European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online) Vol.7, No.24, 2015 199 Leadership Development among Polytechnic Students in Ghana Dr. Remy Nyukorong, Dr. William Quisenberry Swiss Management Center (SMC University), Switzerland. Abstract Within the last decade, both public and private organizations all over the world have witnessed a great number of top level leaders, who either had to resign voluntarily from their positions or they were fired due to incompetence and weak leadership. Larbi (2011) has observed that there is a sheer dearth of authentic, visionary and skilful leaders in Ghana. Also, leadership development is an aspect that is lacking in higher institutions of education (Morris, 2012). Leadership is shaped by a wide-range of qualities and leaders need to be groomed to demonstrate different skills based on contextual realities as well as the needs of followers. Thus the two questions that this study intends to answer are: How can we give leadership education to students? How can we prepare leaders for this generation and the next? This paper proposes six elements for facilitating leadership development among Polytechnic students in Ghana. The study also expounds on some leadership theories and concepts proposed by prominent scholars on the subject matter. Additionally, the historical and current Ghanaian context is described. The current context provides useful background information for teaching leadership to Ghanaian higher national diploma students. The six critical factors the authors propose and seek to develop among Polytechnic students are: Emotional intelligence, systems thinking, life’s vision and mission, critical thinking, teamwork building skills and ability to learn. Applying the background information as well as the proposed six characteristics of leadership, the study then describes a recently developed leadership course which is presently being taught to all students pursuing the 3-year Higher National Diploma (HND) programme in Wa Polytechnic as a component part of the entrepreneurship training module. Keywords: leadership, leadership development, Ghana, characteristics of leadership 1. Introduction In the course of carrying out consultancy services for a public organization which has several offices located throughout Ghana, it was revealed by the client that more than 60 percent of the company’s middle-level leaders were underperforming (Management Partners Ghana, 2015). The client said this has adversely affected the amount and quality of the output delivered by employees of the organization. Accordingly, it has been observed that more than two-thirds of these underperforming leaders are Polytechnic graduates who were recruited four years ago. Both client and consultant thought that the underperformance of the company’s leaders was as a result of the leadership style employed by these young graduates. Thus, the client needed some advice. Consequently, we carried out surveys and conducted interviews with 80 employees of the affected branches of the company that were experiencing low productivity. Ninety percent of the employees surveyed (72) strongly believed that the leadership style of young managers was appropriate and indicated that there was very low motivation at the workplace. It was also realized that a large number of the employees were more or less untouchable due to their affiliation to the company and as such could not be fired from their positions even when their performance output was below expectation. Some hardworking employees did not feel motivated to give off their best (Management Partners Ghana, 2015). Therefore, in this specific circumstance, the strategy to be employed by the branch leaders to change the situation should not be concerned about modifying the leadership style, but rather finding innovative ways for incentivizing and rewarding any extra effort put up by employees. The above scenario provides an example of the different circumstances that young and inexperienced leaders meet within their employment. This case demonstrates that leadership is not a constant phenomenon and it involves a wide-range of elements based on the nature and needs of the organization (Blanchard, 2007). The case further illustrates the significance of promoting and supporting the development of leadership skills among young people so that they will be able to utilize these skills at the workplace more effectively. Thus the aim of this paper is to recommend six critical elements that should be fostered and developed among polytechnic students who at this time live in a complex world. 2. Concept of Leadership The concept of leadership is fluid. Leadership is a subject matter which many people talk about but do not actually comprehend fully what it is all about. Leadership scholars and practitioners have made frantic efforts to simplify and make sense of this phenomenon for years. Many of these scholars have conceptualized leadership as based on five distinct approaches: trait, behavioural, contingency, transformation as well as servant leadership theories (Yukl, 2010; Northouse, 2013; Lussier & Achua, 2005; Fiedler & Chemers, 1984). This current study will briefly describe each of these conceptualizations of leadership. The trait theory accentuates characteristics of leaders such as motives, values, personality and skills (Yukl,