Key themes from ESMT’s Persuasion, Power, and Politics Executive Program

Looking back at the 2025 edition, ESMT Program Director Nadeshda Kreya pointed to three themes that consistently surfaced across discussions and exercises. They not only anchored the learning throughout the week but also reflected the challenges many leaders brought with them.

1. Owning our power

Many leaders underestimate the influence they already hold. Psychological barriers, competing priorities, or concerns about overstepping often get in the way. During the program, participants are encouraged to recognize and use their power intentionally.

2. Ethics and intent

A central question throughout the program: Where does persuasion end and manipulation begin? Leaders examined how influence requires awareness of both intent and impact, and how clarity on these two elements strengthens trust and effectiveness.

3. Embracing the game

Organizational politics are a natural part of collective work. Rather than avoiding them, participants explored how to navigate interests thoughtfully and ethically, stay attuned to context, and engage in ways that support their organization's goals. 

Many leaders arrive at the program at a moment when their work increasingly depends on influence rather than expertise alone. Responsibilities expand, teams grow, and decisions begin to rely as much on navigating perspectives as on delivering results. It’s often at this point that leaders start looking for deeper clarity on how power works inside organizations and how they can use it more intentionally. 

For Kai Becker, VP E-Commerce at kloeckner.i GmbH (for Kloeckner & Co SE), who has spent more than 15 years working at the intersection of business and digitalization, this transition was already unfolding. The program offered the structure and space to explore the questions that had become central to his leadership.

“ I joined the Persuasion, Power, and Politics program at ESMT because I consider the topic of highest practical relevance at the workplace, and beyond. [It’s] probably well described by the economics professor Jeffrey Pfeffer from Stanford, in the sense that if you want power to be used for good, more good people need to have power.”

As his responsibilities expanded, the nature of his work shifted from delivery to creating the conditions for strategy, teams, and transformation initiatives to succeed. 

“ The early years were about building a solid professional base and successfully delivering on projects. Today, my work is centered about building and empowering successful teams, shaping strategy, influencing, persuading and aligning with stakeholders, the management board, and the wider group to successfully deliver on digitalization and transformation initiatives. This program addressed exactly those challenges.”

This shift created both an opportunity and a need: to deepen his toolkit for influencing across different levels of the organization and to better understand the dynamics that shape internal decision-making.  

“ I wanted to further broaden my portfolio of persuasion techniques to be able to work more effectively for the company and advance our transformation initiatives. I also needed to learn how to recognize when my intuition might mislead navigating corporate dynamics. I was looking for a structured approach into how power and politics operate in organizations and make this topic both practical and enjoyable.”

What Kai found in the program was a blend of conceptual frameworks and practical exercises that brought these ideas to life. The tools introduced in the program helped him map, interpret, and approach influence in more intentional ways. 

“ Frameworks such as the HEAD and HEART approach to persuasion, how to map the stakeholder and power structures in the organization to understand its complex social dynamics, but also reflections on the ethics of power, provided both structure and depth.

Probably even more valuable were the practical case studies and group works, which created a safe environment to test and internalize these tools and develop one’s own, personal power playbook.”

One theme that stayed with Kai throughout the program was the value of changing perspectives. This is a competency that becomes increasingly important the more one works across functions, hierarchies, and cultures. 

“ The program was very useful as it repeatedly visualized the critical importance of changing perspectives to get things done – of really understanding other people in the organization, their motivations and interests, and adjust one’s approach to persuasion accordingly. Though seemingly obvious, this is easily overlooked when acting under pressure or stress.”

For Kai, the blend of academic rigor, reflection, and real-world business relevance is what distinguishes ESMT’s approach to executive education.

“ ESMT has a unique ability to combine current scientific insights from psychology, social sciences, and economics with real-world business practice…I have repeatedly found that what I learned at ESMT proved useful at the workplace and beyond – in often unexpected ways.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this program – and ESMT more broadly – to anyone interested in developing beyond their functional expertise and becoming more effective leaders; who want to develop their teams and talents in the organization and consequently, advance their own career.”

In summary: Shared insights across the cohort

Bringing the two perspectives together, several insights were consistently echoed across the cohort:

• Power is multidimensional – not only control, but also autonomy, clarity, and the ability to enable others.
• Ethical persuasion requires deliberate awareness of intention and reception.
• Politics is ultimately about perspectives and understanding what others care about, and why.
• Humility strengthens influence, helping leaders step back, gain perspective, and operate with purpose.

These insights reflect the core aim of Persuasion, Power, and Politics: developing leaders who can influence thoughtfully, ethically, and effectively. 

Looking ahead to 2026

As organizations become more interdependent and fast-moving, the ability to navigate influence and power dynamics is becoming a key differentiator for leaders. ESMT’s Persuasion, Power & Politics executive program offers a structured, reflective space to build these capabilities with intention, as well as practical tools participants can take back to their teams.

The next edition of Persuasion, Power, and Politics will run in June 2026. 

Find out more about the program here: Persuasion, Power, and Politics.