The Ascend Professional Development 360 is informed by established principles surrounding multi-rater feedback, self-awareness, leadership assessment, perception gaps, strengths-based development, feedback interpretation, and translating assessment findings into meaningful development.

Leadership development at Ascend is informed by research and professional literature addressing communication, credibility, trust, accountability, emotional intelligence, decision-making, influence, organizational culture, self-awareness, adaptability, and developing others.

Selected resources include:

• Center for Creative Leadership

• Research and resources addressing leadership effectiveness, assessment, executive development, feedback, self-awareness, strengths, development priorities, and leadership growth.

• Professional and academic literature in organizational leadership, adult learning, organizational behavior, and leadership development.

Ascend also incorporates lessons developed through years of executive leadership, organizational management, mentoring, teaching, coaching, and leading teams in complex environments.

Our coaching philosophy is informed by research examining the relationship between coaching and outcomes including performance, professional skills, goal attainment, self-regulation, resilience, workplace attitudes, and personal development.

Ascend’s public-safety leadership and promotional-development work is informed by nationally recognized fire and emergency-services organizations and professional standards.

Resources include:

International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC)

Leadership and officer-development resources addressing professional growth, executive development, succession planning, communication, relationships, emotional intelligence, ethical leadership, executive presence, organizational leadership, and career advancement.

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

Professional qualification standards for fire and emergency-services officers, including standards addressing progressive levels of professional responsibility and job-performance expectations.

U.S. Fire Administration / National Fire Academy

Executive-level leadership and professional-development principles associated with the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program and other officer-development resources.

These professional foundations are complemented by decades of firsthand fire-service leadership, incident command, emergency management, officer development, promotional processes, mentoring, and organizational administration.

Healthcare leadership requires an environment where communication, accountability, safety, trust, decision-making, teamwork, and organizational culture are inseparable from effective leadership.

Ascend reviews leadership and organizational guidance from:

The Joint Commission

Joint Commission resources emphasize the important role leaders play in developing and maintaining cultures of safety and quality, strengthening communication, establishing accountability, assessing organizational conditions, identifying opportunities for improvement, and supporting high reliability.

Joint Commission High Reliability and Leadership Transformation resources

These resources reinforce the value of assessment, leadership engagement, organizational culture, prioritization, continuous improvement, and developing actionable improvement plans. Ascend combines these principles with firsthand executive healthcare leadership and experience working within complex, multi-site healthcare environments.

Our organizational-development work is further informed by established literature and professional practices in:

• Organizational Leadership

• Change Management

• Strategic Planning

• Emotional Intelligence

• Adult Learning

• Team Development

• Conflict Management

• Communication

• Decision-Making

• Succession Planning

• Performance Improvement

• Organizational Culture

• Executive Development

We believe effective professional development should connect theory to practice. Knowing a leadership principle is useful. Knowing how to apply it when people, pressure, uncertainty, accountability, and real consequences are involved is something different.

That is where experience matters.

Ascend also reviews professional leadership and development guidance from the:

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)

IACP leadership resources emphasize the continued development of leaders throughout an organization and address areas including communication, behavioral science, decision- making, accountability, self-awareness, trust, motivation, organizational leadership, and professional development.

Programs and resources reviewed include IACP’s Leadership in Police Organizations and other leadership-development materials for current and aspiring law-enforcement leaders. These principles help inform Ascend’s broader approach to leadership and professional development across public-safety disciplines.

Research provides important evidence. Professional standards establish expectations.

Education provides frameworks. Experience provides perspective. But none of those should replace understanding the individual. Ascend brings these elements together to develop coaching and professional-development experiences that are personalized, practical, challenging, and relevant to the opportunity or responsibility in front of you.

We don’t believe in changing people into someone they’re not. We believe in helping people understand themselves, recognize how others may experience them, develop their capabilities, and become better prepared for what comes next.