Introduction

Capitalizing on PASSIA’s experience in providing high-quality training courses to a cross-section of Palestinian professionals and practitioners, the program is designed to provide hands-on training in fields where an urgent need for the enhancement of skills and capacities has been identified.

Each of PASSIA’s training programs incorporates theoretical approaches and practical training and includes three major, interrelated activities:

1. Preparation. One month before the training program begins, participants are provided with preparatory reading material gathered by the PASSIA Project Team in coordination with the trainers and lecturers. The participants are also required to write a short paper on an issue related to the course subject.

2. Intensive Training Seminar. Trainees attend a five-day lecture program conducted by local and international experts. The lectures range from theoretical concepts to functional skills, exercises and case studies, whereby the participants are continuously encouraged to apply what they have learned to the institutions with which they are involved.

3. Follow-up Program. The intensive seminar is followed by two workshop days, concentrating on skill enhancement. The major goal is to link and apply the skills learned to actual issues of concern in the participants’ working environment. Participants prepare for the workshops by completing practice-oriented writing assignments.

The subject of leadership skills was chosen because every organization – on both the civil society and government/national levels – requires sound management and supervisory skills in order to be successful and translate its overall aims into a workable strategy. On the organizational level, the employees must be convinced that what they are doing is worthwhile and that the overall goal is valid in order for there to be motivation, devotion and sustainability.

The management of others requires many different skills on which personal success and that of the organization depend to a large extent. Only effective leaders can build positive, committed, goal-oriented employees, able to bring tasks into focus and handle stressful and changing environments. The main objective of the training course on Leadership Skills has been to impart strong functional skills in supervision and to address the behavioral side of management in order to build leadership capacity and contribute to a more effective organizational management. The main part of the course took place in January 2000 and was conducted by Mr. Barry Roberts, Managing Director from the UK/France-based training and development firm Corporate Interventions Ltd., which operates worldwide to develop business leaders and teams.

The publication presented here contains Mr. Roberts’ instructions as well as the training materials used by him and is hoped to become a useful handbook.

The PASSIA Project Team

Jerusalem, May 2000