The third edition of Techint Engineering & Construction’s Leadership Development Program for the Southern and Corporate Areas drew to a close with a ceremony hosted by the team at the Tepam Machinery Park at Gral. Pacheco.

The company’s flagship Leadership Development Program originally kicked off in virtual format last May, due to the pandemic, but for its closing ceremony, the event was held in-person to celebrate the graduation of twenty-five managers from the Southern and Corporate Areas. Participants gathered to work through the last theoretical module and shared their evaluations of the program contents and the lessons learned, as well as the opinions they’d formed about the transformation process they underwent thanks to the initiative.

In reference to the course material, many participants pointed to the quality of the interpersonal communication tools offered: "This is a unique program in the company, as it covers a number of ‘soft’ issues that aren’t usually analyzed to such an extent in other courses. We worked on several different interpersonal relationship tools, which provided us with valuable insight into how to improve the way we connect with our teams, our bosses and our peers,” highlighted Julieta Rembado, Budget Manager.

As for the attributes which go to make up a good leader, another participant explained that “A leader should be accessible, reasonable, and flexible. They should have the ability to understand the complex layers making up interpersonal situations as well as be able to pinpoint creative solutions to different problems. In particular, one of the program blocks called the ‘laboratory’, was extremely valuable, as we were able to talk through different options to solve the kinds of problems we usually have to handle on a daily basis in the company. This helps us to train by offering us alternative perspectives of different situations. I think it’s an extremely enriching exercise,” commented María Victoria Ferreiro, who is the Head of Offers in Engineering.

The Leadership Development Program (PDL, in Spanish) came into being in 2018, designed to train Techint E&C middle-level managers to develop the skills needed to manage high-performing teams. Participants are required to take a total of 80 hours of training courses, covering theoretical contents related to management and leadership as well as exercises in self-knowledge. The methodology is based on group activities, individual study material, and out-of-the-box interviews with company leaders and executives from other organizations.

The class of 2021 join fifty other managers from the region, 128 in total, around the world. “This is our third group of graduates from the program which is being actively developed throughout the regions. It’s a crucially important program in that it’s designed to help us to build the present and future of the company, training young leaders to be ready for the challenges to come. We are delighted with how everything has gone, especially because we were able to give the program continuity even in the middle of the pandemic, and in fact, it never had to stop. The main idea is for all company middle management to take the course,” concluded Ariel Gurevich, Head of Human Resources Training and Development at Techint E&C.