The British Council is taking a unique approach to finding talent for its Future Leaders Connect program — incorporating live heat events into their recruitment process. For the second year in a row, participating countries will host national events, inspired by TEDx talks and television show “The X Factor,” to see how candidates keep their cool during live debates, broadcast presentations, and audience votes.
The program is looking for “exceptional young people with lots of talent,” who may still be “undiscovered,” explained Lydia Bowell, external relations officer with the British Council, not just candidates who went to the best universities or already have great connections.
While good leaders need to express themselves well on paper, perhaps even more crucially they need “to have impressive presentation skills and to be able to engage with people effectively, to ensure their ideas are listened to,” she said.