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Philosophy

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL^®) is an educational institution engaged in a continuous and fruitful cycle of turning ideas into action and action into ideas. We teach from our research and learn from our teaching. We act on what we learn by developing new views of leadership, new assessment techniques, programs and strategies responding to the evolving challenges faced by leaders and their organizations.

We believe self-knowledge is the most important factor in the practice of leadership. Becoming more acutely aware of one's strengths and weaknesses is a type of "unfreezing" which leads to accurately setting goals and taking action to improve. As a result, rather than teaching how to manage, analyze or strategize, we help leaders "learn how to learn" from colleagues, their organization and competition. Most importantly, we help leaders learn from their own experience.

Individuals rarely have the opportunity to receive extensive feedback in the workplace - to understand how others perceive them. The Center's programs provide leaders with the time, tools and environment needed to gain a comprehensive and accurate view of themselves, and to set personal development goals and begin working toward them. In fact, CCL's extensive use of assessment and honest, productive feedback is frequently cited as the most valuable part of our programs.

Typically, the Center's leadership programs are built on the developmental model of Assessment, Challenge and Support. We combine 360-degree feedback, individual assessment and personalized attention in a safe, confidential environment designed to encourage candor, self-examination and experimentation with new behaviors vital to development. Participants are pushed to explore their strengths and identify their development needs in special activities, breakout sessions and simulations that replicate real-world challenges without the real-world consequence of failure. The result is creative exploration, insight and experiential learning that has time and again helped inspire executives and managers to revitalize and focus their organizations.

• Learning by doing. Most of us test new methods and develop new skills through experience. Consequently, effective training must provide executives with opportunities to try out what they learn, practice new skills, make mistakes and learn from them.
• Learning by receiving feedback. Learning is easier if there are others who are prepared to give constructive help. In CCL programs, for example, executives receive a constant flow of information about themselves and how they are doing. This takes the form of behavioral and psychological assessments, feedback from peers and observations from fellow executives and the staff.
• Learning through the process of change. Effective learning includes helping executives to expand, improve and develop their own skills. Through reflection of their learning experience, executives are encouraged to identify areas they would like to change and then develop realistic plans for self-development. Emphasis is placed on developing sensible, measurable goals and metrics to monitor achievement over time.