Authentic Leadership Development
In the 21st century successful leaders must be authentic leaders. In this program, developed by leadership visionary Bill George and HBS Dean Nitin Nohria, you will explore your values and passions to find your own True North—an inner compass to guide you when nothing else can—and lay a firm foundation for leadership that will inspire new levels of success.
What You Can Expect
Rather than offering leadership tools and tips, Authentic Leadership Development (ALD) focuses on your personal leadership development. HBS professors will guide you and a select group of emerging business leaders through a profoundly personal exploration, during which you will design a leadership approach fully aligned with and driven by your most deeply held values. You will work closely with HBS top leadership experts and program participants in intimate settings.
Your Course of Study
ALD guides participants through HBS's highly successful 12-week MBA ALD course in just five days. The program prompts you to explore the qualities of authentic leaders as well as the deeply personal core of your own leadership. In addition to examining your life experiences and identifying the essence of your authentic leadership in guided exercises and case studies, you will have the opportunity to create your personal leadership development plan.
Who Is Right for the Program
Authentic Leadership Development is designed for leaders of large organizations wishing to develop their leadership to take on much larger roles within their organizations. ALD is for senior leaders from all backgrounds, industries, and countries. Individuals or teams from the same organization are welcome to attend.
The Leadership Initiative
The Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School was created as a catalyst to achieve the School's mission to: "…educate leaders who make a difference in the world." Since its inception, HBS has been committed to shaping business leaders with the integrity and capacity to build world-class organizations. Today, the Leadership Initiative seeks to ensure that HBS remains at the forefront of leadership research and development for the 21st century and beyond.
What You Can Expect
Enhancing Your Company's Performance
As recent events in the business world have highlighted, companies need leaders who exhibit high standards of integrity, take responsibility for their actions, and are guided by enduring principles rather than short-term expedience. Such leaders are in short supply, however. According to the latest research, today's best leaders are authentic leaders—people whose inner compass guides their daily actions and enables them to earn the trust of their subordinates, peers, and shareholders. This inner compass is not the same for everyone—it is built on each individual's personal life experience: the successes and failures that shape one's values, passions, and vision.
Authentic leadership can be learned. As today's companies work to build the next generation of business executives, they will succeed by developing outstanding leaders who empower leaders at all levels throughout their organizations. The key to these leaders' success is developing self-awareness and emotional intelligence, both of which are goals of ALD.
Conceived and led by Harvard Business School Professor Bill George and HBS Dean Nitin Nohria, this Executive Education program is based on the groundbreaking research summarized in George's acclaimed books, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value and True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. Immersed in a truly transformative learning experience, you will define and explore your own path to authentic leadership. Providing relevant lessons in the classroom, the program prepares you to lead more effectively and build your company's capacity to create a more effective organization that can sustain success.
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
As you advance in your career, you cannot rely solely on the knowledge and skills that have guided your leadership thus far. Authentic Leadership Development will help you become the type of leader you most admire—one who is trusted by colleagues, who inspires others to do their best work, who is sought out for advice, and who creates exceptional value for the company.
Each ALD participant will be assigned to a Leadership Development Group (LDG) with five other participants. The LDGs are designed to provide a powerful peer-based forum where leaders can discuss the personal roots of their leadership in an intimate group setting and to encourage a higher level of openness and reflection than might be possible in a large class setting. LDGs enable participants to become more aware of the role their life stories and crucibles play in their development and in discovering the purpose of their leadership.
During this intense week, you will explore deeply the qualities of successful authentic leaders and uncover the unique characteristics that comprise your authentic leadership. In the process, you will become better able to:
- Lead with integrity through difficult and pressure-filled challenges
- Understand the impact of your life story and your crucibles on your leadership
- Recognize and address your blind spots as a leader
- Develop your self-awareness and emotional intelligence
- Learn from feedback and daily challenges you encounter
- Balance your intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to find the "sweet spot" of your capabilities
- Adapt your leadership style to different scenarios, while remaining true to your values and purpose
- Be a more effective leader by developing greater confidence in your capabilities
- Become an empowering leader that fosters effective teamwork
- Lead an integrated life that enables you to balance your work and home life
"The value of the program rests in the fact that it places you in a controlled environment that exposes you to cultural diversity in a way not many people experience. By doing so, it provides the perfect environment for deep introspection and self-exploration with the aid of your small group. This combination makes it a uniquely beneficial leadership retreat where anyone can grow as a leader and a person."
