We have provided answers to a few inquiries here, If you have any other questions please feel free to contact a rep for personalized answers.
For nearly three decades, FranklinCovey Education, a division of FranklinCovey, has been one of the world’s most prominent and trusted providers of educational leadership programs and transformational processes. Our mission is to enable greatness in students, teachers, and schools everywhere. The FranklinCovey Education team is primarily composed of outstanding former teachers and administrators from various educational levels and entities.
FranklinCovey’s offerings, books, methodologies, and tools have been utilized by thousands of public and private primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools and institutions, including educational service centers and vocational schools in all 50 states in the U.S. and in over 50 countries.
Click here to read our CEO’s response to racial inequity from June 2020, and click here to read Sean Covey’s statement on racism, diversity, and equity.
Leader in Me is an evidence-based, social emotional learning process—developed in partnership with educators—that empowers students with the leadership and life skills they need to thrive in the 21st century. It is based on secular principles and practices of personal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness. Distinct in several ways, Leader in Me starts from a powerful premise—every child possesses unique strengths and has the ability to be a leader—which shapes the views of staff to value and develop the whole child.
This whole-school improvement model integrates leadership development into existing programs, curricula and traditions and serves as a foundational operating system for the school, improving relationships, transforming culture, and motivating staff and students. All stakeholders are impacted by Leader in Me, starting with the staff of a school, then expanding to students, their families, and the community at large. This Inside-Out Approach is a key ingredient to successfully creating positive change in a school.
Leader in Me utilizes and integrates several leadership, social emotional learning, quality, and educational models and processes from past and current thought leaders including The 4 Essential Roles of Leadership and The 4 Disciplines of Execution. The process includes student participation in goal setting, data tracking, leadership roles, Student-Led Conferences, leadership environments, and Leadership Events. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is also a key component of the overall Leader in Me process and is a synthesis of universal, timeless principles of personal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness such as responsibility, vision, integrity, teamwork, collaboration, and renewal, which are secular in nature and common to all people and cultures.
Leader in Me includes training on establishing a vision for the school, goal setting, data tracking, and personal-accountability systems and is aligned with best-in-class content and concepts practiced by global education thought leaders. Leader in Me provides a logical, sequential, and balanced process to help schools proactively design a culture that reflects their vision of their ideal school. This shared leadership increases engagement and enables students, staff, and families to be self-confident and self-reliant, work effectively with others, and make meaningful contributions.
Leader in Me differs from other whole-school transformation processes in that it offers a holistic, school-wide experience for staff, students, and parents, and creates a common language and culture within the school. The leadership principles and lessons are incorporated into coursework, traditions, systems, and culture.
Public-Facing Website: www.LeaderinMe.org
Frequently Asked Questions: https://www.leaderinme.org/faqs/
Member Site: www.leaderinme.com (password protected)
Leader in Me’s social media channels: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
Leader in Me was originally developed by a principal and teachers who wanted to teach their students life skills such as leadership, responsibility, accountability, problem solving, adaptability, effective communication, and more.
Specifically, in an effort to turn around her failing school, Muriel Summers, principal of A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina, identified leadership as her new magnet theme based on community feedback. She decided to utilize Baldridge quality tools, FranklinCovey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and several other educational best practices in designing, developing, and implementing a leadership model for her school.
Within a few years, A.B. Combs experienced what they viewed as a significant turnaround, and was named the #1 Magnet School in America. The school reported improved academic achievement, increased enrollment, soaring parent and teacher satisfaction, and higher levels of student self-confidence. Several other schools across the country took note, replicated Summers’ leadership model and, like A.B. Combs, achieved similar dramatic improvements.
Based on demand from Summers and other principals and teachers who had observed or heard about A.B. Combs’ success, FranklinCovey codified Summers’ process, creating The Leader in Me so that other schools could implement the leadership model and achieve similar results.
