CASES · LEADERSHIP
A leadership culture for the finance department
The City of Leipzig had already described its leadership culture. In the finance department the next question arose: how does that become an orientation managers can actually use in their own everyday work? Across several offsites and workshops we translated the city-wide principles into a concrete leadership culture for the department — and tested it at the joint kick-off against real leadership situations.
The engagement
- Client City of Leipzig · Finance Department
- Sector Public administration
- Place Leipzig · Machern
- Period 2017 – 2021
- Service Leadership and culture development
- Format Workshop series · kick-off with the whole department
THE PROCESS
From the culture of a city to the culture of a department.
1 The starting point
A culture that applies to everyone.
The City of Leipzig had already described a comprehensive leadership culture. In the everyday work of the finance department, however, it played only a small part. The task was therefore not to design a parallel culture of its own, but to translate the city’s basic ideas so that a workable orientation emerged for the department.
That kept the shared frame intact — and at the same time left enough independence for the managers to use the culture as their own basis for work.
2 Making it concrete
From principles to behaviour.
Across several workshops the managers worked on what the city-wide principles mean concretely for their own department. Abstract principles became observable anchors in behaviour: how would you notice in everyday work that this leadership culture is actually being lived?
Step by step, a shared orientation emerged that did not stand alongside the city’s leadership culture but translated it for the department’s concrete working context.
3 The kick-off
Tested at the racecourse.
For the joint opening, the whole department came together at the racecourse. The new leadership culture was not presented there but tested against concrete situations from everyday work: what do the principles mean when interests diverge, when decisions become difficult or when expectations are unclear?
After that, the day was allowed to be simply a shared day: with a real horse race and a barbecue buffet everyone had contributed to, at sunset.
FROM THE WORK
Insights.
Participant feedback
‘Dr Jonas Asendorpf has supported the department’s management team over several years and, with thoughtful rigour, has developed a shared management culture which we have also embedded amongst all staff. In doing so, he has skilfully navigated a number of pitfalls and guided us to a result that enjoys widespread support.’
Torsten Bonew, Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Finance of the City of Leipzig (translated)..
A systemic reading
Can a department have a culture of its own within a shared leadership culture? Of course. Organisations consist of parts with different tasks, different environments and different working logics — and different cultural patterns develop with them.
What mattered was therefore the shift from “we invent our own culture” to “we translate the shared culture for our context”. What had at first been feared as an opposition became a productive drawing of boundaries: enough independence for the department without giving up the city’s shared frame.
Dr. Jonas Asendorpf
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