Executive Education

High Potentials Leadership Program

Helping companies invest in their most promising and talented executives, the High Potentials Leadership Program readies emerging leaders for managing today's toughest business challenges while illuminating pathways for long-term success. You will learn how to lead under pressure, champion change, build teams, and develop effective leadership throughout the organization.

What You Can Expect

Gleaning from the insights of faculty experts, the experiences of successful leaders, and the latest research on management and leadership, you will be ready to embrace increasing levels of responsibility—and success—throughout your career. You will be prepared for both the risks and the opportunities that accompany new roles.

Your Course of Study

Faculty lectures, case studies, videos, group discussions, and workshops provide a rich learning experience that immerses you in the qualities of an effective leader and the range of challenges facing today's leaders. You will balance group learning with targeted exercises that help you assess and improve your own leadership style while practicing new skills in an invigorating environment.

Who Is Right for the Program

Meeting the needs of top performers who want to grow as leaders, the High Potentials Leadership Program is designed for high-impact, fast-track individuals with more than 10 years of experience in roles of increasing responsibility. Teams are welcome.

The Leadership Initiative

This leadership development program's teaching team is associated with the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School, which seeks to ensure that HBS remains at the forefront of leadership research and development.

What You Can Expect

The High Potentials Leadership Program provides you with strategies to handle the formidable challenges associated with moving into new and increasingly more complex leadership roles. You will gain a better understanding of your own approach to leadership and acquire new ideas to optimize and sustain your potential.

You will leave the program with fresh perspectives and tangible action plans for taking charge and inspiring leadership throughout your organization. Specifically, you will be better prepared to:

• Understand, recognize, and foster the right leadership qualities in yourself and others
• Stay on the fast track, while dealing with new responsibilities and operating contexts
• Manage organizational politics and build relationships to achieve both professional and personal goals
• Receive—and deliver—feedback with grace
• Lead effectively through situations involving conflict
• Balance your personal leadership style with the demands of the organization without compromising your principles
• Create opportunities for personal reflection amid day-to-day issues and crises of management
• Spot and develop the next class of high-potential leaders within the organization

How Will My Organization Benefit?

Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School are a significant investment for both you and your organization. Going far beyond the basic transmission of skills and theories, each leadership development program provides applicable lessons in the classroom that can be implemented successfully within your organization. You will acquire a fresh perspective on global business from our groundbreaking curriculum, world-renowned faculty, and an accomplished group of elite peers from around the world.

"The High Potentials Leadership Program was one of the greatest learning experiences I've ever had the opportunity to participate in. Incorporating case studies, lectures, workshops, and group work, the program was thoroughly engaging. In fact (and despite many of our living groups reservations), the interactive performing arts workshop led to a transformation that completely took us out of our comfort zone and most definitely increased our leadership presence."
Alfredo C. Tan [Senior Director], Global Social Media Company, Canada

Your Course of Study

In an intensive, engrossing week, you and a talented group of peers will examine the distinctive characteristics leaders must develop to succeed and to model leadership within their organizations. By viewing leadership as the ambition and will to make a difference, you will learn to lead with vision, effect important changes, and unleash leadership potential throughout the organization.

Through a carefully constructed series of leadership training sessions that blend faculty lectures, case studies, videos, group workshops, and individual exercises, you will balance thought-provoking debate and analysis with self-reflection and personal development. The teaching team for this HBS Executive Education program—drawn entirely from the Leadership Initiative at Harvard Business School—creates a learning environment that is invigorating, demanding, and enjoyable. You and other members of your group will challenge and motivate one another, sharing ideas and forging professional bonds that can last a lifetime.

Leadership in Action
Looking at leaders in action, you will study the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to leadership. Topics include:

• The distinction between leadership and management
• Pros and cons of different leadership styles
• The challenges of co-leadership

Leading Teams
The ability to create a strong team is one hallmark of an effective leader. As your responsibility grows, the challenge shifts from building productive teams of individual contributors to building effective leadership teams. You will explore diverse topics that help you assess your capabilities as a team leader, including:

• The factors that enable you to build productive teams
• How to evaluate and increase the effectiveness of your team
• The reality of team life—the good, the bad, and the paradoxical
• Leading diverse teams—getting the most value from differences
• Maximizing creativity within groups

Leadership Expression
As a leader, you must express yourself effectively, whether you are communicating complex information, leading in a crisis, or defending your decisions. Through a series of nontraditional techniques drawn from the world of theater, storytelling, and public communications, you will expand your repertoire of expressive and persuasive techniques, improving your ability to handle any situation.

Managing Networks
Your internal and external networks are important leadership assets. As you evaluate your own networks, you will gain tips for establishing effective networks and maximizing the value of your networks. Topics include:

• Obstacles to establishing effective networks
• The importance and art of managing up
• Constructive approaches to managing the politics of change

Developing Talent and Leadership
How can you create a culture of leadership and motivate a diverse workforce? Focusing on the challenges of managing performance and on the role of the leader as architect and coach, you will examine the strategic management of talent and how key decisions affect organizational capability, execution, and innovation.

The Value Continues
The program will continue delivering value after you return to work. To help you achieve the personal and professional goals you set for yourself during the session, the faculty will send you brief follow-up reminders. You will also be able to draw on a valuable network of peers for advice and support as you confront ongoing leadership challenges.

"The program enables you to reflect on what it takes to be a more effective leader, and then practice doing those things in a safe environment. Like most senior managers, I thought a lot about managing the team, the business, and the projects. But the program prompted me to think deeply about the difference between management and leadership. As I work with my team, I try to communicate the vision and the strategy—and inspire others."
David Ly [Senior Manager, Marketing], Cisco Systems, U.S.

Who Is Right for the Program

The Harvard Business School Executive Education High Potentials Leadership Program is specifically designed for the high-impact, fast-track individual with 10 to 15 years of experience in roles of increasing responsibility. Participants are top performers in positions of authority who want to grow as leaders. They represent companies of all sizes and stages in diverse, growing industries.

Typical participant titles include, but are not limited to:

• Vice president
• Director
• Program manager
• Senior manager
• Team leader

Although the program focuses on individual development, companies sending groups of three to five participants from different functions will facilitate collaboration, teamwork, and learning throughout their organizations. This helps to create:

• A core group of talented individuals thinking and conversing about leadership issues
• A common understanding of the challenges confronting emerging leaders—and of ways to avoid potential pitfalls
• Champions who can reinforce the principles learned in the program
• A model for personal development that can be used within the company's leadership teams
• Mentors who can build the next line of leaders

Past Participants Represented:

Participating Companies Have Included:

"I arrived ready to take stock and re-orientate myself for the next phase of my career. From start to finish, I was truly engaged—and the day with John Kotter is one that I will never forget. It felt like a career epiphany. Just do it—you won’t be disappointed."
Henry Lacey [Head of Asia Sales Program], Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Hong Kong

Meet the Program Faculty

Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, the High Potentials Leadership Program is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.

Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of 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.

"Come with an open mind and you will leave enlightened. The program provided the tools and vocabulary for me to identify, assess, and articulate critical issues and situations. I have a better understanding of various leadership styles as well as a personal development plan for addressing my leadership challenges."
Mei Y. Hon [Internal Audit Marketplaces and GSI Commerce], eBay Inc., U.S.