What is Needs-Driven Leadership? Setting a new standard in leadership development

What is Needs-Driven Leadership? Anke Baak on setting a new standard in leadership development

What makes someone a great leader? It’s a question many managers, HR professionals and organizations wrestle with. From coaching and servant leadership to situational and authentic leadership, there’s no shortage of models that try to provide an answer. Yet many of them lack a strong scientific foundation or are hard to apply in practice.

According to Anke Baak, Senior Leadership Development Consultant at Relevance and former top-level executive, that’s understandable. Leadership isn’t about applying a fixed method or style. It’s about tuning in to what your team or organization needs at any given moment.

The Four Ps of Leadership

A model rooted in human needs, not leadership styles

Instead of focusing on a single style, Relevance works with four core needs that exist in every team and organization. These needs form the basis of Needs-Driven Leadership: a practical, evidence-based model shaped by years of experience in the field.

The Four Ps help leaders identify what to focus on:

• Performance – Driving results, grounded in the human need to feel capable and successful.
• People – Building connection, based on the need to be seen, appreciated and included.
• Progress – Encouraging development and innovation, linked to the need for autonomy and growth.
• Principles – Creating clarity through shared values, tied to the need for trust and psychological safety.

“These Ps might seem to pull in different directions, but they need each other,” Anke explains. “If you only focus on performance and ignore people, you’ll lose your team. And if you focus only on principles, nothing will move. Good leadership is about balancing these forces.”

The model draws on the work of Professor Hannes Leroy (Rotterdam School of Management), who found a clear pattern across 82 leadership models. Effective leaders are constantly navigating the tension between these four needs. Relevance turns that insight into a practical tool for daily leadership.

A new lens instead of a fixed style

How Relevance works with leadership styles, without getting stuck in them

Leadership comes in many forms. Coaching leadership focuses on growth. Servant leadership puts the team first. Transformational leadership inspires through vision. Transactional leadership centers on goals and rewards. Situational leadership adjusts to the context.

“All of these styles are forms of behavior that respond to what’s happening around you,” Anke says. “And it’s that context that decides what works. Leadership isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s a discipline that requires awareness and adaptability.”

That’s why Relevance doesn’t train people in one specific style. Instead, leaders learn to observe what’s going on. What does the team need? What’s the situation asking for? What kind of behavior fits?

Rather than offering a fixed approach, Relevance gives leaders a new way of looking at their role, along with the tools to respond effectively. It’s a modern approach that puts insight and responsiveness at the center.

Wake Up. Grow Up. Show Up.

Three steps to stronger leadership

Relevance structures leadership development around three simple, powerful phases:

• Wake Up – Discover who you are as a leader. Get clear on your strengths, blind spots and potential.
• Grow Up – Learn new skills and unlearn patterns that no longer help you.
• Show Up – Put what you’ve learned into action and track your impact.

“Many leaders think they’re great at giving feedback,” Anke says. “But when they actually try, they realize how uncomfortable it can be—and how often they avoid it. That kind of realization is where real growth begins.”

Each leader follows a personal learning path based on 360° feedback, assessments and a focused plan for their team. The real value comes from combining human guidance with smart technology. An AI-powered platform tracks each participant’s progress and adapts the learning journey in real time. That way, everyone gets the right content or challenge when they need it most.

This makes learning relevant, effective and personal. Whether you’re new to leadership or looking to deepen your impact, it meets you where you are.

Leadership doesn't start with a promotion

Why great specialists don’t automatically become great leaders

It’s a familiar pattern: someone excels in their field and gets promoted into a leadership role, but has never been taught how to lead.

“A promotion doesn’t make you a leader,” Anke says. “Leadership is a profession. Like any profession, you need to learn it, practice it and keep developing.”

Think about surgeons or dentists. We’d never let them start working without training. Yet that’s often what happens with new managers. They’re thrown into leadership without preparation, support or feedback.

That’s why Relevance is developing a certified leadership program—a kind of license to lead. It’s not just about knowledge, but about behavior, mindset and presence. Development focuses on four elements:

• Head – Insight, understanding, strategic thinking
• Heart – Values, motivation, commitment
• Hands – Action, behavior, practice
• Heels – Groundedness, physical awareness, embodiment

This full-spectrum approach helps leaders make lasting changes and have a greater impact throughout the organization.

Why it works

The strength of Needs-Driven Leadership

So what makes this approach different from traditional leadership programs? According to Anke, it’s the combination of three powerful ingredients:

• It’s science-based, using proven psychological insights and behavioral models.
• It’s practical, designed to improve day-to-day leadership, not just theory.
• It’s embedded, with coaching, tech, feedback and impact tracking built in.

“We start with what’s really happening in the team,” Anke explains. “If connection scores low, we offer specific tools that help the leader take action right away.”

This isn’t about shortcuts or tricks. It’s about building a repertoire of sustainable behaviors leaders can use, no matter how the environment shifts.

A new definition of strong leadership

From control to context awareness

The Relevance approach challenges the classic image of the dominant, all-knowing leader.

“The best leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers,” says Anke. “They’re the ones who ask better questions—of themselves and their teams.”

Leadership isn’t about being right all the time. It’s about being present, listening, reading the room and responding with clarity. That takes humility, courage, agility and awareness. And that’s exactly what Relevance helps leaders develop.

About Relevance

Relevance is the in-company training division of Schouten & Nelissen. With more than 40 years of experience in leadership and talent development, and a global network of 900+ facilitators, Relevance supports over 100,000 professionals each year. Always tailored, always evidence-based, and always focused on real-world impact.

Ready to take leadership further?

Curious how Needs-Driven Leadership could work for your team or organization? Book a free session with one of our Leadership Advisors. We’d love to explore what’s possible for your people and your goals.