Managers at GitLab enable our mission that everyone can contribute. We need to equip our people leaders with the skills to lead globally dispersed, all-remote teams to support our business growth at scale.
The handbook provides guidance on GitLab leadership competencies and principles. Bringing these practices to life requires training and practice. Elevate, GitLab's leadership development program, provides opportunity for people leaders to learn to lead at GitLab.
At this time, Elevate is only available for current People Leaders, People Business Partners, and members of the Team Member Relations team.
In FY24, 85% of people leaders will complete Elevate and earn the GitLab Elevate certification.
Elevate is a highly interactive, all-remote program where managers will learn with, and from, each other. The goal is to provide a common, well understood leadership framework which demonstrates GitLab values, leadership competencies, and mission.
In Elevate, participants will:
Elevate is organized into 5 learning modules. Read more about the skills covered in each module below:
Elevate runs for a total of 5 months and is organized into 5 learning modules. In each module, participants spend a total of 3-4 hours in the following learning activities:
| Steps | Title | Description | Time Spent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | Live Learning Session | 1x monthly synchronous learning session on the relevant module topic | 50 minutes |
| Step 2 | Asynchronous Learning | Videos, reading, journaling, self-reflections, and quizzes to reinforce concepts completed in Level Up | 45 minutes |
| Step 3 | Group Coaching | Cross-functional group coaching sessions with 10-12 other GitLab people leaders to practice module concepts | 80 minutes |
| Step 4 | Assess your Learning | Take a quiz in Level Up to demonstrate your understanding of new concepts. |
The visual below illustrates the 5 Elevate modules:
Apply what you've learned in Elevate to real life challenges - then contribute their findings to the wider GitLab community!
The Elevate Project is your opportunity to contribute new ideas for managers at GitLab and in the wider GitLab community. You'll be assigned to work with a group of other Elevate participants. In your group, you'll discuss a prompt, record a video outlining your solution, and submit a merge request to the handbook to document your findings. Projects are due by the end of the program. Completion of this project is required to earn the Elevate certification.
Each group will select one prompt to focus on.
The prompts are as followed:
| Prompt | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identify a current business initiative or challenge at GitLab- within your group or outside of it - that you feel you could move the needle on. How would you use what you learned in Elevate to do so? |
| 2 | Identify a current challenge that our external stakeholders are facing and that you feel you could move the needle on. How would you use what you learned in Elevate to do so? |
| 3 | Compile a multi-disciplinary set of resources (5-10) to illustrate one of the modules, including what “good” and “bad” look like |
Each group will deliver the following:
Below, you'll find suggestions on how to make the most of your project. In addition, there are 2 optional resources you can choose to use to increase collaboration with your group.
When your project is complete, follow these steps to submit.
Remember that projects are accepted on a rolling basis and are due before the end of Elevate.
@slee@gitlab.com and jallen@gitlab.com in a comment on the Google Sheet when your group has submitted their project.The Elevate Certification process is your time to shine!
Following Module 5, you'll be assesed on your mastery of the leadership competencies taught in Elevate. Certification will occur in a live, collaborative, 50 minute session with a small group of other Elevate participants, likely in your cohort.
The certification for Elevate is not meant to be scary! It's a time to demonstrate everything you've learned and celebrate your new skills and self awareness as you continue to grow as a leader at GitLab.
Elevate Participant Action Items:
What to expect in the certification session:
Following the certification, a member of the L&D team will follow up with your results, and either share your Elevate certification or discuss next steps. If for some reason you don't pass the certification, you'll meet 1:1 with a Elevate coach to practice your skills.
To earn the final Elevate certification, participants must:
Yes, this is a required training for all people leaders at GitLab.
When the program begins, you'll be added to a Slack group that includes all members of your cohort. The naming convention used is #elevate-cohort-x. You can also reach out directly to your manager or the Learning and Development team.
It's a requirement to make up missed sessions within each month to ensure that you're learning each new skill and moving through the program in the appropriate order. Please make every effort to attend live sessions as scheduled. We have 2 makeup options outlined below. If a conflict arises for your assigned group coaching session, you can attend with another cohort. If none of the live session times work for you, you can complete the Buddy Makeup. Please reach out proactively to a member of the Learning and Development Team if you cannot attend a session.
We're committed to working with you to find a solution that let's you successfully complete Elevate. If you must miss one live session for personal reasons, you need approval from your manager. Additional missed sessions will result in an incomplete Elevate status.
The Manager Challenge is a past iteration of leadership development at GitLab. We appreciate the time that past manager challenge participations have dedicated to their growth and development. Elevate is the next iteration in our GitLab manager journey, and is still required of manager challenge participants.
Yes! Upon successful completion of the program, including attendance to all required live sessions, asynchronous learning, and assessments, participants will be awarded the GitLab Elevate certification.
We currently plan for a new group of ~100 people leaders to start this program every 2-3 months. Our goal is that 85% of our people leaders complete Elevate by the end of FY24.
Due to our priority to certify 85% of our people leaders in FY24, participation by aspiring managers is not currently an option.
Attendance to all Elevate live sessions is required to earn the certification. We understand that making time for all live sessions can be difficult. We have 2 options for making up sessions you've missed:
Option 1: Attend Another Session
There are 5 Live Learning and 10 Group Coaching sessions for each module. If you cannot attend your scheduled sessions, Option 1 is to attend another scheduled session.
Note: You will be initially be invited to 4 Live Learning & 1 Group Coaching session - invites will be shared to the other makeup sessions based on your availability.
Option 2: Buddy Makeup
If none of the 5 Live Learning or 10 Group Coaching session will work, you may use Option 2: Buddy Makeup. Note that this can only be used a total of one time per participant.
Buddy Makeups require the following:
Engaging managers of people leaders in Elevate helps us to:
People Leaders with direct reports who are in a current Elevate cohort could be asked to support in the following ways:
This section includes key resources for the Learning and Development team who delivers Elevate.
Refer to the table below to align on language used to talk about Elevate.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Round | Collection of cohorts starting Elevate at the same time - used for internal reference only |
| Cohort | Groups of 10-12 participants organized by timezone who meet together for Group Coaching - used with participants |
| Projects | Group based projects which showcase learning application at GitLab, begin with Round 1 |
| Manager+ Path | Elevate content for Managers and Senior Managers |
| Director+ Path | Elevate content for Directors, Senior Directors, and VPs |
| Pilot | First group of ~45 managers involved in Elevate |
| Round 1 | Manager+ Path running from April-August 2023 - 100 participants |
| Round 2 | Manager+ Path running from June-October 2023 - 60 participants |
| Round 3 | Director+ Path running from June-October 2023 - 30 participants |
If a participant misses a live session or falls behind on self paced work, the L&D team should use the following outreach process. Messages can be found in this Google sheet.
| Timeline | L&D Action |
|---|---|
| Participant is incomplete on live session or self pace work | Message 1: Direct message via Slack to coordinate makeup or check on progress |
| No response 24 hours after Message 1 | Message 2: Direct message via Slack to participant & PBP |
| No response 24 hours after Message 2 | Message 3: Direct message via Slack to participant, PBP, & Talent Aquisition VP |
| Disengaged or request program exit | Message 4: L&D team sends message to PBP of participant to discuss enrollment of future Elevate cohort |