Leadership Development Centre

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Why Leadership Development Centre (LDC)? 

Leadership Development Centre is an assessment process, during which participants are exposed to simulations they are likely to experience as a Business Leader and which aims to measure their current competency strengths and development areas and assist them with the creation of an individualized development plan.

What to Expect from the Leadership Development Centre?

The outcomes of the process are as follows:

• Conducted Competency Assessment (measured against the manager/senior leader competencies)
• Feedback to candidates – on personality preferences, peer feedback by colleagues on the senior leader competencies during video play back of role plays, and feedback from the psychologists
• Assessment report highlighting strengths and development areas
• Line Manager feedback and agreed Development plan between candidates and line manager to guide future development
• 2 x Follow-up sessions to monitor progress of the development plan implementation

Who should attend?

• Leadership
• Identified Talent for Future Leadership Roles
• Managers for upward mobility
• The Leadership Development Centre is also used to inform the (in-house) customised Leadership & Development Programmes’ competency Levels. This assist to pitch the programme appropriately.

What are the Prerequisites?

Prior to attending the Development Centre, participants are expected to do the following:

• Complete an online personality assessment (OPQ32r)
• Or any other instrument preferred the client

This online assessment is sent to participants prior to them attending the Development Centre.  The information is utilized for feedback purposes but also to interpret the Development Centre results, as it aims to identify potential underlying causes for the behaviour demonstrated by the participant.

What is the duration of the Development Centre?

The Development Centre process is conducted over a period of two days (6 participants) or two and a half days (8 participants) and is structured as follows:

Day 1: Introduction to the process; Feedback to candidates on their OPQ online assessment results; Assessment of candidates by exposing them to the various simulations which includes Analysis Exercises, Role plays, Presentations and Group Discussions – the interactive exercises are video recorded;

Day 2: Candidates are provided with basic guidelines as to how to give and receive feedback; the video recordings from Day 1 are played back to all the candidates and they are assigned competencies and candidates to asses and provide feedback to – the peer-assessment and feedback process is monitored and facilitated by psychologists;

Day 3 (or end of Day 2): Individual appointments of 1 hour each are scheduled with each candidate during which the Psychologists provides the candidates with their assessment feedback results.

Approximately 2 weeks after the Development Centre, a feedback discussion is conducted with the candidates and their line manager with the purpose of agreeing a development plan going forward for the candidates. The Development plan is practical, and outcomes based to facilitate on-the-job development and the objective measurement of its successful implementation over time. A detailed report is also submitted at this time to the participant highlighting the Development Centre results and practical development actions that could be implemented in the work environment. Candidates are encouraged to share the report with the line managers, but not required. Two follow-up dates are also agreed – one approximately 2 months after the Leadership Development Centre with the candidate, and another 4 months after the LDC with both the candidate and their line manager to monitor progress on the agreed development plan.

What are the benefits of the Leadership Development Centre?

The benefits of the process are as follows:

• Candidates are provided with objective feedback as to their current strengths and development areas
• Video playback (seeing is believing) combined with peer feedback facilitates self-insight
• Learning takes place as candidates observe different approaches to handling the same scenarios and its impact on the competencies observed (as demonstrated through the video playback of other candidates on the program)
• In-depth understanding of the competencies and what they measure is developed due to the peer-feedback process.
• Focused development in appropriate areas are discussed and agreed with the line manager
• Development plan implementation is monitored
• This process can be conducted face-to-face or virtually via online platforms

Feedback from other LDCs: 

• “Good one, stressful but a good pace. You guys were very well prepared in respect of the issues in our organisation and vocabulary”
• “This has been one of the best trainings I have ever attended” and “appropriate level of ambiguity”
• “We have attended many assessment programs (MBTI, Gartner – Strengths-finder, etc) over the years but they are all generic. This was the most role specific programme I have ever attended and was far more practical”
• “Have learned a lot about myself but also from others through the video playback”
• “I am happy that this is not just an event and will be followed-up with feedback, a development plan and 2 sessions over the next 4 months”