On May 16, 2014, A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary was named the #1 Magnet School in America for a second time. It is the only school to achieve this award twice, having first received the award in 2006. This award for excellence is given annually to the nation’s top magnet school based on a school’s demonstrated ability to:
Since its official launch, over 2,500 public, private, charter, and magnet schools across 35 countries have adopted The Leader in Me. Educators continue to offer feedback on best practices, which provides the basis for continuous improvement and refinement of the process.
For nearly three decades, FranklinCovey Education has been one of the world’s most prominent and trusted providers of educational leadership development, school systems change management, and comprehensive social emotional learning solutions.
We are a global leader in assisting schools and districts with current educational challenges such as:
Learning Loss & Virtual Learning
Educator Mental Wellness & Leadership Development
Student College, Career & Life Readiness
Family Engagement
Unconscious Bias
Equity and Inclusion
Leadership Development
Leader in Me helps educators design lasting solutions to common challenges through the lens of students’ strengths and leadership. Leader in Me approaches every goal or initiative with a proven comprehensive model that transforms paradigms, improves behavior, and achieves measurable results. By integrating the 4 Disciplines of Execution (“4DX”), educators can use its results-driven formula to address a variety of challenges. Leader in Me aligns to many school, district, and state-wide initiatives.
Leader in Me helps students develop the skills and self-confidence they need to lead their lives and succeed in school and beyond. Specifically, Leader in Me focuses on students learning the following 21st century skills:
Self-confidence
Teamwork
Initiative
Responsibility
Communication
Creativity
Self-direction
Leadership
Problem solving
Critical Thinking
Yes, absolutely. At FranklinCovey, we believe that each and every child has incredible gifts, worth and potential. Leader in Me is designed to engage and empower every student, including those with special needs. All students are invited to participate in the process, to the extent their teachers feel is appropriate, which can include fulfilling leadership roles, engaging in goal setting and data tracking, and participating in student-led conferences and leadership events.
Working closely with accredited special needs teachers, FranklinCovey developed specialized teaching alternatives in Leader in Me K-6 grade curriculum to service the unique needs of special needs students. Accompanying each lesson within Leader in Me Leadership Guide: Teacher Edition is a “Differentiated Options” section, providing educators with more than 266 teaching strategies to best meet the needs of their students.
FranklinCovey continuously evaluates and refines its curriculum to ensure our leaders of tomorrow – and the educators who teach Leader in Me – receive the best possible experience.
As caregivers are an integral part of the journey, it is our paradigm that families and educators partner together to develop the whole child.
Parents and caregivers can support their child in the Leader in Me process through:
Leader in Me is implemented as follows:
Leader in Me is an evidence-based process of continuous growth and improvement that develops the capacity of staff, students, and their families with core paradigms and effective practices.
There is objective evidence of Leader in Me impact which has been steadily growing since 2010. To date, over 100 independent academic research studies have evaluated Leader in Me’s effectiveness. A full range of experimental methods have been used, from sophisticated quantitative analysis of statewide data to intensive qualitative studies that analyzed interview data from dozens of educators, families, and students. In addition, nearly all the studies were reviewed by a peer-review panel or academic advisory group during development and prior to release, and all studies were conducted independent of FranklinCovey.
The following reviews from independent, highly respected organizations provide validation of our strong empirical evidence:
Harvard’s Graduate School of Education recently selected Leader in Me as a SEL program to provide in their second edition of “Navigating Social and Emotional Learning from the Inside Out” “given its strong research base and broad utilization.” The guide was funded by The Wallace Foundation in an attempt to help schools and out-of-school organizations identify the most highly effective SEL programs. The release of this report was delayed by COVID, but a pre-release copy can now be made available upon request.
The Leader in Me Research Guide (2nd Edition) is a collection of research findings from 30 separate studies highlighting the varied positive impacts, organized by our measurable results. Last published in 2018, the 3rd Edition is due out in Fall of 2021.
Further work by researchers is ongoing and will continue to provide evidence of the impact of the Leader in Me process. We see their work as a way to share the impact of Leader in Me and also learn how to grow and improve our process to have greater impact for good.
