Developing leadership awareness : a qualitative study of four participants in a leadership program

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the leadership program: Develop Your Leadership – DYL – on four leaders that participated in the program the autumn of 2015. The program consisted of three gatherings in a period of three months. The participants in the program were middle level leaders. Data for this study was collected through three types of data gathering methods, based on the population from the second gathering of the program; first a survey, then observation, and last interviews. Four participants volunteered for interviewing, which took place four months after the third and last gathering. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the DYL program had an effect on the four leaders that participated, with the immediate effect seeming to involve increased self-awareness. Furthermore, the participants seemed to adopt leadership skills they learned from the program to their day-to-day working life, based on their level of readiness and willingness to learn new skills. The combination of more self-awareness and level of readiness and willingness to learn new things seemed also to be related to the leader’s Leadership Development Level.