The Vail Leadership Institute is a Colorado-based non-profit organization that convenes individuals and groups for personal growth and leadership development.

We inspire purposeful living and leading through personal discovery and experiential learning that leads to more effective, ethical leadership in our various roles whether it be as an executive, professional, teacher, parent, coach or engaged citizen. Operating on the continuum between personal growth and leadership development allows us to demonstrate this important and often overlooked link between how we lead our lives and how we lead our families, teams, organizations, and communities.

We use a holistic approach that touches mind, body, and spirit and develops trust by advocating the integration of a sound mind, a pure heart and clean hands. We encourage creating community in small groups that keep people connected through an active and influential Leaders Network.

Principal Benefit

• Developing a clearer sense of your purpose energizes your life and work because people with passion for their calling are more fully engaged.

Other Benefits

• Gaining increased insight into your values and beliefs improves ethical decision-making because you have a solid foundation from which to act.  Developing these aspects of your character helps you understand how a clean heart, and not just your head, drives your behavior.
• Creating a sharp vision of your future tied to your plan provides a powerful roadmap to significance.
• Developing listening skills makes you a better communicator.
• Building relationships of trust helps you see that making progress through others is the essence of leadership and life.
• Honoring a commitment to life-long learning keeps you growing, not dying.  
• Gaining awareness of your strengths and potential allows you to maximize your influence and make greater contributions to your organization, your family and your community.
• Drawing upon your spiritual perspective helps you maintain a healthy ego.
• Developing an appreciation for God’s creation in nature allows you to more fully reflect on the lessons of life and leadership.
• Being clear about what's important to you and how you want to "be," allows you to focus your creative energy in ways that generate extraordinary results.

We define the Inside First™ framework as a process that starts within, clarifying purpose, values and beliefs that differentiate our character, and then emanates outward, advanced by the skills of visioning and planning to guide our actions and relationships. Inside First leadership has resonance with many similar approaches, including values-based leadership, servant-leadership, and more. This philosophy continues to evolve in a multiple thought-leader, open source fashion.

In 2013, we are helping hundreds of people achieve authentic significance in their lives. We are cultivating effective, ethical leaders through transformative perspectives and processes that guide people in the integration of head and heart. The various spiritual points-of-view are more openly discussed in organizations and this approach is widely recognized as valuable.

The people involved with the Institute apply the enduring principles and practices of the Inside First framework staying connected through an active and influential Leaders Network. We are sustained through continuing support from affiliates, partners and members of this network.

The Vail Valley is a vibrant, learning-oriented community with a campus of facilities, both built and natural. The community is benefitting from a cadre of leaders who are inspired stewards of their organizations, families and the community, and who facilitate rejuvenation recognizing that recreation also includes the “re-creation” of one’s spirit. We have evolved from touching people locally to influencing people throughout Colorado. In the longer term, the Vail Valley has become a center of renewal whose influence emanates out touching people in communities far and wide.