For more information about the impact of Leader in Me and to view these studies, as well as many other studies, visit our research page.
Leader in Me schools seek improvements in three areas – leadership, culture, and academics – and have access to the Measurable Results Assessment (MRA) to help them measure performance in these areas.
The MRA is a rigorously developed tool used to annually collect, analyze, and report student-, staff-, and school-level outcomes related to the focus on improving leadership, culture, and academics. It can be used to help a school identify its strengths and weaknesses, develop improvement plans, and monitor progress. The MRA measures are aligned with the highly effective practices outlined in the Leader in Me Framework. This alignment empowers schools to move from data insights to action plans and best leverage their limited time and resources to meet their goals.
Many Leader in Me schools also measure success by working toward FranklinCovey’s Lighthouse Certification, which is a highly-regarded standard set by FranklinCovey that is attainable by every Leader in Me school. As it is a significant benchmark, applying for this certification typically occurs four to five years after a school begins the Leader in Me process (see the Question: “What is a Leader in Me Lighthouse School?” for more about becoming a Lighthouse School).
Leader in Me is having a significant, measurable impact on schools all over the world and in the lives of millions of students, parents, teachers, and administrators, as is evidenced by the findings resulting from studies conducted by leading academic institutions and third-party research organizations. To learn more about the impact the process is having, visit our research page..
Educational literature indicates that schools with positive learning climates free from discipline problems, bullying, and disengagement perform better academically. Additionally, the literature suggests that effective social emotional learning in schools leads to better academic outcomes for students. With over 30 academic research studies completed, Leader in Me has demonstrated impact in all of these areas including school culture, student behavior, attendance, students’ social-emotional skills, and staff and student engagement. Further, several recent studies show an impact on academics. There is growing evidence that the Leader in Me process improves academics.
FranklinCovey also recognizes that Leader in Me is one of numerous factors that can impact academic achievement in schools, including factors such as curriculum standards and testing, assessment approaches, demographics, district practices, administrative experience, quality of teaching, personnel turnover, etc. Many of these variables are outside the control of the school or Leader in Me. Thus, only empirical studies that isolate these many variables over the long-term can establish a causal relationship between Leader in Me and academic improvement, and studies like this are underway but not yet completed.
FranklinCovey’s focus is to help organizations and individuals increase their effectiveness and ensures its content, offerings, and processes help clients to do so. The company invests heavily in research and product development, often creating original content and implementation processes and tools. It often acquires and licenses the rights to the best-in-class content from subject-matter experts and widely respected thought leaders, which adds to the quality of its solutions. It then integrates the best elements of this content into its content and solutions in its seven areas of expertise: leadership, execution, productivity, trust, sales performance, customer loyalty, and education. FranklinCovey’s individual, team, and organizational effectiveness content includes contributions from diverse thought leaders such as:
When FranklinCovey acquires or licenses content, it is done solely on the basis of the relevance of that content or contribution to the specific organizational or individual effectiveness issue being addressed. FranklinCovey does not acquire, license, or subscribe to any of these contributors’ personal writings, opinions, or social, religious (or nonreligious), or political views or beliefs.
FranklinCovey is committed to schools achieving quality results. The company invests significant resources into continuous improvement of its educational training, coaching, and resource materials so that schools may build and sustain strong, dynamic leadership cultures.
To achieve successful cultural transformation through the application of Leader in Me, in the initial onboarding process preparation is guided to ensure that the school is ready to fully engage in Leader in Me implementation. Qualification and pre-work is required with each school prior to implementation to ensure that the principal and staff are informed, engaged, and committed to implement the process with fidelity. During the implementation and as long as a school remains in the Leader in Me network of schools, FranklinCovey provides extensive support to maintain quality:
As it relates to the quality of Leader in Me, FranklinCovey invests significant time and research on current trends and developments in the fields of education, leadership, and culture. Additionally, educators continue to offer feedback on best practices, which also provides continuous improvement and refinement of the process.
