Curious about how to create a leadership model that truly reflects your company’s DNA?
Let's be real: many behavioral models don’t land. They look great in a deck, they get launched with energy… then they quietly disappear into the background noise.
Leadership CODE is HiBob's leadership model — our compass for exceptional leadership. When we realized that we needed a leadership model, we made a choice to do this right, or not at all.
This meant there are three stages to Leadership CODE — all equally critical:
1. Co-create
2. Activate
3. Make It Stick
Stage 1: Co-create
Let's start with co-create. Co-creation is messy. It takes time. It means hearing things you didn’t expect (or always want) to hear. But it’s worth it.
We say that our Leadership CODE is “crafted from the inside, built from where we’re going next.” This meant:
- C-level conversations that pushed us all to think about where HiBob is going, not just where we are now.
- VP discussions that were honest and insightful about what leadership for scale truly requires.
- Dozens of interviews with other leaders around the world who opened up about the realities (and frustrations) of leading in a fast-growing company.
- People & Culture Partners sharing what they see on the ground every day — the patterns, the pain points, the leadership moments that matter.
- Diving into better understand our mission, strategy, market, values, culture, context, and challenges
And here’s the part I didn’t expect: Each time we refined the model, it got simpler. Clearer. More human. Less “competency framework”, more “this is how great leadership actually looks like at HiBob.”
It also meant being deeply humble and letting go of my/our own assumptions. Let's just say that MECE went out of the window pretty early. Humans are messy, not MECE.
So what does CODE stand for? Connect, Own, Disrupt, and Evolve — and each of these pillars has two habits. For example, Connect has Build Bridges Break Fences (connecting across teams) and Zoom Out & Zoom In (connecting the dots between strategy and execution).
Why call them habits? We believe leadership is about showing up consistently in the small moments, and practising intentionally until those behaviors become second nature.
To bring it to life, we also created examples of each habit in the day-to-day of each level of leadership — from C-level and VPs to directors, managers and team leads. The result is both aspirational and practical.
🦄 I’m curious to hear from others in this space: Have you tried co-creating leadership or behavior models? What made it work?
🔥 Next up in this series: Stage 2 — Activate. How we brought the Leadership CODE to life, helping leaders connect to it personally and collectively.