How do you develop effective leadership skills especially when you’re a busy executive holding a demanding role? At EHL, as part of our MBA in Hospitality, we offer a course entitled ‘Personal leadership development’ which seeks both to strengthen introspection through self-assessments and develop leadership skills.
Personality assessments
Participants – who continue in their roles in full-time employment while studying on the program – complete a series of general personality assessments and we debrief each person on the results, both individually as well as via group exercises. Then, in conjunction with more specific self-assessments, we focus on particular aspects of individual differences, as well as on certain specific skills.
A highlight of the course is a personalized feedback session for each of the participants, who complete three assessments before the course and receive individual one-hour coaching sessions, during which they receive their results along with insights from a certified practitioner. This session also allows for the integration of the results from the various self-assessments completed in class. The model we use for these assessments, the ‘Hogan’ model, focuses on individual values and motives, on general personality characteristics, as well as on aspects of personality that could possibly derail a professional career.
Personal development plans
In addition, assignments before and after the course focus on establishing personal development plans. In these assignments, participants summarize their past and current career paths, identify challenges and opportunities, examine these in line with the insights obtained during the course and, finally, outline a coherent narrative for how they intend to develop their careers in the short and medium terms.
Leadership skills development
As for developing leadership skills, the course begins with an in-depth look at decision-making, one of the key functions of every leader.
Based on a series of exercises, we identify common shortcomings or “biases” in individual decision-making and discuss how to address them.
Participants then explore the topic of participative leadership. Based on a series of small case studies, we identify together different characteristics of decision-making situations and under which conditions more autocratic or more participative leadership styles are appropriate.
The course then explores different leadership styles, highlighting examples of leaders from the hospitality industry.
We examine how leaders can adapt their leadership style to specific situations. Based on a video case study, participants also analyze the fundamental differences between transactional and transformation leadership. A discussion of different theories of motivation – complete with their implications for leaders – rounds off this part.
Another topic that is discussed at length concerns the challenges of leadership in a team setting. This topic is explored on the basis of a case study and an experiential team exercise. In this context we also explore individual preferences of participants when working in teams and we highlight specific leadership styles to be implemented in teams, both real and virtual.
Change leadership
At the end of the course comes the most challenging exercise. Change leadership is an increasingly relevant topic for managers at all levels of the hospitality industry.
We discuss recommendations for successful change leadership as a concept. Participants then get the opportunity to engage in a complex, computer-based change leadership simulation during which they can use a range of tactics to implement a large-scale change initiative in an organization. The simulation is followed by debriefs in teams and in the class as a whole.
From these discussions, participants emerge with a clearer understanding of who they are, where they want to go, and what skills they can use and/or may have to develop in order to succeed in their personal career plans.