Within the education industry, it is common for schools to receive recognition for outstanding achievement. The Lighthouse Certification is a highly-regarded standard set by FranklinCovey that is attainable by every Leader in Me school. As it is a significant benchmark, applying for this certification typically occurs four to five years after a school begins the Leader in Me process.
The certification is evidence that schools have produced outstanding results in school and student outcomes, by implementing the process with fidelity and excellence. It is also because of the extraordinary impact that the schools may be having on staff, students, parents, and the greater community.
Today, there are more than 600 schools around the world that have earned Lighthouse certification by meeting the following criteria:
Leader in Me schools maintain their Lighthouse Certification for two years and continue to foster their growth in exemplifying a leadership culture. At the end of the two years, schools may recertify to maintain their Lighthouse Certification.
The Leader in Me utilizes and integrates several leadership, social-emotional learning, quality, and educational models and processes from past and current thought leaders including The 4 Imperatives of Great Leaders and The 4 Disciplines of Execution. The process includes student participation in goal setting, data tracking, leadership roles, Student-Led Conferences, leadership environments, and Leadership Events. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is also a key component of the overall Leader in Me process and is a synthesis of universal, timeless principles of personal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness such as responsibility, vision, integrity, teamwork, collaboration, and renewal, which are secular in nature and common to all people and cultures.
First published in 1989, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is considered one of the most influential, best-selling business and management books ever written, having sold over 25 million copies in 52 languages. According to Fortune, The 7 Habits is “one of the best-selling books of all time,” was named the “most influential book of the 20th century” by Chief Executive magazine, and was listed as “one of the top 10 most influential management books ever” by Forbes. For the last 25 years, the 7 Habits have guided generations of readers and have been successfully adopted and implemented by thousands of the world’s leading organizations in every country, including Fortune 100 and 500 organizations, governmental agencies, and educational institutions.
In The 7 Habits book, Covey writes that he conducted an in-depth study of decades of principles of personal, interpersonal, and organizational effectiveness, which he gleaned from numerous books, articles, and essays, written by some of the world’s greatest thinkers and leaders such as Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, George Bernard Shaw, Viktor Frankl, T.S. Eliot, Carl Rogers, and Peter Drucker. These principles include fairness, integrity, teamwork, honesty, human dignity, service or contribution, quality or excellence, potential, patience, nurturance, encouragement, responsibility, vision, collaboration, and renewal. Covey emphasized that these principles were not his own; rather, he synthesized and assembled them into a framework that was easy to understand and implement—The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
The principles taught in the 7 Habits are universal, timeless principles of personal, interpersonal and organizational effectiveness, which are secular in nature and common to all people and cultures. They transcend political, philosophical, religious, socioeconomic, generational, gender, and lifestyle differences, and may be adapted and applied in any context or environment.
In his foreword in the 25th anniversary edition of The 7 Habits book, Jim Collins, business thought leader and author of The New York Times best-seller Good to Great, said:
“There had been hundreds of years of accumulated wisdom about personal effectiveness…but it was never assembled into one coherent, user-friendly framework. Stephen Covey created a standard operating system —the “Windows®”—for personal effectiveness and he made it easy to use….The ideas embedded in the framework are timeless. They are principles. That is why they work, and why they speak to people in all age groups around the globe…. But, I think the most important aspect of the 7 Habits—what makes it not just practical, but profound—is its emphasis on building character rather than “attaining success.” There is no effectiveness without discipline and there is no discipline without character. …I have come to a personal belief…that great leadership begins first with character—that leadership is primarily a function of who you are, for this is the foundation for everything you do.”
The principles taught in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are outlined in the table below:
The 7 Habits of Happy Kids is a New York Times best-selling children’s book authored by Sean Covey and illustrated by artist Stacy Curtis. The book introduces young readers to the 7 Habits through a cast of characters and accessible stories that give parents tools to help explain useful life lessons.
The characters in the book were inspired from and are based on Covey’s own children and their personal interests in life and experiences with the 7 Habits. From being proactive to sharpening the saw, this kid-friendly, New York Times best seller has a fully illustrated story to introduce each of the 7 Habits.
