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Today's labor market remains tight. Turnover is an ongoing, costly problem across many industries. To ensure their organizations are effective now and in the future, HR and talent development professionals have an important role to play in implementing programs that increase engagement, retention, and productivity. This white paper explains three keys to development that unlock employee motivation, reduce turnover, and build a pipeline of future leaders for any organization: (1) Focus on individual and organizational purpose; (2) Prepare the workforce to navigate change; and (3) Scale leadership development to all.

Change moves fast, and organizations can struggle to keep up. Mergers and acquisitions create new organizations, and managerial charts flatten, with fewer layers of administration in the middle causing people to be expected to do more with less. The optimal way to achieve critical outcomes is by scaling development opportunities across the entire organization. The following 3 key strategies outlined in this paper will help more quickly achieve concrete results, future-proof the organization, and drive an inclusive culture of learning: (1) Plan your leadership strategy; (2) Provide access to relevant content; and (3) Leverage internal and external talent.

The uncertainty and disruption imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are so extensive that they will far outlast the pandemic itself. It is difficult to scale leadership development when staff is constantly shifting and leaders are struggling just to keep up with the day-to-day challenges of their work and personal lives. HR and L&D (learning and development) professionals need tools and solutions that allow them to access research-backed content and deliver transformational development experiences across the enterprise. A strong leadership development partner can stay on top of the latest research and trends, anticipate needs, and help pivot quickly to scale large organizational changes in the timeframe needed. The key to successfully scaling leadership development is devising a strategy at the outset. Once the strategy is secured, it is imperative to have the processes and the talent in place to support the initiative and to be able to execute rapidly. When scaling leadership development, it's essential to focus on the following 3 principles presented in this white paper: (1) PLAN Your Leadership Strategy; (2) PROVIDE Access to Relevant & Flexible Leadership Content; and (3) LEVERAGE Internal and External Talent.

With increasing globalization and digital fluency, next-generation workers are free to explore a broader range of opportunities. But they're also faced with upheaval on both the job and personal front, from the challenges of working from home during a global pandemic to the struggles involved in finding their voice in an increasingly diverse and divided society. To develop a deeper understanding of emerging leaders and their concerns, researchers developed an ongoing study that includes data from more than Gen Z and Millennials ages 18 to 30. Participants come from 28 countries around the globe and reflect varying social identities and work experiences. Some are first-time leaders, whereas others have already moved up through the ranks. Some aspire to become future leaders, whereas others are uninterested in formal leadership or see it as unattainable. Our study explores the "whys." (1) Why do some young people aspire to leadership while others avoid it? and (2) Why are some able to take on increasingly greater leadership roles while others are not? The data collected through surveys and interviews points to 3 strategies that can help your organization attract, retain, and support emerging leaders -- building the skills critical to success: (1) Reduce and Reframe Barriers; (2) Align Values; and (3) Support Equitable Access.

Formal leadership development programs enhance what students learn in the classroom by giving them powerful tools for personal and professional success. They are also a differentiator for many institutions. They help schools attract more high-ability students, distinguish themselves from peer institutions, and increase the value of a student's education. Leadership development helps students strengthen their communication and collaboration skills, develop resilience, become more adaptable, and prepare for a world in which they will be expected to be agile and innovative. This paper lays out five key practices for high-impact leadership development: (1) A proven leadership model and development framework; (2) Formative evaluation of students; (3) Relevant, meaningful leadership experiences; (4) Impactful coaching; and (5) Tools and methods that provide a rich, engaging experience. Student leadership development programs that include these 5 elements are much more likely to be successful in nurturing individual growth, improving post-graduation opportunities, and increasing student and alumni engagement with the university.

In today's business world, change and disruption are the new normal. It's not uncommon for companies, industries, and even the world at large to be turned upside down seemingly overnight. With the fast pace of change, adaptable leadership is no longer just an asset, it's a necessity. Executives who display adaptable leadership seek new and innovative ways to solve problems, master new skills, and view disruption as a challenge rather than a threat -- skills needed to prevail through uncertain times. Adaptable leadership is a term that's used often without a concrete definition or understanding of what it is. In this white paper we'll clarify what it means to be adaptable, and the 3 behaviors that our research at CCL has identified as critical. As a result, you'll be able to approach adaptable leadership in a more practical way and establish a foundation for recognizing and developing the skill in yourself and others on your team.

While learning agility has become a hot topic in recent decades, there's not yet widespread understanding of its underlying nature, nor the best way for organizations and talent development leaders to leverage it, especially because it isn't a skill that's necessarily concentrated at the top of an organization. Instead, it's likely dispersed among leaders at all levels. This white paper offers the Center for Creative Leadership's (CCL's) perspective on three of the most fundamental and frequent questions about learning agility: (1) What is learning agility, and who possesses it?; (2) How do I identify learning agility in my organization's leaders?; and (3) How do I develop learning agility in myself and my organization's leaders? The goal of this report is to help maximize workforces, put people in the right roles, and help better design and implement leadership strategies.

