https://open.spotify.com/episode/11506Yfy8epEpe0aXuiB97?si=hvlco_U_SPC_N9SLclcGUw

Episode 29: ‘‘The Leadership Principles that Matter Most – in Crisis and Beyond” 

There can’t be many leadership environments more demanding than helping shape the future of an organisation operating in an active war zone. That is exactly what Stefan Arzner has been doing since February 2022 as Head of HR and Learning & Development at PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest state-owned bank, which employs more than 17,000 people. 

Stefan joined with a mandate to strengthen learning and development and support the continued evolution of the bank’s leadership culture. Just three months later, that mission took on an entirely different significance as the organisation found itself operating in the reality of a full-scale war.  

The priorities changed, but the purpose did not. If anything, creating direction, maintaining an outlook and giving people something to hold on to became even more important. What is striking is that the approach Stefan and his colleagues adopted in one of the most challenging organisational environments imaginable feels no less relevant outside it.

Throughout the conversation Stefan returns, in different ways, to the same ideas. The importance of care. The reassurance of consistency. The need to understand context before deciding what to do next. The role culture plays in helping people move forward. Rather than presenting them as a framework, he simply describes the practical choices made and why they mattered.

When almost everything around people is changing, leaders can still provide stability through clarity of purpose, shared values and consistent behaviours. As Stefan puts it, values became ‘a fixed point’ – something people could hold on to.

This is an episode about leadership under extraordinary pressure. But it is equally about what those circumstances reveal: that the principles which help people navigate the most difficult of times are often the same principles organisations need every day.