On November 19, 2024, a meeting was held with students of the third and fourth years and teachers of the educational and scientific institute of public management and administration of the Petro Mohyla National University of Ukraine on the topic: “Leaders are born, they become. Where will we put “no”?”.

This event was held within the framework of the EU Erasmus+ project No. 101082696-PROMENT “Promotion of professional education and active participation of students through the establishment of a comprehensive system of mentoring and tutoring in higher education institutions.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Viktoriya Andriyash, Doctor of Public Administration, Professor of the Department of Public Management and Administration, gave an introductory speech. The speaker emphasized the importance of the topic of the meeting, because today, more than ever, our state needs a new generation of personnel – real leaders. The domestic sphere of public administration is no exception to this, because the existing level of staffing of the public service does not correspond to modern Ukrainian realities, since it is no longer enough for public servants to simply be professionals in their field. Such a situation encourages the activation of leadership in the public service as an important element of good governance. At the same time, it is worth activating leadership qualities while studying in educational institutions.

Candidate of Sciences in Public Administration, Associate Professor of the Department of Local Self-Government and Regional Development Anastasia Shulga directly presented the materials of the meeting to the audience.

At the beginning of her speech, Mrs. Anastasia noted that even before the end of the 19th century. – the beginning of the 20th century. in the scientific literature, the terms “leader” and “leadership” were considered exclusively from the point of view of politics and economics, and only in the 1930s, they became widespread in social psychology and management.

Next, the speaker suggested that the students, together with the teachers, take several short psychological tests to determine who they are – leaders or team players. We jointly considered the results of the tests, which for some participants of the meeting turned out to be quite unexpected.

Special attention was paid to defining the meaningful and practical difference between “leader” and “manager”. Each of the students had the opportunity to speak about what sign we will put between these two concepts.

It was found out that a leader is not the same as leadership. Oleksandr Yevtushenko, doctor of political sciences, professor and head of the department of public management and administration, explained that leadership is a kind of mentoring, the essence of which is to inspire and motivate people, helping them realize their full potential.

At the end of the meeting, they discussed what leadership problems exist in the public service today and considered ways to activate it.

The participants concluded that there is no need to put the particle “NO”, because a leader can be born or become one, it all depends on ourselves and our aspirations to change and change the world for the better.

During the event, all participants agreed that we will hold similar meetings in the future, conducting mini-training sessions to activate the leadership qualities of each of us.