Leadership Series for CEOs: A First Hand Experience

In October last year YBI responded to a challenge faced by many of our members: how to provide effective leadership in a hybrid world. We partnered with OverTime Leader, a progressive leadership development agency who specialise in helping leaders to navigate uncertainty. Together we created the Leadership for CEOs series, dedicated workshops designed for the leaders of today. Our member in Armenia Jinishian Memorial Foundation’s Deputy Director Liana Sargsyan has kindly shared with us her experience so far as a participant in the workshop series. 
 
Jinishian Memorial Foundation (JMF) joined YBI’s Network in 2018 but they have been in business since the 90s. JMF has played a vital role in raising the profile of entrepreneurship in Armenia, generating support for new initiatives, and securing affordable funding for business start-up and expansion. 

“I can’t express how grateful I am to YBI for this fantastic opportunity to learn and grow as a better leader.” 
 

On a personal level, this series has been truly valuable to me. Often as leaders, we do not set the necessary time aside to reflect on aspects that are significant to our leadership role. I found it quite clever to start the series with a workshop on how to set our leadership goals, and used that time to self-assess, plan, and take the next steps to grow further. Throughout these workshops I have been referring to my leadership goals constantly while we have been moving forward with other topics.  
 
I really enjoyed the session on finding balance while implementing different leadership methods, in particular the Leadership Pendulum model which I found to be a great tool for self-assessment.    
Furthermore, I like how the trainers and facilitators are agile in changing the format of delivery and ensuring there are real-life interactions among the participants. I generally find it beneficial to discuss and hear from other leaders on their own challenges and struggles.  

 
“It is remarkable and much needed to learn a variety of tactics from professionals in this field and it gives us the time to work collaboratively and share our experiences and viewpoints together.” 

 
The workshops are presented in an interactive way, which I find to be both an essential and practical approach. It is remarkable and much needed to learn a variety of tactics from professionals in this field, and it gives us the time to work collaboratively and share our experiences and viewpoints together. That’s when I know I am not alone!  
 
 
At JMF we genuinely appreciate this initiative from YBI. We believe that having better-equipped leaders is crucial not only to run teams, companies, and organizations, but to lead the ecosystems in our countries too – especially for the continued development of youth entrepreneurship. As leaders we carry a great responsibility: we can be that good influence who will spark the transformation in someone, in a company, in an environment, in a country – and even, in the world!  I can’t express how grateful I am to YBI for this fantastic opportunity to learn and grow as a better leader. 
 
For over 10 years JMF has been implementing micro lending support projects supporting over 2500 farming businesses and SMEs in different regions of Armenia to improve their households’ economic state through technical support and low-interest agricultural and business borrowings. You can find out more about JMF here, and find out more about what membership the YBI Network can offer to organisations here.