What is The Leadership Project?
The Leadership Project exists to build individual and collective leadership and problem-solving talent throughout the region for the benefit of both the region, and the organizations and communities within it.
We are looking for committed individuals from all walks of community, organizational, and enterprise life to learn about authentic personal and organizational leadership, and then apply that knowledge and insight in their own lives and careers, and to problems, challenges, and opportunities throughout the region.
The Leadership Project is a learning community that combines both work in the classroom and a commitment to explore and address problems, challenges, and opportunities collaboratively, and in partnership with other stakeholders.
The core of the Leadership Project is a year-long seminar in the foundations of personal leadership, and shared inquiry and learning in several critical leadership capacities, insights, and perspectives. It is for emerging leaders, community leaders, organization and enterprise leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Its mission is threefold: to build better individual leaders, who build better organizations and workplaces, who build better communities.
It will challenge participants to seek the truth of who they are as leaders, and the impact their beliefs and behaviors have on those who work and live with them. It will challenge them to live and lead from the perspective that life, people, economies, culture, among other things, are interconnected. It will challenge participants to think outside of the easy “bubble” of their lives, their jobs, their social networks, and expose them to perspectives, hopes, insights, and facts away from conventional wisdom or establishment perspectives.
The Leadership Project Rutland Introduction, produced by PEGTV.
How is The Leadership Project Structured?
The Leadership Project’s curriculum is organized around six Core Leadership Mastery modules, where learning takes place in both seminar classroom settings, and collaborative inquiry and exploration around practical, real-world challenges with other stakeholders (“Learning Partners”). Participants will meet nine full days over a nine-month period.
The six Core Leadership Mastery modules are:
One: “Impact” -- The Foundations of Personal & Organizational Leadership
Two: “The Strategic and Systems Leader”
Three: “The Entrepreneur Leader”
Four: “The Community Leader”
Five: “The Organizational Leader”
Six: “The Innovation Leader”
These Core modules look at leadership not as five or six separate leadership types or personalities, but as a comprehensive, integrated set of skills, domains, concerns, and perspectives.
How to Apply
We ask that applicants share their resume with us and briefly answer five questions related to leadership. If you’re not your own boss, please submit a note from your manager stating their support for your participation.
The class is limited to 20 participants. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The first round of applicants will be admitted by Nov. 6, 2017, and the final round of applicants will be accepted by Nov. 30, 2017.
Application
Please submit three application pieces to LeadershipProjectRutland@gmail.com no later than November 6, 2017:
- Resume
- Manager sign-off - a brief statement from your manager stating his or her support for your participation
- Answers to the application questions
Application questions (250-500 words per answer):
- What is the most interesting or compelling problem facing the Rutland region?
- What are my five biggest leadership weaknesses?
- What is the gap between what I wish my impact was, and what it really is?
- What would the people close to me be surprised to find out about me?
- What three things can I do to be indispensable to my community?
Tuition for The Leadership Project is $1,800. Need-based tuition assistance is available. Please inquire if the cost of the program would deter you from applying or attending.
Important Dates:
- The class is limited to 20 participants. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. The first round of applicants will be admitted by Nov. 6, 2017, and the final round of applicants will be accepted by Nov. 30, 2017.
- Please reserve the following session dates for all-day sessions: Dec. 7, 2017 and Jan. 12, Feb. 13, Mar. 7, Apr. 13, May 22 and Jun. 19, 2018. Additional 2018 date(s) TBD.
First round of applicants will be admitted by November 6, 2017. Final round of applicants will be admitted by November 30, 2017.
Submit your materials to LeadershipProjectRutland@gmail.com.
Expectations of Students
We are looking for committed individuals from all walks of community, organizational, and enterprise life to learn about authentic personal and organizational leadership, and then apply that knowledge and insight in their own lives and careers, and to problems, challenges, and opportunities throughout the region.
We ask that participants commit to all eight sessions and participate fully in each gathering.
Tuition
$1,800
Tuition includes venue, course materials, lunch and coffee for each session.
Location
Green Mountain Power, Post Road, Rutland, VT
Dates
- Dec. 7, 2017 and Jan. 12, Feb. 13, Mar. 7, Apr. 13, May 22, and Jun. 19, 2018. Additional dates TBD.
Sponsors
- Rutland Young Professionals
- Green Mountain Power
- Castleton University
Partners
- Rutland City Police Department & Project VISION
- Rutland Region Chamber of Commerce
Contact The Leadership Project Rutland
We would love to hear from you. Write to us directly and submit application materials to us through email: LeadershipProjectRutland@gmail.com.
About Our Instructor
Joe Fusco is a vice president of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. He is an advisor to the company's chairman and chief executive officer on organizational and leadership development, human performance, brand strategy, public affairs, business and market trends, and corporate communications. He’s also an executive coach to over 200 mid- and upper-level managers and numerous work teams.
Joe is also an adjunct instructor and serves as chair of the Board of Advisors for the University of Vermont's Sustainable Innovation MBA, which is designed to create the next generation of business and organizational leaders who will change the way we live, lead, and profit. Joe teaches a year-long seminar on personal and organizational leadership and, in the fall of 2017 and 2018, a course on teamwork for sustained innovation.
Joe Fusco
Joe is a speaker and teacher who offers thought-provoking and often unconventional views and insights in the areas of leadership development, organizational and problem-solving culture, business and cultural trends, economic development, corporate responsibility and sustainability, and life/work balance. Joe has spoken to and worked with groups and companies such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Project Management Institute, MyWebGrocer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, GreenFiber, Vermont Federal Women's Network, Enterprise for a Sustainable World, Green Mountain Power, Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores, and the Vermont Community Development Association.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, and chairs the Vermont Climate Economy Action Team. He is serving on the Governor's Commission on Climate Action in 2017 and 2018, and was a member of the Vermont Climate Change Economy Council during 2015 and 2016. He served twelve years on the board of directors of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. He also served as the chairman of the Vermont Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy steering committee during 2013 and 2014.
Prior to 1995, Joe was an Albany, N.Y.-based political and corporate communications consultant serving political candidates, state-level political parties, lobbyists, public affairs advocacy groups and corporate clients (energy, software, retail) throughout the northeastern U.S. He has also held several staff positions in the New York State Legislature.