Take a look into the research behind AIESEC's Leadership Development Model

1. purposeful
collaborative
DRIVEN

2. Project: AIESEC Leadership Development Model
Done by: Olga Tsygankova, AI VP Innovation 1314
Email: olgat@ai.aiesec.org
Leadership Development Model

3. who canAIESEC
organizational results because of the
connection with individuals’ leadership
development
Across the world on what we understand
under ‘Leadership’
How we develop leadership, because we
know what is the final goal and we are able to
measure the current state
What do we mean under ‘leadership’ in
AIESEC and what type of leadership we
develop
‘Leadership Development Model’
project aims to answer 4 questions:
01
02
03
What type of Leadership AIESEC is
developing?
How do we develop those
Leaders?
How do we measure leadership
development of individuals?
How do we connect it to
organizational results?04
Currently 2 first questions have been answered in the
project. Questions 3 and 4 are in progress

4. What type of Leadership develops
How does do it
General Approach used in the project: based on strengths of AIESEC currently
and direction that is needed for the world, model should be defined.

5. Internal
Analysis:
External
Research:
1. Understand what Leadership is needed for the
world to address existing and arising issues
2. Understand difference of ‘Youth Leadership’ from
generic definition of ‘Leadership’ and what role
youth organizations play in it
3. Identify uniqueness of leadership development in
AIESEC through comparison analysis of AIESEC and
other youth leadership development organizations
4. Understand best practices existing in corporate
and non-corporate sectors for Leadership
development
1. Understand Leadership that we are developing
currently in ELD programmes and what enables this
development (which elements of the experience)
2. Understand Leadership that we have developed in our
alumni in the past years and what impact they are
currently making on the world
3. Usage of Global Competency Model in the past, its role
and our learnings from it

6. Leadership of 21st century and role of Youth Leadership
Based on the research, ‘leadership’ today is no longer only about skills and competencies, but
also about attitudes. Key definitions of ‘Leadership needed in 21st century’ include the following:
trustworthy, purposeful, authentic, able to manage ‘networks’ not individuals, visionary, tech-
savvy, able to lead in uncertainty, global mindset, collaborative. You can see direct correlation
with trends taking place in the world: technological progress, globalization, revolutions to replace
untrusted leaders, uncertainty and instability, etc.
Leadership is considered to be a life-long journey, and not a ‘one-time course’. Experts perceive
that youth leadership organizations can play a significant role in starting this journey – by
developing most ‘essential elements’ of leadership. As the most essential elements are considered
: self-awareness, empathy, communication skills, personal proficiency, self-regulation. The
expectations of corporate world towards youth organizations are directed towards development
of self-awareness, communication skills, flexibility and self-motivation.

7. • articles of credible sources such as McKinsey, Forbes, WEF, HBR, etc.;
• conversations with experts in the field (professor from INSEAD, corporate VP LD, etc,); corporate
leadership models and leadership development programmes
Best practices in leadership development in corporate and non-corporate sectors:
Experiential learning is the most successful way to teach leadership (on-job training as an example). Essential elements
of leadership development are: exposure to something new and assisted reflection. Such classic tools as mentoring and
leadership development programmes for different positions are still priority, though e-learning popularity increases.
Comparison analysis of AIESEC and other youth leadership
development organizations:
Based on analysis of 30+ youth leadership development
organizations, we have identified unique characteristics of
AIESEC. This doesn’t mean that none of the researched
organizations has similar elements, but its composition makes
AIESEC unique.
Real Resources
Developing Others
Learning by Doing
Achievement of Results
Global Network

8. Leadership AIESEC has been developing in the past years through ELD programmes
Based on the surveys we ran, we have identified leadership attitudes and competencies AIESEC has been developing
in the past years for different ELD participants. This has shown strengths of AIESEC in enabling leadership development,
such as for example: belief in oneself and belief that one can make a difference, accepting diversity and ability to
work in multicultural teams, understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, etc. Moreover, according to the results
of surveys, AIESEC strongly develops some skills such as: project management, public speaking, strategic thinking,
collaboration, cultural sensitivity (less strong in TMP/TLP).
It also has revealed some weaknesses of all our ELD programmes: currently we are not enabling enough understanding
of personal values and purpose in life, as well as do not create strong responsibility for the world. Innovation is one of
the skills developed the list in AIESEC in all 4 programmes.
For more details, please, read AIESEC Alumni Study Report.
Based on the analysis of responses, we have also identified key elements that should be present in the experience to
enable the strongest leadership development: that’s how Inner/Outer Journey elements have been modified.
• Global Competitive Analysis run in June-September 2013 (675 responses)
• Global Alumni Impact Study run in Feb-April 2014 (1087 responses)
• NPS data for ELD programmes

