HELP WANTED: A self-aware, communicative and curious individual to lead our people in a socio-political and business environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, while implementing a strategic vision and organizational alignment, and delivering the psychological safety they need to perform at a peak level to achieve the organization’s increasingly aggressive stretch goals.
A help wanted ad like this one might easily be shortened to: messiah. Such is the challenge facing today’s leaders and those who aspire to leadership positions.
But there is help. Leadership, after all, involves learned skills. Some people certainly have innate leadership abilities. But packaging those with other learned skills and behaviors takes study and, more importantly, hands-on experience.
Camila Angelim
The Daniels Newsroom recently spoke with Camila Angelim (MS 2016), director of business development for Daniels Executive Education, about the College’s two leadership development programs: the Accelerated Leadership Experience (ALX) and the Denver Leadership Experience (DLX).
The programs vary in their focus on people in different phases of their leadership development journey but have a nexus in preparing leaders for uncertainty through experiential learning.
Why does Daniels offer leadership development programs?
With the pace at which the world is changing, we recognized the need to prepare leaders to navigate an increasingly complex and ambiguous business environment.
COVID is a great example. We certainly didn’t know COVID was coming. So, we are preparing people to lead in norm-altering environments like COVID where change—and many times sudden and unanticipated change—is the only consistency.
Give us a high-level overview of ALX. Who is it for? Why did Daniels introduce it?
We introduced ALX 10 years ago to meet the market need for developing new leaders—people who were assuming a managerial role for the first time or have some experience but never had the opportunity to learn about leadership.
They typically are high-potential contributors and new-to-mid-level managers responsible for a portion of an organization, a team or a project. Or, they might not even be there yet, but they know they’re going to step into this type of role.
But ALX is not Management 101. It’s a leadership program. We’re helping you identify who you are as a leader, how you’re showing up and how you prefer to communicate.
How is DLX different?
We introduced DLX in 2016 to meet the market need for leadership development among experienced managers—leaders who work at the enterprise level, driving organizational change.
These leaders have been managing people for at least seven and, more likely, 10-15 years. The curriculum is heavily focused on preparing leaders for an uncertain and rapidly changing world, and giving them tools to drive organizational alignment and create a shared vision for the organization.
But DLX isn’t about title—whether it’s manager, director or VP—or the size of an organization. It’s about where you sit in the organization and what you’re trying to achieve. You could work in a small organization and be in a senior role with transformation as one of your key objectives.
We’re very intentional about selecting the cohorts for DLX. We interview everyone who enters the program. We want to make sure the participants are at about the same level in terms of job and career scope, so participants have a similar context. That is what makes their conversations mutually understandable and very valuable.
Do ALX and DLX have any similarities?
Yes, there are two primary similarities.
First, an outcome of both programs is an individual development plan. Neither ALX nor DLX are about sitting in class and trying to absorb and process leadership concepts. You’re working toward a plan for yourself, so you know what you’re going to do as soon as you leave the program—two to three things to implement once you’re back in the office.
The second similarity is the X factor, experience. Both programs are heavily focused on experiential learning. They both use hands-on exercises—which often change by cohort— that participants can use to experiment with or test their new skills in a safe environment with other participants. You learn from exercising your knowledge and watching other participants exercise theirs, which is what leads to those valuable conversations.
For example, DLX has a module where participants work with horses, which helps them understand team building and leadership from a completely different perspective.
You can’t simply tell a horse to do; they won’t understand. Horses are well-attuned to your body language and your presence. It has similarities to leading people. How do you model what you’re trying to achieve? How do you walk along with them to implement organizational change? It tends to be one of the most impactful days of the program
When will ALX and DLX be offered in 2025?
The next ALX in-person session takes place April 2-4, followed by four half-day online sessions on April 11, 18, 25 and May 2.
The next DLX session takes place May 5-9. All sessions are in-person.
Additional information about ALX and DLX is available on the Daniels Executive Education website. Email me at camila.angelim@du.edu with questions about either program.