Nykredit: turning a strategy into everyday leadership, at every level
- Client
- Nykredit
- Sector
- Financial services, Denmark
- Offer
- Strategy implementation
- Format
- Leadership academies over several strategy periods
- Scale
- Several hundred leaders, from the executive board to branch managers
Delivered by Rhetorica, the Napica group's company for communication and rhetorical training. Read the case on rhetorica.com →
The challenge
Nykredit had launched an ambitious strategy and a new company story built on six promises, including promises to customers, employees and investors. The launch went well. The hard part came next: making the story something leaders and teams do, not just something they say. Leaders at every level had to connect the strategy to the daily work of their teams, and to the results and KPIs they were measured on, without the story turning into another poster on the wall.
What we did
Napica designed and delivered leadership academies for Nykredit across several strategy periods, built around one principle: the strategy is only implemented when it shows up in everyday priorities, conversations and results.
- Academies by leadership level: separate cohorts for each level of management, so leaders shared similar challenges, while still learning across divisions.
- From promise to task: each leader mapped their area's most important everyday tasks against each of the six promises: how does this task deliver the promise, and how does it create meaning for the people doing it? The promise that was hardest to deliver became the starting point.
- Results and behaviour: leaders practised setting both result goals and behaviour goals, so KPIs and the story pulled in the same direction, and trained performance conversations with real employees and in a leadership simulator.
- Four disciplines of change leadership: leadership communication, coaching, follow-up and feedback, used both in planned meetings and in the spontaneous moments of everyday leadership.
- A training ground: every leader prepared and delivered a short talk on what the strategy means for their own area, and received feedback from peers and Napica consultants, with video where it added value.
- Before and after: preparation with each leader's own manager, and follow-up to anchor the learning in daily leadership practice.
The result
Leaders at every level now have their own version of the Nykredit story, tailored to their area, and a practical way to link the strategy to what their teams do on Monday morning, and to the KPIs that follow. The strategy stopped being something leaders presented and became something they led.
Strategy implementation
The offer behind this case.
Explore Strategy implementation →Napica ApS is the parent company of Rhetorica, communication and rhetorical training.