The first batch of students of Leadon, a two-year programme for future leaders, will graduate today, at a ceremony at the Gödelfen ballroom in Emirates Towers.

The programme, which was launched by Dubai Holding in 2007, seeks to establish a common standard of leadership development across all Dubai Holding entities. The development of future leadership across all Dubai Holding entities is a strategic priority and the Leadon programme is based on a model developed specifically for Dubai Holding.

Leadon is benchmarked against similar programmes in global companies such as General Electric, the multinational technology and services company, and Toyota, the world's largest auto manufacturer by revenue.

Talking about how he got enrolled in the programme, Zahi Abu Hamze, Treasury Manager, Dubai Holding, told Emirates Business: "This was something that was initiated by our group human resources department to prepare the next generation of senior staff to lead their respective companies.

"It was part of the department's employee development programme and the HR shortlisted a group of people who were then put through a full-day assessment process. I was selected from among those applicants and 38 of us went ahead for the leadership programme. It was an opportunity not to be missed."

The two-year programme combines various methods to prepare the future leaders and apart from the usual text-based studies there are bi-weekly coaching sessions where the candidates receive one-on-one assistance from their personal teachers.

Each candidate is given a personal coach who assists them to deal with every aspect of their development, whether it is their career, dealing with staff at the office or in their personal life.

The personal coaches help develop and channel the skills future leaders are supposed to have, find out weaknesses and ways to improve in those areas and work on developing their strengths.

Hamze said: "Every few weeks workshops and seminar are held and academics from the world's leading business schools and universities, such as the London Business School, come and hold sessions about leadership and management skills. We also have to do projects and work as a team to solve case studies. It could be about any topic, real estate, IPOs, corporate finance, etc. We prepare the business plan, concepts, marketing plans, do financial modelling. Basically, everything that needs to be done to run a particular business. Then there are also 360-degree feedback sessions, where we learn about our weaknesses and strengths and how to improve them."

Hadi Badri, Executive Director, Dubai International Capital said: "All in all it is a comprehensive programme that develops our leadership skills, teamwork skills and gives us the perspective of how different industries work.

"It opened our eyes to topics and issues we never covered during our job training. We learnt a lot about best practices, organisational culture, from how to improve the culture in your organisation to what people really want, and leadership skills, especially in these days of crisis. We learnt how to motivate staff and to keep the morale of those who are demotivated due to the crisis, among other things.

"I plan to apply what I learnt at Leadon in my office and pass the knowledge on to the people who work in my organisation so that they can also benefit from it and we can all think in the same direction. This will help the company perform better." Sara Mohammadi, Strategy Consultant, ICT cluster, Tecom Investments, said: "It's a great programme that gives you the opportunity to learn management skills and how to become a leader in your organisation.

"It teaches you to work with people from different industries and backgrounds, cultures and nationalities, which is important as the UAE is such a melting pot."

"It also gives you the opportunity to network with leaders and decision makers of different organisations that you meet during the programme and gives you visibility and exposure. This programme teaches you that in order to become a leader you have to know yourself, acknowledge your weaknesses and realise that you are not perfect, and need to learn and improve all the time. I feel this programme has fastracked my learning curve. What I would have learnt in five years during the normal course of my career, I have learnt in the programme in two years."

 

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