Ilmatar’s international training programme brought project leadership and people leadership together

IQI designed a training programme that combined project leadership with people leadership and served Ilmatar’s teams in both Finland and Sweden. The training was originally delivered by Kumura, which has since become part of IQI.

Training across borders and within local teams

The first day focused on leading people and project teams in line with Ilmatar’s values. Participants from Finland and Sweden attended this part of the programme together.

The leadership training included an individual Peili behavioural profile for each participant.

“Our employees found the Peili profile extremely useful. It helped them identify their own interaction style and understand how to apply it when leading different people.”

Jussi Mäkinen
Director, Project Development

Participants could complete the leadership exercises in their preferred language. This was made possible by the Howspace virtual collaboration platform and its built-in translation functionality. IQI uses Howspace in all its training programmes.

Practical and interactive training received positive feedback

The following two days focused on managing complex investment projects. This part of the programme was delivered separately to the Finnish and Swedish teams, with the Finnish team attending the training in Helsinki and the Swedish team in Malmö.

This allowed participants to explore project management practices within the context of their own projects and operating environments.

“In the feedback, participants particularly valued the practical approach and the clear ways in which they could apply what they had learned in their own work. They also appreciated the interactive format and the opportunity to exchange ideas with other participants,” Mäkinen says.

A comprehensive approach to project leadership

For Mäkinen, one of the programme’s greatest strengths was its ability to combine the structured, technical aspects of investment project management with the human side of leadership.

“The programme’s strength lies in helping participants combine systematic project management with effective people leadership. This combination is what creates sustainable success in complex investment projects.”

Mika Purola
Trainer and Consultant

“Both project management and people leadership are essential to a project’s success. One participant described the programme as ‘genuinely useful’, which captures the value of our collaboration with IQI very well,” Mäkinen concludes.

Image credit: Ilmatar media library.