The Leader To Leader Program

John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”

But how do great leaders come to know the way?

At most companies, training and personal development tend to stop once you reach a certain level of leadership. Leaders are often expected to find their own development resources outside of the company. This is especially common among senior leaders or leaders of other leaders.

The Rocket Mortgage^® believes in the importance of providing team members with high-quality training at every level of their career. There are benefits to both parties when companies provide career development resources to their team members instead of only having them seek out career development opportunities on their own. Standards and language become congruent across senior leadership, leading to greater harmony and stronger communication across the company.

The understanding of this concept led the Talent Development team and leaders in the Rocket Mortgage^® to come together and implement the Leader to Leader program.

The Leader to Leader program provides senior leaders with the best career development available in today’s work environment by bringing in experts in the field of leadership development. It’s a year-long program centered around leading at the self, team and organizational levels. 

The program is kicked off by a previous participant who shares their experience with the program. They encourage current participants to push themselves and their peers in the pursuit of learning and excellence so they can get the most out of their experience.

Before leading others, one must be able to effectively lead oneself. In order to lead yourself, you should first be aware of your natural tendencies and strengths.

The Z Games, part of the 3-day kickoff for the Leader to Leader program, is a powerful tool for uncovering these strengths and unconscious behaviors. Participants are encouraged to dig deep when discovering what these are and how to better utilize them. Through interactive workshops, activities and 360-degree surveys, participants will gain awareness of their true reactive leadership style and reveal areas where there’s room for improvement.

The Leader to Leader program has been highly successful in skill-building. But one participant found out through the program that true leadership goes beyond the skill.

“Growing as a leader requires an understanding of how your own personal makeup affects how you show up to others,” said the participant. “The more you embrace this responsibility, the better your abilities will be at evolving into the leader and person you want to be. The Leader to Leader program helped me understand that.”

Since the Leader to Leader program is a year-long, participants can put their learnings to the test, applying their new knowledge to real-world scenarios. They’ll bring in their discoveries from these personal experiences and the initial kickoff weekend into coaching sessions with leadership experts. In these individual and group-setting coaching sessions, participants have discussions centered around complex problem solving, motivating a team, and effectively leading themselves and other leaders to accomplish great things.

This program not only teaches participants valuable leadership skills but also acts as a useful networking tool. Many participants find this network to be impactful far beyond the duration of the program.

“I connected with some amazing, strong and diverse individuals from across our Rocket Mortgage^®,” said another participant. ”This new network has been an invaluable resource to help navigate challenges, celebrate victories and share best practices. These are friendships that I know will live on for years!”

Participants are able to interact and bounce ideas off of other senior leaders in the Rocket Mortgage^® because of the Leader to Leader program. These are individuals whose paths wouldn’t usually cross in a typical workday without the program. When skillful leaders from different companies take the time to come together, ideas are exchanged, minds are opened to new perspectives and synergies are created between companies.

The intricacies of the program are kept mostly under wraps by past participants and program facilitators alike to keep future participants on their toes. While the skills learned and most of the bones are the same, the program adjusts every year, offering a unique experience to every cohort of senior leaders.

While only 50 senior leaders are nominated to participate in the Leader to Leader program at a time, Rocket Mortgage^® team members have access to hundreds of other trainings and career development resources.

Check out MyRocketCareer.com for more information about these programs and how you can apply to be part of our growing family of team members.