Catena Media opens up applications for Catena Academy – A leadership training programme for employees

For the second time, Catena Media has opened up applications to Catena Academy, a leadership training course for Catena Media employees. The six month programme features an initial assessment, workshops, mentoring and coaching for the participants to help them develop their leadership skills.

The Catena Academy programme is designed in conjunction with Deputy CEO, Johannes Bergh and CHRO, Fiona Ewins Brown and led by Business Coach Heather Turner who has worked with Catena Media for the last three years to develop and coach leaders in the organisation. The programme is based on the Catena Media Leadership Model which promotes leaders to lead by example, be actively engaged, show the right attitude and become effective communicators.

Catena Academy doesn’t only focus on how to lead and manage other people, but in fact starts the entire programme off with a module on getting to know and manage yourself. All participants will get feedback and learn to explore their drivers, values, beliefs, motivations, strengths and development areas.

“I’m very proud to say that the Catena Academy is one of the professional highlights of my life,” said Heather.

Investing in leadership is very important for many reasons according to Deputy CEO, Johannes Bergh.

"Great leaders build strong teams,” he said, “since they understand that strong teams create leverage. Strong teams take ownership, strong teams are engaged, and strong teams have the potential to achieve fantastic things that a leader never would on their own.“

From an investment perspective, he also added that “we know that employees don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad leaders. Investing in good leaders will, in return, lower the cost of recruitment and onboarding because our employees stay and develop with us.”

Last year, ten employees graduated from the Catena Academy programme and many of them have fundamentally changed how they approach work as well as their personal lives.

Denis Ristic is Product Owner for AskGamblers and when asked about what the biggest impact of Catena Academy was for him, he said: “After Catena Academy, I started seeing myself as a person capable, but also responsible, to make things better. To make my team and my company a better place to work in and a place where everyone’s role counts and can make a difference. And I realised that I have the power to do so.”

The Catena Academy doesn’t just focus on professional attitudes and skills, but also emphasises learning about yourself and who you are as a person and as a leader. Many of last year’s participants said that the personal connection and growth within the group was something they cherished.

One of the participants said “I recommend the Catena Leadership Academy to pretty much everyone - you'll learn a lot about yourself, you'll learn a lot about how to best enable those around you and you'll make a new set of friends as well.”