Why i Want to Participate in a Leadership Program

Introduction

Governments, non-profit organizations, and higher educational institutions that offer 'leadership programs' do so with the goal of assisting individuals to become competent leaders for various organizations of the future. These leadership programs can be residential programs, separate courses, or integrated elective components of an undergraduate or postgraduate qualification. Although designed and implemented differently and aimed at different cohorts, topics, skills, and practices, one aspect common to all these leadership programs is that they have been designed on the basis that leaders require practical knowledge of what leadership is and a comparable knowledge of how to lead others through change.

Leadership scholars agree that leadership is multi-layered, complex, and a messy construct. While leadership is an evolving discourse, it is influenced by past, present, and imagined future circumstances. Whereas once the Irish saw 'leadership' in terms of a stability-guaranteeing jigsaw of charisma, substance, heroism, distance, and sacrifice, today we are confronted with the reality of leadership as a series of widespread challenges. These include role conceptions and motivations to patterns of engagement; traditional and emergent sites of identification, i.e., leaders and followers alike; and, most importantly for future development, leadership practice itself. Given today's complex transformation of economic, social, and political fields of action, all human resource development, including leadership education, must be based on a carefully thought-through and integrated approach. A more dynamic and ongoing approach to leadership development is argued for here. This fresh approach to leadership development centers on developing individuals, often in groups, through experiences that challenge and stretch them toward collective and individual goals.

Benefits of Participating in Leadership Programs

Leadership programs offer many benefits. One possibility for dividing up these benefits is whether the benefits are more immediate and result directly from attending the program. Alternatively, some benefits emerge only over time due partly to the prior experience of taking part in these programs. Hence, it is possible to distinguish short-term benefits from long-term benefits. Short-term benefits of leadership development may include self-reported learning such as acquiring generic or job-specific knowledge, new skills related to both the work to be done as a line manager and participating in a leadership program, or the increased confidence in one's ability to carry out these tasks. A sense of personal development resulting from greater self-awareness of one's skills and how to utilize them has been reported by individuals.

Long-term benefits may include tangible vocational outcomes such as career advancement, obtaining a coveted role, or perceiving oneself as being better placed in an industry. For instance, training evaluations conducted at the end of one long-standing leadership program reveal that as many as 90% of the respondents believe that they have made concrete changes to their management style as a direct result of participation in the program. The potential longer-term benefits of participating in a leadership program may benefit those interested in such personal development experiences for their own sake. Following structured leadership training programs, individuals were better placed for promotion into senior management positions. Similarly, in an Australian study, participation in a new psychiatric leadership accreditation program was associated with career advancement, the increased frequency of salary increases, and the combination of any of these features.

Personal and Professional Growth Opportunities

Potential participants may be attracted to leadership programs in part because they are engaging in a personal or professional growth phase of their life. More traditional leadership program models focus on a combination of personal or professional growth opportunities. On the personal side, the focus can be to teach new ways of personal reflection and learning. Throughout the program, grantees participating in developmental evaluation engage in discussions with evaluators to identify opportunities for learning and track changes based on program decisions. The evaluators in this program served as coaches who pushed the grantees to take incremental steps to increase their effectiveness.

In the personal realm, some literature suggests that participating in a leadership program can help develop self-awareness. Leadership programs may give participants insight into the issues and values that are most important to them. The opportunity to learn in a leadership group may yield insight that could lead to emotional growth or emotional intelligence. Leadership programs may focus on this transformation in different ways by incorporating principles of servant leadership into their curriculum. One program participant stated, "I have been more of a follower than a leader in my life. Quits was our nickname at home. The too cool to be a leader leadership program gave me the courage and permission to be myself. Life is now fun. Life is full of possibilities." One leadership program attendee stated, "Too cool gave me internal permission to act, allowed me to develop relationships with artists, and introduced me to professionals who are getting paid to do what some people might be called to do for free: produce stories, stage experiences, and create amazing work." In general, those focused on personal growth may be goal-oriented, establishing objectives, employing a system to measure progress, and making necessary adjustments to lessons and life that facilitate learning.

Networking and Collaboration

Motivations for participating in leadership programs are indicators of the perceived and intrinsic value of these initiatives. Critical importance has been given to networking as a central appeal of these programs. The explicit and implicit social dynamics of leadership programs are examined in this chapter because networking and collaboration are becoming increasingly important as cooperative efforts between reserve managers become mandatory. This chapter presents diverse motivations of alumni and participants, with a focus on the particular benefits derived from networking and collaboration.

The readiness of a leadership program to attract potential participants is inextricably linked to the quality of the relationships that are developed in such programs. Factors have been explored that are likely to influence the competitive advantage of a professional network and the extent to which participants might be more likely to seek a long-term relationship with an organization. It is clear from the accounts of alumni and participants that the sense of camaraderie and shared experiences greatly influence the preference for, and loyalty to, their particular networks. Networking refers not only to the establishment of social or professional connections that facilitate knowledge acquisition, access to new contacts, provision of support, creation of new partnerships, or an increase in social status, but also to the establishment of emotional connections within an organization and beyond. Networking is especially important for those staff and officers making the transition from being scientists to being conservation managers. It enables access to diverse and experienced perspectives to enhance the decision-making process.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what we have heard from participants in the Executive Leadership program, as well as what is present in the literature and in the experiences of event managers, is that there is no single motivator for attending a leadership program, but many. The motivations and benefits of participating in these programs seem to be varied and multidimensional and reflect the unique needs, perspectives, and desires of the individuals attending. At the very core seem to be personal growth that leads to the desire for what can be termed continued growth, development, and learning opportunities that lead to professional development, and structured networking opportunities that create potential for professional turnover. My hope is that in the best of all possible worlds, participants attending Executive Leadership will see the many motivations that other participants have for participating in the program as opportunities as well—an opportunity for personal and professional growth, an opportunity to meet and network with others who share their experience, an opportunity to explore many leadership trait areas, an opportunity to learn more about themselves, and finally an opportunity to spend time and be with individuals from different countries and different disciplines. In essence, I hope that they are inspired by the presence of others, by the many testimonies and stories about those who have been educated in other leadership programs and their commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and their commitment to truly making a difference. This is because to truly take this education into our hearts and then share it with each other transforms education from tools to use into empowering possibilities.

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