Adaptive Leadership Program
Nominate a leader today!
Registration is open for the Class of 2027, beginning Fall 2025.
What is Adaptive Leadership?
Leadership Eastside’s Adaptive Leadership course builds individual skills and relationships for the greater good.
Adaptive Leadership- offers skills to lead people through difficult, messy and complex challenges using systems thinking. Adaptive change involves an honest examination of current roles, norms, values & priorities, how they maintain the status quo & how they need to evolve to catalyze equitable change.
3 Systems: Self, Team/Organization, Community
Competencies
Systems thinking
Leadership and management of self
Gracious space
Emotional Intelligence
Racial equity
Adaptive campaigns
Thrival
Community perspective
Racial Equity is a key element of leadership. Understanding how racism operates as a system is essential for any modern leader. Diverse communities require us to lead with, not for, the people affected by decisions. Work closely with people from diverse backgrounds & get more comfortable with discomfort.
LE gives you the tools you need. Create an environment for having hard conversations authentically, without erasing our differences. Practice learning in public and inviting divergent perspectives, and finding the deep value in both.
Adaptive Leadership Experience
Participation in LE’s Adaptive Leadership program will require you to challenge your own beliefs, and be open to dismantling the systems in your community that prevent needed changes from happening. This process requires courage, compassion and empathy as you will be witness to your cohort’s learning and they yours. Within a multicultural cohort learning environment you will be introduced to Adaptive Leadership concepts, and challenged to apply those concepts to current regional issues.
Upon graduation, you will have gained the ability to recognize systems and uncover the often unspoken values and fears that are supporting the status quo. You will have learned how to leverage the conflict that arises during this discovery process to move the community towards a shared vision. You will have a shared common language with the expansive network of LE graduates working together to facilitate the tough conversations that are so desperately needed in our community.
The journey you take within yourself and alongside your cohort will leave the way you approach challenges in your community, professional and personal life forever changed!
Program Features & Benefits
Multicultural and multiracial cohort learning environment.
Variety of innovative adult and action learning methods.
Distinguished facilitation and coaching staff.
Blended learning approach.
Competency based curriculum.
Learner-centered continuous development.
Engagement with a robust learning community acts as a career accelerator.
Equips leaders to be a positive force in dismantling inequities in communities and organizations, and creating new, more inclusive systems.
Cohort members apply the AL approach to real community issues.
Time Commitment
First Year: Begins with an August Welcome Reception
2 days in September (Kickoff), 1 Thursday per month October - May (10 days total).
3-5 hours outside of class: class pre-work, reading, connecting with class members, and team development.
Focus is on learning Adaptive Leadership principles, concepts and building a strong class cohort.
Second Year: Begins in September
2 days in September (Kickoff), 1 Thursday per month Oct-May, no Dec class (9 days total).
8-10 hours outside of class for your team project.
Focus is on putting year-one learnings into practice and growing as leaders.
Cost
2-year Tuition is $4,500 - Scholarships Available!
Scholarships, tuition assistance and payment plans are available.
We have a scholarship fund specifically designated to ensure underrepresented students have access to the program.
We offer support for candidates who are working to have their employers pay for the course, inquire within.
Tuition is due prior to the first class day of class in October.
If you have any questions please contact info@leadershipeastside.com.
Do I need to be nominated?
We encourage nominations and we are happy to have you nominate yourself. When you submit your your application we will ask for a couple of references who can tell us about the roles you have played in the community or your organization.
Who will be in my Cohort?
Twenty five to thirty five leaders from Eastside communities, representing the private, public, and non-profit sectors including business leaders, elected officials and community leaders.
Attaining the best combination of class members from diverse backgrounds ensures the most receptive environment for individual leadership growth and skill building, while creating a powerful and influential network.
Leadership Eastside is committed to age, gender, and racial and ethnic diversity, reflective of our Eastside communities. The common thread among all class participants is a high level of leadership competency and a commitment to serving their Eastside community.
Which communities does Leadership Eastside serve?
Leadership Eastside serves the communities of East King County, including 23 major communities as well as the unincorporated areas. While people who live outside of East King County may apply, it must be with the understanding that in-person classes, meetings and community service projects must take place and benefit the communities of East King County.
Will the LE experience be virtual or in person?
Beginning in Fall 2022, the ACL program is in person. Our sessions take place monthly at locations around the Eastside. We will move temporarily to virtual if the pandemic requires. We have learned a lot about delivering quality programs online during Covid, and are carefully crafting our days together to get the best learning experience with the strengths of both online and in-person education.
Robin Callahan LE’ 14
“LE transformed my leadership skills--providing me with tools, a shared vocabulary and deep insight into how to be a more effective leader. LE's two year Adaptive Community Leadership Program and Executive Insight provided me with a rich personal and professional growth opportunity and lasting relationships with a network of community leaders who I continue to collaborate with 10 years later. “
Who believes in Leadership Eastside’s program?
A wide range of Eastside businesses, nonprofits and community organizations have and continue to send their executives and managers through Leadership Eastside’s Adaptive Leadership experience.
King County Library System
King County Regional Housing Authority
King County Regional Homelessness Authority
Lake Washington Institute of Technology
Lane Powell
Langton Spieth
Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce
Meydenbauer
Microsoft
Overlake Hospital
Phenix Physical Therapy & Personal Wellness
Port of Seattle
Pride Across the Bridge
Puget Sound Energy
Rainier Athletes
Republic Services
Safeco Insurance
Seattle Children's Hospital
Sophia Way
Studio East
Symetra Financial
The Seattle Foundation
United Way
University of Washington
Wright Runstad
YMCA - Bellevue
Here are some of our alumni organizations:
AAA Washington
Acres of Diamonds
Amazon
Bellden Cafe
Bellevue Arts Museum
Bellevue College
Boeing
Boys & Girls Club - Bellevue
Cascade Water Alliance
Cascadia College
Delivery Express
Eastrail Partners
Eastside Cities: Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland, Snoqualmie, Bothell, Kenmore
Eastside Fire & Rescue
Eastside For All
EvergreenHealth
Expedia
Friends of Youth
Futurewise
Global Innovation Exchange - UW
Group Health/Kaiser Permanente
GLY Construction
HealthPoint
Hopelink
Imagine Housing
King County