Leadership training
Clear Leadership® training (Leadership par la Clarté)
Designed by Gervase Bushe, Professor of Leadership and Organization Development at Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), the Clear Leadership® method teaches managers and leaders to move beyond the unspoken and the misunderstandings that undermine collaboration. RE-LIER delivers this training in French under the name Leadership par la Clarté (Clear Leadership®).
Why Clear Leadership?
In every organisation, people interpret each other’s behaviour and act on those interpretations without checking them. Gervase Bushe calls this “interpersonal mush”: a fog of assumptions that wears down working relationships and saps partnerships, even between people of goodwill.
Clear Leadership starts from a simple observation: before transforming an organisation, you have to transform the way its members talk to each other. The method provides precise tools for creating conversations in which everyone can say what they are really experiencing, and learn from the experience of others.
What you learn
The Experience Cube
Distinguishing what you observe, think, feel and want, so you can speak about yourself precisely.
The Aware and Descriptive Self
Noticing what is happening in you as it happens, and describing it without judging the other person.
The Curious and Appreciative Self
Genuinely exploring the other person’s experience, and recognising what works in the relationship.
The common thread is self-differentiation — staying clear about what you think and want, even under tension, without merging into the group or cutting yourself off from it.
The format
- 4 in-person days, a few weeks apart;
- practice between sessions, in your real work context;
- a small group and a safe setting, with no direct reporting lines;
- as open, multi-company sessions (see leadershipclarte.fr) or in-house, for a leadership team or a group of managers.
What you gain
What participants take away is not one more model: it is a way of speaking they use the very next day, in meetings as much as one to one.
- Describing your own experience precisely, without judging anyone else’s
- Checking your interpretations instead of taking them as fact
- Holding difficult conversations instead of postponing them
- Building strong, lasting working partnerships
- A shared language the team can still use after the training
Who is it for?
Executives, leadership team members, managers and HR teams who want to:
- handle difficult conversations with ease;
- build solid working partnerships, between teams or between entities;
- develop a culture of clarity and collective learning in their organisation.
What participants say
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The training came just as I was joining a new team. Thanks to Clear Leadership, I was able to build effective collaboration with every member of the team.
Training participant
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My colleagues told me that because I was clearer in expressing my intentions, they felt better able to help me and work with me.
Training participant
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It opened me up to a huge range of practices. Above all, it gave me a very powerful way of understanding interpersonal relationships.
Training participant
Your trainer
Matthieu Bourgue, founder of RE-LIER, was trained in Clear Leadership® by Gervase Bushe. He co-translated the French edition, Le Leadership par la Clarté (2022), and is one of the few certified trainers in France. An ICF-certified professional coach, he led teams himself for 17 years before devoting himself to supporting leaders. Learn more.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to have read the book beforehand?
No. The concepts are presented during the sessions. Reading the book is a good complement, before or after.
Can the training be organised for a single company?
Yes. In-house, the programme is adapted to your challenges and can be combined with team coaching to embed the practices.
Why four days spread out over time?
Because these skills develop through practice. The time between sessions lets you try out the tools in real situations and debrief them together.
Is the training available in English?
Open sessions are in French. An English-language session can be organised in-house.
Let’s talk about your training project
Let’s spend 30 minutes discussing your needs, whether for an individual registration or a session dedicated to your teams.
English 
French