LeAD Mission Statement
LeAD Labs develops leaders, researchers, and practitioners through the creation and application of evidence-based leadership research to help society pursue its full potential.
LeAD Values
Continuous Growth: Striving to improve ourselves and others
Honesty: Acting with authenticity and transparency in all interactions
Client Focus: Prioritizing the needs and satisfaction of clients and client organizations
Teamwork: Being professional, courteous, and supportive to others
Engaging through Strengths and Passions: Seeking opportunities to meet our responsibility to contribute based on our skills and strengths and passions so that together we maximize overall performance
Results-orientation: Working intelligently, diligently, and with integrity to produce the highest quality products and services and pursue organizational goal
Our Beliefs about Leadership Evaluation, Assessment, and 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 with or without a formal supervisory position.
- Leaders, who step up in their immediate surroundings, whether that is an organization, community, or home, have the potential to benefit from leader development and to make the local community a better place.
- Leaders are both born and made, and as such, develop non-linearly over the lifespan. The development of leaders can be accelerated through external supports such as leadership evaluation, assessment, and development.
- Basing leadership evaluation, assessment, and development on the best-available evidence is the most effective strategy for leader development. Evidence for leader development practices may take several forms with rigorous, academic research being preferred.
- Leaders must be committed to their own long-term leader development journey. 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. The role of accurate leadership assessment is critical in providing valuable awareness-building knowledge to leaders.
- During the assessment process, leaders naturally gravitate toward remedying their weakness and this limits their ultimate leadership potential. We believe in balancing the traditional deficit model by framing leadership assessment and development around a strengths-based approach.