Thomas DeLong

Thomas J. DeLong is a senior fellow and former Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Management Practice in the Organizational Behavior area at the Harvard Business School. Since 1997 DeLong has taught over 15,000 MBA’s and Executives both on campus and throughout the world. He is internationally recognized for his teaching and course development.  DeLong has written over 100 cases and teaching notes during his tenure at HBS as well as three books.

His most recent book “Flying Without a Net” was recognized by the editors of Amazon Publishing as one of the top ten books written on leadership this century.

At Harvard, Professor DeLong teaches MBA and executive courses focused on leadership, organizational behavior, managing human capital, and career management. DeLong has served as course head for the required course on Leadership and Organizational Behavior.  He has designed MBA elective courses focused on managing human capital in high performance organizations and leading professional service firms. He currently teaches an elective course on leadership.

DeLong teaches globally in a myriad of executive programs as well as executive courses on campus. He consults with leading organizations on the process of making individual and organizational change. 

DeLong co-authored two books focused on leading professional service firms, When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) and Professional Services: Cases and Texts (McGraw-Hill/Irwin 2003). DeLong has coauthored three Harvard Business Review articles, “Let''s Hear It for B Players,” “Why Mentoring Matters in a Hypercompetitive World” and “The Paradox of Excellence.”  His Harvard Business Review articles focus on why high achieving professionals often unwittingly sabotage their effort to excel.

Before joining the Harvard Faculty, DeLong was Chief Development Officer and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Group, Inc., where he was responsible for the firm’s human capital and focused on issues of organizational strategy and organizational change. He has also served on the Boards of Harvard Business School Publishing, Mt. Holyoke College, De La Salle Academy, Analysis Group and Arrowstreet Capital Management. Formerly, DeLong was a Professor of Educational Leadership and served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education and Honors at Brigham Young University.

Professor DeLong received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from Purdue University in Industrial Supervision.  He received a post-doctoral fellowship from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the father of five daughters. 

Thomas J DeLong | E-mail: tdelong@hbs.edu