CUSTOM LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Leadership Can Be Learned. We Can Show You How.
Leadership isn’t about a title.
And the truth is no one is born knowing how to lead. It’s something we grow into with the right guidance, practice, feedback, and support.
At Bright Threads we create custom leadership development solutions that are smart, strategic, results-oriented, and provide the kind of guidance and support your people need to become leaders who are deeply committed, show up authentically, and move people toward your shared goals.
For your organization or company, that might look like a one-time workshop to help your team give feedback in a way that builds trust. Or a multi-day retreat that gets your rising leaders thinking bigger. Or maybe it’s a deeper, year-long program—with coaching and hands-on support—that helps leadership take root and grow across your organization.
We don’t come in with all the answers. We listen first. We learn your culture, your values, your pressure points, your real challenges. And together, we design something that fits—not only your calendar and your budget, but your people.
Our Leadership Development Framework
Over the years, we’ve integrated insights from psychology, organizational behavior, coaching, communication, and lived leadership experience—and woven them into a framework that helps leaders grow in a way that’s good for them and good for the organization.
This simple, thoughtful leadership development framework helps your leaders evolve their understanding and their skills in four key areas:
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Knowing who you are—your values, your strengths, your rough edges—this is the anchor for everything else.
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Building trust and communication skills, fostering collaboration, strengthening team dynamics, all to create an environment where people can contribute their best - and the organization can thrive.
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Seeing the bigger picture and aligning strategy, culture, and decision-making so the whole fabric holds together.
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Weaving your leadership into something larger—connecting people to purpose, values, and each other in ways that are meaningful and transformative.
We don’t see this as a straight path
—it’s more like a loom.
You return to each thread again and again, layering in new skills, new insights, and new perspectives as you go. And within each of these areas we cover a number of topics, everything from emotional intelligence to leading diverse and inclusive teams to advancing creativity and innovation.
The leaders who emerge from this process are able to light the path forward in your organization—they become people who connect others to the mission, and reignite passion for the work. And that’s the kind of leadership that doesn’t just look good—it lasts.
Leadership Development Case Studies
We remove our clients’ names from case studies to honor confidentiality. Reach out to learn more about the challenges faced by these clients and our solutions.
#1: DEVELOPING LEADERS AT EVERY LEVEL, ALIGNED TO THE CORE VALUES
“It’s helping to transform our culture, and giving the organization a shared language for leading.”
A leading Chicago cultural institution wanted to ensure every team member—from security guards to research scientists—had access to leadership development opportunities. They also wanted every employee to understand the organization’s core values and know how to apply the values in their work.
The final solution needed to fit a tight budget, and be offered multiple times so that everyone had a chance to participate.
The Bright Threads consultants designed eight modules, three hours each, focused around leadership skills and their relationship to the organization’s core values. Each module was offered twice, in person, to ensure maximum participation.
With 60 people participating in each session, our facilitators designed interactive exercises that kept people engaged and applying ideas.
“Our staff felt invested in, and our teams benefitted from new skills,” says the organization’s senior manager of people and culture.
The organization was so pleased with the results, they asked for a next level of training to be built for managers. Now almost every leader in the organization has completed this second level of training.
#2: EMPOWERING A GLOBAL WORKFORCE THROUGH VIRTUAL TRAINING
“Our company benefited tremendously from this experience.”
A software company had a global team of exceptional engineers and developers, but the company needed more than technical skills. The leaders wanted their talented tech staff to show up at meetings with confidence, move ideas forward, offer feedback with boldness, and guide their clients with strategic insight.
The company’s co-founder wanted his team members to “embark on a self-discovery journey that would enable them to discover the kind of leaders they are and how they would now lead and follow.”
Because of the organization’s limited time and multiple timezones, we designed a streamlined, customized program that consisted of monthly 1-hour training sessions on vital topics and small group exercises for application of the concepts. Our team partnered with the firm's executives to identify an action-learning project that would help the company advance an important initiative; participants led this initiative, giving them an instant ability to apply the program’s concepts to a strategic opportunity.
The co-founder reported that the whole group, and each individual participant, felt like they got the attention they needed to grow and develop. Pre- and post-engagement assessment showed the program significantly moved the needle in every area the executives identified as important.
#3: BRINGING THE TEAM TOGETHER FOR A DEEP DIVE INTO SELF-AWARENESS
“We’re finally having the conversation we need to be having.”
Succession planning prompted a vice president with a leading national non-profit to consider the development needs of his director-level team. He felt they would benefit from greater self-awareness and a clearer understanding of the impact their words and actions had on their teams. Team building would be a bonus, the vice president said.
The team was looking for a solution that offered quick insight at both the team and individual levels.
Bright Threads consultants created a half-day retreat to deepen self-awareness and build capacity for sharing direct feedback.
Participants took assessments in advance. Our facilitators guided the team through a series of exercises to unpack insights from these assessments, and to reflect on how they might grow their self-awareness.
After the session, participants completed homework that enabled them to better understand their leadership strengths and the unintended impact they sometimes have on others. Then, each participant had an individual coaching session to process their understanding.
The vice president is now considering how to expand the learning to other teams in the organization, and is hoping to inspire additional growth.