About Our Research

Cutting-Edge Leadership Research

At CCL, we believe that better leaders create a better world. We’ve originated scientific research in the field of leadership development for more than 50 years. The result? One of the largest leadership research databases in the world and a rich body of evidence-based science used to accelerate leadership performance.

With this mindset, we can not only directly shape best practices for today’s global leadership needs, but also anticipate and explore theories and practice for the next generation.

Our multi-disciplinary team includes a variety of social scientists, data scientists, statisticians, and product innovators. We dig deep into what transforms good leaders into great ones, applying the latest scientific methodologies and leadership analytics techniques to produce academic publications, new products and services, thought leadership, and evaluation methodologies for measuring the impact of leadership development.

Our current leadership research includes a focus on effective leader development; leading through change; collective and team leadership best practices; and leadership for the future.

Alongside those priorities, our leadership research team has created new knowledge and interventions in research fields like resilience, social identity, and 21st-century leadership challenges. 

As pioneers in leadership research and development, we’ve crafted a trusted set of best practices that redefine what leadership can achieve.

We Pioneered Leadership Development

Since our start as a research-based institution in 1970, we’ve helped invent the field of leadership development. Our research team was among the first to create and implement 360 feedback, use assessment for development, investigate leader derailment, and research the glass ceiling effect.

Our research-based frameworks have become industry standard and are widely lauded, including the 70-20-10 rule for L&D; defining leadership as a social process; and our pivotal SBI feedback model.

Learn more about our top leadership models and how we turn ideas into action.

Explore Our Leadership Research

Innovation site

Shaping Best Practices in Leadership for Tomorrow

Learn more about the latest work of our Leadership Research & Analytics team by visiting cclinnovation.org. 

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Connect With Us

You can request permission to use our assessment content for your own leadership research, or if we can help use our decades of pioneering leadership development research to craft an evidence-based development solution for your organization, please get in touch!

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