ABSA LIFE | APPRENTICE EXCO
Absa Life needed a strong leadership bench capable of creating stability, clarity, and performance. We developed the leaders who could deliver it.
"LEADERSHIP MATTERS DISPROPORTIONATELY."
- Natalie Maroun
BUILDING A READY-NOW LEADERSHIP BENCH
Absa Life asked us to prepare a cohort of future leaders who could step into bigger roles, think more strategically, and stabilise the system during periods of pressure and change.
Our work focused on developing the capabilities their next chapter would depend on: clarity, coherence, and the ability to translate complexity into steady, consistent action.
THE PERFORMANCE CHALLENGE
Absa Life was operating in an environment defined by rising complexity, shifting expectations, and sustained pressure on teams and leaders.
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The organisation needed a leadership cohort capable of creating clarity, absorbing pressure, and anchoring performance, long before they stepped into senior roles.
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But the existing leadership pipeline lacked the depth, coherence, and readiness required for the business’s next chapter. Absa Life needed leaders who could think more strategically, lead more steadily, and strengthen the system around them.
TPA was asked to build that capability.
OUR ONE-SIZE-FITS-ONE APPROACH
WE KNOW THAT LEADERSHIP IS A DEEPLY PERSONAL JOURNEY.
Our one-size-fits-one approach recognises that leaders grow best when the work meets them where they are. For Absa Life, this meant tailoring each leader’s development arc to their unique strengths, pressures, and performance context — ensuring the leadership system strengthened from the inside out.
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We designed an immersive, multi-modal leadership journey that blended individual coaching, group work, real-time application, and rigorous feedback to accelerate growth in the areas that mattered most.
THE SOLVE
To meet Absa Life’s leadership needs, we designed a development journey that strengthened the three capabilities that shape real performance: Personal Mastery, Culture, and Strategy. Each leader received a tailored pathway that built clarity, confidence, and behavioural consistency, the foundations of leadership maturity.
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We opened the journey with an immersive masterclass that unified the cohort, set the emotional climate, and created shared intent. From there, leaders moved through a blended experience of applied learning, coaching, group dialogue, and line-manager engagement. Throughout the process, we gathered individual and cohort data to track progress, calibrate growth, and ensure impact at every stage.
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This was not a curriculum, but development anchored in real work, real feedback, and real shifts in how leaders show up.
THE IMPACT
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​58 DELEGATES.
10 INTERVIEWED FOR NEW ROLES.
9 PROMOTIONS.
6 SELECTED FOR ABSA'S WOMEN IN INSURANCE PROGRAMME.​
​100% of delegates inspired to show up as the best versions of themselves.
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WE CHANGED THEM. THEY LIKED IT!
"Working with TPA has been an incredible experience that makes me and the team feel we are part of something special. Not just the content, but how it is delivered. It’s the emotion. It’s the heart. And the experience is truly something that you go, ‘Wow, that’s something that moved me.’I’m very, very grateful."
- Eugene Strauss, CEO: Absa Life