Lead On Leadership Development is a Maryland consulting and training firm devoted to helping people grow their leadership skills.
Lead On teaches problem-solving leadership. Leaders, at their best, help groups confront their hardest problems and devise workable solutions. It takes courage, compassion, collaboration, and curiosity. The quest for real answers to a group’s pressing problems is hard, especially when it challenges entrenched interests or prevailing beliefs. Weak or bad leadership — leadership that avoids hard decisions or offers alluring but false answers — is common. But the courageous quest for truth is the only way, in the long run, to help groups and their people survive and flourish.
The Lead On model of problem-solving leadership is based on research in psychology, sociology, anthropology, and related fields, as well as classic leadership thought. We offer a rigorous approach to embracing the challenges of leadership — no fads, buzzwords, or quick fixes.
Lead On also offers free and reduced-price leadership enrichment for schools and non-profits as part of our commitment to strengthening democracy. In a democracy, every citizen shares a piece of leadership power. Each of us has an opportunity — and a responsibility — to contribute something to make our workplaces better, our communities stronger, and our lives richer.
Lead On was founded by Dr. Michael Harvey, who has researched and taught organizational leadership for more than 30 years. He is the John Toll Professor of Leadership Studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. He earned a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland, an M.S. in International Business from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in Political Theory from Cornell University. He has taught at Washington College since 1998, serving as Chair of the Department of Business Management for a decade and as Provost from 2020 to 2023. He has served a six-year term on the Kent County (Maryland) Board of Education, coached chess clubs, and taught leadership and leadership skills in many settings.
