Stefan Wills

After qualifying (HNC) and working as a mechanical engineer at Rolls Royce Aero-engines, Stefan gained a first-class honours degree in Social Sciences and an MSc in Organisational Psychology from the University of Manchester. He also worked as a Higher Occupational Psychologist at an Employment Rehabilitation Centre in the UK Civil Service.

Stefan became a chartered organisational psychologist and joined Ashridge in 1991. He is a Professor of Leadership working with a broad range of leading organisations from a variety of business sectors. Amongst others, he has worked with and developed long-standing relationships with DBSchenker Transport/Logistics for 20 years, with Sinopec Oil & Gas for 13 years in both the UK and China, with Continental Automotive for 11 years and with STADA for 2 years. As an educator/consultant he works all over the world, running modular leadership development programmes, speaking at conferences and consulting to client companies in a diverse range of business sectors. He is also an accredited Ashridge Executive Coach and an Associate fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Stefan's leadership expertise/interests focus around the social psychological aspects of how leaders connect with their followers. He uses the term 'emotional creativity' to describe what is possible when leaders and followers express themselves fully to create authentic and high performing teams. In exploring this more practically, Stefan has developed this work into several areas including the dark side of leadership, collective leadership and personal happiness.