Is the leader born or created, what is the profile of the leaders, their main features and personal characteristics? These were just some of the questions to which possible answers were given by the psychologist and Deputy Speaker of the 43rd National Assembly Dr. Ivan Ivanov. The current university lecturer was the first guest on the second day of the first course of the National Program “Governing Skills”. The trainees from Class 2021 of BSoP listened with interest to his presentation, full of examples, with interest filled in a self-assessment test for leadership orientation and enthusiastically worked in groups on their first learning task.

The working day continued with a panel for public speech and effective models of public speaking. Prof. Ivanka Mavrodieva, a lecturer in rhetoric, academic writing and business communication at Sofia University, introduced the politicians and civic leaders present to basic rhetorical terms, the structure of political speech and pre-election political speech. What they learned from the lecture, the trainees practiced in group work, where each of them and the group prepared a speech on a predetermined case and from a predetermined position. They received feedback and recommendations personally from Prof. Mavrodieva. The development of the communication skills of the trainees continued in the following hours with new knowledge and exercise for formulating messages. The communication expert Mihail Stefanov gave a definition and examples of influential messages, showed what a message must contain to be successful.

The communication between the members of the new class continued outside the work environment. In an informal setting, they got to know each other and discussed the start of their common adventure, called the National Program “Governing Skills” 2020-2021.