News

Purpose of the project

The EU commission announced that 2023 is to be the European Year of Skills. This aims to address the challenges of improving employment rates and ensuring that the workforce has the necessary skills that employers need.

This project recognises almost all workplace roles require the wider skills of effective leadership. Even when people are not the ‘leaders’ in a team, leadership skills such as goal setting, time management, communication, conflict resolution and change management all support a productive and effective team.

A barrier that younger people may face is that leadership training can be expensive or only available to those who are already in middle to senior positions in the workforce. The aim of this project was to provide high quality online leadership skills training across the ESAA global network in order to enhance people’s leadership skills, confidence, career progression and their ability to take on leadership roles within their ESAA communities.

The project also directly supports ESAA’s clusters of by providing skills training and allowing members from across 6 ESAA networks to connect.

 

Project details

A curriculum of 12 weeks of remote, interactive leadership training was developed with a third-party training provider, The Self Leadership Initiative. This totalled 24 hours of training content and was accompanied by individual coaching sessions for participants to support them in tailoring the learning to their own context. The topics were:

1. An Introduction to Leadership
2. Emotionally Intelligent Leadership Styles
3. Visionary Leadership & Goal Setting
4. Coaching Leadership
5. Adaptive Leadership for Change Management
6. Tools for Change & Growth
7. Personality in Teams
8. Managing Your Time
9. Managing Stress
10. Nonviolent Communication
11. Being a Trustworthy Leader
12. Finding Meaning in Life & Leadership

We created a programme brochure and advertised it across the ESAA networks - ESN, OCEANS, garagERASMUS, EMA, WBAA and ASAF. We received 104 applications for the programme – 69 people were offered places and 61 of these completed the programme. The participants were split into two cohorts. The training sessions took place between 1^st May – 20^th July 2023 and participants had until 12^th August to utilise their 1:1 coaching session.

As part of the programme, we also hosted interviews with two established leaders. Jean Lambert shared her wisdom from her 20-year career in the European Parliament. Bodil Agasøster gave insights from working in industry and education. Both of these interviews were recorded and posted on the OCEANS YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@TheOceansNetwork-

 

Results & Impact

To evaluate the impact of the project all participants were asked to complete a self-assessment of their leadership skills before and after the training

The smallest improvement was an 8.85% increase in ‘collaborating to reach common goals. The largest improvement was a 36.65% increase in an ability to ‘manage stress’. The average improvement across all 16 skill areas was 20.24% which most definitely this fulfils the objective of the project - to build participants’ capacities.

We also asked participants to share their comments about the programme – what they had gained from it, how it was helping them as a leader and what changes they had noticed in their lives as a result of the programme. These comments were incredibly positive:

"The program has helped me tremendously as a leader. Before, I felt uncertain about leading a team, but now I am confident in my ability to manage conflicts, set a vision, and guide my team towards it. I feel equipped to handle the various challenges leadership brings." - Divyanshu Singh, ESN

“Participation in this programme has helped me recognise the type of a leader that I am. It has helped me recognise my strengths. How to manage my time, stress and conflict resolution. The programme has taught me different leadership traits and how to deal with different people with different temperaments. Overall, the programme has made me a strong leader.” – Gift Mutengo, ASAF

“I have less of negative emotions about myself. I am less self-critical and more confident. I feel I am ready to tackle things which I was scared of tackling before whether it’s a workplace conflict or leading a team.” - Marina Tomovic, WBAA

“The main thing I gained by participating in this leadership training programme is confidence in my leadership skills, now that my leadership skills are backed up by theoretical knowledge as well. That is very valuable to me because of the fact that I can use it not only in the context of leadership, but across different areas of life as well, especially in interpersonal relationships.” – Ivana Ververger, ESN

"Discovering my leadership style through the training has been a transformative experience, fundamentally changing the way I handle my team. Understanding that I have a democratic leadership style, I've learned to value input and feedback from my team members, fostering a collaborative environment where everyone's ideas are heard and respected. This approach has led to better decision-making, increased team buy-in, and a more motivated workforce. Moreover, recognizing the significance of communication, empowerment, and goal setting, I've actively worked on these aspects of team management, ensuring that my team remains engaged, focused, and aligned with our organizational objectives. The training has also instilled a passion for continuous learning and personal growth, inspiring me to be an effective and supportive leader who leads by example and serves the needs of my team. As a result, our team dynamics have flourished, productivity has soared, and the positive impact on both my life and the team's success is immeasurable." - Jeffrey Razonabe, EMA

 

Final thanks

Thank you to all partner organisations for promoting the programme, to Gemma at The Self Leadership Initiative for delivering the training and coaching and finally to all the participants for being engaged and sharing this wonderful learning experience

 

 

Zinsou Cosme ODJO

Cameroon, Yaoundé, 24^th August 2023