Background

In today’s interconnected world, leadership challenges are complex. However, so are the many theories, ideas and practices around leadership development promising  to overcome such challenges. These popular practices of leadership are frequently confined within the ideas of “who” a leader is, rather than “how” one can practice leadership. These perceptions are also often tied to the importance and requirements of power and formal authority to lead.

Nepal faces an acute leadership crisis. Frustrated with high poverty and inequality, local communities nationwide are losing hope and becoming more dependent on external support. The authorities in the public, private and social sectors, on the other hand, have largely failed to collaborate in creating a suitable environment and citizen capacity for addressing these flaring issues. Most unfortunately, the colossal innovation potential of youth, who comprise half the nation, remains largely untapped. In fact, 1500 youth leave Nepal daily for foreign opportunities, despite 5 of them dying each day due to harsh working conditions abroad.

Nepal Leadership Academy (NLA) is a signature component of the Daayitwa campaign, which envisions a resilient and thriving Nepal where all citizens embrace their responsibilities to collectively transform societal challenges into innovative opportunities. We believe that leadership can be discovered, learnt, and practiced. Our beliefs are guided by the emerging emphasis on the psychological intricacies of leadership—the mental modes from which effective leadership operates. With this belief, NLA builds leadership capacity in change-agents—who are guided by the shared values of collaborating, innovating, and serving and the shared principles of community, justice, and sustainability—to architect effective policy, business and civic solutions that tackle the most grueling adaptive challenges. NLA conducts research, develops curriculums, and provides in-practice leadership coaching to policy, business, and social innovators.

Our courses and workshops, designed collaboratively through 18 months of action research by Dr. Pukar Malla, NLA’s Executive Coach and former Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Center for Public Leadership, with distinguished professors Marshall Ganz and Ronald Heifetz at the Harvard Kennedy School, builds on globally renowned leadership practices such as adaptive leadership, community organizing, and public narrative.

Over the past ten years, NLA has provided 60+ customized leadership courses to more than 1000 innovators working in civic engagement, governance innovation and entrepreneurship. NLA’s leadership courses are built on the LEAD framework, co-developed through 18 months of action research at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership by Former Harvard Senior Research Fellow and NLA’s Executive Leadership Coach Dr. Pukar Malla along with distinguished Harvard Professors Marshall Ganz and Ronald Heifetz. 

The LEAD framework, which is utilized in our leadership courses and workshops, comprises of case studies, discussions, and readings for utilizing the following four core leadership capabilities:

  • Listening to Oneself – understanding one’s call to action and gaining agency to act;
  • Empathizing with Others – understanding the pain points of others in the system;
  • Analyzing Adaptive Issues – diagnosing issues that require behavioral change among some key actors in the system; and
  • Doing Collaborative Work – organizing people into power to achieve progress.

In the past, NLA has collaborated with the following organizations to deliver leadership courses, sessions, workshops and projects: 

  1. US Embassy Nepal (Leadership for Economic Governance) 
  2. UNESCO-Organization of Women Scientist, Italy (Leading Gender Policy Change in Developing Countries)
  3. International Republican Institute (Strengthening Political and Civic Youth Engagement for Democratic Change)
  4. Nepal National Judicial Academy (Advancing Leadership Skills of Women Judges)
  5. WomenLead Nepal (Leading by Mentoring) 
  6. Daayitwa (Leading Policy Innovation for Nepal Public Policy Fellows)
  7. Fusemachines (Leading With Your Story)
  8. Danish Institute for Parties and Democracy (Leading Political Innovation: Leadership Course for Youth Politicians of Nepal)
  9. Academic Institutions (Thames College, Ullens School, The British School): Leading from Within
  10. Daayitwa (Leading Enterprise Innovations for Rural Enterprise Acceleration Program Entrepreneurs)
  11. Youth Co:Lab Nepal (Building Intentional Relationships for Entrepreneurship)
  12. Royal Mountain Travels (Leading Collaborative Action)
  13. Global Shapers Kathmandu Hub (Building Emotional Intelligence in Entrepreneurship)
  14. United States Embassy Youth Council (Public Narratives)
  15. Nepal Peace Building Initiative (Advocacy Narratives)
  16. Dhana Yoga Foundation Nepal (Adaptive Leadership) 
  17. Nepal Rising USA (Adaptive Leadership)
  18. Daayitwa (Leading Policy Innovations for Public Administration Fellows )
  19. DFID Youth Advisory Panel (Leading from Within)
  20. Nepal Communitere (Building Intentional Relationships)
  21. YUWA (Leading Collaborative Action)