OPM established the legacy LEAD Certificate Program in 2008, with the first program launching in 2009. Now known as the LEAD Institute, LEAD lets Federal employees take charge of their professional development by providing a clear path to leadership training that is right for their career. Each program is designed to deliver core knowledge and develop capabilities for leadership success.

What participants have enjoyed most about OPM’s legacy LEAD Certificate Program will be enhanced through the LEAD Institute with a new format and blended delivery. Now as a cohort-based program, participants will learn alongside peers and build professional networks spanning diverse agencies. They will collaborate as small teams in-person, online, and beyond the program through a virtual community of practice. The redesigned program enables CLD to provide a more focused learning experience by reducing the number of traditional open enrollment courses.

Now being offered in new locations, LEAD Programs will be more accessible than ever before, bringing federal employees closer to achieving their developmental goals. Participants will start and complete the program with leadership assessments that measure their learning and behavioral changes over the 5-month program. Individualized coaching sessions will help develop their strengths and expand their impact in organizations.

LEAD is offered as four role-based programs to help you fulfill your Individual Development Plan (IDP):

• Project Team Lead - Learn and practice the skills and tools to understand how to build and lead teams, practice being an effective team member, and complete a work-based project plan. For individuals aspiring to or currently leading teams and/or projects.
• Supervisor - Foster a diverse and inclusive workforce where individual similarities and differences are valued and leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization. For new federal supervisors or supervisors in their first year (completes the new supervisor training requirement).
• Manager - Execute on the mission, vision, and goals of your organizations while operating from the middle and applying systems thinking to tackle complex problems. For second-level leaders (duties include program management; direct work of an organizational unit; exercise influence, design and implement policy, and work in broad partnerships within and outside their agency; and/or supervisor of supervisors or accountable for success of specific line or staff functions).
• Senior Leader - Instill accountability, inspire individual excellence, and drive exemplary organizational performance in support of national objectives. For third-level leaders (supervisors of managers – GS-14 equivalent plus) responsible for organizational results.

Learn More or Register

OPM created the LEAD Institute with busy federal professionals in mind, giving learners a path to complete an Institute program in just five months. Classroom time is maximized by enhancing the transfer of learning through web-conferencing modules between classroom sessions. In each LEAD Institute program, rising and established federal leaders participate in content rich modules that provide:

• Assessments of current leadership effectiveness and/or potential
• Overviews of key leadership competencies critical to success
• Intensive development of workplace relevant skills

The redesigned multiday in-person sessions give learners time to digest, reflect, and plan how to apply their learning. Expanding upon the previous capstone project, rigorous work products and assignments will help demonstrate learning through reflection, planning, and action. Structured growth opportunities through on-the-job projects will help validate participants’ mastery, bringing applicable value to agencies.

• On-the-job learning projects that bring direct benefits back to your agency
• Clear progression to support succession management
• Networking and sharing of best practices among agencies
• Faculty with government expertise bring ideas, techniques, and subject matter content to an interagency collaborative learning environment
• Ideal for fulfilling training requirements for Presidential Management Fellows
• Supports the President’s Management Agenda
• Ease of government-to-government interagency agreements

Each cohort will be capped at 24-30 participants based on the specific program. This maximizes learner/instructor interaction, group learning, collaboration, teamwork, and skills development.

The cohort program is structured to engage learners in similar roles across federal service who bring their collective experiences to the cohort’s learning environment, magnifying interaction and learning. Throughout the five months learners will interact, learn, and participate in projects with cohort members in a classroom setting and a combination of asynchronous and synchronous online projects and activities which may include webinars, group work, assigned readings, and an online community of practice.

If you have been pursuing a legacy LEAD Certificate under the previous program and have not declared to complete a certificate, you may still be able to receive a certificate at the completion under the LEAD TeachOut Plan. If you have already notified us in writing of your intent to obtain a legacy LEAD certificate, we are tracking your completion for the courses specified in your plan agreement. If you are unsure if you meet the criteria for the LEAD TeachOut Plan, please contact us at LEAD@opm.gov for a review.

You can enroll on our LEAD Institute Program registration page.

To register, visit our course schedule or contact the LEAD Institute Program Manager at register@opm.gov.

Please contact our LEAD Institute Faculty Program Director. We look forward to supporting your leadership development needs.