THE LEADER WEBS OF BELIEF℠
Leadership skills and life skills are so very closely related. Both involve how we think and behave in our interpersonal relationships and decision making. Most leader development education is theory-based, life skills training usually covers financial literacy and personal decision making. Is there a way to easily merge the two? In today’s information-loaded world, learners’ attention spans are shorter and narrower. We need practical, quick, and simple guidance to understand and assimilate a set of leadership skills and mindsets to fit our life and work.
As I taught leadership to corporate executives, mid-level, and beginning leaders, we studied the countless characteristics and competencies found in already established leaders. I found no resources, textbooks, or training programs with a common language of leadership that also translated to positive life skills. I kept asking “how can this training be simplified so leaders at all levels can learn the basics of leadership, apply leadership principles to their development as adults, and keep improving their effectiveness over time? How can we explain the complex concepts and the unending list of related skills to beginners and long-time leaders alike? Could a simple set of characteristics and an easy to learn common language give practical guidance for emerging leaders as well as an easily accessible practical framework to motivate established leaders to keep learning and improving?
THE LEADER DEVELOPMENT WEBS OF BELIEF℠ RESEARCH PROCESS
The Leader Development Webs of Belief SM framework emerged from an extensive research project, with the goal to simplify the learning and practice of leadership and life skills. This research initiative began in 2010, hoping to provide an easy formula for leadership and life skills development by anyone, anywhere. I compiled and aggregated the academic research from dozens of leadership and adult development theories to find hundreds of competencies for career and life success. The research meta-analysis condensed the findings into five streams of skillsets and mindsets. I also panned the research on leadership development methods, to seek a straightforward route to learning and practicing successful skills.
To my delight, a simple map of mindsets and skillsets emerged. The Leader Webs of BeliefSM are easy-to learn and natural to put in practice for lifelong, and career-long, leader development. They provide a guide for new leaders, developing leaders, and experienced leaders. The labels or names for the five categories were in turn thoroughly researched to be sure they captured the meaning and essence of each stream of competencies.
The first leader training sessions in 2011 used the framework for community education program and keynote presentations in Szeged and Vesprem, Hungary and Perugia, Italy. The research and use of the framework for leadership education and training has continued for 15 years, to include hundreds of college students, high school groups in the Midwest U.S. (including inner city Chicago), international leadership researchers and practitioners, as well as corporate and non-profit management teams.
This meta-analysis of competencies from contemporary leadership and adult development theories has continued for over a decade. New theories, with their prescribed competencies and characteristics, are reviewed and incorporated as they appear. Using the five leader development webs of belief, anyone can develop skills and mindsets for all the leadership theories and styles needed to lead in times of vulnerability, uncertainty, chaos, and change. The 21st century leadership styles studied include adaptive, authentic, change, complexity, connective, crisis, distributive, executive, shared, team, transformational, and servant leadership, as well as positive adult development, emotional intelligence, followership, and self-leadership.
WHAT IS A WEB OF BELIEF?
THE LEADER DEVELOPMENT WEBS OF BELIEF℠
SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND AND USE
HOW TO USE LEADER WEBS OF BELIEF℠
TO DEVELOP YOUR LEADERSHIP AND LIFE SKILLS
Adopting a web of belief is a strong commitment to learn and understand a broad set of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Leaders use the webs of belief framework to assess where they are in their leadership journey, then identify next-level needs. They add new information to what they already know, then re-frame their understanding and perspectives. They become motivated to add or delete behaviors and mindsets. They engage in transformational learning and continuously construct new competencies. The framework encourages growth and development yet allows a leader to always review and refine prior learning within the web. This path to leader development is spiral and circular. As new capabilities emerge, the ability and motivation to develop expands and leaders gain increasingly advanced capacities across situations and contexts.
Whether you are an emerging or established leader, you will quickly use the Leader Webs of Belief SM mindsets to adapt your leadership practices to fit the situation you are in and the people you are with. Your personal and professional development will be simplified, accelerated, and sustained. As you learn and apply the webs of belief, you extend your perspectives, excavate your authentic self, expand your comfort zone, and find work-life balance.