Developing future leaders in vocational education and training
Co-authors:
Professor Victor Callan, The University of Queensland Business School Professor Gayle C Avery - Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University; Robby Weatherley and Janet Hewson, TAFE NSW.
Various studies of leadership in the vocational education and training sector (Callan 2001; Rice 2003), and in other corporate contexts (Avery, 2004, 2005), reveal that senior leaders today require:
- Superior capabilities in the art of business acumen
- More strongly developed capabilities around strategic leadership
- Greater insights and intelligence around the leadership of organisational change
- Building the level of aptitude around high-performing organisational cultures
- High levels of self-awareness around strengths and areas for development as leaders (Adapted from Goffee & Jones, 2005; Goleman 2004).
Reports into leadership development at senior levels in Australian organisations indicate that our organisations are over-managed and under-led (Latemore & Callan, 1998) .
Australian organisations are recognising that to remain sustainable and competitive in these turbulent times, their potential leaders need:
- Continuous learning to develop capabilities that are critical to the achievement of business goals
- Well-designed, proactive development programs that use a wide variety of on and off-the-job learning experiences
- Development opportunities that are highly strategic.
Major organisations worldwide introduced leadership development programs to ensure a depth of leadership talent, including at senior executive levels. Diverse examples include US services provider IBM, which has won awards for its development programs, and European firms such as automakers BMW and Porsche in Germany, and Zurich-based global cement manufacturer, Holcim (Avery, 2005). Like these and other international corporations, global firms such as Allianz and UBS from the finance sector and SAP (software) regard their investment in leadership development at all levels as critical to their future survival.
Such programs are recognised world wide for their capacity to allow aspiring leaders to realise their goals of senior executive leadership within organisations (Avery, 2004, 2005; McCall & Hollenbeck, 2007) and for their capacity to:
- Support succession planning - identify outstanding individuals with demonstrated executive potential, provide opportunities for those individuals to prepare for such roles, create a quality leadership workforce, and develop a broader pool from which to select from
- Develop new leadership capabilities - for individuals who are motivated to lead and grow the business in an increasingly competitive, networked and global environment
- Share an individual’s goals - of broadening knowledge across functions and business challenges, of gaining leading-edge perspectives and tools and of shaping an organisation’s future.
Challenges in the VET Sector
The specific challenges facing our leaders in vocational education and training (VET) organisations are well documented (Callan, Mitchell, Clayton, & Smith, 2007; Mitchell, McKenna, Perry & Bald, 2005, IPART, 2006, TAFE NSW, 2008).
They include:
- A more diverse customer base demanding products and services that require a re-thinking of positions adopted in the past about commercial service delivery, flexibility and customisation. A more competitive training market, private training providers and new funding arrangements, drive the pace of change.
- The way services are delivered to industry, communities and customers require a higher calibre of business capability to frame, assess, discard and adopt many assumptions at once. The ability to work in a rapidly changing business environment where the social and economic development of regions is at the heart of the VET business.
- Capacity to respond to numerous drivers for change as National and State governments want more effective responses to skill shortages, the improvement of skills and qualifications profiles, greater recognition of prior learning, and the continued removal of barriers to skills acquisition and to up-skilling.
The changing landscape of the external environment and the impact this has on the vocational education and training sector signifies a reassessment of the capabilities and the depth of knowledge required for senior executive leadership in VET.
Current Leadership Programs in VET
There will always be a need for ongoing leadership and management development programs in VET. These programs vary and are usually aligned to workforce priorities and professional development plans, with a focus on succession planning, the development of business management skills and improving responsiveness to changing external demands. Many individuals in VET have also undertaken formal and informal courses, including Masters and Doctorates.
Specialised Leadership programs
Specialised leadership programs for Future Leaders should complement and extend current leadership programs within the organisation. Specialised leadership programs provide a systemic approach to executive leadership development. They aim to develop inspired and creative senior executive leaders of the future – that are highly motivated and committed to first-class delivery of innovative services to industry, enterprises and individuals, who actively and inspiringly contribute to social and economic development, and who contribute to the sustainability of the organisation.
Key features of successful Future Leader programs
International/national experience has shown that there are certain elements that help create successful Future Leader programs. They are:
- Attendance of senior executive at a preliminary program that is customised and part-mirrors the Future Leader program – this demonstrates executive involvement and commitment, and is the single most important factor that can make or break a program
- An across-organisation program that is clearly identified for those with high potential and aspiration to senior leadership – supported by effective marketing strategies on objectives and outcomes of the program
- A large enough cohort across the first two years to make a difference – through the build up of a critical mass that can help maintain the organisation’s positioning and impact on creativity, flexibility and customer responsiveness
- Sound selection processes in place, usually external to the organisation
- Individual learning contracts addressing a range of personalised learning options, with presentation to senior executive at conclusion of program
- Ongoing networking opportunities for participants after the program, to continue the learning and maintain group cohesion
- Maximum cohort of 25 through each program/strategy, with 20 being the preferred number
- Evaluation of initial program informing the following program
- Core capabilities that drive the design and content of the program.
