Leaders have three main functions:
Leadership creates the right climate for good local government. What the mayor and other senior elected officials and employees in administrative bodies do and how they act influences whether local government bodies (units) are a good place for all employees to work or that this community is a good place for their residents to live.
People in leadership positions therefore need to:
The Council of Europe’s LEADERSHIP ACADEMY PROGRAMME (LAP) is an interactive learning and action course that “targets” mayors, more local government officials and NGOs. The ultimate goal of the LAP allows participants to develop leadership for organizations, leadership strategy and leadership for capacity building through the adoption of knowledge and tools that will be included in trainings during two phases (optional three) held by trainers certified by the Council of Europe (CoE).
The program is implemented over a period of four or six months, in separate trainings, each lasting three days and is intended for a group of up to 25 participants. The LAP adapts to the needs of local communities by selecting a team that cooperates with local institutions, with the aim of focusing on those areas, i.e., teaching materials, that are relevant to the local context. At the same time, all coaching potential is focused on the goals to be achieved, which are defined by the Council of Europe for such training.
In the period between the two phases, participants in this program are expected to implement certain leadership tasks within their own organizations and inform them during the next meeting or at the beginning of the next phase of the program.
The ultimate goal of the program is to “teach” participants the knowledge and tools needed to provide good governance through highly qualified local government bodies and organizations.
On the other hand, the participants are going to be:
In addition, participation in the Leadership Academy Programme successfully connects participants in a strong and cohesive network with other colleagues working in local government bodies. After completing the program, participants are advised to continue their cooperation and to continue learning from each other by exchanging examples of good practice in order to face the upcoming challenges together. In the end, participants and attendees of this program become strong promoters of future changes.
The following lines contain brief descriptions and names of the Modules that are most commonly used in Leadership Academy training.
Modul: Good Local Governance
To gather an in-depth understanding of the 12 Principles for Good Democratic Governance and their relevance for their organisations’ activity; To gather an understanding of the competences needed for local government leadership.
Modul: Understanding Leadership
To acquire knowledge on ’leadership’ – as it is envisaged within the LAP; To understand the added value of a situational approach to leadership (there is no “one size fits all” solution).
Modul: Leadership Values
To identify the role of values in shaping attitudes and behaviours; To identify the individual values stimulating leadership and, in turn, good governance.
Modul: Leadership Mind-Sets for Team Working
To understand the kind of mind-set that is better aligned with good performance within a performance-oriented organisation; To understand the importance of emotional intelligence (EQ) and its essential role in effective team working; To recognise the importance of facilitation for effective team working, that in turn leads to improved public services performance.
Modul: Identifying Personal Leadership Styles
To develop an accurate understanding of different leadership styles; To match own strengths and weaknesses to choose the appropriate leadership styles for different situations.
Modul: Group Communication Skills
To understand the drivers of effective communication; to experience the importance of the group as a ‘multiplier’ of ideas and prospective; to learn and experience tools for different group interaction methods.
Modul: Organisation Culture
To learn how good leadership can change the organisation culture to deliver better performance.
Modul: Scenario Planning
To introduce the method for developing dynamic scenarios and initiating inclusive strategic dialogues for strategic planning and problem solving.
Modul: Complexity of Organisational Change
To understand that local government needs to be responsive and dynamic to change and issues need to be tackled in an integrated manner.
Module: Expectation Management
To reveal conflicting points in mutual expectations between staff and leaders and formulate a more coherent set of expectations.
Modul: Performance Management
To deepen the understanding of performance management and how it can be used to more effectively deliver outcomes by the organisation.
Modul: Civil Participation in Decision Making
To increase awareness on the role of civil participation for efficient and effective local governance; to improve understanding of the requirements, benefits and relations intrinsic to civil participation; to acquire knowledge on different civil participation approaches and to choose the best for a given situation.
The modules were developed by Council of Europe experts. The number and choice of modules depends on the choice of institutions and / or organizations that will attend the training. For this purpose, the training organizer must do research before training. The result(s) of this research will be used to create training (number and type of modules, number of phases …)