Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 156 (2014) 102 – 105
19th International Scientific Conference; Economics and Management 2014, ICEM 2014, 23-25 April 2014, Riga, Latvia
The development of an innovative leadership training programme for European young professionals in times of crisis1 Dimitra Iordanogloua *, Betty Tsakarestoub, Lida Tsenec, Konstantinos Ioannidisd, Nikos Leandrose a, b, c, d, e
Panteion University, Greece,
[email protected]
Abstract This paper presents the development of a leadership training programme for enhancing leadership skills in young business leaders. Following a survey conducted in four European countries (Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria) attempting to identify the needs for new leadership skills during the economic crisis, a leadership programme was designed to train young leaders in the leadership skills identified as the most crucial. Pilot testing of the training programme with the participation of the trainers from the four receiving countries revealed a significant level of satisfaction among most of the participants. © 2014 2014 The The Authors. Authors. Published Published by by Elsevier ElsevierLtd. Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Kaunas University of Technology. Peer-review under responsibility of the Kaunas University of Technology. Keywords: Leadership development; leadership skills; young business leaders.
1. Introduction Leadership can often be described as the ability to respond to a form of crisis (Mabey & Morrell, 2011). In the rapidly changing and unstable business environment in which EU firms operate today, effective leadership becomes critically important. Kotter (2012) argued that leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with
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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +306976794585. E-mail address:
[email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Kaunas University of Technology. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.11.128
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that vision, and inspires them to realise it despite the obstacles. In his opinion, current trends demand more leadership from more people, not just top management. In this turbulent business environment, current and future leaders should be equipped with an array of skills necessary to adapt effectively and rapidly to new challenges. As described by Osborn, Hunt, and Jauch (2002), during great challenges and peril, leadership changes significantly due to its context. Hannah et al. (2009) support this argument and state that extreme contexts usually transform and influence leadership styles. Especially nowadays, leadership requires skills tailored to an environment of urgency, high stakes, and uncertainty (Heifetz et al., 2009). Cox et al., (2010) investigated the crucial leadership skills in times of crisis. The results showed that strategic thinking and planning, partnership working, change management and personal effectiveness were among the most important leadership skills needed in tough times. As the authors stated, although most leadership and management skills are not new and are similar in most economic circumstances, there is a difference in the emphasis placed on them in different times. HayGroup (2011) global research attempted to identify the characteristics and behaviours of the effective leadership of 2030. The results revealed the need for a post-heroic leadership style. Leaders of the future will need to be adaptable, flexible, multilingual, internationally mobile, to have deep integrity and strong conceptual and strategic thinking skills. But, most crucially, they must be highly collaborative since they will be leading increasingly diverse and independent teams over which they may not always have direct authority. The aim of the present study is to investigate the crucial leadership skills under times of crisis and propose training methods for the development of these skills in order to facilitate employability and participation in the European labour market. 2. Method In order to identify the main and most urgent leadership skills that are important in terms of future employability and during economic turmoil, a survey involving personal interviews with 81 individuals was conducted in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania in March 2013. The sample consisted of two groups of stakeholders, namely experts (managers, HR managers, company owners, leadership experts, academics/researchers) and young business leaders (YBLs), (young university graduates and young professionals with less than five years of experience). Based on the survey findings, an innovative training programme was developed and was tested through a pilot study conducted in the four aforementioned countries. 3. Results Out of the forty one leadership skills - identified by the literature review as the most important - that were included in the survey questionnaires, the results revealed ten leadership skills that future young business leaders need to develop. These are organized in three categories, self management, business management and people management skills as can be seen in table 1. Table 1: Results of the essential leadership skills for young business leaders
Self management skills - Self confidence - Trustworthiness - Optimism
Business management skills
People management skills
- Making analytical decisions - Strategic thinking and planning - Creative problem solving
- Collaboration and teamwork - Interpersonal communication - Building networks and connections - Motivating others
In order to help young business leaders develop these skills a training package was created, structured in three sections, skill assessment, skill learning and skill practice (Whetten & Cameron, 2007). The skill assessment section aims at helping young leaders identify their strengths and weaknesses by a 360-degree feedback evaluation which