William H. Bishop [Department Manager], Norfolk Ship Support Activity, U.S.
"The Authentic Leadership Program had a profound effect on me. My main objective was to take my leadership potential and ability to the next level. I also wanted to understand more about the thought processes of real-life leaders and gain insights into how to adapt and apply that thinking in my day-to-day decision making. As a result, I am deliberating on issues and crises from a more long-term perspective—and am continuing to grow in areas and ways that I never expected."
Pramthesh Patel [Director], Glaxo Smith Kline Pharmaceutical Company, U.S.
Your Course of Study
In this intensive weeklong program, HBS faculty members William W. George, Robert Steven Kaplan, Joshua D. Margolis, and Scott A. Snook will guide you through case studies, individual exercises, classroom debates, and small group discussions designed to help you develop your authentic leadership. Exercises that promote individual reflection and peer exchange will give you an opportunity to evolve your approach to leadership in a supportive environment. All information shared will remain entirely confidential.
Preparatory exercises you complete before the course begins will enable you to maximize the value of your time spent learning in the classroom and interacting with faculty and peers during the week. The program will culminate in the creation of your own personal leadership development plan. Curriculum topics include:
Examining Your Leadership Journey
- Analyzing your formative experiences to find critical lessons that inform your authentic leadership
- Recognizing and overcoming personal impulses that can lead to problematic leadership behavior
- Learning how the most difficult times in your life can shape your passion to lead
- Using your experience to shift from an "I" to a "We" orientation
Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
- Becoming more self-aware by benefiting from honest feedback
- Clarifying and living your values, while establishing ethical boundaries
- Understanding your motivations and capabilities, and finding the point where they align
- Building your support team and finding leadership mentors
- Integrating the different "buckets" of your life: family, community and friends, and career
Putting Your Authentic Leadership into Action
- Identifying your purpose and establishing it as a cornerstone of your leadership approach
- Leading by example—creating a culture of authenticity, high standards, and shared responsibility
- Empowering others to lead—exploring six approaches that work
- Optimizing your leadership effectiveness by understanding common leadership styles
- Choosing the leadership style most appropriate to your authentic leadership
- Creating a plan to help you achieve your leadership potential
"The environment is extremely personable and professional, and the program is orchestrated so that you feel it's almost written for you. A number of the cases were just spot-on experiences I've been through or ones I'm struggling with right now. I wondered, 'How did they know that this was exactly the situation I'm in?' The program, the surroundings—and, most importantly, the content—were extremely well put together."
Soren Laursen [President], Lego Systems Inc., U.S.
Who Is Right for the Program
Authentic Leadership Development is designed for senior leaders that aspire to become more effective in their leadership and to take on greater leadership challenges. Participants may come from any functional background, industry, or country. You can expect a diverse group of peers with whom you will share personal reflections on leadership, exchange ideas, and extend your personal and professional network. Typical participant titles include:
- Chief operating officer
- Chief administrative officer
- Senior vice president
- General manager
- Senior human resources officer
- Divisional director or leader
The journey toward authentic leadership requires confronting your personal aspirations, strengths, and weaknesses—including aspects of your life history, identity, or current leadership style that may be helping you or holding you back. To derive maximum value from this program, you must be ready to share with fellow participants in a deeply personal way—be able to trust, expose your fears, offer feedback, and accept others' input with an open mind. All information you share will remain completely confidential.
Individuals or teams are welcome to attend. When several individuals from a single company attend as a group, they can offer continuing support for each other's leadership development after the program ends.
Participating Companies Have Included:
BNP Paribas Group |
Lego Systems Inc. |
"Authentic Leadership Development was a once-in-a-lifetime experience not only because of the incredible HBS faculty, but first and foremost for the comments I received from my peers in our leadership development groups. Through their honest and meaningful feedback, I was able to develop my own Personal Leadership Development Plan and understand what really motivates me and drives my passion and purpose in life."
Luis Miguel Garzón [Managing Director, Opp Film], Oben Holding Group, South America
"My peer group forced me to think seriously about the course material, articulate my life story and purpose, and receive honest feedback on how my life and leadership style did or did not match my stated goals. The experience of honest and open exchange with five strangers over five days was profound."
