What makes a great leader? Undoubtedly, the best approach to answer this question, is the ‘Leadership Code’. A simple yet precise leadership development programme based on five principle domains, Personal Proficiency, Strategist, Executor, Talent Manager and Human Capital Developer.
By Hansani Bandara
“When something is so simple, it is profound and very easy to think of, because if it is complex and if you can’t understand it, how can you practice?,” asks Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, Corporate Leader, People Developer and Certified Associate of the RBL Group USA, who is also the resource person for the leadership development programme that is to be conducted based on Leadership Code (LC). The workshop, which commenced in October will proceed until November 23, 2013.
The concept of LC was developed by Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman of the Results Based Leadership (RBL) Group, drawn on decades of research and experience. Many fortune 500 companies have benefited from the Leadership Code Based Development Programmes offered by RBL Group.
“Leadership Code is the synthesis of all the concepts clutter that exist about leadership. We have taken literally thousands of articles, competency models and 360s and boiled them down to these five domain —strategist, executor, talent manager, human capital developer and personal proficiency.” said Norm Smallwood in a video made for the launch.
Deepal Sooriyaarachchi together with Laugfs Higher Education Services, has undertaken the task of delivering the programme in Sri Lanka, bringing cutting edge thinking to enhance personal development.
Accoring to latest research, the people development process should be a combination of On the Job Assignments, Formal Education and Life Experiences in the propotion of 50:30:20. Leadership Code Based
Development Programme is structured in this manner.
Effective management of their physical, emotional and intellectual selves in order to be personally proficient is vital for a leader. A leader is expected to take quick actions and at the same time be calm and patient as a zen monk. Good leaders are never lost, they know where they are headed. They ensure tasks are accomplished in a manner that generates personal, professional and organisational loyalty. Leaders are human capital developers.
Throughout the programme, participants will be exposed to various skill development activities. Firstly, entrants will go through a 360 degree assessment where they will be rated by seven to ten co-workers including one superior. This assessment conducted through a special tool developed by RBL, will determine how a particular participant could be rated according to the five domains.
Following the assessment, there will be a workshop guiding participants to form their own personal development plan where focus will be drawn towards building one’s self on his or her strengths. Next comes the practical implementation, where participants will be assigned to real world business projects by their respective employers. The business project—a simple and short term achievable project with a tight time frame—will enable them to implement what they learned from the workshop.
In addition to these activities, participants—throughout the progamme—will be coached on personal development and in the execution of assigned business projects.
What makes LC stand out from the rest? It is the very nature of this training where it takes a spread-out approach rather than being a one day event. The linkage of business related project results to the programme and focusing on developing leadership skills rather than creating one celebrity leader. The journey is to discover the leader in you.
