Once a year, 40u40 organizes a multi-day seminar focused on leadership growth and community building. While the one-year program is designed for only the current Cohort, these seminars bring together the entire Community, including Alumni, Supporters, Coaches, and Fellows, for an opportunity to learn from accomplished societal leadership thinkers invited for the occasion. Group exercises, discussion rounds, and talks create a deeply connecting learning experience, as demonstrated in the 2023 seminar with Julia Middleton and the 2024 seminar with Tsun-Yan Hsieh and Huijin Kong. The latter shared their concept of Positive Influence over two and a half days with an intimate group of 20 40u40 Members and helped them embark on an accelerated leadership journey, deepening their societal impact.
Leadership growth and creating societal impact are at the heart of Belgium’s 40 under 40 and are the driving and uniting forces for all Fellows, Alumni, and Supporters. With a Community now exceeding 300 Members, 40u40 wants to mobilize the knowledge and passion of these leaders to create impact, while also continuing offering opportunities for them to deepen their societal leadership. From evening conferences with prominent leaders to workshops, seminars, and community-building events, the 40u40 Community is constantly encouraged to broaden their leadership horizons.
Once a year, a multi-day seminar brings together Fellows, Alumni, and Supporters for an intensive and transformative leadership experience in a more intimate setting. This seminar is curated with speakers and thought leaders known for their societal leadership and their ability to inspire. The annual leadership seminar creates a safe space for the 40u40 Community to disconnect from their day-to-day, dive deep into leadership and impact themes, reflect on their personal mission, and leave with fresh perspectives and a renewed sense of purpose.
The seminar is open to the entire Community, made up of leaders from a wide range of sectors, activities, and backgrounds. With participants ranging in age from the twenties to the seventies, assembling them for such a seminar fosters an intergenerational exchange leading to new insights and perspectives. Over the course of the seminar, profound conversations spark ideas, and strong connections are built, further nurturing the young and established leader’s impact. Bringing the 40u40 Community closer together and providing an accelerated, in-depth leadership growth journey: these are the two core goals of the annual leadership seminars at 40u40!
A leadership inspiration to our Co-founder Pierre Gurdjian, Tsun-Yan Hsieh has earned a reputation as an executive coach focused on connecting with the inner being of leaders. He is the chairman and lead counselor of LinHart Group, a leadership services firm he founded after his 30 years of experience at McKinsey. Huijin Kong, also an executive coach at LinHart Group, specializes in one-on-one coaching for CEOs and business owners, guiding them through complex professional and personal challenges. Together, the two Singaporeans co-authored Positive Influence: The First and Last Mile of Leadership, a book that explores human connections to ourselves and others as crucial soft skills for for becoming a leader who truly inspires and drives transformative change.
In May 2024, they joined the 40u40 Community for an evening to introduce their book. The gathering was so rich in connections and insights that 40u40 invited them back for a seminar focused on leadership, impact, and positive influence. Tsun-Yan and Huijin happily accepted the invitation, returning to Belgium in November 2024. “Huijin and I enjoy coming to 40u40 because we think its Community is so refreshing; people are their emotional, spiritual self. In business settings, people often keep themselves hidden behind their rational self. But here, the participants’ whole being is present, and this is quite important when it comes to the art of influence and leadership: being present as your whole persona!” Tsun-Yan shares.
Positive influence describes the ability to inspire and bring out the best in others through authentic leadership rooted in humanity and deep connections. Over the course of two and a half days, Tsun-Yan and Huijin facilitated a journey of self-discovery, helping participants of the seminar identify their leadership potential, envision their best-case impact scenarios, and help them map a way to get there.
On a fresh November morning, a group of Fellows, Alumni, Supporters, Coaches, and the 40u40 Team gathered at TheMerode, seated in a large circle with coffee in one hand and notebooks in the other. Tsun-Yan and Huijin kicked off the seminar by asking participants to introduce themselves and share: “What brings you here today?” The common response: all participants were on a journey of searching. They were seeking clarity about their future, looking for ways to create positive change in society, and exploring their own leadership and brilliance.
The day’s main exercise invited participants to visualize their lives as a solar system, with the Sun representing their source of energy and purpose. Around this Sun revolve planets, stars, comets, and black holes: metaphors for the people, experiences, and values that shape their identity. Nathalie van Ypersele, a 40u40 Supporter, reflects on this exercise: “What is my Sun? Do I have a Moon or other planets? At what distance are they from each other? Are there comets in my solar system? Or meteorites? Maybe a black hole? Mapping ‘my world’ into a solar system was very interesting as it raised questions, made me reflect, opened great discussions, and gave me some insights! The exercise was particularly interesting for me as I am at a professional crossroad, and it made me reflect on what matters the most.”
The participants formed small groups, guided by Tsun-Yan, Huijin, and Pierre, to share their solar systems and discuss their reflections. Tsun-Yan explains the significance of this exercise: “The first reason is the way of sharing with total strangers, forming immediate and intimate connections. The second is that the exercise zooms out, helping everyone come to grips with their entire existence. Last but not least, it is about spiritual intelligence. As humans, we have the unique ability to connect with the larger universe. In a work environment, we often suppress our spiritual selves, but I believe this connection is important. It raises awareness of the people around you, but most importantly, of yourself.” By reflecting on questions like “Why is this person important to me? How did it come to that? What am I going to do about it?” participants were encouraged to deepen their understanding of their own self and purpose.
