The metaphor of climbing higher often comes to mind when thinking about career development. However, we believe the most important leadership lessons can be discovered when diving to different depths. The depths of oneself - dreams, fears and motives. And the depths of the organizational culture and community. Both depths require clarity to navigate the complexity.
It’s common to ask: Who do I want to impact and what should I prioritize? How can I succeed in leading change, and engaging people with a purpose? How can I better lead myself, people and business?
That’s why a group of Kiiltonians dived deep into these three leadership competencies in Kiilto Explorer: Courage, Leadership and Culture, a 4-month development programme, organized by Hanken & SSE Executive Education.
Business grows when people grow
Today, people working in complex matrix organizations need to lead and influence different internal and external stakeholders despite their role or responsibilities. Leaderships skills are no longer a luxury, but a must for everyday interactions as well as contributing to overall wellbeing, resilience, and company culture.
Kiilto’s People Development Lead Tiina Lautala describes the backgrounds of the programme:
“We wanted to design an impactful learning journey covering key leadership development needs and opportunities to drive and cultivate our growth and culture. Our previous international training programmes had already built a good foundation of basic leadership skills. It was time to go and explore beyond: to successfully lead others and to lead businesses, first you need to know yourself. From the inside out. At Kiilto we believe that people in specialist roles require the same leadership skills as any leader.”
3 leadership competencies in the programme
The goal of the programme was to inspire Kiiltonians to explore various aspects of impactful, daily leadership practices which allow people and businesses to renew and grow.
The objectives of the three leadership competencies in the programme were:
- Lead yourself: Become the author of your own experience and success, create better self-awareness and build on your personal strengths.
- Lead people: Build your competence to lead and influence others, to drive change and high-performance.
- Lead business: Improve your financial business skills.
Video: 9 Kiiltonian tips on how to develop a growth mindset
Greetings from the Explorers
Kiilto Poland’s Managing Director Maciej Trzoch describes his Explorer experience as an exciting and honest journey to himself and the people around him:
“Now I realize even more than before that knowing myself is the key to influencing others positively, to consciously lead the team in the intended direction. We’re all individuals and I’m convinced that exactly this diversity is one of our greatest advantages. It takes great courage and mutual trust within a team to be brave enough to experiment something new and look for new ways, but also to have guts to disagree without fear of criticism, when having the feeling that we are going in the wrong direction.”
Kiilto’s Communications Manager Satu Makkonen describes the development programme as an insightful, adventurous and versatile learning journey:
“I especially liked the thorough start, where we were able to deep-dive into our own strengths and development areas. I’d also like to thank for the warm and open atmosphere that our Program Director Hannamari Kuosa was able to create. It was a key factor in enabling really honest self-reflection and fruitful, eye-opening discussions about leadership between us participants from different Kiilto countries.”
“Working with Kiilto’s HR and management to design an inspirational, fun and impactful programme was a very rewarding experience also for me”, says Hannamari Kuosa from Hanken & SSE. “We started by listening to people from Kiilto’s operating countries to hear their needs and learning wishes. The participants were wonderfully creative and really wanted to push themselves to discomfort zones to learn new skills. What an inspirational team!”