In-depth studies in the field of K-12 education confirm that investments in high-quality, research-based leadership development for school systems can directly impact student success--in the classroom and beyond. This results in the need to learn beyond content mastery and develop deeper learning skills. Students need to be able to adapt quickly, be continuous learners, and able to collaborate across many social boundaries. Success in the 21st Century depends on critical thinking, communication, and collaboration. Building students' capacity for this new era requires investments in teacher and administrator professional development to create the educational ecosystems that foster students' mastery of these skills. A growing body of work by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®), a global nonprofit with a 50-year track record of innovation in developing leaders, shows that investments in leadership development for principals, teachers, staff, and students play an essential role in creating the transformational change needed in education today. That's because leadership development focuses on the single most important part of any school system, public or private--its people. And now more than ever, meeting the complex challenges of a rapidly changing world requires schools to equip young people with the skills they need to become productive workers, engaged citizens, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners.

Decades of research by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) around the world have concluded that the two most powerful ways to grow and mature as a leader are by way of taking on challenging assignments, and by developing powerful relationships. With India being one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, Indian CXOs have to lead in an extraordinarily dynamic and complex environment. As they rise in their organizations, CXOs need for leadership development becomes critical. This study endeavors to both to learn from these leaders and to help accelerate their progress. In this report, CXOs in India will receive specific guidance on what constitutes the critical leadership skills--and how to develop these. This report is intended to be a practical resource, one that executives can use regularly as a reference for self- and team development. It covers the following key points: (1) making experiences matter is key to success; (2) CXOs devote 60% of their time to 3 goals; (3) to achieve their goals, CXOs expect to refine their skills in 7 areas; (4) four experiences can help CXOs develop and refine the seven needed skills; and (5) follow a 6R framework to obtain the most learning out of experiences. [This report was prepared with Hunt Partners.]

In this white paper, Diane Reinhold, Tracy Patterson, and Peter Hegel assert that there is no magic bullet to ensure people apply what they learn. There are, however, steps that can be taken to create leadership programs, experiences, and supports that improve the likelihood that lessons will be learned and applied. Over time, new skills, perspectives, or behaviors can be reinforced, until they become unconsciously and competently put to use. Learning is a process, and works best when it is viewed as more than merely a program. The authors present their "3 x 3 x 3 Model for Learning Transfer," a framework of leadership development that can be applied to development programs or initiatives within an organization.

For a long time, leaders have asked the question, where will the next generation of leaders come from? And for a long time the same formula has been applied: Identify those high potentials in high school, college or in the workforce and provide that select group leadership development opportunities. One focus of the Leadership Beyond Boundaries initiative is early leadership development. But what do we mean by "early"? One answer the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has been hearing for years comes from senior leaders, as they leave CCL programs wishing they had been able to benefit from a leadership development experience much earlier in their lives. Couple this statement with comments from youth, leadership development practitioners (Van Velsor, 2011), principals, and educators in schools and universities and a fairly consistent theme begins to emerge--that leadership development could occur much earlier and be provided to a broader audience. Prompted by this theme of earlier and broader leadership development initiatives the authors began to ask several questions. When should leadership development start? What are the most important competencies to focus on in developing young leaders? Do current leaders see young people as having what is needed for success? Have young people been able to develop the competencies organizations need in their entry-level workforce or that they will need to lead organizations and society forward? What impact would a broad investment in younger audiences have? Would it help them learn more about themselves and others, and propel them on an increased path of purpose and impact? A subset of these important questions was the focus of a 2012 CCL Leadership Insights survey, the results of which are summarized in this paper. This online survey of business, government, nonprofit, and education leaders focused on: 1) the age a young person should commence his or her leadership journey, 2) whether leadership development should be part of the regular educational curriculum, 3) how widely it should be offered, 4) leadership qualities that managers want to see in young people entering the workforce, and 5) what excites managers and what concerns them about the young people they employ today. (Contains 2 resources.

Connected leadership is an emerging view of leadership as an inclusive and collective networked activity occurring throughout organizations. Out of this project grew the Changing Nature of Leadership (CNL) research. Its focus: to explore the current field of leadership and forecast future trends. CNL relied on several interdependent streams of research, including academic literature, surveys, benchmarking and classroom research. More than 300 respondents completed one or more aspects of the research. Of these respondents, 84.3 percent believe that the definition of effective leadership has changed in the last five years--indicating some interesting trends in leadership. But the question remains--how has leadership changed and will it look different in the future? The results across our numerous data points to one conclusion: leadership is changing and approaches focusing on flexibility, collaboration, crossing boundaries and collective leadership are expected to become a high priority.

