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Leadership Development at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Image
Rice fields from above
Industry
Charity/NGO
Solution
Change Management
Transformational Leadership

About

Impact worked with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to design a multi-modular learning programme in support of their organisational reform and culture change initiative. Investing in human resources had been at the heart of that change, with the development of a leadership programme a top priority to build capacity.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recruited Impact to develop a leadership programme that would enable managers to embrace and drive change by:

  • Creating a high level of self- and people-awareness
  • Performing “acts of leadership” aimed at achieving results
  • Establishing a working culture that enables high performance
  • Developing confidence and resilience as a leader within a change environment.

Impact supported FAO’s management and leadership programme team to design the Effective Leadership Programme, an intensive learning course delivered in two main modules of 3.5 and 2.5 days. Between the modules, each participant received two 1-1 coaching sessions. Topics addressed in the programme included:

  • Leading self, team, change: Through an interactive workshop “acts of leadership” are introduced, as well as leadership models that relate to the self, the team and how to manage and enact change within the organisation.
  • Personal leadership challenge: After completing a 360 questionnaire based on Emotional Intelligence, the results are shared in two 1-1 coaching sessions where real-life experiences are discussed in order to find new leadership and management styles.
  • High-performing working environment: In the closing workshop, participants are introduced to a performance-based team management approach and presented with techniques in coaching and dialogue to build high-performing teams and increase motivation.

“Our aim is to support managers at FAO by offering them access to the most up-to-date thinking in leadership. The Effective Leadership Programme has been designed with this in mind.”

Alison Holmes, Manager & Leadership Programme Manager

“There is now recognition that ‘you can learn’ to lead because leadership is about what you do. It is not about being born a special kind of person. Leadership is a kind of action, and since it happens between people, it is about communication. We all need to get connected, develop an awareness of what is happening around us and how we can affect it.”

Brian Thompson, Senior Nutrition Officer for AGN, Effective Leadership Programme participant

Testimonials
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Brian Thompson
Senior Nutrition Officer for AGN, Effective Leadership Programme Partnership
FAO
“There is now recognition that ‘you can learn’ to lead because leadership is about what you do. It is not about being born a special kind of person. Leadership is a kind of action, and since it happens between people, it is about communication. We all need to get connected, develop an awareness of what is happening around us and how we can affect it."
Alison Holmes
Manager & Leadership Programme Manager
FAO
“Our aim is to support managers at FAO by offering them access to the most up-to-date thinking in leadership. The Effective Leadership course has been designed with this in mind.”