Nina Wagner [Afghanistan Country Director], Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S.
Meet the Program Faculty
Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Authentic Leadership Development is developed and taught by a core faculty of experienced HBS professors. ALD faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, experienced practitioners, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.
By regularly interacting with global business leaders, teaching executives and MBA students, and doing field-based research, they leverage their business expertise to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of leadership and management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
William W. George, Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit; and faculty chair of "Authentic Leadership Development."
Robert Steven Kaplan, Professor of Management Practice. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit.
Joshua D. Margolis, James Dinan and Elizabeth Miller Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit.
Scott A. Snook, MBA Class of 1958 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit.
"I was already familiar with the book True North and liked the principles presented. However, the program goes way beyond the book. The combination of case study, group discussion and constructive feedback stimulates your thinking. I came away with a much clearer picture of the kind of leader I want to be, what I need to do to get there, and how to balance priorities. This program guides you through the introspection and self-correction that are essential for improving your leadership approach—and your life."
Anika Faisal [Director], PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN) Tbk, Indonesia
Admissions
Because a diverse participant mix is an important part of every HBS Executive Education program, we look for candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds to enrich the learning experience.
Fees, Payments, and Cancellations
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
No payment is necessary until you have been accepted into an HBS Executive Education program. After admission notification, we will send you an invoice via email; payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. If admission is within 30 days prior to the start of the program, payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payment is required prior to the program start date. We accept payment by company check, bank wire transfer, or credit card (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Details are included on the program invoice.
If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparation, cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.
Requirements
Although there are no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential.
HBS Executive Education programs enrich both participants and their sponsoring organizations, and require full commitment from each party. While participants devote time and intellect to the learning experience, sponsoring organizations agree to relieve individuals of their work responsibilities during the program.
Language Proficiency
We deliberately design our programs to encourage individual growth and to foster productive interaction among participants. For that reason, proficiency in written and spoken English is essential. If English is your second language, or if you have less than one year's experience working in an English-speaking environment, HBS requires a brief statement documenting proficiency in English-language skills, both conversational and written. This may include a list of the English-language certification programs that you have completed; the degrees you have earned at English-speaking colleges and universities; or the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. The Admissions Committee also may request a telephone interview.
Team Attendance
This program is appropriate for individuals as well as teams of executives from the same organization. When colleagues attend a program together, the organization benefits from their shared knowledge and common vision. This, in turn, enables participants to enhance their ability to pursue business goals as a team, effect critical transformations, and transfer knowledge. HBS client service specialists are available to advise on optimal team composition. The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.
Application Process
Program participants must be nominated and sponsored by their current employer. HBS must receive your application and all required documents in order to prepare the application for review by the Admissions Committee.
To apply, you may use our online form or download an application. You also may request a brochure by mail.
If you submit your application online, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your submission via email. In the unlikely event that an email acknowledgment is not received, please contact the Admissions Committee by email: exed_admissions@hbs.edu, phone: +1-617-495-6226, or fax: +1-617-496-1731.
If you choose to submit a printed application, be sure to type or print legibly and sign your application. Send the application to the address or fax number listed on the form. Mailed or faxed applications are processed and acknowledged promptly upon receipt via email.
Complete Your Application
Please answer all questions thoroughly—the Admissions Committee will only consider completed applications. After reviewing your application and making the necessary edits or corrections, print or copy the application for your records.
The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.
Meet the Deadlines
We request applications at least four weeks in advance of the program start date. Early application does not guarantee admission. Programs often fill to capacity, so early application is recommended.
Notification of Acceptance
We acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidentiality.
To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, the Admissions Committee selects a class that balances each participant's experience, the scope of his or her current responsibilities, and the type of organization.
The Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications four months before the start date, and qualified candidates are admitted on a rolling, space-available basis. Once the review process has begun, applicants are notified within three weeks via email regarding Admissions Committee decisions. If your application is received within three weeks of the program's start date, the Admissions Committee will notify you of their decision as soon as possible.
Need help?
For further assistance, contact our client service specialists at: 1-800-427-5577 (outside the U.S., dial +1-617-495-6555).