Graduate Students Explore the Inner Side of Leadership
For several years, a diverse group of Harvard Graduate students participated in the Hoffman Leadership Path, with outstanding results.
In 2005, Harvard’s world-renowned Kennedy School of Government (KSG), in conjunction with U.S. News & World Report, conducted a study that concluded that the majority of today’s leaders are poised to work well within the system, rather than being poised to exceptionally lead the system for the common good.
KSG’s study isolated several qualities, including authenticity, vision, passion, and leadership from the heart, as being the essence of extraordinary leadership – all qualities of emotion and spirit not amenable to an ordinary university curriculum.
These qualities, collectively called the “inner side of leadership,” were first addressed in 2006, when 40 graduate students from Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership (CPL) participated in the Hoffman Leadership Path, which included the Hoffman Process program followed by five leadership coaching sessions with their Process teachers.
The Leadership Path is designed to transform unproductive modes of thought and behavior into personal and professional excellence. It has been said that leadership cannot be taught, but it can be learned. The Leadership Path is designed to move participants into the heart and soul of their intrinsic leadership capabilities, where this precious self-knowledge becomes available.
Students who participated in the Leadership Path reported that it greatly augmented their academic experience at Harvard, and that it will significantly improve their leadership contribution and their personal lives. Due to the popularity and success of the program at CPL, members of other professional schools at Harvard who function in the public service aspect of their profession have expressed interest in participating in it.
The majority of the cost of the Leadership Path at Harvard was made possible through generous annual donations from Steve and Joan Belkin, who are members of the Hoffman Institute Board of Directors. Mr. Belkin, a Harvard Business School graduate, is the founder and chairman of Trans National Group. Other major funders of the Leadership Path at Harvard are Ken and Margie Blanchard, John Carlson, George Goldsmith, Jay Hagenbuch, Bob Hernreich, Adam and Jenny Keller, Paul and Kathie Mazonson, David and Janet McCue, Carol Sawyer Parks, Alan and Susan Solomont, and Mac Van Wielingen.