"This Embodied Leadership workshop was conducted for the Executive Leadership Group of 32 Senior Leaders from Zespri. The leadership workshop was held in Singapore on 27 Oct 2026. The session focused on somatics and body intelligence, using the ontological and Gestalt coaching approach to help leaders identify their accessibility to the four archetypes and body dispositions. Participants left with deeper embodied leadership self-awareness and insights into how they can show up in different leadership context.
The Engagement:
This was a leadership development session for 32 senior leaders from Zespri that includes some members from the C-Suite executives. The group consists of leaders from 12 different countries and flew in to Singapore for a week of Strategic Meeting. There was a specific brief that there will be no pre-work before the session so any usage of a profiling tool including CliftonStrengths was ruled out for the session. Victor pitched a leadership embodiment session and in the end was commissioned to design and deliver a bespoke half day leadership development session. The session was held at JW Marriott South Beach Road in Singapore and took place on 27 October 2026.
The Brief:
The specific, clear objectives of the session:
Leaders must leave the session with clear distinctions - gaining deeper leadership awareness and applying the insights to the week of strategic discussions and also to their ongoing leadership work.
Leaders to have the space to create deeper connections with each other. The goal is to use the time of learning meaningfully to deepen relationships and to have time for team building.
The session must be high energy and impactful as leaders who flew in from different countries might be battling fatigue and jet lag.
The Approach:
Victor designed the session by talking about body intelligence and how that is related to leadership work and stakeholder engagement. The goal is to show up with the stance that is required for effective leadership conversations.
Victor facilitated four different interactive activities to show the four body dispositions and archetypes needed in different types of leadership context. Each leader was coached to identify their own body intelligence and ease in accessing the different dispositions while having fun together in the activities. There was specific time built in to reflect, discuss and explore learnings after each activity. The outcome was that each leader could identify which disposition felt most natural to access and which one needed more conscious and deliberate effort.
The session ended with a look at the collective assessment in the whole room and a time of giving feedback to each other. After the leaders profile themselves, the session closed by each leader also receiving important data point about how they have shown up in the past. The feedback session was facilitated in a safe way to encourage learning and reflections. The session closed with a time of looking at how the leaders could turn the insights into application.
Outcomes and Feedback:
Participants left with greater embodied self-awareness and practical insights for strengthening their leadership capacity. The half day session created visible energy and engagement throughout - each leader gaining personal clarity and creating meaningful connections.
Feedback from the session:
- 100% agreed that the overall objectives were met.
- 100% agreed that they now have greater appreciation of what it means to show up effectively in different leadership context.
- All except 1 agreed that the Facilitator team had strong knowledge and practical understanding of the subject matter.
- 100% agreed that the workshop was very fun and engaging
- All except 1 have benefitted and would recommend the workshop to others.
