Leadership Skills Training for Chinese Secondary Students in Hong Kong: Does Training Make a Difference?

Abstract

A sample of 116 Chinese secondary students nominated by their schools to participate in university gifted programs in Hong Kong were assessed on their divergent thinking and leadership characteristics prior to their admission to programs. Sixty of these students participated in the Creative Leadership Training Program (CLTP), and 56 joined other non-leadership training programs. The 2 groups of students did not differ on the pretraining assessment of general measures of divergent thinking and self-report leadership qualities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership training, CLTP participants were also assessed on specific measures of interpersonal communication, public speaking, and social problem solving before and after the leadership training. The general findings indicated that CLTP participants gained confidence as leaders, especially in skill areas of communication and public speaking, and in regulating emotions and generating alternatives in social problem solving. The limitations of the pre- and postmeasures comparison and the need to develop program components for the enhancement of leadership flexibility and goal orientation are discussed