Leading Leaders Inc. is an executive education firm that has, over nearly twenty years, engineered a distinctive leadership technology for the digital age. What our research has taught us is that leaders lead other leaders by learning to lead and follow simultaneously. Moving beyond the practice of leading or following, or leading then following, Leading Leaders can empower executives and their teams or organizations to lead and follow in the same moment. The organization’s Simultaneity™ program unleashes the trust, creativity, and flow required to thrive in this turbulent now.

We are deeply grateful for our partners across several industries who have made vital contributions to our unique and proven practice. Notable projects include work with The Capital Group Companies, Inc., who utilize the Leading Leaders Practice in American Funds Distributers, American Funds Services, and now Capital Bank & Trust, Co. Steelcase purchased the intellectual property of Leading Leaders Inc. for their top executive online learning module entitled “Leading Diverse Thinkers.”

J. Jeffrey Spahn 
Founder and President of Leading Leaders Inc.

Jeffrey Spahn is the founder and president of Leading Leaders Inc. For more than 20 years he has researched, coached and inspired top business executives and their teams through the distinctive collective leadership process of We the Leader®.

Jeff’s journey into leading leaders was sparked by experiences of collective flow in high school and as a letterman on the University of Michigan football team. His business degree from the University of Michigan and doctorate from the University of Chicago ground his practice in sound scholarship. Beyond his formal education, Jeff found himself in a workshop with a group of researchers from MIT on genuine dialogue, rooted in the thinking and practice of the physicist David Bohm. From here, he went deep into the training at the renowned Second City school of improvisation. Furthermore, along with conducting original research on the purpose of business Jeff taught MBA students at Dominican University. Above all, through working with clients including industry leaders such as Capital Group, Steelcase and Encova he forged the organic diversity, equity and inclusive operating system called We the Leader.

Jeff’s most recent publication is the book, We the Leader, published by McGraw-Hill, backed by science, endorsed by Marshall Goldsmith – the only person awarded the world’s Top #1 Leadership Thinker twice – and includes a chapter from the CEO of a Fortune #15 global company.

Board memberships have included GoProdigii, a company that serves purpose driven entrepreneurs by authenticating their ESG values, Omnia Institute for Contextual Leadership and The Chicago Moving Company, a modern dance enterprise.

Current Popular Blogs:

• Leadership is Evolving. Are You?
• A Completely New Way of Leading
• 75% of Cross Functional Teams are Dysfunctional

Selected Publications:

• “Magic of Mutual Leadership.” Developing Leaders Magazine
• “3 Steps to Empathic Active Listening.” FPA’s Practice Management Solution (March/April 2012).
• “Transforming (Not Overcoming) Objections.” Advisor Perspectives (November 2011).
• “A New Capitalist Manifesto?: Re-imagining Business in the 21st Century.” Virtual Strategist (Spring 2004).
• “The Leading of Leaders in the Boardroom.” Directors & Boards (Winter 2003).
• “Honest Boardroom Communication.” Director’s Monthly (November 2002).
• “Leading Leaders: The Art of Peak Performance.” Velocity, vol. 4, no. 2 (2002).