Another first from LEAD Training Services thanks to its collaboration with South Africa-based Omnicor is a public Managed Leader Development Programme (MLDP), consisting of eight three-hour group coaching sessions.

Spread over three and a half months, starting on 19 June and ending on 16 October, 2013, the programme consists of personal assessment and feedback, building a personal development plan, a practical change assignment and a final presentation.

The MLDP is delivered by James Ashton, MA (Org.Psych.), a founder of Omnicor, at the InterContinental Hotel. He explains: “The most essential difference between training and group coaching is what they achieve. In training, where the focus is on the material being taught and on the quality of the trainer, the refreshments, etc., the ground is set for people to learn new techniques, theories and ideas.

“If the training is well done, people can learn things in a day or even in a few hours that stay with them for the rest of their lives.  The training room is a good place for getting a message across to people. It doesn’t follow, though, that new insight equals changed behaviour.

“If you want to change behaviour for life, if you want people to act differently and if you have a strong need to achieve different results, then group coaching is a better option.”

In group coaching, Mr Ashton point out that there is a wealth of theory and content but it is introduced over the weeks, at the pace of the group.  “Only when it’s essential to the process will the coach include a new insight.  This can be done in group coaching but not in training because, in training, the need is to get through the material.

“In coaching, the need is to help people to change behaviour.  At the heart of a group-coaching programme are three things:

·        Firstly, what needs to change and what content or material will help;

·        secondly, how the group coaching sessions run, how they are facilitated; and

·        thirdly, how the coaches help each person to make the conversations and insights relevant to their own lives.”

The focus is on dealing with the psychological and skills issues linked to making individual change happen, Mr Ashton added.  Everything from the number of sessions, the facilitation of the conversations, the bridging-work people do between sessions and the assignments, the management of the pace of learning, the feedback to each person and the gradual building of skills during the programme is connected with the process of changing behaviour.

“So if you want your people to learn about leadership, send them on a training course. But if you want to develop better leaders, if you want carefully chosen people to be better at doing real, practical management functions, this group-coaching programme is the best way.”

Omnicor was launched in Johannesburg in 1998 to provide organisational development through customised, clever people-based solutions. Since then the company has been providing clients with value for money solutions that work.

James Grech, Managing Director of LEAD Training Services, says: “Omincor have developed a unique approach to developing leaders which, I am convinced, will prove highly effective in the local context thanks to the individual approach and the way every participant will be able to benefit from the programme’s overall format.”

The chief executive officer of a major retail bank in southern Africa commented about the MLDP: “I’ve seen and been through all types of leadership training over the years. Of everything I’ve experienced, including my time spent at Harvard, Omnicor’s group-coaching approach has delivered by far the best results.”

For more information visit www.leadtraining.com.mt/mldp/.