Leadership Development
What is Leadership Development?
Leadership takes practice. Leadership isn’t something you practice once and become a master at. But how much practice does it take to become a great leader? Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, gives us the 10,000-hour rule. Based on Gladwell’s research of people who’ve reached an expert level so profound that others would describe them as great, it takes about 10,000 hours of studying and practicing the art or the task. That would be more than 5 years worth of full time work, with each hour dedicated to practicing leadership skills. Even the masters never stop practicing.
Why is Leadership Development important?
Like an athlete in preparation to win the game, leaders need to constantly hone their craft to become more effective. At Inspire Leadership, we work with clients to establish and improve their leadership skills based on their perceived needs and those found through a thorough needs assessment process. Once we determine a leader’s needs, together with the leader, we decide on which type of leadership development best fits to help them improve.
At Inspire Leadership, we believe developing leaders at all levels means approaching each leader level with respect to their current skills and the desired capabilities to ensure there are no gaps in development. Incorporating these key elements of leadership development programs for each level of leader can ensure development in targeted skills. While all leaders have common leadership challenges, there are aspects of leadership unique to each leader level. Leading self, leading others, and teaching others how to lead all require enhanced capabilities.
Emerging or high-potential leaders are just starting out on their leadership journey. Often, the first steps are to identify emerging leaders, increase self-awareness, build relational skills, and focus on researched-based leadership skills to prepare for the shift from managing self to managing others. We guide early-level leaders to become acquainted to organizational leadership style and common language as they grow and form their leadership plan.
Developing Emerging Leaders
As leaders rise to enterprise-wide executive roles, the complexity of what success looks like increases as well. High-level leaders are expected to strategically manage the business as a whole and/or specific business units, no longer just manage groups of leaders. These leaders are expected to act as forward-looking visionaries, driving action through others.
Developing Senior Leaders
Seasoned leaders typically have different needs than emerging or senior-level leaders and developing middle managers has to take into special consideration their prior experience. These supervisor, manager, or director-level leaders need learning designed around deepening current skills, engaging and influencing others to amplify results, operating strategically, leading other leaders, and establishing teams.
Developing Middle Management
Transitioning leaders often need to be coached on how to best serve and manage in their new roles. Identifying key personnel and influencers, gathering data to inform initial/critical decisions, and having a thought-partner to thoroughly discuss possible next steps are just a few of the critical needs for the transitional leader.
Developing Transitioning Leaders
Types of Leadership Coaching We Offer
Leadership Development Coaching
30-60 hours
This coaching is for a minimum of six months up to one year. The focus is to identify and prioritize developmental issues and goals with an action plan. The coach will gather data via a client questionnaire, a 360 degree feedback process, and/or other diagnostic assessments such as Myers-Briggs, Strength Finders, etc.
Team Coaching
30-60 hours
Many times, an executive team will have an off-site conference where the company’s strategic plan is discussed, vision & values are established, and/or team goals are determined. As a result of this different team process, individuals make a “commitment” to change in order to help the organization move forward or to the next level.
Transformational Coaching
15-30 hours
This form of coaching is the collective impact of various mixtures of coaching, with deep attention on situational factors; discipline goal setting and planning; and commitment to reflecting-in-action. This approach to coaching takes a more systemic perspective to the work to address the growing complexity of organizational life (typically 15 to 30 hours over the course of 6 to 12 months).
School District Leader Coaching
Blended Model: Coaching/Consulting
30-60 hours
This coaching is for a minimum of six months up to one year. The focus is to identify and prioritize developmental issues and goals with an action plan. The coach will gather data via a client questionnaire, a 360 degree feedback process, and/or other diagnostic assessments such as Myers-Briggs and Strength Finders.
School Building Leader(s) Coaching - Blended Model: Coaching/Consulting
Principal Coaching 30-60 hours
Assistant/Vice Principal Coaching 15-30 hours
Administrative Cabinet Team Coaching 15-60 hours
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This coaching is for a minimum of three months up to one year. The focus is to identify and prioritize developmental issues and goals with an action plan. The coach will gather data via a client questionnaire, a 360 degree feedback process (optional based on duration), and/or other diagnostic assessments such as Myers-Briggs, Strength Finders, etc. The coach is responsible for working with the executive to determine the plan, its implementation and subsequent follow-up. The coach also lends support to the client in addressing and focusing on strategic issues of the organization, while simultaneously addressing personal developmental issues. This blended model also includes educational leadership consulting on specific education issues/concerns needing addressing.