Taking the Leadership Challenge

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge model for leadership is a major tenet in Chesterfield County’s leadership development strategy. This model of 5 Practices of Exemplary Leadership is first introduced to employees in our Employee Leadership Institute, an introductory leadership program in which frontline employees learn the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to become an effective leader. Many of the participants of this program seek to move into supervisory positions and use this developmental opportunity as a bridge to that goal. Responding to a significant number of pending retirements, the county forecasted an increasing number of vacancies in supervisory and leadership positions creating an increased demand for leadership development of existing employees. Compounding the challenge, budget constraints precluded the outsourcing of this business critical learning need. In response, the county’s Center for Organizational Excellence embarked on a journey to custom develop a curriculum that would be broad enough in scope to apply to all employees, yet robust enough to provide employees with the foundational knowledge needed to become effective, impactful leaders of Chesterfield County. The result is the Center’s Taking the Leadership Challenge, a blended-learning program that incorporates both formal classroom learning and informal learning supporting our 70-20-10 learning framework. Piloted in our Utilities Department, the program was an overwhelming success as indicated by program metrics and measures that validate our 23 participating supervisors are now well poised to move into higher levels of responsibility and lead the county’s workforce of tomorrow.