Building Camaraderie, Building Leaders

What led you to PLD?

You can find many of the topics—economics, accounting infrastructure, and so on—in other programs. What appealed to me about PLD was the leadership development, as well as how the program tied everything together, especially through the personal case.

I've attended many executive education programs elsewhere, some extremely good and some not. The one thing that was really surprising about PLD was the camaraderie the program was able to build and how it was done. Some other programs are good at building camaraderie too, but PLD is the best at it.

The living groups are essential to that camaraderie. I was a lot tighter with my PLD living group than I have been with people in any other program. The fact that HBS owns its own spaces contributes to this. The schedule goes from early morning to late at night and keeps groups together. People aren't off doing their own thing after 6 p.m.

How did the other participants contribute to your learning?

HBS does a great job of assembling both the living groups and the larger cohort. On the first day, you show up and you know you're really good. But two hours into the first day, you're thinking, "Wow, there are 140 people in this program who are just as good as I am," and that's an awesome feeling. When you throw great teaching on top of that, it's an incredible experience.

Why were the living groups valuable?

HBS takes people from around the world, puts them in an environment where they're interacting with each other very intensively, and makes it work. Everyone was taking great ideas from each other and learning on a daily basis—including learning some of each other's cultural norms. The way someone solves a problem in Kuwait is different from how someone might solve it in Nigeria. But you may end up taking a combination of both of those to help solve a problem in Kandahar. I believe that's an aspect of the program not found anywhere else.

One night toward the end of the program we went out to dinner, shared our reflections, and worked out a plan for how we were going to keep in touch. It was awesome to realize that I had just met these people six months earlier and was going to be in touch with them for the rest of my life.

What were your impressions of the case method?

I had used the case study method before at some other executive education courses. But the way HBS does the case method is completely different and so much more valuable than the way others do it. Other top-tier business schools have attempted to replicate Harvard case studies without success. The method HBS uses and the value you receive are the best.

It's good when the person who wrote the case is teaching you. It's even better, though, when the faculty bring in some of the leaders who were in the case. When you read a case, you wonder what the person was thinking, and then he comes into class and you can ask him face to face! That's hard to replicate in other environments.

What was your favorite part of the curriculum?

The six sessions on Leadership and Corporate Accountability were a highlight. For everyone in the class, those sessions were really pertinent to both the work environment and personal life. The case studies were interesting because they all discussed incidents that most people have heard about. Learning how to handle those situations made those sessions the most valuable part of the curriculum for me.

Did you have any particular “aha” moments?

In addition to my role at BAE, I'm also involved in a startup. At PLD, I presented an opportunity gap for the startup and my coach gave me some good recommendations. But after I addressed the opportunity gap, the organization was still the same. My "aha" moment was realizing that everything I'd thought was a gap was not a gap. We actually had a leadership problem, and I never would have realized that if I had not been at this program and had those conversations with my coach. That was invaluable. I hope we'll be able to fix that problem and keep moving forward.

How has PLD changed your thinking on leadership?

Everyone goes on a personal leadership journey in PLD. I've realized I'm doing some things right and other things wrong. What I need to do is take the time to think every situation through and have some type of model or leadership framework to build off of so that when a situation goes in a direction that I did not anticipate, I can remove myself from the situation, look at it through a new lens, and think through the issues.

After attending PLD, I know more about myself and understand the work I need to do to improve my leadership style. That has come not only from the curriculum but also from the input others have given me throughout the program.

What will you do differently after attending PLD?

The biggest thing PLD does is make you understand that you have to have some sort of framework in mind in any situation. In most of my leadership roles, I've made a lot of quick decisions, and sometimes the framework is absent. After PLD, I'm going to think consistently about which type of framework to use, and that will help me become a better leader overall.

I'm planning to re-evaluate our processes—determine what's working and what's not. For the things that aren't working, I'm going to take the frameworks I've learned at PLD and start applying them. I hope that will push my organization forward.

How would you summarize the value of PLD?

PLD is a great program that delivers excellent educational value combined with rare camaraderie and life learning. If you're motivated to learn, want teachers who are at the top of their game, and want to be around other students who are equally motivated and from whom you can learn, PLD is the right program for you. What sets it apart is not any one topic, but rather the combined package. You get a broad education and also learn about yourself.