CEL — Certified Emerging Leader
For leaders whose practice holds up across different teams, projects or working relationships, often leading through the quality of their practice rather than through position.
Who this level is for
Leaders at any career stage who take responsibility for leading across more than one team, project, workstream or working relationship within their function. You do not need direct reports or a management title.
This level fits if your leadership looks like
- Leading two teams, or a team plus a project
- Leading an improvement that touches more than one team
- Running a working group within your function
- Coordinating a workstream and keeping colleagues aligned
- Recovering from a missed target across two teams
It may not fit yet if
- Above this level, your leadership crosses a functional or organisational boundary and relies on people you do not manage. That is CTL.
Common misunderstanding: “I need to manage people.” CEL does not require direct reports. It requires reliable leadership across more than one team, project or relationship, often through influence.
The scope you lead: Influence
More than one team or context within your own function: projects, workstreams, initiatives, improvement activity, coordination and peer or stakeholder leadership.
The question that decides it: Does your accountable, developmental leadership hold reliably across more than one team or context?
What you would need to demonstrate
Direction
Giving clear direction across varied team contexts and keeping it coherent through change.
People
Developing people across more than one context, with influence that goes beyond your position.
Change
Adapting your practice when challenges combine operational and adaptive elements.
Accountability
Taking responsibility for the quality of your own leadership, not only for team outputs.
Stakeholders
Understanding your function's context and widening who you engage with.
Evidence that might support it
For example:
- Team and project notes and actions
- Emails explaining decisions
- Retrospectives you led
- Before-and-after data
- Development and feedback records
- Corroboration from people in each context you rely on
You identify and evidence leadership you have actually demonstrated. You are not expected to create leadership experiences for the certification.
How it works
- Enquire or applyTell LII about your leadership.
- Eligibility and levelLII confirms your eligibility and the certification that fits.
- Build your evidenceYou build and submit evidence from your own work.
- Independent decisionIndependent assessors review it and a decision is confirmed.
What happens next
Talk to LII about whether CEL fits your leadership. If your evidence fits an adjacent certification better, LII will tell you.