Building a Leadership Culture at an EdTech Company

Ei ran a Manager Leaps for three consecutive cohorts, moving from Senior VPs down to frontline managers. This order was by design. As the most senior leaders shifted from "hero" to "coach," they opened that same possibility for the people who reported to them — and the cohort after that, and the one after that. By the third year, the vocabulary and concepts from the series had saturated the organization, and real culture change had accrued.

The program kicked off with foundational workshops in conscious leadership, navigating conflict, and coaching skills. It culminated in participants taking Leaps - self-directed 5-week projects designed to take participants out of their comfort zones and progress in their leadership. Many of the Leaps involved pausing to step off the task-completing-treadmill to show up in more intentional ways. They ranged from experiments in self-awareness (I’ll pause to track my mood 3 times a day for 5 weeks), to communication (I’ll read every Slack message before pressing send), to empathy (I’ll conduct a 1:1 empathy interview with each of my skip levels)

The core behavior this program exists to build got stronger every single year: managers who feel equipped to empower their direct reports rose from 89% in year one, to 91% in year two, to 93% in year three. As the cascade moved deeper into the org, the skill it was teaching kept compounding.

• “I finally feel like I have a manager who trusts me, listens to the challenges in my area of expertise, and takes my recommendations for improvements up the management ladder.”

• “He is putting more faith in and delegating more to his reportees.”

• “My manager has been allowing me to take more ownership of my work and decisions.”

• “I've noticed really positive changes in my manager's approach the last several months. They've been even more proactive in communicating, and providing feedback and suggestions/ideas. All of this has helped foster a stronger sense of direction and alignment within our team. I've also seen more openness to collaboration and engagement within the team. Overall, these changes have had a great impact on our team morale and productivity.”

• “My manager has been slow to frustration and has been giving me tips on how I can do the same. We take a more lighthearted approach to our jobs, and are able to communicate more effectively with other teams and with each other.”