Leaders Develop Leaders: Coach it Right!

Abstract

PETRONAS has been committed to leadership development. Leaders developing other leaders is one of the initiatives undertaken to accelerate the leadership culture change. PETRONAS Leadership Centre (PLC) crystalized this initiative in 2014 with the objective of experienced leaders developing themselves whilst they coach and facilitate emerging leaders to achieve business results, vis-à-vis ‘Leaders Develop Leaders’ (LDL). On average, 500 LDL opportunities are available yearly from PLC program offerings, LDL@Business, and PETRONAS-level initiatives. These are provided through five LDL platforms: Leaders Coach, Leaders Presence, Leaders Share, Leaders Facilitate, and Leaders Workout. The number of leaders who participated in 2020 was 306 and for this year thus far, 260 leaders have secured their participation. Measurement of leaders’ delivery effectiveness is assessed via the PETRONAS Dot application, based on six dimensions. The analysis indicates that the leaders’ performances in LDL have improved over the years. This resulted from the various support provided for the leaders that include a series of group coaching, upskilling, LDL toolkits, guides, and relevant online materials. Nevertheless, it also shows leaders need to do more personalized narration or storytelling in cascading the business imperatives and sharing their experiences. Moving forward after more than six years of LDL being successfully implemented, PLC is continuously exploring new ways of LDL, tailored to the present situation. More so, to ensure the emerging leaders are wellcoached to enable and empower them with agility to thrive as future leaders.