Bangalore: The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K), one of the country's premier B-schools, will impart a 3-Day Leadership Workshop for the Heads of select Universities from across the country, during 23-25 November 2011.

The programme is being organized in collaboration with the Canada based Commonwealth of Learning (COL), an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning/distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

The workshop aims to enhance leadership skills among University Leaders through interactive and hands on sessions with highly experienced faculty and to crystallize the inputs for Leadership development in Higher Education in Developing Countries.

The organizers also envisage developing an Online Programme on Leadership as an output of this training programme, entitled "Leadership Values and strategies for excellence in Higher Education Institutions", which will be jointly developed by the Commonwealth of Learning and IIMK.

During the 3 days in the workshop, the participants will work on themes including: Leading with Values, Power and Influence in Leadership, Sources of Power and Influence for Institutional Leaders, Emotional Intelligence and Leadership, Strategies for excellence, Leadership styles, Managing Change and transformation, Strategic direction and future vision, Stakeholder relationships, ethics and Accountability.

According to IIMK Director Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, "IIMK is vigorously pursuing its ambitious journey towards enhancing and strengthening the Academic Leadership and smart Governance in our Universities. As a part of the Singh-Obama Knowledge Initiative, piloted by the Government of India, we did a similar programme for Vice Chancellors in the Yale University, US recently. IIMK is an idea school with the unique mantra 'Globalizing Indian Thought', and we strongly believe in value for money and value for many. With the eLearning platform of the Leadership Programme also in place, we are quite hopeful that we will be able to help fulfill Commonwealth of Learning's ambitious goal of reaching the unreached with quality education, which shall ultimately lead to development and prosperity".

Prof. Madhulika Kaushik, Education Specialist, Higher Education, of the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada says "Learning for Development has been the mission of the Commonwealth of Learning. Higher education institutions today are faced with daunting challenge emerging from burgeoning demand and diminishing resources. Academic Leadership in such an environment requires multidirectional capabilities, of leading knowledge workers with demonstrable stakeholder accountability and charting growth strategies for continual excellence when resources may be limited and expectations high. Leaders are expected to create visions and values, inspire commitment, challenge and transform ways of thinking and acting while managing academic values and operational efficiencies. We are quite hopeful that this workshop will mark the successful beginning of a strong capacity building for leadership among the higher education sector in India and it could be emulated by the partnering countries in the Commonwealth".