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The Six Domains of Leadership® Model
Strengthen leadership quality across your organization with a comprehensive, behavior-based model that turns influence into a daily practice.
What the Model Provides
The Six Domains of Leadership Model translates decades of social science and leadership research into a practical structure you can use every day. It helps you:
- See your current leadership strengths and gaps with precision
- Link specific behaviors to clear outcomes, such as trust, initiative, or shared ownership
- Create a shared language for leadership across teams and levels
- Design development plans that focus effort where it matters most
You can apply the framework to your own growth, to team effectiveness, and to organization-wide leadership development.
How This Model
Defines Leadership
Leadership involves exercising direct influence over others in pursuit of a goal.
Everything in the Six Domains Model rests on this definition, which keeps the focus on what leaders actually do in real relationships and real work, not on abstract traits.
Why This Model Works
The model grows out of research in psychology, organizational behavior, sociology, political science, and clinical studies that ask a simple question: how do humans influence other humans?
This research organizes into six clusters of behavior, each of which produces distinct effects in those being led. When you understand and train toward these clusters, you can design leadership development that feels practical, relevant, and measurable across roles and contexts.
The Six Domains of Leadership at a Glance
The first three domains build the foundation: who you are, how you relate, and how you make sense of the environment.
Personal Leadership
Relational Leadership
Demonstrate care, respect, fairness, and real understanding of others’ priorities and perspectives so people feel seen, valued, and willing to trust you.
Contextual Leadership
Explain how the organization works, where the strategy is heading, how roles fit together, and what the team stands for so people share a clear sense of direction and community.
The next three domains mobilize effort, enable performance, and deepen shared ownership.
Inspirational Leadership
Help people feel enthusiastic about meaningful goals and confident that they can reach beyond what they previously thought possible, with a vision grounded in reality.
Supportive Leadership
Provide resources, honest feedback, coaching, and political cover so people can take smart risks, learn, and show mature initiative without fear of unfair punishment.
Responsible Leadership
Model stewardship for the mission, values, and broader organization. Talk openly about ethics and trade-offs and help others feel responsible for outcomes and reputation.
A Framework That Travels Across Cultures and Contexts
Organizations use the Six Domains of Leadership Model in global settings across industries and levels.
The six domains remain consistent, while each organization defines how they show up in its culture and strategy.
This balance supports both local nuance and
enterprise-wide coherence.
BRING THE MODEL TO YOUR ORGANIZATION
Our 360° Assessment
The Six Domains of Leadership Survey (SDLS) 360° gives leaders clear behavioral feedback mapped directly to the framework.
Leaders compare their own ratings with perspectives from managers, peers, direct reports, and other stakeholders across all six domains. This structure reveals blind spots, confirms strengths, and highlights patterns that affect trust, engagement, and performance.
Certified coaches in the model help leaders interpret results and commit to a short list of concrete behavioral shifts and practices. Because the framework focuses on actions, leaders start experimenting with new behaviors in the next week rather than waiting for long-term personality change.
The same structure applies whether leaders influence upward, downward, across functions, or outside the organization. Many also apply it in community and family roles where influence matters.
How to Bring the Model into
Your Leadership Development
The Six Domains of Leadership Model can anchor your leadership development efforts at multiple levels. You can use it to frame individual growth, enable team effectiveness, and shape organizational change.
Common entry points include:
- Six Domains of Leadership 360° feedback establish a clear baseline
- 1:1 executive and leadership coaching structured around the domains
- Cohort-based programs where leaders apply the model to live business challenges
- Team alignment, coaching and facilitation using the domains as a shared lens
- Organizational change efforts that need leaders aligned in behavior and mindset
Ready to bring the Six Domains Model to your organization?
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Certification
"This model dramatically influenced my thinking. What’s remarkable is how it is complementary with so many other models because the model is looking at what the effects are in whatever situation you’re in. Anyone from an entry-level person all the way to a CEO can be empowered."
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Sanyin Siang
Executive Coach, Delta Leadership; Executive Director,
Duke Coach K Leadership and Ethics Center
"This is how straightforward, simple, and practical all certification programs should be."
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Adam
University of Michigan
"SDLS is a well-validated instrument that can be applied to many leadership challenges by leaders at many levels, from new-in-role to C-suite. Coaching using the model can be tailored to the client's immediate situation."
Mark C.
Delta Certified Coach
"I keep coming back to the Six Domains of Leadership Model because the concepts are concrete, the survey shows me where to grow, and my coach and I share a common language."
Lori O'Keefe
President and Chief Executive Officer, The Triangle Community Foundation
"The Six Domains of Leadership Model gave me tools I still keep at my desk, especially as my role expanded and I started working across different business units."
Derek Thomas
Managing Director, Analytics, NASCAR Research and Development Center
"In Duke Executive Education, the Six Domains model gives leaders a clear framework for trust and alignment, and Delta Leadership coaching helps them put it into action in practical, personal ways."
Richard Freishtat, PhD
Associate Dean, Executive Education, Duke Fuqua School of Business
"I use the Six Domains of Leadership Model every week because it’s actionable, easy to learn, and it keeps me focused on credibility, relationships, and giving people the context they need to follow."
Andrea Gibbons
Chief Human Resources Officer, DTCC
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