Every organization has an idea of what good leadership means. The challenge is making that expectation clear, consistent, practiced in the day-to-day, and relevant to the organization you are building.
A leadership model creates a shared definition of effective leadership: the behaviours, capabilities, and mindsets leaders need to demonstrate at different levels and in different contexts.
Leadership Model Design
Create a shared foundation for leadership across your organization.
How you define leadership shapes how it shows up across your organization.
We help organizations define a leadership model grounded in their strategy, values, culture, and future needs, creating a practical foundation for developing, assessing, and strengthening leadership across the organization.
Our Approach
Leadership model design starts with understanding what the organization needs from its leaders now and in the future. We gather perspectives, examine existing organizational inputs, and translate those insights into clear and observable leadership expectations.
-
We begin with the organization's strategy, culture, values, growth plans, challenges, and future direction. This establishes the context for what leadership needs to accomplish.
-
We engage leaders and other relevant collaborators to understand what is working today, where leadership needs to evolve, and what behaviours will be required to support the organization's future.
Depending on the organization, this may include executive interviews, senior leader focus groups, broader leadership input, employee feedback, engagement data, or other organizational insights.
-
We examine existing values, strategic priorities, competency work, and other organizational frameworks to identify the leadership behaviours that will help bring them to life.
This creates a direct connection between where the organization is going, what it values, and how its leaders need to lead.
-
We bring relevant leadership research, organizational development thinking, and current best practices into the design process. This provides an external perspective while ensuring the model remains grounded in the organization's specific context.
-
We synthesize the insights into a clear leadership model that describes the capabilities, behaviours, and expectations that define effective leadership within the organization.
Where appropriate, expectations can be differentiated by leadership level so that leaders understand how the model applies to their scope and responsibilities.
-
A leadership model creates value when it is used. We help organizations identify how the model can inform leadership development, coaching, assessment, succession, talent conversations, performance expectations, and other people practices.
From Model to Leadership Culture
A leadership model only becomes meaningful when people use it.
The real opportunity is to create a common language that shows up in how leaders are selected, developed, assessed, coached, promoted, and held accountable.
We help organizations move from defining leadership expectations to embedding them into the everyday experience of leadership, creating greater consistency between what the organization says leadership means and what leaders actually do.
A Leadership Model Can Help You
Create Leadership Clarity
Establish a shared understanding of what effective leadership means across the organization.
Strengthen Leadership Development
Use the model as a foundation for leadership programs, coaching, and individual development.
Connect Leadership to Strategy
Define the leadership capabilities and behaviours required to execute the organization's strategic direction.
Support Assessment & Feedback
Create meaningful standards against which leadership effectiveness can be explored and developed.
Bring Values
to Life
Translate organizational values into observable leadership behaviours.
Strengthen Succession & Talent Decisions
Create clearer expectations for assessing readiness, identifying development needs, and preparing people for future roles.
Create Consistency Across Levels
Establish common leadership expectations while recognizing the different responsibilities and scope of each level.
Align Leadership Practices
Connect leadership expectations across development, performance, talent, and organizational processes.
The ViRTUS Difference
Leadership expectations should reflect the organization they serve. What leaders need to demonstrate will vary based on the organization's strategy, culture, operating environment, growth stage, and future direction.
We bring together organizational insight, leadership perspectives, values, research, and leading practices to create a model that is meaningful to the people who will use it.
The result is more than a list of competencies. It becomes a shared language and practical standard for leadership that can connect leadership development, coaching, assessment, succession, talent decisions, and everyday leadership expectations.
We build leadership models around your organization, not a generic competency library.