9. Global Competency Model
In the past process of defining GCM has been sufficient and very well-thought through. The main challenge has been
implementation of the model: organization has changed AIESEC XP, therefore previous model became irrelevant for
new AIESEC XP and has not been changed. Moreover, there have been no clear guidelines on how to use the model
operationally. Mainly it has been used for recruitment purposes and not for leadership development purpose.
As we have seen from external research leadership is not about competencies anymore, it is a lot more about
attitudes. Therefore, we wanted Leadership Development Model to be not competencies based.
Our learnings from GCM:
- Model should be simpler and easier to explain if you see it for the first time (currently elements are grouped in an
unclear way)
- There shouldn’t be many elements under the main one, this makes the model too complex and unclear
- There should be clear guidelines how the model should be implemented in daily operations, become part of our
operations
• GCM internal information and conversations with AI teams working on GCM in the past
• Inputs from the network

10. The output is based on 2 elements: what is needed for the world AND what is good at.
1. As a result of the research, we have identified AIESEC should focus on
developing in young people to enable life-long leadership development journey.
2. We have improved making its elements specific enough
to be used as a tool to improve leadership development by translating it into operations.
I & myself I & others I & the world
Inner Outer

11. 1) Research about possible ways to
assess 3 elements of Leadership
Model (self-awareness, effective
communication, responsibility for
the world)
2) Design needed tools and
connect it with new GIS
3) Business Intelligence to see the
connection of individuals’
leadership development and
results they bring to the
organization
03
04
To answer 2 questions that are left

12. Links to websites used in the research, list is not limited to it
1. http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-online-2013-innovative-learning-leadership-programs-
support-business-strategy-electronics-china.aspx
2. http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Leading_in_the_21st_century/Why_leadership-
development_programs_fail?cid=other-eml-alt-mkq-mck-oth-1401
3. http://www.teenempowerment.org/model.html
4. http://www.youthleadership.com/index.php/tutorials-3/2011-09-14-20-55-54
5. http://www.boldleaders.com/about.html
6. http://blogs.hbr.org/2009/06/the-5-leadership-essentials/
7. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/leading_in_the_21st_century/developing_global_leaders
8. http://relationshipmodel.com/2013/09/leadership-qualities-part-6-self-awareness-in-leadership/
9. http://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/11/18/all-successful-leaders-need-this-quality-self-awareness/
10. http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/how-to-get-senior-leaders-to-c/
11. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-new-resilience/201308/why-business-leaders-need-build-greater-self-
awareness
12. http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-14/view/top-ten-trends-category-page/
13. http://reports.weforum.org/global-agenda-council-on-new-models-of-leadership/
14. http://www.leadertoleaderjournal.com/sample-articles/leadership-inner-journey.aspx
15. http://www.forbes.com/sites/lyndagratton/2012/03/19/the-role-of-corporations-in-future-proofing-leadership/
16. http://www.cgma.org/magazine/news/pages/20138765.aspx
17. http://issuu.com/aieseccanada/docs/alumniimpactstudy?e=1870986/2595799
18. http://video.russellreynolds.com/PlayVideo.aspx?videoID=9
19. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/milreview/pritchard.htm
20. http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/seldp/program/se_behavior_model.html

13. 22. http://www.mannaz.com/en/insights/leadership-development-a-scandinavian-model/
23. http://www.denisonconsulting.com/model-surveys/denison-model/lds-consistency
24. http://www.roberttomasko.com/Consult.7ModelsLead.html
25. http://www.bersin.com/blog/post.aspx?id=6bc1b4b4-ef54-49fe-92a6-3bd0c407d876
26. http://www.nasetalliance.org/youthdev/index.htm
27. http://ethicalleadership.org/about-us/philosophies-definitions/ethical-leadership
28. http://charactercounts.org/sixpillars.html
29. http://www.educoadventures.org/history.asp
30. http://www.experiencegla.com/about/
31. http://growingleaders.com/what-we-provide
32. http://www.kidsconsortium.org/
33. http://www.metowe.com/motivation-leadership/leadership-programs/
34. http://www.nsee.org/about-us
35. http://www.ntlp.org/
36. http://www.peacejam.org/about.aspx
37. http://www.generationon.org/orgs/join/go-lead
38. http://www.teenempowerment.org/model.html
39. https://youthonboard.org/our-approach
40. http://www.yldf.org/about.php#1
41. http://www.vancouveryouth.ca/youth_leadership_development_network
42. http://www.lovelife.org.za/corporate/lovelife-programmes/youth-leadership-development/
43. etc.
Links to websites used in the research, list is not limited to it