# Builder Leader Development Kit
## A voluntary 90 day practice program with worksheets

Proposed by Jean Nickson Pijeau
Version 0.1 | October 2026 | Research update October 19 2026
Pilot curriculum | Effectiveness not established

## October 19 attribution practice extension
Use the Contribution Attribution Assessment as an optional reflection and evidence exercise. Begin with its neutral description before any coaching. In a later practice session, describe the shared outcome, identify your own verifiable action, acknowledge others' actions, and state uncertainty. This preserves collective credit while making roles inspectable. A fictional practice statement is: Our group delivered the service improvement. I designed the initial workflow. A colleague improved its reliability, and the support team enabled adoption. The statement is an example, not a quotation from the reported case.

Managers should practice reconstructing actions from evidence rather than rating assertiveness. Preserve origin, improvement, maintenance, and adoption work in an authorized history. Ask privately about missing roles, and offer a correction route. Do not coach unsupported self-promotion, require public competition for credit, or treat a participant's service background as a diagnosis. The assessment has no total score and adds no certification. Its proposed benefits require testing.

## 1 Purpose and participant agreement
This kit helps contributors practice decision communication, delegation, coordination, and shared credit while preserving relevant domain judgment. It supports a chosen development goal and can be used by specialists, project leads, or managers. Completion does not certify leadership ability or predict promotion. The exercises are proposed practices whose effects require evaluation [R10, R11].

Use the kit voluntarily with a participant, a manager who can change assignments, and a coach or peer facilitator. Participation must not become a hidden selection criterion. Confidential reflections remain with the participant unless they choose to share them. Agree on a real task and workable capacity before beginning. If the participant prefers specialist development, adapt the goal accordingly.

### Worksheet 1 Development agreement
Participant and role: __________. Development goal in the participant's words: __________. Why this goal matters to the team and to the participant: __________. Relevant work episode or assignment: __________. Start and review dates: __________.

Protected practice time within normal capacity: __________. Work removed, deferred, or transferred: __________. Receiving colleague's agreement and support: __________. Manager responsible for the capacity change: __________. Constraints, escalation route, and pause conditions: __________. Evidence of success and possible harm: __________.

Agreed by participant: __________. Agreed by manager: __________. Date: __________. This is a development agreement, not a waiver of employment rights or a promise of promotion.

## 2 Program schedule
| Period | Main practice | Reviewable output |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Days 1 to 15 | Choose a goal and reconstruct one work episode | Agreement and contribution evidence record |
| Days 16 to 30 | Translate a domain issue into a decision | One-page decision brief and stakeholder response |
| Days 31 to 45 | Delegate a bounded task with support | Delegation agreement and recipient feedback |
| Days 46 to 60 | Resolve a dependency and share capability | Handoff evidence and backup practice record |
| Days 61 to 75 | Repeat a practice in a second episode | Comparison of intended and actual consequences |
| Days 76 to 90 | Review outcomes and choose the next step | Development review and continuation decision |

Ninety days is a planning convention. Adjust timing for the work while retaining explicit reviews. A shorter or longer cycle is not a proven dose difference. Check workload weekly. If no obligations have actually moved, renegotiate before adding exercises.

## 3 Facilitator session
The opening session lasts approximately 90 minutes as a scheduling proposal. Allow 10 minutes to explain the experimental status and privacy arrangements, 15 for the participant's goals, 20 to reconstruct an episode, 20 to discuss contribution and credit, 15 to choose one practice, and 10 to confirm capacity and review dates. Permit breaks and accessible formats.

Open with this script: We are examining how work becomes understandable and how people coordinate it. The archetypes are discussion terms. We will describe actions and circumstances rather than assign a type. The purpose is a useful development experiment that fits your goals. You may decline an exercise or keep a reflection private.

Ask for concrete actions and consequences. If someone describes a colleague as purely political or invisible, ask which evidence supports the description and what may be missing. Keep relational contributions, preventive work, and shared outcomes in the record. Do not use a participant's difficulty describing their work as evidence of low competence.

## 4 Contribution evidence exercise
Choose a recent completed episode rather than a career-defining success. Describe the intended outcome, relevant quality standard, constraints, people involved, and actual result. List actions that enabled the result, including coordination and maintenance. Separate observed facts from inferred effects. Record uncertainties and evidence that could contradict the account.

### Worksheet 2 Episode reconstruction
Episode and period: __________. Intended outcome: __________. Actual outcome and evidence location: __________. My actions: __________. Other contributors' actions: __________. Joint dependencies and inherited resources: __________. Prevention or maintenance: __________. Constraints and unintended effects: __________. What remains uncertain: __________. Person authorized to verify factual details: __________.

Create a brief statement that names the collective result and accurately describes your contribution. Ask another contributor to check factual completeness where appropriate. Do not ask them to endorse a ranking. A record that preserves uncertainty can be more useful than a confident but unsupported claim.

## 5 Decision translation exercise
Select a decision that a real stakeholder needs to make. Explain the domain issue in terms of the decision, alternatives, relevant evidence, uncertainty, and consequences. Avoid overstating certainty to gain attention. The success criterion is whether the brief helps the stakeholder understand and act responsibly, not whether it praises the writer.

### Worksheet 3 Decision brief
Decision and decision owner: __________. Deadline and consequence of delay: __________. Recommended option and reason: __________. Alternatives and trade-offs: __________. Evidence and its limits: __________. Who bears the costs or risks: __________. Dependencies and resources needed: __________. What evidence would change the recommendation: __________. Contributors to credit: __________.

