Stéphane Lelong Institute

 

 

Understanding how leaders develop their capacity for judgment and decision-making in complex environments

 

The Stéphane Lelong Institute is dedicated to studying the role of reflexivity in leadership development and the processes through which leaders develop their ability to understand, interpret, and transform experience in complex environments.

 

It aims to analyze the mechanisms through which leaders construct their understanding of situations and make decisions.

 

It is grounded in a central conviction:

 

in uncertain environments, the quality of leadership depends as much on how situations are understood as on the decisions that are made.

 

 

 

An approach based on interpreted experience

 

In contexts characterized by uncertainty and complexity, leaders are not only confronted with problems to solve, but with situations to interpret.

 

The Institute focuses on how this understanding is integrated into action and decision-making.

 

It examines the processes through which leaders:

• analyze their experience
• develop an understanding of situations
• mobilize this understanding and transform it into decisions and actions

 

It thus explores the conditions under which experience becomes a source of leadership development.

 

 

 

Positioning

 

The Institute's work lies at the intersection of:

• academic research in management
• the study of leadership and decision-making
• dialogue with leaders

with a particular focus on the processes through which judgment and decision-making develop.

 

It proposes a shift in perspective:

 

from leadership as a set of competencies

to leadership as a process of experience transformation

 

 

 

A platform between research, practice, and education

 

The Institute develops an integrated approach combining:

• knowledge production
• experience analysis
• the transformation of leadership practices

 

This approach is deployed through the Reflective Leadership Research Initiative, which constitutes the core research program, connecting theoretical conceptualization, empirical analysis, and the transformation of practice.

 

 

 

Research program

 

The work is structured around three main axes:

 

Reflective leadership

→ understanding the role of reflexivity in leadership development

 

Decision and complexity

→ analyzing how situations are interpreted

 

Reflexive accompaniment

→ studying the practices and processes that support the analysis and transformation of experience

 

 

 

Contribution

 

The Institute's work contributes to structuring the role of reflexivity in leadership development:

• as a field of research in management studies
• as a framework for analyzing leadership situations
• as an approach to leadership development

 

It is notably grounded in the development of the Disposition to Reflexive Accompaniment (DRA), conceptualized as a leadership meta-competency.

 

This contribution aims to operationalize a central process:

 

how leaders construct their judgment and adjust their decisions based on experience.

 

More broadly, this work seeks to better understand:

 

how leaders transform experience into learning, judgment, and action.

 

 

 

Vision

 

The Institute aims to structure a space that integrates research, education, and dialogue with leaders, dedicated to the role of reflexivity in leadership development.

 

It seeks to establish reflexivity as a framework for analyzing leadership development and decision-making, by connecting:

• understanding of experience
• transformation of experience
• leadership development
• decision quality

 

in complex environments where the capacity for judgment becomes critical.