The Leadership Development System: Building Skills, Creating Leaders

Last November, we announced numerous year-end activities of the Board Oversight Group on Leadership Development. Our overarching goal is to transform leadership development in the ACS by maintaining our schedule for the three-year implementation plan. We’ve been very busy since then!

Achievements

• The Board Oversight Group (BOG) leadership development webpage has been launched. Check it out and explore the on-line and facilitated courses. As new workshops are designed and piloted, synopses and updated schedules will be posted. You can sign up as a pilot participant.
• Three facilitated courses and the Extraordinary Leaders course have been designed, piloted, and evaluated. Many of you contributed to this development effort by taking part in the 2006 course pilots.
• Five volunteer facilitators are now trained and ready to hold the pilot courses that we promised to beta-test at regional meetings in 2007.
• The marketing plan for the roll out of the completed system in the spring of 2009 is underway. The system has been named and branded—The Leadership Development System: Building Skills, Creating Leaders.
• The on-line modules The ACS and You and Articulating Personal Goals are completed and in the beta-testing phase, soon to be deployed on the BOG webpage. We’ll let you know when they are available.

2007 Plans

The BOG’s implementation activities for 2007 will bring online courses designed to develop emerging leaders, such as first-time local section volunteers, chair-elects, and other officers. Opportunities to participate in the beta-tests and pilots will be available again at national and regional meetings and the 2008 Leadership Development Summit, which will prepare incoming local section and division officers and national committee chairs to take on their leadership roles.

• Four additional facilitated courses (orange in Table 1) and three on-line courses (yellow in Table 1) will be piloted.
• A complement of facilitators for the Leadership Development System (LDS) courses and the Extraordinary Leaders workshop will be trained.
• The web portal for the volunteer pipeline and leadership database will be established.
• Marketing will move into full swing, informing all members of the unique member benefits being created for them.

You’ve probably been hearing about the 2007 ACS Strategic Plan. To achieve the ACS vision, we are going to need a strong, effective cohort of leaders at every level in the Society. There is no better time than now for you to participate in helping the ACS meet the ever-changing needs of the evolving chemical enterprise. The LDS, which is the key, exclusive, premier resource of the ACS, will help strengthen the skills of the vanguard of leaders like you and recruit our next generation of volunteers. To get a head start on building up your skills, take advantage of the pilot testing of the LDS courses. Check out the 2007 LDS pilot schedule in Table 2, and e-mail us at leaders@acs.org if you are interested in participating.

Table 1
LDS Implementation Schedule
Orange = facilitated, yellow = on-line

Table 2
2007 Pilot Opportunities

For more information about the origins of the LDS, its research-based foundation, and the full implementation schedule, go to the BOG webpage. E-mail your ideas and comments and express your interest in attending the pilots to leaders@acs.org. Transforming ACS Leadership Development is on track with the new ACS LDS: Building Skills, Creating Leaders.

Eric C. Bigham and Carol A. Duane, Co-chairs
Board Oversight Group

Back to Top Return to Newsletter