The 12-month Leader to Leader program includes presentations by special guest speakers, skill-building workshops, multi-rater assessments, executive coaching and hands-on projects. L2L runs every other calendar year.

Four Major components of L2L:

• Workshops

Leader to Leader activities are primarily structured around two-day sessions, spaced five to six weeks apart, for the duration of the program year. This schedule allows focused development time for participants without extended time away from daily routines.

Most program sessions are held from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM at various MIT locations (e.g., Endicott House, Haystack Observatory, Lincoln Laboratory, Media Lab, Simmons Hall, Sydney-Pacific Graduate Dormitory and Technology Enabled Active Learning (TEAL) Classroom). See the tentative 2010 Program Overview.

The model of distributed leadership, developed by Sloan faculty, is a core component of the Leader to Leader program. Sloan faculty visit program workshops to share key leadership concepts.

• Individual Development

A commitment and openness to coaching is a critical aspect of the L2L experience. At the beginning of the program, L2L Fellows participate in a 360 assessment, a confidential process that gathers feedback about each participant's leadership competencies from peers, managers, direct reports, and others.

This information is combined with self-assessment and coaching from experienced executive coaches to create an individual leadership development plan. Each plan is continually evaluated and adjusted during the course of the program. Each Fellow meets with his/her coach once between each workshop session to discuss progress on goals, obstacles that may be hindering progress, and ways to apply leadership concepts to his/her work at MIT. This personalized, iterative approach allows each Fellow to tailor the program to target specific areas for growth.

Learn more about the 360:

• Overview
• Timeline and Process
• Leadership Competencies

• Applied Learning

Between sessions, L2L Fellows work in teams of four to six on projects that support strategic Institute goals. These projects give L2L Fellows the opportunity to focus on leadership competencies within the context of real MIT projects. The projects are sponsored by L2L alums and others who can reinforce the learnings. In addition, an L2L alum serves as a process coach for each project team. This coach meets regularly with his/her team to help the Fellows apply key concepts of L2L to their project.

In addition to working on projects, L2L Fellows use a part of each workshop to reflect on what they have applied in their own work settings since the last session, what worked and what they would do differently.

• Manager Engagement

L2L Fellows share, with their managers what they learn in L2L to increase the likelihood of applying their learnings to their work at MIT. L2L Fellows typically discuss the following with their managers:

• leadership frameworks and models from the workshops
• ideas for applying what they learn to their work at MIT
• potential obstacles to applying what they learn
• strategies for overcoming these obstacles
• ways of sharing what they learn with other individuals and groups

Additionally, each Fellow meets with his/her manager and executive coach at the beginning, mid-way, and the end of L2L. The purposes of these meetings are to review and confirm goals, determine how the manager can support the Fellow in reaching his/her goals, assess progress and accomplishments, and plan for ongoing learning beyond the completion of L2L.