Stanford LEAD: Personal Leadership Certificate

Hear Stanford GSB Professors Sarah Soule & Peter DeMarzo share excitement with Stanford LEAD participants about the new Personal Leadership certificate. Learn more: gsb.stanford.edu/exec-ed/lead/pl

Personal leadership is
essential to all leaders,

and personal leadership is best learned
through interaction with other people.

Not everybody can come to campus for
two years, so we create

the best environment online for learning,
personal leadership competencies.

Testing out these competencies, forging
the world's best leaders going forward.

We started LEAD with our
certificate in corporate innovation.

We've seen tremendous response
from students as they've

become true change agents
in their roles in their corporation.

Personal leadership is a wonderful
complement to corporate innovation.

To really lead innovation,
one needs to be self-aware,

take the perspective of other people,
and to be aware of the context.

Personal leadership entails
really working on oneself,

what we might refer
to as self-awareness.

Thinking about how one can be better
at engaging with other people.

Understanding the context
in which one is leading.

Approaching these topics with curiosity,
humility, empathy and

compassion for other people.
We've developed a teaching

team model in which individuals,
not only interact directly with the faculty.

But also get feedback
from course facilitators,

as well as their
colleagues in the program.

They're learning actively and
applying within their companies,

almost immediately reporting back
on the success that they're having.

Ideally, we're looking for
individuals who are active learners.

Willing to really engage, both with the
cohort of other students in the program,

as well as with the faculty.

The courses are challenging and,
in fact, trying to fit them in with

a busy work life can require
a bit of transition for students.

But the group that we get are highly
committed and highly engaged.

And understand that by doing this program
together with their real world experience.

That the two complement each
other in a very important way.

I wanted to learn about strategy,

about innovation, about leadership.

I had ability to combine it with my job,

it's one of the best universities in
the world in this specific field.

I like this sort of very international
component, and the world class theory

combined with the practical case studies
with people from multiple continents.

Our completion rates are over 95%.

Even our alums continue to remain
involved with the program looking for

opportunities to mentor
new students who enter.

And that level of commitment
and engagement

even beyond the completion of
the program is really impressive.

I have taken executive programs
in the past, but I was looking for

something deeper that revolves
around leadership and innovation.

And I found that
in the LEAD program.