Welcome to the Center for Leadership Development (CLD). We provide leadership and professional development solutions to federal employees and agencies in a variety of ways. Learn how we are transforming today’s employees into tomorrow’s leaders through innovative development programs:

• Leadership development courses based on the Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs)
• Customized leadership programs for agencies
• Specialized training for HR professionals
• Courses and project-based learning opportunities in:
  • Human-centered design and customer experience
  • Process and performance improvement
• Streamlined hiring and development through the Presidential Management Fellows Program.
• Learning technology and assisted acquisition solutions through USALearning^®

Why CLD?

For over 50 years, we’ve delivered on our mission of developing visionary leaders to transform government. We provide a comprehensive array of leadership development options to strengthen individuals and organizations.

Through virtual learning settings, classrooms in Charlottesville, Va., Washington, DC., and in agency locations, our experienced faculty, facilitators, and consultants guide individuals and agencies in apply knowledge and skills to address today’s public sector challenges.

Our mission is to develop visionary leaders to transform government. Our offerings are built upon foundational public service values and competencies that transcend professions and missions. Grounded in the latest public and private research, our programs and services help transform people and organizations, focusing on contemporary challenges through the lens of government. This approach fosters the exchange of ideas, best practices, and resources to strengthen and improve individuals and agencies.

Developing visionary leaders

We believe great leaders can transform and improve government to best serve the American people. Whether you are an aspiring leader, new supervisor, or seasoned executive, our career-spanning, multilevel leadership curriculum guides you through development and career growth – for your current role or the one you aspire to.

Our curriculum is built upon OPM’s Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs) and competencies that represent guideposts on the path to career and organizational success.

Our leadership programs are offered:

• For individuals through off-the-shelf courses
• For agencies through group deliveries of off-the-shelf courses or customized leadership programs 

Building capacity to solve challenges

Our project-based learning approach helps agencies solve complex challenges related to people, processes, and performance while concurrently building internal capacity through training and participatory learning.

First, our consultants guide you in thinking how customized innovation programs can meet your agency’s unique needs. Then, we help you build approaches and methods to address them, concurrently teaching improvement and design practices while your team directly addresses those immediate needs.

This approach equips your agency’s employees with improvement and design capabilities, knowledge, and skills that can be immediately applied to support transformation initiatives.

• Human-centered design: Offered through The Lab at OPM, our design capabilities include:
  • User experience (UX) design
  • Product and service design
  • Program and policy design
  • Design strategy and research

• Process improvement: Offered through OPM's Process & Performance Improvement Program, our improvement capabilities include:
  • Utilizing data to shape critical public sector processes
  • Supporting the shift of time and energy from low-value to high-value work, and
  • Uncovering root causes of process challenges

Simplifying access to e-Learning services

Our e-Learning services, offered through USALearning®, support the federal workforce and agencies through simplified, one-stop access to current and next generation learning technologies and environments.

• Learning ecosystems: Integrated, cloud-based learning platforms can be customized to support your agency's unique mission. We guide you in determining the best solution based on your requirements - including learning and talent management systems, hosting, learning content management, and more.
• Training development and design: Training and educational content often requires custom development to ensure relevancy to the competency being trained. Let our experts help you design, develop, and implement training for your government organization.

Improving HR capabilities

Our specialized HR training, offered through the Federal HR Institute, directly supports the government-wide initiative to grow HR workforce capability. The program of study establishes a single, standardized framework based on career mapping for federal HR practitioners, developing skills in staffing, classification, compensation, and Delegated Examining. All courses offered by the Federal HR Institute can be taken individually or delivered as agency cohorts (in person or online). 

Find out why high-performing aspiring leaders, supervisors, managers, and executives like you turn to us to enhance their leadership and management skills.

Network and engage with your peers from all branches of government in our off-the-shelf, interagency courses offered in Washington, DC., Charlottesville, Va., and other locations throughout the country.

View our full course schedule or learn about specific courses:

By leadership level:

• Aspiring leaders
• Team leads
• Supervisors
• Managers
• Executives
• Senior executives

By skill:

• Human-centered design
• Process improvement
• HR training

Group leadership training

Our off-the-shelf courses can be delivered for groups within your agency.* Let us provide the leadership and professional development skills your employees need to excel at all levels of your organization.

*Our Leadership for a Democratic Society program cannot be provided for single-agency groups.

Contact us at CLDConnect@opm.gov to learn more about group leadership training for agencies.

Customized leadership programs

Our experts address your specific needs with customized leadership development solutions to support your workforce. We can design a program that meets the scope and size of your organization and provide subject-matter experts to help address your agency’s challenges.

Learn more about customized leadership programs.

Project-based learning

Work to solve real organizational problems while building capacity within your teams. Our project-based learning solutions in human-centered design and process and performance improvement help government organizations conduct projects that result in groundbreaking and innovative outcomes.

Learn more about project-based learning partnership opportunities.

Learning technology

Our learning technology solutions through USALearning^® include the development and delivery of customized learning management systems (LMS), learning content management systems (LCMS, e-Learning/testing platforms, course development, communities of practice, and other customized content and collaborative platforms.

Learn more about USALearning^® services.

Streamlined hiring

Recruit top talent at GS 9-12 levels through the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program. Select prequalified candidates from across a variety of academic disciplines to meet your agency’s staffing needs. During the two-year fellowship, you’ll benefit from the training we provide that develops Fellows into problem solvers, strategic thinkers, and future leaders.

Learn more about the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) program.

Overview

We offer courses at our campus in Charlottesville, Va., classrooms in Washington, D.C., and locations throughout the country.

Federal Executive Institute