The newest offering in Wiley’s professional learning portfolio, The Leadership Challenge® Self Empowered™, helps corporations close a common gap in leadership development training
HOBOKEN, N.J.—Wiley, a global leader in research and education, has launched The Leadership Challenge® Self Empowered™, a new professional training program designed to help ensure that employees at all levels of the company—not just those in management—have the opportunity to develop important leadership skills.
Self Empowered is targeted specifically to individuals who do not yet occupy leadership roles. It was developed to help companies address significant changes in the workplace stemming from the pandemic, including a movement to hybrid work teams, increased volatility, advancing technology and a shift in demographics to younger millennials.
To effectively respond to these changes, companies should develop a culture of leadership at every level, according to a new Wiley report, Investing in Employee Experience: The Keys to Empowering a Culture of Leadership.
The problem? Existing training programs for employees to learn key leadership skills and behaviors—such as a mindset for innovation, creative problem solving, taking ownership and accountability, and a bias for action—are targeted mostly toward current managers.
In fact, in a Wiley survey of 5,000 working professionals, only 28% of individual contributors said they received leadership training, compared to almost 60% of those in leadership roles.
"Our research has uncovered a significant gap in leadership training for formal leaders and managers, but particularly among individual contributors," said Cherryl D'Souza, Group Vice President of Brand Management within Wiley's Professional Learning division. "That's why we created Self Empowered—to help close that gap. This learning experience helps organizations support cultures that encourage, practice and hone key leadership behaviors and skills for all employees."
Self Empowered begins with an assessment followed by a facilitated learning session designed to help participants learn the critical behaviors, interpersonal skills, and language of leadership. It is intended to help the entire organization build a culture of leadership, where everyone feels empowered to make a difference in their role, regardless of their title.
The new program is derived from Wiley’s The Leadership Challenge and based on The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership® model. This model was developed from the research of Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner and is supported by more than 40 years of research on leadership behavior—not personality, but an observable set of skills and abilities. It has been used by more than five million leaders globally.
Self Empowered joins an established portfolio of professional learning solutions offered by Wiley, including Everything DiSC, CrossKnowledge, The Five Behaviors, and PXT Select. These programs are designed to help companies, managers, and individual employees assess and improve workplace skills, perform better, and become more successful.