Aga Khan, Harvard join hands in training leaders
What you need to know:
- The two universities have designed a pioneering suite of courses aimed at sharpening the leadership and communication skills of senior managers to deal with current complexities and accelerating change in the 21st century.
The Aga Khan and Harvard universities have signed a partnership agreement under which the two will equip senior executives of Africa’s top organisation with leadership and communication skills that will enable them to adapt to the fast changing world.
The two universities have designed a pioneering suite of courses aimed at sharpening the leadership and communication skills of senior managers to deal with current complexities and accelerating change in the 21st century.
The programme dubbed ‘Transforming Leadership for 21st Century Africa’ will be hosted in Nairobi by the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) for senior leaders in business, government, civil society and media.
The Founding Dean of GSMC, Mr Michael Meyer, in a press statement said the course will help senior executives to exercise leadership amid uncertainty with skill, purpose and effectiveness.
“We live in an era of accelerating change and unprecedented complexity. Organisational strategies today will be obsolete — if not self-defeating — tomorrow,” Mr Meyer was quoted in the statement.
One of the courses shall be The Voice of Leadership: Inspiration, Influence and Impact to be delivered by GSMC to empower leaders to speak and act with clarity, vision and authenticity.
The course is premised on the fact that in the 21st century the success of any initiative or enterprise depends as never before on high-quality, maximum-impact communications.
The second course in the programme is Adaptive Leadership for Africa: Chaos, Complexity and Courage, which will be delivered by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (HKS), Executive Education.
“The courses are designed to offer senior leaders a unique learning experience that will change the way they think about leadership and communication in their professional and personal lives,” he explains.
The first week-long course begins in November, followed by a second week-long module in February — two weeks in all, the statement indicates.
Executives wishing to enrol can apply by logging on to http://akumedia.aku.edu/programmes.
To qualify for the course, one needs to be a proven, or emerging senior leader with a minimum of ten years of experience, be in a position that involves leading others and making mission-critical decisions.
People with personal leadership challenge that they wish to address and those looking for the opportunity to reflect, to connect with oneself and to re-examine their leadership in a global context can apply.
Fluency in English, the statement said, is mandatory.
Upon successful completion of Transforming Leadership for 21 Century Africa, participants will be awarded a certificate for Adaptive Leadership for Africa: Chaos Complexity and Courage by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Executive Education, and the certificate for The Voice of Leadership: Inspiration, Influence and Impact by the Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications.
Upon graduation the leaders will become part of a global network of leaders from a professionally and geographically diverse class and faculty. The deadline for applications is October 6, 2017
