International conference focusing on leadership development
Over two days, Jönköping University hosted the Developing Leadership Capacity Conference 2026 (DLCC), an international conference on leadership development. Around 60 participants from academia, the business sector, and the public sector gathered to discuss how research and practice can be integrated into the development of future leadership.
The conference took place on 15–16 June and was held outside the UK for the first time. This year’s theme was “Systemic and Integrated Approaches to Leadership Development: Bridging Practice and Research”, highlighting the need to move from individual training initiatives to a more cohesive and system-based approach. Leadership is seen as something that develops through the interaction between people and the day-to-day work of organizations.
The participantswere asked to interpret leadership by painting together.
Strong link between research and practice
Sofia Kjellström, Professor of Quality Improvement and Leadership at the School of Health and Welfare at JU, was one of the keynote speakers and co-organizers of the conference. She spoke about how research shows that leadership development often takes place in isolated initiatives, rather than as an integral part of operations. The conference highlighted how organizations can work more long-term and strategically with leadership as a driving force for culture, collaboration, and development.
“During the conference, practitioners get to meet academics specializing in leadership development. They get to explore problems and challenges together and think innovatively about how to do things differently,” said Sofia Kjellström.
The conference alternated between lectures, discussions, and practical sessions. During an interactive exercise, participants seated at round tables were asked to interpret leadership by painting together.
“The exercise really showed how a perceived failure can lead to development; by quickly adapting and seeing new solutions, we were able to turn something that wasn’t working into something that actually turned out better,” said Cecilia Strandman, HR specialist at Stockholm University.
Together with her colleague Anton Tollin, she attended the conference and found it very exciting. They had recently begun utilizing the “Handbook for Systematic Leadership Development”, published earlier this spring, which Sofia Kjellström co-authored.
