On March 15, 2022, Ramya Balakrishnan will present her cutting-edge research in a presentation titled “Understanding Leaders’ Most Pressing Challenges: Using Natural Language Processing to Develop a Leadership Challenge Ladder” at the Women in Data Science Conference in Charlotte, NC.
From effective time management to working across boundaries, leaders at all levels face numerous challenges in the workplace. However, it is unclear which challenges are most salient and how the most important challenges employees face may vary based on their organizational position, sector, and social identity. In this study, we used natural language processing to identify leaders’ key leadership challenges and examine them across leader levels.
The Leadership Challenge Ladder (LCL) is an evidence-based and theoretically grounded framework to describe key leadership challenges. It draws from 11 years (2010–2020) of data collected from over 50,000 multi-level leaders working across more than 6,000 organizations. Study participants provided open-ended responses to the question, “What are the 3 most critical leadership challenges you are currently facing?” Using natural language processing (i.e., Latent Dirichlet Allocation Topic modeling), 5 different topic models were identified based on 5 leader levels (from first-time managers to leading organizations). 6 to 11 topics were identified per leader level, with topics named by 4 subject matter experts to align with research on leadership development.
Findings from this study serve as a foundation for academic and practical applications, including providing organizations with scalable approaches to understanding leadership challenges within their organizations. Based on the findings, this presentation will include 3 innovative ideas to enhance the interpretability of results, driving the potential for new insights from one’s data.
About the Women in Data Science Conference
The Charlotte Women in Data Science (WiDS) Conference is an event hosted and sponsored by UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science and Lowe’s. The conference features industry and academic experts from across the region, highlighting groundbreaking research, innovative industry solutions, and more. Learn more about the Women in Data Science Conference.
At the Center for Creative Leadership, our drive to create a ripple effect of positive change underpins everything we do. For 50+ years, we’ve pioneered leadership development solutions for leaders at every level, from community leaders to CEOs. Consistently ranked among the top global providers of executive education, our research-based programs and solutions inspire individuals at every level in organizations across the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — to ignite remarkable transformations.
At the Center for Creative Leadership, our drive to create a ripple effect of positive change underpins everything we do. For 50+ years, we’ve pioneered leadership development solutions for leaders at every level, from community leaders to CEOs. Consistently ranked among the top global providers of executive education, our research-based programs and solutions inspire individuals at every level in organizations across the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — to ignite remarkable transformations.
Get our latest insights delivered to your inbox: ccl.org/subscribe.
