How the Novya Leadership Lab Helps Associations Heads Lead with Purpose

An executive education programme designed for the realities of EU association leaders has landed in Brussels and its first cohort is already changing how they lead. The Novya Leadership Lab tackles a challenge familiar to many in the Headquarters community: how do you grow as a secretary general when your role is more complex, exposed and demanding than ever, yet offers limited access to peers, mentors and tailored education?

Why Associations Look for Executive Leadership Training

Today’s EU association executives operate amid escalating regulatory complexity, fierce competition for talent, and shifting member expectations. EU affairs have grown in complexity, with dossiers increasingly interconnected across many stakeholders, while global crises shift priorities. At the same time, associations must prove their relevance to increasingly diverse and demanding memberships.

Inside the office, attracting and retaining your team is harder than ever: Brussels is a competitive hub for talent, and most associations cannot compete on salary alone. Association leaders must create environments where people feel safe, valued and able to grow, even as stress and burnout rise.

The secretary general role has many dimensions, requiring leaders to change hats by: One moment, you represent your sector before the EU institutions; the next, you facilitate sensitive board discussions, oversee budgets, or navigate Belgian administration. You are accountable to members, regulators and staff alike, often with very few peers at your side who truly understand the breadth of your responsibilities.

This combination of external volatility, internal pressure and scarce peer support led Novya to create the Leadership Lab, not to solve every challenge, but to give leaders tools and support to face their realities with confidence.

Behind the Lab: The Mission, Vision and Team

The Leadership Lab grew out of Novya’s daily work with European associations. While supporting strategy, governance and organisational change, the team kept encountering the same pattern: even the strongest strategies struggled when leaders lacked time, change management experience or support. “It is easy to devise a clever strategy on paper,” Novya CEO, Benita Lipps (on the right), explains. “It is harder to implement it sustainably, especially when you lack the tools and resources needed.”

In line with Novya’s mission to help European nonprofits and associations work smarter for greater impact, the Leadership Lab was designed as a practical, peer‑based executive training that truly reflects the governance structures, stakeholder pressures and operational environment of Brussels-based association leaders.

Conscious of people’s limited time, the Leadership Lab runs in six coaching-centred sessions for up to twelve secretary generals and CEOs. The group meets over several months, exploring three themes:

• Self-leadership: developing one’s leadership style, values and goals as a foundation for change;
• Leading others: building resilient teams and working effectively with Boards and Members across governance cultures;
• Leading change: navigating uncertainty while maintaining engagement and stability.

The approach is intentionally experimental: Instead of listening to lectures, participants test practical frameworks and design their new toolkits. Between sessions, they apply these methods in real workplace situations and bring their results back to the group.

Coaching also lies at the heart of the lab. During intake, Lab Director, Lisa Kretschmann, offers executive coaching sessions to each participant. “Growth starts with how people see themselves,” she notes, emphasising the importance of building trust, openness and confidence from the first session. The lab also introduces coaching tools for leaders such as active listening, constructive questioning and creating space for co-ownership, useful habits for leaders managing complex association stakeholders.

Participants explore leadership frameworks that convert personal ambitions into clear organisational priorities. “If you are not crystal clear about where you want to go, how could you ever reach your destination?” Benita notes. The aim is to clarify what matters most and align leadership intent with organisational direction.

Because the Lab is cross‑sectoral, it focuses on universally relevant association leadership challenges such as leading through complexity, balancing strategic and operational demands, working effectively with Boards and Members, and maintaining engagement during periods of change. Each participant develops a personal ‘leadership roadmap’ which is revisited mid‑programme to ensure tailored progress within a peer‑learning setting.

Together, Benita, Lisa and the Novya team see the Leadership Lab as part of a broader commitment: strengthening the association sector by strengthening those who lead it. Not by prescribing a single model of leadership, but by helping each leader understand and use their own profile more deliberately, in service of their organisation and its mission.
 

Novya Launches Leadership Lab to Strengthen Capacity in Brussels’ Nonprofit Sector
 

Real Experiences, Real Impact

For the February 2026 cohort, joining the Lab often coincided with leadership transition moments. “I enrolled after being appointed Secretary General for the first time,” one participant shared. “The Lab gave me tools to become the more confident leader I want to be, especially through sessions that refined communication skills and encouraged leading with clarity and courage.”

Another participant joined to “challenge myself and foster peer knowledge sharing.” She discovered that “leadership is not about having all the answers, but about paving the way toward pragmatic solutions.” The experience also taught her to “trust both what I know and the questions I still have,” helping her act “with confidence, especially when challenging existing approaches.”

These reflections mirror what the Novya team observed across the cohort. “We entered a room full of perfect professionals,” observed Benita. “Very quickly, they became a group of peers openly sharing real experiences, ready to experiment, to learn from one another and to grow.”

The peer element proved particularly transformative. Participants found relief in discovering that colleagues from different sectors, transport, medical, food, etc., faced the same challenges with Boards, Members, and teams. Informal moments often turned into deep exchanges of stories, ideas and encouragement.

Novya is clear about the programme’s scope: six sessions cannot resolve every challenge, but they can equip leaders with practical tools, space to practice them, and a trusted peer network that endures well beyond the programme itself. Participants leave with a coaching mindset they can apply in daily leadership conversations, frameworks that bring greater strategic clarity, and a circle of peers they can continue to draw on when complex decisions or difficult moments arise.

What’s Next… and Could This Be for You?

The first cohort confirmed that there is a strong appetite among Brussels-based association leaders for structured peer coaching that addresses their unique reality. Novya is now refining the model, investing further in executive coaching alongside group sessions while keeping cohorts small.

Applications for the next edition, planned for autumn 2026, are now open. If you are a secretary general or CEO seeking space to reflect with peers, test practical tools and grow your leadership in a supportive environment, the Leadership Lab may be worth a closer look.
 

How the Leadership Lab works

Novya’s Leadership Lab is a coaching‑based peer leadership programme for secretary generals and CEOs of European associations. Cohorts of up to 12 focus on self‑leadership, leading others, and leading change. The next cohort starts in autumn 2026.

Details and applications: leadership-lab.novya.eu

 

Published by Meeting Media Company, the publisher of Headquarters Magazine (HQ) – a leading international publication based in Brussels, serving the global MICE industry and association community.