executive & Team Coaching, and Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC). She is certified as Lead Group Facilitator, Conflict Mediator, and Professional Certified Coach (ICF). She lives in Lisbon with her husband and daughters.
Madalena Paiva
Madalena loves managing projects and building bridges between people and ideas to create solutions that help individuals and teams feel more productive and fulfilled in their work.
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She began her career as a Career Development Specialist at Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics, later leading as Head of Career Development Services. She then held roles as Project Manager and Executive Coach at Waybeyond, Training Academy Manager at Unitel Telecom, and Talent Attraction Consultant at McKinsey & company in Angola, where she lived for five years. Today, Madalena works as a Project Manager and also as an Executive Coach and Facilitator. She is trained in Executive & Team Coaching and Voice Dialogue, is a Professional Certified Coach (ICF), and holds Hogan Leadership Assessments certification. She has a Law degree and lives in Lisbon with her family.
Starting Your ELEVATE Journey
Leadership growth starts with a single step, a decision to pause, reflect, and grow with purpose. Connect with our team to learn more about upcoming programs or explore how Elevate can support your leadership development goals.
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