In many youth development and education programs, improving character and leadership development are common goals. Measuring them can become challenging due to their close relationship and broad understanding. This is why it is essential to establish clear definitions of character development and leadership development before completing an evaluation.
We are currently working with a college and career readiness program, the Center for Leadership Development (CLD), on their internal data collection and evaluation process. Two key principles of CLD are character development and leadership effectiveness. In order to determine the best way to measure these two focus areas, we walked CLD Leadership through a process where the team defined the two key focus areas, assessed their alignment across the 13 different programs and services, developed short-term 
outcomes that align with the definitions, and mapped their alignment to long-term aspirational outcomes.
1. Establish Clear Definitions
The Center for Leadership Development has a model that uses principles such as character development and leadership effectiveness to measure the college- and career-readiness of its participants. To effectively measure the two principles separately, the team needed to establish clear definitions of character development and leadership effectiveness for the organization. For example, one characteristic of college and career readiness is discipline. One must be disciplined to complete assignments on time, whether in a school or professional setting.
2. Ensure Alignment with Programming
To ensure programs were properly aligned with the core principles, the CLD leadership team identified programs with a strong focus on character development and leadership effectiveness. We walked the leadership team through each program to ensure the programs’ focus aligned with the two principles and their definitions. This process builds understanding with the team and ensures the measures are aligned with the curriculum or services.
3. Develop Short-term Outcomes
Once character development and leadership effectiveness were defined, CLD’s leadership team began to brainstorm short-term outcomes for these focus areas. These short-term outcomes were developed based on the established definitions. For example, the CLD leadership team identified self-discipline as part of what defines the organization’s character development. If the program focuses on character development, there should be a short-term outcome that provides a measure to show an increase, decline, or no change in a participant’s self-discipline. This will help the staff understand whether the curriculum and program are addressing these specific areas and moving closer to accomplishing their goals.
4. Align to Long-term Outcomes
The CLD leadership team also needed to ensure that the principles aligned with the organization’s long-term goals. The team reviewed research and discussed the rationale for why character and leadership development are critical components in propelling students toward a college and career path. The goal of aligning principles and long-term goals is to avoid losing sight of the long-term vision and impact, and to ensure everything remains connected.
Many programs that focus on developing strong character and leadership abilities in youth do so simultaneously. It can be challenging to measure character and leadership traits separately when character development lays the foundation for strong leadership skills. Although this challenge exists, organizations can overcome it by first establishing clear organizational definitions to move forward with creating short-term outcomes to measure the impact of the program and the organization as a whole. We at Transform Consulting Group are here to support your organization’s data and evaluation needs. Contact us today!
