As a result of pcl.'s resilience in her mission to develop the capabilities of the Nigerian workforce, a proprietary investment company approached pcl. to conduct a 4-day training on Developing Leadership Competencies (DLC) for their managers. There were 37 participants in attendance at this training. A combination of instructor-led facilitation, class discussions, role-play exercises, and videos were adopted. It was 4-days of breaking barriers, introspection, and learning.

Senior Partner, Paul Ayim, led the first session; he introduced the participants to the concept of Leadership. The participants were enlightened about the various misconceptions relating to leadership. Prior to the training, pcl. had shared a survey to the direct reports of the participants. The aim of this action was to determine the direct report's views of their managers as well as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of the group. A summary of these results was shared during the first half of the training to get the participants to understand the importance of the training. Participants were made to reflect on their leadership journey and how it had affected their current selves. In this session, the participants created profiles, discussed dilemmas in groups, and presented group discussions. They found the profile creation activity very enjoyable. These profiles looked at how the participants recalled their past, who they were in the present – in both their personal and professional lives and where they hoped to be in the future.

Nwaji Jibunoh, a Senior Managing Consultant, facilitated the second day of the training. The class focused on learning about the participant's Leadership Philosophies. It was a very interactive session; participants freely expressed their views and countered their colleague's views. They were able to apply the concepts they learnt to situations they had encountered in their various workplaces. There was never a dull moment; the end of one discussion was the beginning of another. Participants also learnt about the concept of the paradigm shift and how it was relevant to their role as leaders. To drive conversations further, videos pertaining to this concept were shown during the class. Nwaji then asked the participants to comment on the videos and helped them understand the link between the videos and their current leadership styles and work.

Emotional Intelligence was the focus of day three. The participants learnt how to create a good balance when dealing with their direct reports. Prior to the class, pcl. had given each participant access to the Thomas Personality Profile Assessment as a bonus to help them understand their personalities and behaviours. The session was led by the Managing Consultant, Modupe Thomas-Owoseni, who conducted an analysis of each participant's result. The activities of the day focused on the individual behaviours of each participant and how they translated into their work style. Participants were grouped according to their most prominent traits; highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement. To conclude the class, Modupe explained the different transitions teams encounter through their lifecycles and played a video to expatiate further. Participants were asked what stage their teams were at and why they thought they were there. The participants had to refer to previous lessons as they considered their current leadership styles and how that affected their team's current stage.

Joshua Ademuwagun, a Managing Consultant, led the final day of the training. The themes for the day were problem-solving & decision making. Participants had to think about those terminologies and the various ways to approach them. Once again, real-life scenarios were brought in to create a better understanding of how the learning could be applied in their lives.

To conclude the training, the Chairman of the organization joined the afternoon session. Before the training began, he had given an assignment. He tasked the participants with the job of identifying a learning point from each day of the training and proposing an action they intended to take to introduce the learning point into their daily work life. For this activity, the participants' supervisors were invited to attend to create accountability. This session was interactive as The Chairman questioned the presenters and was satisfied with the responses he received.

Overall, every day touched on a relevant aspect of leadership that could be tied to the daily lives of the participants. Participants gave positive feedback about the training. They left with a plan on what they wanted to do and how they intended to put these into action. Long-standing questions were answered, and new philosophies were built. We are glad to say it was a successful training, and everyone involved learnt something new.