How can decades of leadership experience be used for new social tasks? With LifeLong Leadership, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) is launching an executive impact program for experienced leaders who want to start something new after their operational careers and commit themselves to society.
In brief
- Use leadership experience for social projects
- Shape the future actively - even after your career
- Access to scientific expertise
In the coming years, many leaders in business, sports, and culture will step down from their operational roles. Yet their knowledge, judgment, and networks remain valuable - especially in times of technological upheaval and profound change. The new program of the TUM Institute for Life Long Learning combines professional experience with current science and technology as well as hands-on project work.
From Experience to a Personal Impact Project
Participants in the LifeLong Leadership program are expected to develop their own project with social impact. To do so, they will gain access to scientific expertise and get to know interdisciplinary perspectives as well as TUM's innovation environment.
In compact deep dives, they will explore topics such as artificial intelligence, sustainable transformation, social entrepreneurship, and health. The key is not only to acquire new knowledge. The focus is on the question of how experience, responsibility, and innovation can be used to find solutions to a social challenge.
The program is structured in three phases, from personal assessment to the development and review of a project idea and then to concrete implementation. Partners, including the Wertebündnis Bayern, support participants in further developing their projects over the long term.
Internationally Inspired, Developed for Germany
International programs such as the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative show the potential that emerges when experienced leaders take on new social responsibility. Comparable offerings in Germany are still available only in a few places.
LifeLong Leadership was initiated in part by Dr. Matthias Bosch, lecturer at TUM and patent attorney, and Prof. Claudia Peus, director of the TUM Institute for LifeLong Learning and vice president for talent management and diversity at TUM. Bosch himself had participated in an international program for the post-operational career phase. From this experience, the new offering at TUM was developed.
Learning Across Generations
An important component is exchange between generations. As part of the established EU program EuroTeQ Collider, participants have the opportunity to work with students in project teams. They contribute their leadership and practical experience as coaches and mentors and at the same time receive new impulses from science and research.
This creates a reciprocal learning process: different experiences, perspectives, and ways of thinking come together. Lifelong learning here means not only updating knowledge, but also questioning one's own assumptions and taking on new responsibility.
"With LifeLong Leadership, we want to reach people who want to start something new and who do not want to stand on the sidelines when our society, economy, and environment are changing. The program helps them get into action and create something valuable," says Dr. Matthias Bosch.
Prof. Claudia Peus emphasizes: "Today, lifelong learning means finding orientation, taking responsibility, and actively helping shape the future. With LifeLong Leadership, we bring experienced leaders, science, and the next generation together. In this way, new perspectives and social impact can emerge from experience."
