Transformation, crises, AI, constant change - today’s leaders are making more decisions in less time than ever before. This often leaves little room for conscious leadership. The response is purely reactive: acting only when problems become apparent, tensions arise, or results fail to materialize. Rarely is there a fundamental examination of what should actually guide leadership.

This is precisely where the problem lies for many organizations: leadership is often based on situational demands rather than a clear stance. Methods, frameworks, and tools can provide support, but they cannot replace a shared compass.

In her presentation, Angela Bormann explains why organizational identity forms the foundation for New Leadership and why it often remains ineffective in practice. This is because while many companies have a vision, mission, and values, these are rarely relevant in day-to-day leadership.

The key difference lies not in whether they exist, but in how they are used: not as mere guiding principles, but as a concrete basis for decision-making and as a starting point for clear leadership principles. Only when leadership thinks and acts in accordance with the company’s identity does a sense of direction emerge that extends beyond individual situations.

Culture plays a central role in this: it translates a company’s identity into concrete behavior and makes leadership visible and tangible for people.

Especially in the context of AI and automation, this orientation provided by the cultural compass is becoming increasingly important: as processes accelerate and decisions are increasingly prepared on the basis of data, there is an even greater need for clarity regarding one’s own leadership principles.

The presentation offers practical insights into how leaders can leverage identity and culture so that they become effective in everyday life and are tangible in their decisions, communication, and leadership actions.