640,000 Emirati leaders needed to make UAE a model of global leadership, finds Dubai summit

The UAE is one of only two countries in the world, the other being Qatar, where over 60% of employed nationals need to be leaders if Emiratis are to run the country, according to a recent Oxford Strategic Consulting (Oxford) VIP Summit with Henley Business School in Dubai on May 11th. VIEW SUMMIT PRESENTATION

Executives and strategic leaders across all sectors make up about 8% of any country’s workforce. Since the UAE has a workforce of approximately eight million workers, this means that about 640,000 Emiratis will be needed to fill executive and strategic leadership posts. There are only about one million Emiratis in UAE and if all of the UAE’s leaders, by the above definition, were Emirati, then about 64% of all Emiratis would be needed to fill these crucial roles.

The large percentage of leaders needed in the UAE represents both a major challenge and a major opportunity. Given the need to develop leaders fast, Oxford and Henley Business School produced three key recommendations for leadership development, which were discussed at the top-level summit workshop.

First: offer simple, practical help to first line leaders. Oxford research indicates that first line leaders only spend 20% of their time leading, and these leaders tend to carry out fairly simple leadership activities, such as ‘organise a team meeting’. Here, practical technology-based help such as Oxford’s new iLeader App can really make a difference. The app improves the performance of first line leaders by providing specific ‘point of need’ tools, guidance and team member feedback.

Second: capitalise on pre-existing UAE strengths. Young Emiratis are most motivated by ‘helping the country’, found Oxford’s Maximising Emirati Talent report. In order to connect this key motivator with leadership development, government figures must stress that leadership is a strategic country goal. Moreover, Oxford has identified that a distinctive Emirati Leadership Style does exist and possesses particular advantages because of its focus on loyalty and family-based relationships.

Third: ensure global accreditation for all UAE leaders. Ideally, all leadership development programmes should adhere to global accreditation standards. It is well known that poorly designed training is worse than no training at all, and UAE nationals deserve the best training on the market. For this reason, Oxford and Henley recommend that all Emirati leaders should be qualified to a globally recognised standard.

Paul Green, a Director at Oxford Strategic Consulting who spoke at the summit, explained, ‘There needs to greater engagement of Emiratis in the workplace – ensuring greater levels of motivation, empowerment and accountability among nationals.’ He also noted that new services, such as Oxford’s Nationalisation Benchmark, can help UAE companies identify key areas of their Emiratisation programs for focus and improvement.

The summit concluded with a meeting of the Gulf Talent Advisory Board (GTAB), an elite network of HR leaders from across the GCC who participate in thought-leadership workshops with the goal of making a real difference in the development of talent and HR in the GCC.