Leadership Excellence Honors Top Programs

Leadership Excellence announces the top leadership development programs in the country for 2008

Provo, Utah (PRWEB) October 6, 2008 -- For the third year, Leadership Excellence magazine has released its ranking of the best Leadership Development (LD) programs in the country.

"Every organization benefits from developing its people through some program or process," says Ken Shelton, editor since 1984. "The best programs are designed to deliver outcomes aligned with the vision and strategy. They build bench strength--a pipeline of people who are prepared to step up and lead out when the calls comes or the opportunity arises."

Leadership Excellence Selection Criteria

Considering hundreds of programs, Shelton selected 160 based on seven criteria:

1. Vision/mission. Are these statements linked to strategy, meaningful to participants, and focused on target outcomes?

2. Involvement and participation. How broad is the involvement and how deep the participation?

3. Measurement and accountability. What ROI measures are made and reported and to what degree is accountability for performance and results part of the program?

4. Design, content, and curriculum. How well designed is the program? How credible is the content? How relevant is the curriculum? How customized is the program?

5. Presenters, presentations, and delivery. What are the qualifications of the presenters, how effective are their presentations, and how is the program delivered?

6. Take-home value. What do participants take away and apply to improve themselves, their families, their teams, and their volunteer work?

7. Outreach, outcomes. What is the impact of the program on the organization and its various stakeholders?

"Having this criteria," says Shelton, "helps us to weed out those programs that may be well intentioned but lack substance and fail to deliver promised results."

Winners in Seven Categories

Divided into seven different categories, the top programs in LD for 2008 are:

Small to midsize organizations

1. Triage Consulting Group

2. Badger Mining

3. Carnival Cruise Lines

4. Wieland (Homes) University

5. Americredit Financial Services

6. Container Store

7. Equity Residential

8. Johnson Controls

9. Carilion Health System

10. InsureMe

11. Analytical Graphics

12. Simonton Windows

13. Acuity

14. Vulcan Materials Co.

15. Genecor International

16. Saltwater Institute

17. Conway Transportation

18. Cross-Country Healthcare

Large organizations

1. Ritz-Carlton Hotels

2. General Electric

3. Procter & Gamble

4. Boeing

5. General Motors University

6. Wachovia Corp.

7. Fed Ex/ELI

8. McDonald's/HU

9. Microsoft

10. Qualcomm

11. Yahoo

12. Caterpillar University

13. Chevron

14. AXA Equitable

15. Farmer's Insurance

16. MasterCard

17. Northrop Grumman

18. Direct Energy

19. Schwan Food Company

20. Allied Barton

21. AmTrust Bank

22. Bank of New York Mellon

23. Goldcorp

24. UBS

25. Black & Decker

26. Archer Daniels Midlalnd

27. Textron

28. Amazon

29. Disney

30. Medco

Education/universities/schools of

management and business

1. Univ. of Michigan/Ross

2. Center for Public Leadership, JFK

School of Government, Harvard

3. Univ. of Chicago/GSB/Leadership

4. UCLA/Anderson

5. USC/Marshall/CEO

6. Northwestern/Kellogg

7. Pennsylvania/Wharton

8. MIT/Sloan

9. Harvard Business/True North

10. Utah Valley Univ./CAL

11. Duke/Fuqua

12. Yale Leadership Institute

13. Stanford/GSB Leadership

14. Emory Univ.

15. BYU/Marriott/Leadership

16. Pepperdine/Graziadio/SBM

17. Carnegie Mellon/Tepper/Leadership

18. Alliant/MGSM

19. Ball State Univ./Ed. Leadership

Non-profit organizations

1. ASTD

2. SHRM

3. American Management Assoc.

4. HCI

5. NYC Leadership Academy

6. ISPI

7. HR.Com

8. IQPC/Corporate University

9. National Management Assoc.

10. Manchester Bidwell

11. Conference Board

12. Berkana Institute

13. Leader to Leader Institute

14. CAEL

15. Baptist Leadership Institute

16. SoL

17. Healthcare Businesswomen Assc.

18. Addison Ave. Fed. Credit Union

19. Rush University Medical Center

20. Best Practices in LD

Government/military

1. Defense Acquisition University

2. U.S. Marine Academy

3. U.S. Air Force Academy

4. U.S. Army/Westpoint

5. FBI Academy

6. U.S. Navy Naval Academy

7. NASA/Leadership Alchemy

8. U.S. Army Rangers

9. ASQ Baldrige Award

10. U.S. Coast Guard

11. FAA

12. U.S. National Guard

13. National Defense University

14. U.S. Tactical/Seals

15. Naval Undersea Warfare Center

Consultants/trainers/coaches

1. Zenger/Folkman

2. Goldsmith/Katzenbach Partners

3. Korn/Ferry/Leadersource

4. Jim Collins

5. Bluepoint Leadership

6. Ninth House

7. Human Performance Institute

8. Synthesis/Leaders Toolbox

9. Marcus Buckingham Company

10. Tom Peters Company

11. Guttman Dev. Strategies

12. Strategos

13. Maxcomm

14. Josh Bersin & Assoc.

15. Lebow Company

16. Liminal Group

17. Benchmark Communications

18. Table Group

19. Chip Bell Group

20. Leadership Challenge/KP

21. Authentic Leadership Institute

22. Leadership Development Services

23. iLeadUSA

26. Arneson Consulting

27. Sensei International

28. Right Management

29. ISB Global

30. The Prosen Center

Large consulting groups

1. Linkage/GILD

2. Results-Based Leadership

3. Accenture

4. Center for Creative Leadership

5. Senn-Delaney Leadership

6. McKinsey/Leadership

7. HSM/World Business Forum

8. Vital Smarts

9. DDI

10. Lee Hecht Harrison

11. Adizes Institute

12. Richard Chang Assoc.

13. Dialogos

14. Booz Allen Hamilton

15. Hewitt/Leadership

16. Plante & Moran

17. BlessingWhite

18. Franklin-Covey

19. Ken Blanchard Companies

20. Integro Leadership Institute

21. Forum Leadership Development

22. Personnel Decisions Intl. (PDI)

23. Human Potential Project

24. Crowe Horwath

25. International Leadership Assoc.

26. Leadergrow

27. Kepner-Tregoee

Each top program selected will receive a certificate honoring their achievement. For more information on the 2008 leadership rankings, visit www.leaderexcel.com or call 877-250-1983. If you want to be considered for the 2009 selection please visit the website and click on the rankings tab for registration.

Contact : Nancy Low nancy.low @ eep.com

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