Stanford Introduces Executive Program for LGBT Leaders
The only program of its kind to be offered by a leading business
school, Stanford
LGBT Executive Leadership Program addresses
the significant gap in LGBT leadership in the C-suite. Program dates:
July 31–August 5, 2016; application deadline: June 24, 2016.
STANFORD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Where will new 21st-century leaders be found? Stanford
Graduate School of Business offers a fresh answer to this enduring
challenge.
Beginning in July 2016, with the inauguration of the Stanford LGBT
Executive Leadership Program, qualified LGBT candidates will experience
a tailored and highly specialized one-week program that combines
personal leadership assessments and insights with design thinking
innovations. This is believed to be the only executive education program
of its kind offered by a leading business school to address the
significant gap in leadership for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and
transgender people in the C-suite.
Program codirectors Tom Wurster and Sarah Soule call the new program and
its timing both “inspirational and aspirational,” since its design
speaks forcefully to the next generation of LGBT leaders who are highly
motivated agents for change.
“The ideal candidate is the LGBT executive with a minimum of 10 years
professional experience and 5 years of management experience who is
preparing to take on more significant leadership roles,” said Wurster, a
lecturer in management at Stanford GSB. He is a former senior partner
and managing director with BCG. “We want to ensure a high-quality cohort
composed of executives with significant levels of managerial
responsibility, from any size company, any industry, and any country.”
“We created this course to help LGBT executives further their personal
development as leaders and strengthen their personal networks, and in
the process, leverage best practices to transform their organizations,”
said Soule, the Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior at
Stanford GSB. “The program combines personal leadership assessments and
insights with hands-on design thinking innovation to teach executives to
lead with strength and impact. These are invaluable insights that will
advance the potential for many promising individuals in our program.”
To be sure, workplace progress in the U.S. for LGBT individuals has
steadily improved in the last 20 years. In the latest Corporate Equality
Index released in November by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation,
nearly half of the 851 U.S. companies surveyed received perfect scores
for employment policies that achieve equality for LGBT employees. Yet
this progress has not translated into a commensurate rise in
LGBT-identified corporate executives. Few openly hold top leadership
positions in global companies today.
“This program helps accelerate the leap from visibility to visible
leadership for LGBT talent,” said J.D. Schramm, EdD, the MBA Class of
1978 Lecturer in Organizational Behavior. He will host a preview
webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2016, from 10 to 11 a.m. Pacific
Standard Time. As part of the select faculty of the new LGBT Executive
Leadership Program, Schramm will leverage his expertise around effective
communications to deliver the webinar Leading Out Loud: Communication
Strategies for LGBT Leaders.
To be held July 31 through August 5, 2016, at the state-of-the-art
Knight Management Center, home of Stanford GSB, the executive program
features interactive classroom sessions, hands-on experiential
workshops, small group discussions, roundtable forums, and prominent
guest speakers. The curriculum, delivered by senior members of the
faculty, will cover such topics as effective use of power, acting with
power, authentic leadership, and influence and decision-making. Apply
by June 24, 2016.
“At the end of the week-long program, participants can expect three key
takeaways,” said Soule. “A stronger and deeper understanding of their
individual opportunities for continued leadership development, a new
network of LGBT leaders they can call on to serve as a sounding board
and peer mentors throughout their careers, and actionable ideas they can
take back to their organizations on leadership as well as ways to build
and strengthen LGBT networks within their organizations.”
The LGBT
Executive Leadership Program is one of three new Stanford Executive
Education offerings introduced this year, and one of two courses with a
strong personal leadership component intended to equip executives with
knowledge and tools to create maximum impact in their respective
organizations. The Innovative
Health Care Leader: From Design Thinking to Personal Leadership
program is a trailblazing academic partnership between Stanford’s
schools of business and medicine designed for executives who seek to
drive innovation in their health care organizations. And Strategy
Beyond Markets: Building Competitive Advantage Through Government
Relations and Public Affairs arms executives with concrete tools,
analytical frameworks, and leadership skills to navigate the complex
environment of legislators, regulators, interest groups, activists, and
the media, to proactively manage risk and seize new opportunities.
The program for LGBT leaders builds on Stanford’s pioneering portfolio
of personal leadership training focused on diversifying the top rungs of
the corporate ladder. The Advanced
Leadership Program for Asian-American Leaders, which launched in
2010, and the Executive
Program for Women Leaders, now in its ninth year, are
research-driven, career-changing experiences that aim to fundamentally
transform the way participants negotiate, manage, and lead.
About Stanford
Executive Education
Stanford Graduate School of Business offers a vibrant portfolio of more
than 60 open enrollment short courses aimed at business leaders at the
vanguard of change, both personal and industry-wide. Steeped in Silicon
Valley’s culture of innovation and creativity, programs engage
world-class faculty who apply research-based knowledge to practical
contexts facing high-potential leaders, and cover a wide range of topics
that reflect the multidimensional challenges that leaders face.
Participants, screened to ensure a high-quality cohort, engage with one
another in a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary environment, all
within a rigorous and compelling learning experience, to equip
executives to reach the next level in changing lives, changing
organizations, and changing the world.
Contacts
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Helen K. Chang, +1 650-723-3358
hkchang@stanford.edu
