Deepal to deliver the ‘Leadership Code’

Friday, 23 August 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

“What makes a great leader?” Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman set out to answer this question – to crack the code of leadership. Drawing on decades of research experience, the authors conducted extensive interviews with the thought leaders in this field and heard the same five essentials repeated again and again. These five rules became the ‘Leadership Code’.

Now Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, one of the most-sought-after people-developers and business professionals and a Certified Associate of RBL Group USA, harnessing the Asian wisdom and the cutting edge thinking of the Leadership Code, is delivering a unique leadership development program in association with LAHES – The Corporate Campus, a member of the Laugfs Group, starting 4 October, spreading over a period of over two months. The Leadership Code There are five rules that effective leaders in any organisation must live by in order to be successful, says Dave Ulrich, introducing the Leadership Code: 1.Leaders must invest in themselves to be personally proficient. Effective leaders manage their physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual selves well. They learn constantly. They are capable of quick, bold actions as well as great patience. They constantly deepen their insight about themselves. This is especially true in tough economic times when people look to their leaders for hope and confidence. 2.Good leaders know how to be strategists and are able to answer the question “Where are we going?” They test their big ideas pragmatically, and they work with others to find the path from the present to the desired future.

3.Effective leaders are executors. They ask: “How will we ensure that we reach our goal?” They understand how to make change happen, assign accountability, delegate appropriately, and make sure that teams work well together. 4.These leaders are talent managers and engage people to get things done now and in a manner that generates intense personal, professional, and organisational loyalty. They help people bring their best to the job at hand. 5.Finally, they are human capital developers who build the next generation. They make sure that the organisation has the longer-term skills, knowledge, behaviours and attitudes for future strategic success. The program Deepal delivers will be based on the above five core attributes of leadership. The key features of this program are: nInstead of being a one-off event this is a spread-out, balanced program. nInstead of not being tied to Back Home results there will be individual as well as business related project results strongly linked to the program. nInstead of being a same program for all participants this will be highly tailored to suit individual development with personal coaching. nInstead of being a program without measurement there will be pre and post assessments. nInstead of focusing on one “flavour of the month”, the program is focused on leadership skills development. First, the participants will go through a 360 degree assessment with a minimum of seven persons including at least one superior rating. The candidate will use a specially developed tool by RBL Group that provides insights as to how one scores under these five attributes. Then there will be a one day workshop guiding the participants on how to develop a personal development plan that suits one’s own personal circumstances and where focus will be given to building on strengths. This way the program will be truly a personal development program for each participant. Parallel to this, the participants will be given a real world business project by their employer. These projects will address real world problems and create an ideal environment for implementing lessons learned in the class room. Tight time frame will ensure disciplined execution. In addition to the non-residential workshops on the Leadership Code, there will be on going coaching of the participants throughout the period. In a recent study published in Fortune training alone improved leadership skills by 22%; when combined with executive coaching improvement jumps to 77% - hence the focus on coaching along with the action learning project. When asked about the secret of their success, great leaders often recall small events that had significant and lasting impact on their approach to leading others. This highly tailored experiential learning opportunities aim to facilitate those kinds of events for the participants. While the program itself is structured well grounded on research and best in class methodologies, the facilitator Deepal Sooriyaarachchi too adds significant value to the whole delivery process. Deepal himself had delivered modules along with Norm and others of RBL Group focusing on developing mindfulness as an executive capability, a special interest area of Deepal’s. He will bring in three decades of senior management experience in leading one of the leading companies in Sri Lanka as well as his enormous wealth of knowledge in the Eastern wisdom and the hands-on knowledge and sensitivities of the local audiences. Deepal is the former Managing Director of AVIVANDB Insurance (AIA). He serves on a number of boards including that of Sampath Bank and AIA Insurance as an independent director. He also functions as the Commissioner of the Sri Lanka Inventors Commission and has authored over 15 books locally and internationally. His writings and presentations are so popular because of his unique ability to present even the most complex concepts in a very simple manner. He is passionate about developing people and brings this ability to inspire others. Participating in a program delivered by Deepal is in itself a life-changing experience. The ‘Leadership Code’ based senior management development program is presented by LAHES – the Corporate Campus, which is committed to bringing the best in global education to Sri Lanka. Considering the highly personalised nature of the program, only a very limited number of persons will be enrolled. Details can be obtained from [email protected]/5566500 – 2/0777261156.