Leadership development is one of our key strategic priorities for 2026 and an important part of our ambition to become an even stronger, more resilient organisation and to continue delivering value for our people, clients and stakeholders.
We recently launched our Leadership Development Programme, an organisation-wide initiative to strengthen leadership capability at every level. It arrives at a point when technology is advancing faster than most organisations can absorb, a new generation is entering the workforce with different expectations of leadership, and the complexity of working across time zones, cultures and disciplines continues to grow. What has not changed is the purpose of leadership itself: working for and with people to deliver results together; and what has changed is how that is achieved.
The initial batch, which took place across Hong Kong and Singapore in June and July, brought together more than 140 participants across eight cohorts, spanning two targeted programmes for senior and frontline leaders. The next batch is planned for Q4 2026 in Europe, followed by India and other locations in Q1 2027.
A leadership ecosystem built with the business
The programme is the result of close to a year of work, developed in partnership with external leadership consultants and with leaders from across the organisation. Rather than a single course or event, it forms a leadership ecosystem and a multi-year plan that reaches every level of the company.
The programme is built around six capability anchors, consistent across all leadership populations, with complexity calibrated to each level:
- Enterprise mindset and system awareness: moving from a single function to the whole ecosystem, understanding culture, interdependencies and unintended consequences
- Cross-boundary leadership behaviour: co-owning outcomes, challenging constructively and dismantling silo-based thinking
- Decision making and ownership: clarifying decisions, escalating with options and modelling accountability
- People leadership and coaching capability: creating psychological safety, addressing performance early and building leadership capacity across teams
- Client, management and safety discipline: staying client-ready while maintaining non-negotiable safety, compliance and quality standards
- Future-ready leadership: leading with agility, anticipating technological change and making sound decisions in uncertain environments
During the first batch in Hong Kong and Singapore, early observations have been encouraging. Engagement has been consistent, appetite for growth is evident, and a shared leadership language is beginning to take hold across cohorts, an early sign that the learning is translating into practice. The lasting change, however, comes from the development conversations that follow between leaders and their teams.
Development beyond the leadership title
Development at Anglo-Eastern is not reserved for those holding a leadership title. Learning modules for individual contributors are being expanded, with Psychological Safety and Collaboration Across the Organisation launching next and intended to be facilitated in-house in Q4 to build directly on the aforementioned anchors.
For seafarers, work with technical learning teams is underway to structurally support the sea-to-shore transition, so that colleagues preparing to move ashore are supported before they take that step.
For clients, the value lies in continuity: leaders who understand the business end-to-end, hold safety and quality standards without compromise, and make decisions consistently across offices and regions.
Ultimately, the objective is a leadership culture where leadership is understood as a daily practice, visible in the choices made, the relationships built and the support given to others.
This article first appeared in LeaderShip, Anglo-Eastern’s quarterly magazine. Read the full September 2026 issue here.
If you are interested in knowing more about our teams ashore and how we promote a people culture, feel free to contact us.
