Leadership Development


Russ has more than 30 years experience - as an internal training and development professional and an external trainer and consultant - in designing and delivering a wide variety of training experiences for public and private sector organizations. Most recently, Russ served as a senior fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership, and there the focus of his training activities was on "assessment-for-development" leadership programs.

In addition to the Leadership Assessment Experience, Russ has recently designed and led workshops on Leaders Growing Leaders (how organizational leaders can effectively assist in the development of others in the organization), Becoming a Leader Is Becoming Yourself, The Leadership Essentials, and Managing Change and Transition.


Executive Coaching


Russ works in one-to-one relationships with managers and executives to help them assess their leadership strengths and talents and consider how best to use them, and identify and address their weaknesses and limits. To assist in the assessment, Russ uses a combination of interview data, information from multi-rater (360 feedback) and self-rater feedback instruments, and personality profile data. Depending on the needs and desires of the participants, Russ often asks them to move beyond the assessment data and consider how other important life/work issues - core values, personal life mission, balance of life and work, and the link of inner life and outerwork - affect their practice of leadership. After the assessment, Russ continues his work with participants to assist them in accomplishing their developmental goals and enhancing their effectiveness.


Organization Consultation


For the past 12 years Russ has been involved as a thought-leader (he is co-editor and co-author of "The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development"), program manager, and trainer in CCL's "Tools for Developing Successful Executives." Now Russ consults with organizations to help them put a systematic approach to leadership development in place - he helps organizations connect leadership development to organization strategy; he assists in linking a variety of leadership development experiences; and he works with organizations to help them align their performance planning and compensation systems with their leadership development processes.


Formation Retreats


Russ facilitates Courage to Teach retreats for Pre-K -12 educators (Courage to Teach retreats are done in association with the Center for Teacher Formation), Courage to Lead retreats for individuals in leadership roles, and Courage to Serve retreats for those in helping professions. Formation work is based on the belief that effective teaching, leading, and serving flows from the identity and integrity of the person. The formation process invites participants to reclaim their wholeness and act with integrity. It makes connections between the renewal of a person's spirit and their effectiveness in their personal and professional lives.


Public Speaking


Over the past several years Russ has been in demand as a public speaker. A selected list of recent topics include:

  • New Lens on Leadership. A look at the leadership tasks and the different ways these tasks can be accomplished, with emphasis on emerging ways that leadership can be understood and practiced.
  • Leading From Within. An overview of things individuals must do to lead with a deep sense of identity and integrity.
  • Leadership and Spirit. Based on the insights of Russ' book, "Leadership and Spirit," this presentation highlights what causes us to become dispirited in our work, and suggests specific things that we can do - as individuals, in relationships, and in organizations - to renew our energy and vitality.
  • Lessons of Experience. For over thirty years the Center for Creative Leadership has studied the experiences that help individuals hone or develop their leadership skills and perspectives. In this presentation Russ overviews the Center's research, with emphasis on the important leadership lessons that we can learn from experience.
  • Servant Leadership. In this presentation Russ reviews the basic principles of servant leadership and describes how they have been successfully applied in organizations such as Southwest Airlines, TDIndustries, and Synovus Financial.
  • Becoming a Leader is Becoming Yourself. The basic premise of this presentation is that effective leadership flows from the identity and integrity of the person - it does not come from using a bag full of tips and techniques, from fads or quick-fixes.