Albert Estiarte Duocastella is a doctor for the Spanish water polo teams, with whom he has been an Olympian eight times. He is deputy director of the Althaia Foundation and recipient of the Medal of Sporting Merit from Manresa City Council. Since December 2022, he has been deputy director of the Chair of Leadership in Values at the University of Vic - Universitat Central de Catalunya (UVic-UCC), based at the Manresa Campus.
How did the Leadership in Values Chair come about? Why at UVic-UCC? Why in Manresa?
Management and leadership training for directors of different types of organizations is one of the areas in which the UVic-UCC Manresa Campus has extensive experience and recognition. This experience has resulted in tailor-made courses for health centres and services, the training of senior managers of small and medium-sized companies, and training and advice for senior managers of health ministries in various countries. In addition, for a few years now, at UManresa we have worked intensively on defining the values that guide our work, from an academic and corporate perspective. We have reflected on these values together using a theoretical approach, without overlooking their application in day-to-day life. The creation of the Chair of Leadership in Values is another step in this line of work. It enables us to deepen knowledge of the area in which these two elements come together: leadership and values.
It is an idea that has been gradually forming for almost three years. We started talking about it in 2020. First, the concept had to be firmed up and its limits defined; then, new perspectives needed to be incorporated, with the participation of internal collaborators. Once the conceptualization phase was over, it was time to share the project, to explain it and scale it up, not only in dimensions, but also, above all, in ambition and reach. We were looking for breadth of views in the objectives and depth in the changes in people, organizations and society. A previous history of mutual respect and years of positive collaboration with Valentí Martínez was key to deciding to take the plunge and share our idea with Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte. The conversations between the four took longer because building relationships and complicity requires time and a long view. We went from exploration to expectation, from curiosity to interest, from support to involvement.
And finally, the idea took shape. The Chair was formally created in December 2022 and publicly presented in July 2023. With the new academic year, the Chair has already begun to deploy its activities in the field of training and dissemination and, more slowly, but very significantly, in the field of research.
"The Chair was formally created in December 2022 and publicly presented in July 2023"
What is the Chair’s vision in relation to leadership?
The Chair highlights our need today, more than ever, for leaders with values: in companies, organizations, schools, politics and society. Its intention is to help formulate questions such as: “How is ethical leadership exercised?” or “With which attributes should we imbue organizations?” With these issues on the table, we need to work together to find answers.
The aim of the Chair is to contribute to building a better world from within organizations through people who work with other people towards a common goal. It is designed as an academic space, based on scientific rigor, that works towards the development of practical guidelines that can be transferred to everyday life.
What is the role of the Chair’s management, comprised of Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte?
My personal connection with Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte has facilitated their incorporation into the project as directors. This relationship and the good harmony, which was also established early on with the academic directors, Valentí Martínez and Carlota Riera, have given the chair a distinct identity: based on these people’s personal and professional trajectories, we have built a conceptual framework that allows us to talk about leadership and values from a very specific perspective. Their way of facing challenges, managing conflicts, understanding success and failure, and managing victories and defeats has been very inspiring in the connection of theory and practice, academic reflection and professional practice.
"My personal connection with Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte has facilitated their incorporation into the project as directors"
The Chair has developed its own conceptual framework. What makes it special? What are the differentiating features?
We have chosen to describe the model graphically based on a 4-3-3 alignment, typical of football. On this imaginary playing field, we place twelve pairs of values that facilitate ethical, purpose-focused leadership. Furthermore, the arrangement of values on the field makes it easier to identify the various types of intelligence linked to leadership.
It is an open framework that is still under development. We will continue to enrich it in the future, with contributions from different people and groups.
What is the purpose of the Chair?
Beyond the implementation of theory, the Chair has a clear educational and training focus. Its intention is to create conditions for the emergence of new management tools that promote change in organizations to make them more aware of their impact on people and the environment. This change must be the result of reviewing concepts and processes linked to the science of management in the light of new ways of doing things that prove successful in terms of business and society.
"We want to create conditions to promote a change in organizations that makes them more aware of their impact on people and the environment"
Who is the Chair for?
We define leadership as the ability we all have to influence our environment, to modify it. And we talk about values as the compass that guides and points to the direction of this change. Approached in this way, we can all be leaders, we all carry within us a seed of transformation of what surrounds us. For this reason, the Chair addresses a very broad audience in terms of age (children, young people, adults or elderly people), sex, professional activity, level of responsibility or geographical environment.
Obviously, we have come up with different strategies for each type of public. We promote training actions for managers of organizations in parallel with dissemination events aimed at the general population. We have also opened up the possibility of undertaking doctoral studies. The aim is for the Chair to reach everyone.
What are the Chair’s areas of activity?
The Chair has chosen health, business, education and sport as priority areas of action. The first three correspond with the areas of specialization of the Manresa Campus of the UVic-UCC, in which the University has solid expertise. The fourth, sports, is closely linked to the decision to incorporate Pep Guardiola and Manel Estiarte into the Chair’s management, and to take advantage of their knowledge and experience in this area to transfer it to others.