LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program

Catapult your career with the only program from a leading business school for LGBTQ executives.

Lead with strength. Lead with impact. The LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program teaches you how to do both — authentically, effectively, and confidently. This highly-specialized, one-week program gives you the strategic insights, personal leadership skills, design thinking innovation, and powerful network to accelerate your career.

You’ll explore the art of influence and decision making and develop new models and mindsets for innovation using design thinking. And you’ll learn practical tools for transforming insights into outcomes. All in a stimulating environment on the Stanford campus, led by Stanford GSB faculty.

Best of all, you’ll share this experience with other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning executives who can support you and your career for a lifetime.

Key Benefits

Strengthen your influence, build a valuable network, and develop new models and mindsets for innovation using design thinking.

• Learn how your LGBTQ identity influences and strengthens your personal leadership style.
• Assess and refine your interpersonal skills to become a more authentic leader.
• Strengthen nonverbal and verbal communication skills.
• Identify best practices for building LGBTQ employee networks and career paths within your organization.
• Build a strong network of LGBTQ peers with whom you can share ideas and experiences.

Curriculum

How can you become a more authentic leader? How can you effectively enhance your power and influence? What can design thinking teach you about building strong LGBTQ and ally networks?

The LGBTQ Executive Leadership Program curriculum is carefully designed to meet the unique needs of rising LGBTQ professionals. And it’s the only one of its kind offered by a leading business school to address the significant gap in LGBTQ leadership in the C-suite. The curriculum and experience are innovative, thought-provoking, and empowering.

The highly-tailored curriculum is delivered through interactive classroom sessions, hands-on experiential workshops, small group discussions, roundtable forums, and visits from guest speakers. Learn how LGBTQ identity influences and strengthens personal leadership style. Practice design thinking and personal leadership skills to create innovative solutions to the specific challenges you face. Expand your knowledge and strengthen your network of mentors and colleagues.

Program Highlights

Leading Out Loud: Executive Presence for the LGBTQ Leader

Presence — the ability to communicate in words and actions in a way that inspires others to follow our lead — is an essential, yet challenging, skill for all leaders. Whether expressed in person or virtually, you will explore frameworks and develop tools for exploring your own leadership style.

Design Thinking

You will spend three sessions learning design thinking — a human-centered, prototype-driven process for innovation that can be applied to products, services, and even business and organizational design. At Stanford, we believe that innovation is necessary in every aspect of leadership. These sessions will give you a strong understanding of the key tenets of design thinking, and how to execute them within your organization. Design thinking by its very nature is experiential, so come with an open mind, comfortable attire, and make sure you're well rested!