Experience-Driven Leader Development: Models, Tools, Best Practices, and Advice for On-the-Job Development

Introduction

INDIVIDUALS BROADEN AND deepen their leadership capabilities as they do leadership work. In fact, there are good reasons to believe that learning from experience is the number one way that leader development happens.

As a leader development practitioner you know this. You know it from the research-based professional knowledge you consume and from your own observations and experiences in organizations. Yet the field continues to focus considerable time, money, and resources on the other two major sources of growth and development for leaders: (1) education and training, and (2) relationships for learning. U.S. companies spend an estimated $13.6 billion annually on formal leader development (O'Leonard & Loew, 2012). The vast majority ...