After the discussion, ask the stakeholder to restate the decision and uncertainty. Record what they found useful, what they misunderstood, and what changed. Do not treat agreement with the recommendation as the sole measure of good communication. A well-informed rejection can be a successful outcome.

## 6 Stakeholder and dependency exercise
Identify people whose work or authority affects the chosen task. For each, record the dependency, what they need, the decision they can make, and an appropriate communication channel. Do not build a popularity list or collect private relationship data. The goal is to understand legitimate coordination requirements.

### Worksheet 4 Dependency record
Dependency: __________. Owner or authorized role: __________. What they need from us: __________. What we need from them: __________. Decision authority: __________. Evidence needed: __________. Agreed next action and date: __________. Result and burden on others: __________.

In the review, distinguish a useful connection from unnecessary meetings. A relationship creates value when it helps resolve a relevant constraint or improves understanding. Senior access alone is not evidence of productive influence. Record the outcome and any costs.

## 7 Delegation and capability transfer exercise
Choose a bounded task appropriate to the recipient's role, experience, and consent to the assignment. Explain the desired result, quality constraints, decision authority, resources, and escalation conditions. Preserve support and accountability. Delegation must not become a way to push undesirable work onto someone with less power.

### Worksheet 5 Delegation agreement
Task and intended learning: __________. Recipient and agreement: __________. Expected result and quality evidence: __________. Decisions the recipient can make: __________. Decisions requiring escalation: __________. Resources and coaching: __________. Check-in date: __________. Work removed elsewhere to make capacity: __________. Credit and acknowledgment plan: __________.

After completion, ask the recipient what helped or constrained autonomy. Record rework, errors, and learning without turning the exercise into a punitive review. For capability transfer, have a backup demonstrate a relevant procedure under agreed conditions. Document creation alone does not show that capability transferred. Use operational safeguards appropriate to the task.

## 8 Shared credit and feedback exercise
Prepare a short project acknowledgment that identifies outcomes and distinct enabling actions. Include relational, technical, preventive, and operational work where supported. Invite factual corrections through a channel that does not require public confrontation. Avoid claims of sole causation when the work was joint.

### Worksheet 6 Feedback request
Ask two or more willing colleagues where appropriate: What action of mine helped the work? What made the work harder? Did the account accurately describe your role? What should I do differently in the next episode? Offer a private response route and permission not to answer. Record themes without identifying quotations unless explicitly authorized.

Feedback recipient: participant only [ ] agreed coach [ ] other authorized recipient __________. Retention or deletion date: __________. Developmental feedback must not enter a personnel file without a separate, explicit and appropriate process. Small teams may make anonymity impossible, so explain that limitation rather than promise it.

## 9 Weekly practice log
Week and episode: __________. Practice attempted: __________. Expected consequence: __________. Observed consequence and evidence: __________. Effect on colleagues: __________. Workload change: __________. What I learned or remain uncertain about: __________. Adjustment for next week: __________.

Use one entry per week as a practical convention. A participant can keep the log privately. Count of entries, meetings, or delegated tasks is not a leadership score. The coach should look for specific changes in behavior and consequences, including instances where the initial approach failed.

## 10 Worked fictional case
Alex maintains a critical data pipeline and wants to lead a cross-team reliability review. Alex's manager initially proposes adding the review to the existing workload. The agreement instead transfers a recurring report to a supported colleague and allocates a weekly practice block. Alex writes a decision brief about recovery options, credits the operator who identified a failure mode, and delegates a bounded recovery test with appropriate safeguards.

At day 45, the recipient reports that the escalation rule is unclear. Alex revises it. At day 90, the team checks the quality of the resulting decision and whether backup coverage actually improved. The case illustrates a process, not evidence that this program works. If workload rises or quality falls, the review should record that result and revise the arrangement.

## 11 Day 90 development review
### Worksheet 7 Review and next decision
Original goal: __________. Practices actually attempted: __________. Capacity promised and received: __________. Evidence of changes in team decisions or capability: __________. Evidence of harm, workload, or rework: __________. Feedback that challenges my interpretation: __________. What remains uncertain: __________.

Participant's preferred next step: continue [ ] change goal [ ] return to specialist focus [ ] pause [ ]. Manager's resource commitment: __________. Next review date: __________. Optional participant statement of learning: __________.

Evaluate the goal with role-relevant evidence, not an overall numeric rating. Confidence and satisfaction may describe the experience but do not establish effectiveness. If the program is studied formally, use the protocol's independent outcomes and active comparison rather than testimonials. Keep program evaluation separate from employment decisions.

## 12 Manager and facilitator responsibilities
The manager supplies real capacity, fair opportunity criteria, and support for people receiving transferred work. The facilitator protects the voluntary nature of feedback and keeps the discussion anchored in evidence. The participant chooses a goal and reports consequences honestly. None should promise a promotion or a transformation that has not been demonstrated.

Pause for retaliation, unmanageable burden, confidentiality concerns, or unsafe assignments. Use the organization's appropriate independent route to resolve them. The kit is an aid to structured practice. It does not replace professional judgment, local obligations, or the employee's own career preferences.


## References

[R10] Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2013.11.004

[R11] DeRue, D. S., & Ashford, S. J. (2010). Who will lead and who will follow? A social process of leadership identity construction in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 35(4), 627-647. https://www.up.ac.za/media/shared/78/ZP_Files/2020/derue_ashford-2010.zp195280.pdf