The Makeover: A Leadership Development Training Intervention in Higher Education

Though there is abundant research available about leadership practices, the empirical literature focusing on studies about the impact of leadership training programs remains scarce. The present study addresses this gap in the literature and aims at evaluating a leadership training intervention with the aim to raise academic leaders' awareness to adopt transformational leadership. Leaders from one public university were involved in a six-week leadership development training program. Qualitative analysis of interviews, taken before and after the intervention, helped to develop a picture of changes in transformational leadership behaviours. There is a clear impact of the intervention. Compared to the pre-intervention interviews we observe consistent increase in awareness for all six transformational leadership behaviours. These results are discussed in view of follow-up studies in a broader research context. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk