Leadership in the private and public sectors is in a state of crisis throughout the world.

Leaders fail to live up to their own promises and are unable to create effective and compelling strategies to move their organisations forward to increasing success or to bring them out of problems. They must inspire management at all levels to follow strategies and ensure successful implementation. There is an underlying lack of understanding of what leadership actually is, the skills that leaders should possess and the actions that they should take.

How are leadership skills developed? In ICOM we take the view that leadership can be effectively learnt within an organisational context, in which challenges are created that force developing leaders out of their comfort zones into new environments where they can learn from mistakes and successes, and where their existing behaviour, prejudices and values are challenged.

The faculty of ICOM have conducted 65 leadership programmes around the world in the past 20 years. All have been delivered using the Action Learning approach used by ICOM in all its programmes. These programmes have spanned leading corporations in the private sector and major public sector organisations, such as the Greater London Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as well as development programmes for various governments and Civil Service departments.