Just back from a training assignment for The Greater City of Sudbury.  Wonderful people; so proud of their city, its services and the sense of community.  The City administrators have a major challenge: half of all their managers are going to be retiring in the next 5 years.  They are now making a concerted effort to develop a new generation of leaders by providing their middle managers an extensive 15 day series of workshops spread over a number of months.  The value of staggered training is that it will give participants an opportunity to practice skills in between sessions and report back to their peers on their progress.

The training incorporates the use of a number of diagnostic instruments to enable each person to identify their own strengths and weaknesses so that they can focus on those aspects of the learning that would benefit them mostly.

Peter Bock defines leadership as the ability to develop leaders, not followers.  Powerful stuff.  I think he’s be proud to be associated with The Leadership Institute as we are at the forefront of leadership development.  Our aim is to deploy materials and information to enable self-directed learners to improve their leadership skills.  We have a number of strategies to enable this goal - materials for self-study groups, the contents of some of my most popular books and monthly web-based learning session.  Participation in a combination of these opportiunities should raise your ability to take on a greater role of influence in your organization.  Good luck!