People Leaders
The Brief
Help new managers lead when nobody’s taught them how
Deloitte was elevating talented professionals into people leadership roles — but the transition was happening faster than the development support around them. New leaders didn’t understand what was expected of them, where they sat in the organisational structure, or how to balance competing responsibilities. The People Leader toolkit existed — but adoption was low and the content felt disconnected from the reality of the role.
The Solution
Shuffle the deck. Show leadership as a game of many hands
Two animated films and an interactive playbook that reframed people leadership as a set of flexible, interchangeable roles rather than a single fixed job. A playing-card visual metaphor made the complexity feel manageable, and a light-hearted tone made the often-daunting subject of leading people feel approachable and human.
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The toolkit was ready. The confidence wasn’t.
In professional services, the transition from individual contributor to people leader is one of the highest-risk moments in an employee’s career. Get it wrong and the impact cascades: disengaged teams, higher attrition, and a leadership pipeline that leaks talent at the exact point it should be developing it.
Deloitte had invested in a comprehensive People Leader toolkit covering expectations, responsibilities, and support structures. But a toolkit only works if people use it — and new leaders weren’t engaging with the resources available to them.
The firm needed a creative entry point that would build confidence, clarify the role, and drive adoption of the toolkit. It had to work globally, land with warmth rather than corporate authority, and speak to people who were often anxious about a role they’d never been trained for.
Our Approach
Make the complexity feel like a conversation
We built the campaign around a single visual metaphor: a deck of playing cards. Each card represented a different leadership role — people leader, coach, team member, mentor. The cards could be shuffled, rearranged, and dealt in any combination — illustrating that leadership isn’t a fixed position but a flexible set of responsibilities.
The first animation served as a two-minute overview, introducing the blend of roles with energy and pace. The second went deeper into the people leader role specifically, following a new leader as they explored purpose, scope, and responsibilities.
We paired the stories with an interactive playbook — a practical PDF featuring checklists, reflection questions, and thought starters. The playbook was designed to be completed alongside the animations, turning a viewing experience into an active learning one.
People Leaders — Overview Story
Key Project Assets
Two-Part Animated Film Series
A pair of light-hearted animations introducing leadership roles through a playing-card metaphor — making the complexity of people leadership feel navigable and human.
Interactive People Leader Playbook
A practical PDF workbook with checklists, questions, and thought starters — designed to be completed alongside the films, turning passive viewing into active preparation.
Playing-Card Visual System
A distinctive design language built around shuffled playing cards — each representing a leadership role, reinforcing flexibility as the defining quality of good people leadership.
Impact
The campaign drove adoption of the People Leader toolkit and generated strong positive feedback from across the organisation, contributing to a broader shift in how Deloitte approaches leadership development.
People Leaders — The People Leader Role
Project Insights
From toolkit to confidence
The hardest thing about becoming a people leader isn’t the responsibility. It’s the uncertainty. Most new managers know they should be doing something differently — they just don’t know what. The playing-card metaphor worked because it acknowledged that complexity instead of pretending it doesn’t exist.
Two short animations and a playbook. That’s all it took to shift how new leaders felt about their role. Sometimes the best intervention isn’t more content. It’s a better frame.
These are great. The feedback so far has been excellent and has helped to create a very positive response towards the whole leadership programme.
Head of Leadership Development — Deloitte