The following can be potential barriers to successful programs:
- Absence of senior executive support and involvement
- Participants on the program being nominated because there is a belief that such a program can ‘fix’ or rectify personal, professional and/or other perceived problems
- Requests for program facilitators to report on participants’ performance
- A Future Leader program that does not have:
- A sound set of participant selection processes
- Appropriate levels of rigor, academic and business acumen in its design, with clear objectives and outcomes
- Stakeholder commitment including the CEO and Board
- A high-level management team for the program
- Program content that does not reflect contemporary thinking
- A budget that adequately supports the program and participants.
Capabilities of Future Leaders in VET
With a strong focus on a diverse customer base, business acumen and responsiveness to national and state government drivers, the senior leadership capabilities of the future are different to those of the past.
Future Leader programs internationally focus on ‘growing the business’ as a key capability for ‘top’ leaders, with a strong emphasis on achieving results through relationship building and personal attributes. The premise is that senior leadership is about leading others to achieve results, rather than ‘doing it’ yourself.
It is proposed that leaders at a senior level of responsibility require five core capabilities, with specific capability elements also identified:
- Growing the business – business and commercial acumen, managing risk, entrepreneurial skills, brand and marketing management
- Organisational leadership - strategic leadership, change leadership, innovation leadership, sets challenging visions and goals, models fiscal responsibility, cross-system planning and budgeting, and proven abilities around coaching, empowering and the development of others
- Achieves results - accountability and follow through, champions strategic priorities and projects, delivers intended results, steers and implements change and deals with uncertainty
- Builds relationships – partnership and stakeholder management, political nous, cultivates productive working relationships
- Personal attributes - self confidence, self awareness, a desire to lead, integrity, tolerance of ambiguity, drive, goal-oriented, high energy, shows judgement, intelligence and commonsense, knowledge of the business, creative problem-solving.
The capabilities refer not only to current knowledge, skills, qualities and understanding, but also to an individual’s potential in each of these areas (Callan 2001). Individual capability creates organisational capability.
The above capabilities were identified following an extensive examination of the capability frameworks of 14 organisations across Australia, research literature and feedback from ‘experts’ in executive leadership development.
The list of capabilities can be customised to the needs of any organisation in VET. It is usual practice to ‘test out’ the capabilities during the first program and then refine them as needed – to ensure that the focus is on those capabilities that will make a difference to future senior leadership within the organisation.
Benefits and outcomes of a Future Leader program
The benefits of a specialised Future Leader program are to:
- Ensure that there is a talented pool of potential leaders across the organisation who have the capacity to fulfill senior executive roles
- Build organisational capabilities to innovate, change and to perform at levels that will offer greater service diversity and flexibility for customers, employers and learners
- Support participants through access to executive leadership development that is customised to meet individual needs around capability development.
The anticipated outcomes will result in a cohort capable of:
- Effectively leading systemic change to meet business needs
- Rapidly adapting and responding to political, economical, environmental and social change
- Recognising and actively nurturing the potential within others by fostering their development in business innovation.
Guiding Principles when developing a Future Leader program
The principles that will guide the design and delivery of Future Leader programs are:
- Participants are a selected group with high potential and all can aspire to the most senior levels of responsibility within the organisation
- The focus is on new skills, adaptability, business innovation and creativity for the future
- The program is an ongoing developmental process in capability building, not just a one-off intervention
- The program is a partnership with key stakeholders and service providers
- Personalised learning is a key component. Participants can customise certain aspects of the program to meet the agreed-upon objectives in their learning contract
- Participants need to develop further not only their areas requiring improvement, but also to continue to focus upon their strengths as leaders
- The program and learning contracts must have measurable links to organisational systemic needs, business plans and strategic objectives.
Selecting a program model
The Leadership Excellence website has identified ten best leadership program practices:
- Experience / Field Assignments
- Smart Content / Curriculum
- Action Learning
- Simulation or small scale operation
- Mentoring and coaching
- Teaching others
- Feed forward
- Team balance and alignment
- Involvement and engagement
- Accountability for results
In examining six executive development programs in the government sector across Australia, the key features of the programs are residentials, mentoring, workshops, individual development plans, coaching sessions and 360° feedback.
TAFE NSW has designed and developed a model that features experiential learning, field projects, leading-edge content, action learning, themed workshops, mentoring and coaching with the opportunity to build in simulation or small scale operation. Also included in the model is:
- Leading edge content and expertise of presenters/facilitators
- Building of strong group identity
- Heightened learning opportunities that can be presented with a cohesive group during and after face to face components of the program
- Customisation of the program around four key capabilities required for future senior executive leadership in TAFE NSW.
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