According to Chief Learning Officer Kelly Palmer, the goal for executive education at LinkedIn is to develop transformational leaders at every level of the organization. Currently leaders who are at director level or above participate in an extensive set of blended offerings including Manage[In], Coaching for Transformation and Conscious Business.
For the executive population, things are a bit more tailored. In 2015, the company’s learning organization partnered with its talent analytics group on an initiative called “Project Great.” Palmer and her team interviewed the executive team and roughly 40 other leaders to understand what great leadership looks like at LinkedIn.
“Then we created a 360-degree assessment based on our ‘great leadership characteristics’ so that we can build personalized transformation plans for our leaders,” she said. “Of course, a huge component of that is our leaders walking the talk on our culture and values.”
The professional network also has an executive coaching program where leaders can get professional LinkedIn coaches to work with them on tailored plans that include the great leadership characteristics. Other tailored learning programs focus on business simulations as well as prioritization, storytelling and communications — areas that again tie to the great leadership characteristics.
Executive staff members run sessions called “Leaders Teaching Leaders” for directors and vice presidents as well. “There is nothing more powerful than your executive team taking time out in their busy schedules to show you how important they believe development is by teaching other leaders what they have learned along the way in their careers,” Palmer said.
LinkedIn has not partnered extensively with other universities/colleges to date because it chose to develop the aforementioned programs in house. But it does have a LinkedIn speaker series that invites prominent speakers throughout the industry to share their experience and expertise.
