(NECN) -UMass Boston runs the Emerging Leaders Program.

Sharing information about the ELP is Lisa Deangelis, the director of the UMass Boston Center for Collaborative Leadership, which runs the Emerging Leaders Program, and two alumni: Craig Williams, the COO of Tufts Medical Center, and Rick Jakious, CEO of the Massachusetts Non-profit Network.

It’s absolutely something everyone in the city should be thinking about, as you’re rising through your career. It’s geared toward folks at the midlevel of their career. The average age is around early to mid-30s, but there are people younger and older. It depends on life experience and where you are in your career trajectory. These are people who, within the organization, are starting to be identified as someone who is going to be a future leader inside and outside the organization, on behalf of the organization, Deangelis says.

Jakious says part of what he learned through ELP is that leadership skills are something you need to practice and work on every day. He says you’ll learn quickly that people are not born with these amazing leadership skills but they develop them.

Williams says the times are calling for people to collaborate to achieve bigger things. He says prior to the program, he was an individual contributor. He got where he was based on that individual contributing, he says, but in order to get where he wanted to go, Williams says he had to bring people together and achieve more as a team.

Watch the attached video for more.