FranklinCovey provides its world-renowned content and processes to schools at a discount of 50 percent or more compared to its corporate clients.
The standard cost of implementing Leader in Me varies based upon the numbers of staff and students served at each school. Averages in the U.S. range from $40-$50 per student per year during the first three years of implementation, and $14-$19 per student per year beyond year three. Recent innovations with the process have also introduced the ability for districts to become certified in Leader in Me content and deliver training to their own staff through a train-the-trainer approach, which can significantly reduce the cost. Comparing similar processes is difficult, based upon various implementation strategies and scope of services provided. But, when compared to processes with similar scope of services, the cost of Leader in Me is comparable or less expensive.
Schools that implement Leader in Me process over the first three years receive:
In a survey of principals who have implemented Leader in Me, 90 percent of principals responded that Leader in Me is a “worthwhile” or “extremely worthwhile” investment.
Over the past several years, FranklinCovey has donated millions of dollars in donations, products and services to schools in need. For example, FranklinCovey provides donations to schools directly or to foundations that support Leader in Me Schools. Additionally, for each 7 Habits manual purchased by a client organization, FranklinCovey donates a student leadership guide to a deserving student living throughout the world.
For more information on how individuals and organizations may sponsor a school, call 1-800-272-6839, send an email to [email protected], or fill out the form on our Sponsors page.
Yes. Many corporations and nonprofit organizations have been very supportive of schools implementing Leader in Me, and have contributed funds as part of their corporate social responsibility programs. Some of these partners include Kern Family Foundation, Panda Express, Panda Cares, Leader.org, the Allan P. Markin Charitable Foundation, Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, Honda, Pearson, 3M, Staten Island Foundation, Enersolve, Jordan Education Foundation, Wegmans, Southwest Florida Workforce Development Board, Naples Children & Education Foundation, Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, PotashCorp., United Way, Holy Guacamole, Southwest Louisiana Economic Alliance, Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce, Lafayette Education Foundation, and Carver Foundation.
Individuals and organizations wishing to sponsor a school may call 1-800-272-6839, send an email to [email protected], or fill out the form on our Sponsors page.
Franklin Covey Co., which offers The Leader in Me process, is a global, public company (NYSE: FC) specializing in performance improvement. It has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange for more than 20 years. We help organizations and individuals achieve results that require a change in human behavior. Our expertise is in seven primary areas: leadership, execution, productivity, trust, sales performance, customer loyalty, and education. FranklinCovey clients include, or have included, 90 percent of the Fortune 100, more than 75 percent of the Fortune 500, thousands of small and midsize businesses, as well as numerous governmental entities and thousands of educational institutions.
FranklinCovey has more than 100 direct and partner offices providing professional services in over 150 countries and territories. Its more than 2,000 employees and partners, the majority of whom live outside the United States, reflect the cultural, ethnic, religious, and political diversity of the populations in the countries in which the company operates.
Inclusion is a core value at FranklinCovey. We know that building an inclusive work culture in which everyone is valued and respected contributes to our success. Our content and solutions encourage inclusion and embracing and celebrating different backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. As a company, we prohibit discrimination as it relates to race, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, education, disability status, socioeconomic status, religion, or any other characteristic. We are committed to serving our customers with respect and helping them improve their individual, team, and organizational performance to achieve extraordinary results and lasting change.
FranklinCovey is not and never has been affiliated or associated with any religious or political objective or philosophy, nor does it have any religious or political intent. The company’s stated purpose is to help individuals and organizations everywhere achieve their own great purposes and potential.
FranklinCovey’s content, thought leadership, and offerings are recognized as among the most impactful in each of its seven practice areas. As a result, FranklinCovey has been honored with numerous awards for the quality of its offerings, and many of its books have achieved national or worldwide best-seller status. FranklinCovey appreciates these recognitions, but values most highly the more than 90 percent annual retention of its clients and customers, and the fact that these clients consistently give FranklinCovey and its offerings their highest ratings.
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