While the first day focused on broad self-reflection, the second day asked participants to zoom in, exploring ways to achieve positive influence and scale their impact. To help the participants do this, Tsun-Yan and Huijin asked everyone to define their seven P’s, elements that can help shape positive influence: Purpose, Platform, Partner, People, Proposition, Purchase, and Perseverance. These seven key words encouraged everyone to think about their current leadership configurations and what elements in their leadership and life could be matched to the seven P’s. For example, What is my platform? Who are the people I work with or should work with to create an impact? And, for which P’s can I not find a fitting element or realize there is an obstacle or barrier that needs to be worked on?
Positive influence is fueled by the seven P’s, and identifying obstacles within them is the first step to increasing societal impact. Tsun-Yan emphasizes the role of conversations in overcoming these obstacles, and he posed the thought-provoking question: What courageous conversations do I need to have in my life to overcome obstacles and scale my impact? “Positive influence begins with a conversation and ends with a conversation. In a conversation, we need to be courageous, we need to talk while being a whole person, mastering yourself and all your qualities and intelligences.” Tsun-Yan explains the goal of a conversation in relation to positive influence. It is not about being manipulative in those exchanges, but about being conscious of your own being, to draw from it, and create a positive outcome for all stakeholders.
In the afternoon, participants divided into breakout groups to tackle different topics: how to approach high-stakes conversations, defining the conversations needed to scale impact, or deepening their self-reflection from the solar system exercise. Jérôme Leclef, Alumnus of Cohort 2023, was part of the second group, who aimed to look for the right conversations in their life to create an impact: “Thinking about the courageous conversations I need to have in my life showed me where I need to put in the work in order to be a better leader, but also gave me a direct way to approach it. With 40u40, we have already explored tools to use in courageous conversations, such as deep listening. Thanks to Tsun-Yan’s exercise, I got to search into my context for the conversations I need to have. We discussed them, practiced them, it was a truly rich learning experience.”
The final day introduced the concept of projecting horizons: identifying pivotal moments in the coming days, months, and years to create positive outcomes. Tsun-Yan compares this process to a tiger patiently waiting for the right moment to strike: “A tiger doesn’t waste energy chasing every prey it sees. It waits, watches, and moves with precision when the time is right. In leadership, we need to define windows of opportunity for positive influence and impact. Projecting your horizon helps you find these moments.”
Sofie Foets, Alumna of Cohort 2021 Autumn, points out how “day 3 of the leadership seminar with Tsun-Yan Hsieh and Huijin Kong was truly enriching! Tsun-Yan’s heartfelt and vulnerable testimony gave me the language to better process some of my own experiences and emotions. His life story also beautifully illustrated some of the concepts shared by the LinHart Group and reinforced the importance of considering the past, present, and future when projecting our horizon. This seminar truly stands out as one of the most remarkable I have attended so far. Thank you, Tsun-Yan and Huijin, for sharing and fostering many valuable insights! A profound thank you to the 40u40 Team as well: I am deeply grateful for the many opportunities to grow and connect with inspiring people across ages, sectors and socio-cultural backgrounds!”
Alessandra Pozzi Belforti, Fellow of Cohort 2024, joined the seminar after having started the 40u40 program in September. She describes the two days as a “transformative journey helping us to shape crossroad moments of our lives and connect through courageous conversations. Kind and open conversations in smaller groups truly helped to widen perspectives and enhance self-knowledge.” She valued in particular the chance to meet other Community Members: “It was of unique added value to progress through exercises in the company of Co-Founders, Coaches, Supporters, and previous Cohort members,” Alessandra shares.
Tsun-Yan remembers the first day of the seminar and his question to the group, ”What brings you here today?” The different replies, some related to work, some to their personal lives, “powerfully demonstrate that when it comes to influence, our whole being is involved. This can be a resource, as well as a constraint if you don’t harness it well. Being present is key, congruence, being complete and fully there as a whole human being, that is crucial!” Being a societal leader is deeply human-centered work. Therefore, the 40u40 seminars focus on leadership, impact, but also people: their emotions, inner selves, and connections with one another. The seminars bring together Members of the 40u40 Community from diverse industries, generations, and experiences, Fellows, Alumni and Supporters, all are invited. Reflecting on the experience, Tsun-Yan remarks, “I think the connectedness between the participants was fantastic.” Over two and a half days, the participants built new friendships and strengthened existing ones, exchanging stories and advice that fueled individual and collective growth.
In 2024, Tsun-Yan and Huijin helped the 40u40 Community master the art of positive influence by guiding them to connect authentically with their inner selves, align with their purpose, and engage in courageous conversations to scale their societal impact. By the end of the seminar, the participants left feeling inspired, connected, and encouraged by the support of their like-minded peers. The goal of the annual leadership seminar is to offer an intense, transformative, accelerated leadership development experience. While life can move fast, these occasions offer a space to slow down and reflect on your purpose, inner being, and mission, helping the Community achieve their best self as a societal leader.
