From Leadership to Stewardship: 15 Years of the YMP/LDP

There is a time to come and a time to go. An alumni event on 30 June, attended by over 130 alumni, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the YMP (which originally stood for ‘Young Management Program’) was also the farewell party for program director Marjan Lubbers and program coordinator Elvira IJkema. Lubbers, who will  remain associated with Nyenrode as Director Executive Programs, developed the program in 1996 and was during the last 15 years the face, binding factor and leader of the program, in which almost 600 managers participated over the years. She is succeeded by Kathelijn Geerts, and Tamara ter Steege who will be the new program coordinator. This ‘changing of the guard’ ushers in a new age for the YMP. For this reason, the program’s name has been changed to Leadership Development Program (LDP).

Head, Heart and Hands
Marjan Lubbers and Kathelijn Geerts emphasize that the main theme of all Nyenrode’s programs is the combination of ‘head, heart and hands’. This also applies to this program, they say. Almost all the participants in the YMP/LDP program are already managers-professionals. They are either ready to start in a senior management position or have just started in such a position. Lubbers explains: “Before, they were told from the top which course the company was going to take; they either had to put those plans into action or translate them for employees to the level below them. Now they must start to think and act at a strategic level themselves. We help them with this by means of this program. On the one hand, by learning them to apply insights from the study of business administration to the vision and strategy of their own organization (“shaking up thinking”), and on the other hand, by looking at the difference they want to make to the world. What personal qualities do they have? What can we do to build upon these?”

 
It is this focus on personal leadership that distinguishes the YMP/LDP from other programs. Lubbers elaborates: “Certainly, a number of business courses are a part of the curriculum. However, in the YMP/LDP the emphasis is more on choices the participants will have to make in their organizations and on giving them the tools to make progress. The interaction with other participants is a factor that contributes to a large extent to the program’s output. Moreover, it is often a matter of how you respond as a person in a certain situation. In big organizations especially, playing the game of corporate politics comes into the picture as well. How are you going to deal with that, making sure that you are the player and not the ball, but still acting in a way that suits your own character? In other words: how do you remain faithful to your own values?”

 
Developments
In principle, today’s upcoming leaders have to deal with the same themes as those of a number of years ago, according to the new program manager Kathelijn Geerts. “Their vision regarding the course that the organization should take is increasing all the time, as is their influence on the level above them. They are exploring their influence and examining what talents they have. That still applies.”

 
She continues: “What we do notice is that issues like the search for meaning are becoming increasingly important. Not Kathelijn Geerts                     only do they personally want to devote more attention
                                          to issues of meaning, but as managers they also have to deal with people under them who are considering these issues much more. Working life and business life are ever-more closely interwoven. For that reason, our program now devotes more attention to such themes as business spirituality and stewardship. Fifteen years ago, these themes got less attention.”

 
Another trend is for organizations to be less hierarchical in structure, Kathelijn Geerts says. “In the old days, the board of directors sat in its ivory tower, thought up a strategy and had to get the workforce to fall into line with it. Now we work much more with models that focus on connecting with others. So how do you find out what drives the other person? You need to know this to get people to go along with you. It also means that you don’t have to persuade people later; after all, they have already contributed their own thoughts. It is much more important these days to use collective intelligence, to inspire others, to enter into relationships and also be able to develop these.”

A New Name
Although the program remains essentially the same, it was still decided to give it a new name. Geerts: “This new name – Leadership Development Program – is mainly inspired by changes in the target group. In the early days of the program, the target group mainly consisted of new managers who had just acquired a management position. In recent years, the target group consists of people who have been working in business for  5 to 7 years and are now getting at the strategic level. The age of the target group is now between 30 and 40, so the term ‘young’ doesn’t fit any more.” For that reason the program was renamed YMP - Your Leadership Development Program several years ago, and now it is simply the Leadership Development Program, or LDP for short. The program has also been given the subtitle ‘For managers and professionals with ambition’. “In this way, we make reference to the ambition to rise to a key position in the organization.” However, the program’s structure has not changed. It still runs twice per year, in March and October, and consists of five modules.

Position in the Range of Open Programs
The Leadership Development Program fits superbly into the Life Long Learning concept espoused by the university. An open program for starting managers with 2 to 5 years working experience is currently being developed. So, within the framework of Nyenrode’s programs, the LDP and the Foundations of Management program (FMA) focus on the group that already has more experience. Lubbers explains the difference between the programs: “The FMA has approximately the same target group as the LDP, but whereas we concentrate strongly on personal development, the FMA focuses on the traditional subjects of business administration. Then, for directors who have recently started operating at a higher, strategic level for some time, there is the Strategic Leadership Program (SLP). Senior directors who are already operating at this level for years could follow the Advanced Management Program (AMP). For Executive Boards of large enterprises we offer the New Board Program. And finally, members of supervisory boards could follow the NCD-Nyenrode Commissarissencyclus.”

 
She continues: “The LDP or FMA target group could also opt for an MBA or a degree program, but they don’t usually attach much importance to a title. For them, the main thing is learning things that they can immediately put into practice. They often have not only a busy job, but young children too, and in such cases, they don’t often feel like devoting another 30 hours per week to studying for a title.”

 
Handing Over
During the alumni day on 30 June, Marjan Lubbers formally passed the baton to Kathelijn Geerts. She made it clear that she is delighted to have someone younger, with a lot of empathy with the target group, to carry on with the remodeled program with the same passion as she had. She described Kathelijn Geerts as ‘intelligent, strong-willed, worldly, spiritual and searching in the good sense of the word’. Lubbers herself will continue to be active at Nyenrode as Director Executive Education and as Director of the New Board Program.

 
Alumni Day
The theme of the alumni day was “From leadership to stewardship”. Lubbers said the successive themes of the alumni days clearly show a shift in the program's focus over recent years, moving from personal success and development towards satisfaction and stewardship.

 
In her introductory speech, she also discussed the differences between the ‘X, Y and Einstein’ generations. Much more than the previous generations, the latest generation (which the (former) YMP students will increasingly lead) is searching for meaning and is inspired by a desire to make a meaningful contribution and to share with others. For them, it is about authenticity, and they eschew political games. In order to
reach out to this group, managers of Generation Y will
have to present themselves less as pragmatic 'doers' and more as empathic visionaries. More and more, it is all about accepting people as they are.

Marjan Lubbers during the alumni day

  
Next, 28-year-old Ruben van Zwieten, an entrepreneur and clergyman on Amsterdam's Zuidas, held a lecture which fitted seamlessly with this outlook. He is the personification of the new search for meaning. Van Zwieten noted a lack of imagination in society at large, something that is a problem, because you need imagination to have vision. To ensure that people believe that change is really possible, even when this flies in the face of realism, a leader needs narrative stories as examples. He referred to the Biblical story of the exodus from Egypt and drew parallels with the attitude he feels leaders should take in order to make a dream come true. That story is not about the development or maturing of the leader himself; rather, it is about his vision of taking everyone with him and making sure that everyone can make the best of themselves. As he emphasized, that is also a dream that you can strive for as a leader.

 
After his lecture, five workshops were given, led by Van Zwieten, Elise Gerritsen and Astrid van Tongeren, Herman van der Meulen, Edgar Karssing, and Herman Wittockx respectively. A hilarious session by one of the ‘Gurus without frontiers’ concluded the day’s program after which the participants could talk on at the sunny courtyard of Nyenrode coachhouse with drinks and a bite to eat.
   

More information on Nyenrode's Leadership Development Program 
 
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