Leadership Development: Examples from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

In the rapidly changing, increasingly uncertain environment the quality of leadership will be the key to business long-term success. The focus will be on the so-called soft skills: humanity, cooperation, social responsibilitiy, ethical behaviour, flexibility, conflict handling and trust building. But how can these skills be acquired?

They can most easily be learned through a long-term socialisation process. Family values and early childhood positive education experiences can be the bedrock for developing these skills or human attitudes. Mentors and role models are also very helpful for their continuous development.

Interviews with a Hungarian sample of organisational leaders prove these skills cannot be learned in a typical business school which concentrates on managerial techniques for individual competitiveness. In addition, in a society where political connections hold high importance, it is not easy to succeed just based on the earlier-mentioned leadership skills. The leaders indicated that it is also important to keep good connections with the country’s political leaders. The environmental, political and social system, societal cultural values are also influencing factors as expressed by the interviewed leaders.

Any development experiences to support leaders must, therefore, take into account the culture of the society in which they live, the context of their organisation and the background of each individual leader. These experiences must also provide opportunities for leaders to learn over time, with others, to continuously reflect on mistakes, change and develop. These are the leaders who will succeed in the long term.

Citation

Csath, M. (2022), "Leadership Development: Examples from Central and Eastern Europe", Gray, H., Gimson, A. and Cunningham, I. (Ed.) Developing Leaders for Real: Proven Approaches That Deliver Impact, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-364-220221009