Inspire. Connect. Innovate.
As nonconformists, we not only have new ideas, but also take action to champion them. We are changing lives, and co-creating new realities.
Our Story
A few years ago, we were stuck in unfulfilling careers and made the bold decision to leave our jobs and pursue a mental, emotional and spiritual journey to find the answers to the meaning of life, and the role that the work you do plays in it. In 2015 we realised that we had something to share, started a company and developed a three-step program called The LEAP Journey®.
Previously we were both researchers in our respective fields with PhDs in Organisational Behaviour and Strategic Innovation, and passionate about developing the next wave of organisational leaders. Still passionate about leadership development, our focus has now shifted to developing authentic self-leaders who understand the importance of making leaps to keep up with a changing world and who are capable of continually reinventing themselves to stay ahead. Our hope is to help as many people as possible to take ownership of their own lives and careers and to learn and master the craft of self-innovation*
*Self-innovation, a concept pioneered by the LEAP Academy, means to continuously transform or renew yourself to redirect your energy from dwindling lines of living and working to emerging lines that are potentially more advantageous to your life and career and that will give you more meaning and fulfilment.
Who are we?
The LEAP Academy is a solutions company that helps the most forward-thinking individuals navigate personal transformative change. We build capacity and guide people through a ground-breaking program to drive personal change.
Our global team of experts and researchers search long and wide for the best solutions to develop the right kind of capabilities people need to leap and be the best versions of themselves. We work with that exceptional group of self-leaders who understand that in the new world of work you cannot wait for organisations or systems to change but that you have the right and responsibility to take the lead and design a future that is uniquely yours.
Why do we call ourselves
'LEAP Academy'?
LEAP
To leap means to jump from one point to another or to make a sudden or large movement. Metaphorically speaking, this is what you do when you transform yourself. We also use the word ‘LEAP’ as an acronym for ‘Learning Experience for Authentic Progression’ to refer to why and how you do it – by staying true to yourself and through a thoroughly researched and well-constructed learning experience.
Academy
We are not what one would normally associate with an ‘Academy’. We see our purpose purely to help you to help yourself! Remember the proverb “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”? We teach you to fish by giving you the process and the skills, but the rest is totally up to you.
Target Audience
We target individuals who know and understand the new world of work and how important it is to adapt and stay ahead. This is especially important for young professionals who find themselves at the start of their careers, but also for more experienced professionals who continuously have to reinvent themselves.
Our Values
Brave and Tenacious
To us, being brave means that you have the internal drive to push the boundaries of your own capability, the courage to explore uncharted territory, and the willingness to expand your perspective. We are relentless in the pursuit of our goals. We fail forward, remain focused and never resign to mediocrity.
Caring and Compassionate
We care by actively listening to fully understand. We demonstrate compassion by genuinely empathising with people’s realities. We take note of each other and other people’s suffering or need, connect emotionally with that need or suffering, and respond in service and advocacy for appropriate relief.
Inventive and Unconventional
We believe that inventive willpower is a renewable resource that multiplies when it's shared. Our solutions push past complexity and strive for simplicity. We believe that solving tomorrow’s challenges today, requires a shift in perspective. It demands that we search for answers in unexpected places. So, with curiosity, we explore the unfamiliar, the unknown, the overlooked and misunderstood.
Founders & Original LEAP Thinkers
Hannelize Jacobs
Chantal Breytenbach
Hannelize Jacobs
I am a natural disrupter and an endless hunter and pit bull of ideas worth implementing. As a scientist by profession, and an artist by heart, I am used to going where others don’t want to go and bringing about change before its time.
Throughout my life and career, I have instinctively recreated my environment and myself to allow my natural strengths to come to the fore. I thrive in complexity and consider it a valuable source for ideas that can produce new possibilities. As a driver of new ideas, I often find myself in positions of leadership. It is here where I discovered my gift for connecting with others through empathy and for applying the multiplier effect in the teams I lead.
As a published author and former professor turned entrepreneur, I am trying to shed my academic skin, whilst still staying true to how I uniquely think and behave.
My passion for developing and helping others become the best version of themselves, is evident throughout my career and was the instigator behind the transdisciplinary PhD that I completed. My PhD research drew on the fields of strategic management, psychology, philosophy, sociology and pedagogy.
It is who I am at the core that set me on a path to become an authentic self-leadership activist and an expert on self-innovation. As co-creator of The LEAP Journey® and co-founder of the LEAP Academy for Graduates and Professionals, I am happiest when I can help others take control of their lives and careers, make radical changes in tiring times, and bring to fruition what they uniquely offer this world.
Chantal Breytenbach
I believe that education changes lives. Through education, I broke the bonds of poverty and ignorance and built a life of significance and service. I want to give everyone I meet that gift. Education doesn’t have to be formal. Any challenging situation is an opportunity for learning.
I believe that self-awareness is key to building a more enlightened world. I’m driven by an authentic interest in people and the need to encourage others to discover what they could bring to this world if they were more self-aware.
I possess two powerful competencies. First, I can make sense of complex information and share it in ways that bring about deep understanding. When I teach my goal is deep understanding so that learning can be applied in practical and life-changing ways. Second, when I work with people, my goal is to engage with them on a deep and personal level and to build mutually beneficial and sustainable relationships.
The major way in which I’ve shared knowledge, is through teaching in higher education. I gradually expanded this to leadership development for young academics. Years spent studying leadership, trying to understand what drives people at the core and how to engage hands, head and heart in work, led to a Master’s degree in personal and professional leadership, a PhD in workplace spirituality and practical training into the science of the Enneagram. The understanding I gained from these endeavours informed the course contents for The LEAP Journey and the coaching and mentoring work we do at the LEAP Academy for Graduates and Professionals.
My core values are authenticity, integrity, compassion, connection, competence and quality. I am the real deal. I am present to your situation and I really care. My own life journey has taught me compassion and understanding. I value competence and quality and strive to deliver work of the highest quality that makes a tangible difference to others. I am a lifelong learner and an advocate for the 100-Year Life.