This report discusses ways to enhance leadership development in the work setting. It describes a type of advocate role, called process advisor (PA), that was developed specifically for individuals undergoing developmental experiences in a leadership program. The PA concept helps advisees learn with and from the PA, allowing advisees to be more attuned to situations so that they may take effective action. The first segment of the report documents the thinking that went into the program design by describing how and why the PA role was devised. It outlines the philosophy that underpins the PA's purpose, such as how the PA provides a safe environment, and details how to sustain the developmental process over time. The remainder of the report describes some of the key issues and learning since the program's inception in 1990. This includes what PAs do and the roles they play, how to be a more effective PA, PA learning to date, and other modes and mediums to be used with the process advising and coaching methodologies. The last section offers a brief developmental relationship-assessment exercise, focusing on the types and intent of various coaching roles. A series of appendices includes descriptive materials about the program and some of its tools. (Contains 25 references.) (RJM)

In 1991 the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) launched its LeaderLab program, with the goal of helping executives take more effective action in their leadership situations. This publication presents findings of a program evaluation that explored whether program participants took more effective action in their leadership situations. Data were obtained from a questionnaire of 29 participants and 38 nonparticipants; telephone interviews with 27 participants, their coworkers, and process advisors; and telephone interviews with 32 participants. The questionnaire indicated that participants were perceived as having made significant positive change on every category except "balance," and that this positive change was associated with increased effectiveness. The first set of telephone interviews showed that participants took the most action in the following areas: interpersonal relationships, organizational systems, coping with emotional disequilibrium, facilitating communication/listening, sense of purpose/vision, and balance/family. The control group made fewer changes than did the program participants. The second set of telephone interviews showed that participants favored the assistance of the process advisor, the program's structure, the visioning and action-planning exercises, the diversity of participants, and the artistic activities. An unexpected finding was that many participants came to the program with a reasonable amount of turbulence in their personal and work lives. They reported four types of turbulence that affected their ability to carry out action plans: general work-related, job-specific, personal, and psychological. Participants approached implementation from three different models: goal focus, vision focus, and process focus. Ten tables, 2 figures, a list of CCL publications, an index, and an appendix containing further information on outcome studies are included. (Contains 37 references.) (LMI)

LeaderLab, a leadership development program, encourages and enables leaders to take more effective actions. In developing content and structure, several instructional principles are important: realism, simplicity, relevance, operationalism, holism, and intervention over time. The program content falls into four categories: (1) challenges faced by executives; (2) competencies to deal with the challenges; (3) skills and knowledge that help each participant; and (4) the information and experience generated. Leaders face several challenges today, such as dealing with rapid and substantive change, managing diversity of people and views, and building the future through a shared sense of purpose. Five overlapping competencies needed to address the challenges are as follows: dealing effectively with interpersonal relationships, behaving in terms of systems, approaching decision-making from the standpoint of trade-offs, acting with flexibility, and coping with disequilibrium. The third content area focuses on two aspects of how leaders develop themselves: learning to learn and clarifying one's sense of purpose. The seven elements of the LeaderLab program are as follows: multiple sessions; pre- and post-course contact; process advisor--individual program tailoring; change partners; diversity of participants and trainers; classroom activities; and instruments. (A model diagram and conclusions are included. The bibliography contains 51 references.) (NLA)

This document consists of a digest containing descriptions and analyses of 85 articles and books that are helpful for organizational leaders, human resource managers, and consultants in developing diversity in an organization. The works cited are organized according to a five step action process derived from research describing practices that organizations can use to foster diversity. The five action steps constitute practical guidelines that managers require to assess an organization's diversity needs, design customized programs, and measure results. These steps are: (1) discover and rediscover diversity problems in the organization; (2) strengthen top management commitment; (3) choose solutions that fit a balanced strategy; (4) demand results and revisit goals; and (5) use building blocks to maintain momentum. These steps are described in detail at the beginning of their respective sections. The descriptions of references are organized into six main categories consisting of the five action steps and a small selection of general references. Within each category, references are sequenced in alphabetical order by the author's last name and are separated further by specific topics. Works presented at recent conferences or other reports available only from the author are listed in an appendix that lists some of these references, including access information. Readers interested in learning more about a particular step in the process of developing diversity may use the general contents to turn first to that step or to a section of that step. An overview of the digest can be found in the complete contents. An index lists all of the authors. (DK)

Interviews with the chief executive officers of 14 small businesses revealed the leadership challenges that they face. Some of the challenges are the following: (1) creating change; (2) building a robust organization, with a well-defined structure, an effective management team, plans for succession, established delivery systems, and people who have mastery of their jobs; (3) dealing with employee concerns; (4) building solid client/customer relationships; and (5) providing resources. A comparison of the small business leaders' responses to these challenges offers an explanation for the differences in leadership response and the implications these differences have for the leadership development of people running small businesses. Analysis also shows that small business leaders have leadership development needs such as the following: learning to deal with the meshing of family and business relationships; improving the selection and training of top management; developing the ability to be a follower when necessary; developing the ability to work effectively with rules; and creating a learning network for themselves. (Names and companies of the chief executives interviewed are provided.) (KC)