Assessment, Training, Coaching, and Organizational Assessment Programs

Leader Functions Index© (LFI)

The Leader Functions Index (LFI)© is a survey instrument to develop your leaders and grow their self-awareness. Created and tested by preeminent university leadership professors who also have decades of practical leadership experience in business and the military. The LFI 360© assessment was created based on a comprehensive review of the body of empirical leadership research to determine and assess the best practices of effective and impactful organizational leaders. The LFI is an online assessment available in both self-rating and 360° (ratings from followers, peers, and more senior leaders) versions. The LFI helps leaders improve across 5 key leader functions: leading with purpose, aligning collective effort, building and developing others, modeling the way, and managing for impact.

Individuals are rated on the frequency with which they engage in numerous behaviors associated with each of these five best-practice leader functions and receive a comprehensive 44 page personalized LFI feedback report. As a behavioral assessment, the feedback report provides rated individuals with specific actions they can enact to become more effective leaders. Beyond numerical scores on each behavior, leaders also get narrative comments from raters on what they would like to see that leader Start, Stop and Continue doing in their leadership. Leaders also receive a Personal Leader Development Acceleration Plan (PLDAP) workbook they can use to create and track personal development goals for the five functions.

Below is a brief description of the five leader functions assessed.

1. Leading with Purpose. A key function of leaders is to create a sense of purpose and meaning within the team or organization(s). Gaining high levels of commitment, engagement, effort, and performance from others requires leaders to help them see their work as more than a mere employment contract. Individuals must be intrinsically motivated to go beyond compliance and merely meeting minimal expectations. Instead, they must seek to exceed expectations through fully employing their talents, being strong contributors in their jobs, and exemplary organizational citizens. To do so, they must see their organization as being worthy and honorable; embrace the organization’s values, its mission and vision; and believe that the work they do achieves a purpose that includes but extends beyond economic rewards.
2. Aligning Collective Effort. To achieve results, a primary function of leaders is to align diverse individuals and groups to work together toward shared goals and objectives. This is particularly important in large, complex organizations with many interdependencies. Effective alignment requires that everyone knows what they are doing and why, what is happening in other parts of the business around them, and how their work connects with others’ work. They must also want to work with and support others and experience a sense of “we-ness”. All organizations are also inherently political spheres with various sources and forms of power and influence that must be adeptly navigated to get individuals to work together effectively; and thus this facet also assesses political savviness and coalition-building skills.
3. Building and Developing Others. Effective organizations continuously build, harness, and leverage the intellectual capital of their members. The best leaders not only take seriously their responsibility for achieving short-range goals and objectives, but also view building the “bench” of followers and emerging leaders as an important outcome of their leadership. This requires that leaders possess a long-term perspective and a genuine interest in follower development. Great leaders are not just “doers” but teachers and coaches who help followers identify, grow, and advance their strengths. They also build strong interpersonal relationships and a learning climate in which people feel valued, believe they can speak transparently, and contribute their talents, strengths, and ideas freely. This requires a philosophy toward leading that allows for not only top-down but also bottom-up influence and contributions. It also requires creating a safe context supportive of exploration, change, and innovation.
4. Modeling the Way. Research clearly shows that what leaders actually do is much more impactful and persuasive than what they say; and that when a leader’s words are misaligned with their deeds, the latter prevails most in influencing others. Leaders are also expected to represent and embody what it is to be an exemplary organizational member. Leaders’ behaviors are thus watched closely by others and sends strong signals as to what is expected and appropriate (or not). In sum, leaders serve a significant function as role models and a source of social learning for others as to what “right looks like.” This dimension assesses the extent leaders serve as such models and are seen to embody competence, personal drive, and positive strengths such as courage, resilience, and humility.
5. Managing for Impact. The four LFI functions covered above focus mostly on motivating, inspiring, and otherwise engaging the “human element” of the organization to achieve goals and objectives while simultaneously building and developing those individuals and the organization’s future capacities. Leaders must also effectively manage the ongoing processes and systems of the organization and provide adequate structure for their workforce to successfully accomplish tasks. Thus, there is a simultaneous requirement for both leadership and management, and effective leaders possess the insight and wisdom to determine which is needed at any particular point in time, and the capability to deliver what is needed, when and where. This dimension assesses leaders’ capabilities to plan, organize and manage tasks, assign and build work teams, allocate resources, monitor and control execution, and reward performance.

Five Leader Functions Training Workshop

The LFI 360© can be administered by itself for self-development, but is typically combined with a training workshop for greatest impact. The workshop is conducted by world class instructors who are both internationally renowned scholars and have extensive practical leadership experience. This session can be delivered either in-person or virtually to a cohort of leaders and involves guidance on how best to interpret and make-sense out of the LFI feedback and how to use the feedback to chart leader development action planning to initiate growth. Further, if adequate time is allocated to the session, actionable training is provided for each of the 5 leader functions to improve leaders’ knowledge, skills and abilities for each function.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses in the 5 leader functions
• Create a developmental plan to enhance leadership
• Learn how to write a leader vision and philosophy statement
• Learn effective leadership skills and practices across the 5 leader functions:
  • Lead with Purpose
  • Align Collective Effort
  • Build and Develop Others
  • Model the Way
  • Manage for Impact

Five Leader Functions Executive Coaching

The LFI 360© assessment is effectively followed by one-on-one executive coaching. If a training workshop is conducted, the coaching sessions typically follow up on the workshop to drill down on each individual’s development. The initial coaching session is typically 90 minutes and entails reflection on the assessment results, identification of themes concerning areas of strengths and weaknesses, and the development of SMART goals to guide development. Experienced executive coaches provide concrete, actionable recommendations to implement to enhance the coached leader’s effectiveness. A coaching intake sheet is completed prior to initial sessions so that the coached leader can establish the priorities for their own customized learning and development. Coaching sessions are also typically followed by the coach providing recommended tools, readings and/or exercises for self-development. When desired, follow-on coaching sessions can occur periodically (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, etc.).

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