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includes self-evaluation and evaluation by five to seven others. Coaching sessions will be held in small groups to analyse the results of the 360-degree assessment process and help participants create a developmental action plan. During the skill learning section the participants will elaborate on classic and recent leadership theories and conceptual models and frameworks related to the skills to be developed, such as Transformational Leadership (Bass, 1985), the Competing Values Framework (Denison, Hooljberg & Quinn, 1995) and Emotional Intelligence (Bar-On, 2006; Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2004; Goleman, 1998). The skill practice section gives participants the opportunity to analyse case studies for best practices, experiment with new behaviours during role plays and team building experiential activities and receive honest feedback from trainers and other participants in a safe educational environment. This section also includes film screenings and comics workshops. Selected films provide good illustrations of leadership skills and behaviours and deepen the participants’ knowledge and understanding of leadership issues. Comics are a well-established tool in the education and training field (Missiou & Stefos, 2012; Caldwell, 2013). By using comics in training you can easily tell a story in a graphic style, using everyday practical examples and characters as part of the story, something that helps participants understand realistically why this training topic is important in their daily work lives. Through a visualization of thoughts, sounds, actions and ideas, training material can turn into effective lessons that keep people engaged and motivated. Job shadowing as a learning process in real life situations is also part of the skill practice section where young business leaders are given the opportunity to work closely with senior leaders and learn from them. It effectively complements classroom learning and aspiring leaders get a first hand idea of what it takes to be a leader. During the next step of the project a train the trainer seminar was organised in order to familiarise trainers with the training package and the activities involved. Evaluation of the train the trainer seminar, which took place after the completion of the seminar, revealed high levels of satisfaction among the participants with regard to the innovativeness and organisation of the training material, as well as the usefulness and relevance of the programme to the young business leaders’ needs (see figure 1).
Figure 1. Evaluation of the train the trainer seminar
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4. Discussion/Conclusions The stages in the development of a leadership training programme for young business leaders was presented above, adopting an experiential learning methodological approach, where participants are given the opportunity to experience, reflect on their experiences, learn from them and experiment with new behaviours (Kolb, 1984). Pilot testing of the leadership training programme in young business leaders will take place during the next months in the four receiving countries (Latvia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Bulgaria). The results of YBL’s evaluation and feedback will be used for the customisation of the training package to young business leaders’ needs. In conclusion, it should be noted that, since leadership development is a life journey, this leadership training programme is not, nor can it be, the only avenue for enhancing leadership skills. Rather, it informs participants about the importance of these skills, presents an overview of what is available, and provides basic concepts and tools to assist them in the long journey ahead. References Bar-On, R. (2006). The Bar-On Model of Emotional-Social Intelligence (ESI). Psicothema, 18, 13-25. Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and Performance. New York, NY: Free Press. Cox, A., Fairhurst, P, Hadjivassiliou, K., Hirsh, W., Jones, K., Pullen, C., Reid, B., Tamkin, P., & Walker, E. (2010). Leading and Managing in Recession: Same or Different Skills? Report LSIS233, Learning and Skills Improvement Service. Denison, D., Hooljberg, R., & Quinn, R. (1995). Paradox and Performance: Towards a Theory of Behavioural Complexity in Managerial Leadership. Organization Science, 6, 524-540. Goleman, D. (1998). What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review, 93-102. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2004). Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Hannah, S.T., Uhl-Bien, M., Avolio, B.J., Cavarretta, F.B. (2009). A Framework for Examining Leadership in Extreme Contexts. The Leadership Quarterly, 20, 897-919. HayGroup. (2011). Building the New Leader. Leadership Challenges of the Future Revealed. HayGroup Leadership 2030 Whitepaper. Heifetz,R., Grashow, A. & Linsky, M. (2009). Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis. Harvard Business Review, 64-69. Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New Jersey, NJ: Englewood Cliffs. Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Mabey, C., & Morrell, K. (2011). Leadership in Crisis: ‘Events, My Dear boy, Events’. Leadership, 7, 105-117. Osborn, R. N., Hunt, J. G., & Jauch, L. R. (2002). Toward a Contextual Theory of Leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 13, í Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2007). Developing Management Skills. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Missiou, M., & Stefos, E. (2012). Environmental Education through Comics and Internet Applications. A Case Study in High School. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology, 13, 2013-2019. Caldwell, M.J. (2013). Teaching with Comics: A Course for Fourth-Year Medical Students, Journal of Medical Humanities, 34, 471-476.
