- Deutsche Telekom's new levelUP! program qualifies managers for the demands of the digital age
Managers in the digital age require a completely different set of leadership skills and methods from those needed in the analog world. Deutsche Telekom has thus now launched a brand-new training program for its executives worldwide, focusing on successful leadership in the digital era. Called levelUP!, the year-long program delivers specific content on the topic of digital leadership. It zeroes in on the management of ambidextrous company structures; i.e., using intelligent management approaches to expand existing core business while creating space for innovation in parallel. 700 Deutsche Telekom managers from Germany and abroad are currently on the levelUP! program.
"Managers today are facing truly unprecedented pressures to make changes. The pace of digitization is producing organizations that are more agile. As a result, leadership methods and behavior are being redefined," says Deutsche Telekom Chief Human Resources Officer, Christian P. Illek, of the reasons for applying the new learning format. He also talks about a particular challenge faced by major corporations: "It is simply not possible to manage a group like Deutsche Telekom, with its 230,000 employees worldwide, in the same way you would a start-up. The trick is to manage core business efficiently while developing new digital business areas successfully, like the cloud, for example. This calls for managers who are familiar with the challenges and changes of the digital world, and levelUP! is the key to achieving this."
For the levelUP! program, Deutsche Telekom is cooperating with internationally renowned business school Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE) in Durham, North Carolina (USA). The program will not only help managers to build on and improve their leadership skills, but will also impart new approaches and ways of thinking thanks to inspirational dialog with leading innovators and management experts. levelUP! consists of modules that can be mixed and matched flexibly and which are taught using interactive, predominantly digital, formats, as well as some classroom training. Managers can select their personal learning content, making the learning process perfectly tailored to individual requirements. In line with the program's motto Educate!, Inspire! & Transfer!, newly acquired skills and knowledge are to be put into practice in daily business. As CHRO Illek says: "levelUP! is designed to give our managers full control over their own careers."
The launch of the levelUP! management program is yet another milestone on Deutsche Telekom's digital transformation agenda: Last year the first sector-specific collective agreement for mobile working was concluded with trade union Verdi, and in January of this year Deutsche Telekom reached an agreement with the Group Works Council on running various pilots of a skills database.
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