Trained in microbiology and currently managing research at her university, Corli Witthuhn is no stranger to learning. But when her mentor shared his HBS Executive Education experience and urged her to apply to a program, she initially resisted. Much to her delight, Witthuhn found the General Management Program (GMP) to be a rigorous and demanding learning experience that broadened her skills, deepened her self-knowledge, and improved her ability to lead.
My PhD adviser, who has been a mentor to me in various stages of my life, had been through the Advanced Management Program and wished he’d done it 10 years earlier. He pushed me to have an HBS Executive Education experience now, so that I could get the value when I still had 15 years ahead in my career. It was a great experience that expanded my view of management and the world.
The scope of learning was incredibly broad—from hands-on managerial skills to top-notch leadership development. GMP is tailor-made for each individual, so you can take out of it what you want. I especially enjoyed the leadership exercises and the discussions with my coach, and also appreciated learning more about finance. As an academic, my role as vice rector is similar to that of a COO or a provost. I knew finance from the university perspective, but we don’t do profit or equity, so I learned a lot in GMP.
When I think about the program as a whole, what made it work was the people aspect. I learned a great deal about managing people, and I also learned a lot about myself. I thought I knew myself pretty well before the program—but GMP taught me so much more.
At first, I wondered how I was going to get along with seven other people, but I had a fantastic group. We were a great community of scholars learning together. Our group included a lawyer from the United States—another woman who will probably be my friend forever. We also had a bank executive from Switzerland, a venture capitalist working in the Netherlands, a juice manufacturer from Greece, an Indian chemical engineer, and a Japanese executive for Mitsubishi who works in the Middle East. They were smart people with very interesting backgrounds.
Through the living group experience, I learned that I am an absolute social connector and an excellent team builder. I worked hard in our living group to build the learning environment. People laughed at me, but I got us all together. I kept reminding them to let their egos go. In addition, I’d constantly say, “What are we learning here?” because it was too easy to get lost in the details and the numbers. Everyone had something valuable to contribute, so we worked on making space for people who were quieter.
I learned a great deal from the session in which our discussion was videotaped and we viewed it afterward. That was a great experience to have during the first week of the on-campus module, because it cemented our group. I didn’t want to be in a video and tried to hide from the camera. The roleplaying was hard for me. One member of our living group told me, “It’s a safe environment, just go for it.” I survived the experience, watched the video, and actually learned a lot from it. We don’t normally see our own body language and how we interact with people. It was scary, but it was also a very good experience.
My mentor had warned me that the program would be demanding, but it was even more so than I expected. We read, we discussed, we went to class, and we slept. Then we did it again. In addition, some of the exercises engaged your emotions as well as your intellect. The leadership presence exercise, in particular, was wonderful, but it was emotionally and physically draining. I knew a bit about organizational cultures, but I never anticipated the impact that the leadership aspects of the program would have on me personally and professionally.
The GMP experience reminded me just how much I love learning. I have more to learn in finance, so I am taking advantage of the business school at my university.
I decided that I was going to get as much as I could out of the GMP experience by giving it everything I had. That was a good decision. I tried hard not to read emails or be connected to work while I was on campus, and that helped a lot.
It's important to be a good self-manager in a program like GMP. We had to prepare the cases and really be present in class. None of us knew everything, so we were all learning a lot of new material, and that became stressful at times. I was struggling to keep up with finance, for example. To manage the stress, you have to be willing to let go of perfection and focus on the big picture. We worked hard, but also made time to laugh and have fun.
GMP was mind blowing—really life changing. It transformed the way I see myself, other people, and the world. It does a great job at building self-confidence. The environment at HBS is so positive—people affirm each other all the time. It made me realize that we should affirm one another more in our work environments—clap hands, be joyful, and say, "Well done." I appreciated that aspect of American culture.
Confidence and authenticity go together. When leaders develop the confidence to be truly authentic, the result is awesome. Our living group helped to foster that authenticity. Living with people for seven weeks made it difficult to fake anything—we were genuinely ourselves. We continually encouraged and supported each other. The power of this program is that people go back to work feeling much more self-confident. It's not just the HBS brand—there’s a real opportunity for everyone to achieve.
