We exist to develop leaders, researchers, and practitioners through the creation and application of evidence-based leadership research to help society pursue its full potential.

This is our Mission.

 We advance and align the research and practice of leader development.

This is our Vision.

Our research and practice emphasize developing women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others who do not as often hold leadership roles. We focus on developing ‘Everyday Leaders’ at all levels of for-profit, non-profit, and community organizations.

We are faculty and graduate students with expertise in and passion for leader development.

Leadership is a process of influence, not a formally assigned role or position. We believe that leadership can occur from any member at any level of an organization or community, with or without a formal title. Society benefits most when individuals in our schools, homes, and communities step up and lead. We focus research and practice on developing everyday leaders within and outside of the workplace to make the local community a better place.

Effective leaders wield power—power to influence decisions, guide strategic direction, impact organizational structure and policies, etc. People naturally tend to use power to address concerns of their ingroup. To better society toward its full potential, we believe leaders should represent the diversity of society in terms of gender, race, sexual orientation, and physical abilities (to name a few).

Individuals with characteristics not typically represented in leadership positions face systemic barriers in attaining leadership, including identity threats, racism/sexism/homophobia/ableism, lack of opportunities, etc. To better society toward its full potential, we seek to accelerate the development of individuals not typically represented in leadership roles through researching diverse samples, re-envisioning and testing extant theory through a lens of diverse leaders, developing new theories grounded in their experiences, and implementing evidence-based leader evaluation, assessment, and development tailored to specific groups.

Leaders are both born and made and, as such, develop non-linearly over the lifespan. External support, such as leadership evaluation, assessment, and development, can accelerate their development.

The most effective strategy for leader development is to base leadership evaluation, assessment, and development on the best available evidence. Evidence for leader development practices may take several forms, but rigorous, peer-reviewed, published research is preferred.

Leaders must be committed to the long-term pursuit of their development. Some leaders are ready for leadership assessment and development, and some are not. We can use and build upon existing evidence to assess and facilitate developmental readiness, but ultimately it is up to individual leaders to take responsibility for their own development.

Leader development begins with self-awareness. Accurate leadership assessment and behaviorally-based feedback are critical in providing valuable awareness-building knowledge to leaders.

During assessment, leaders naturally gravitate toward remedying their weaknesses, limiting their ultimate leadership potential. We believe in balancing the traditional deficit model by framing leadership assessment and development around a strengths-based approach.