Harvard Business Publishing Leadership Direct
Leadership Direct is an innovative executive development program designed to quickly develop key leadership and management capabilities while reinforcing critical thinking and general management skills. The program is led by expert moderators from Harvard Business Publishing and it is customized to your specific needs.
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A Leadership Direct program typically runs for approximately six months. Within that six-month period, most organizations cover from four to six major modules each lasting approximately four to six weeks. The following is a list of some of the major modules:
- Strategy & Execution
- Financial Management and Business Acumen
- Decision Making
- Leading and Managing Change
- Leading and Managing Teams
- Talent and Performance Management
- Innovation
- Customer Focus
- Competing as a Global Business
The program connects a cohort of peers and mentors with leading Harvard Business Publishing experts to develop capabilities according to your specific business needs while sharing learning experiences, insights, and best practices across your company. 
Participants engage virtually with selected experts to deepen foundational competencies and hone sophisticated ‘soft skills’ associated with successful leaders. 
Leadership Direct cultivates strong networks within the cohort, and action-based collaborative learning activities produce real business results.
The program typically includes ongoing biweekly, monthly, and quarterly activities. Participants typically spend three-to-four hours per week or twelve hours per module although the actual time commitments vary depending on the material. Program assignments and discussion sessions are built into the normal work calendar and link to business issues. So participants are learning from Harvard experts and then immediately applying what they are learning to accomplish specific business goals. Each module contains an action-learning project assignment worked on by teams of senior leaders. These assignments will be organized to address the management goals and priorities that we will frame during the Executive Forum.
The program is based on Harvard’s “participant-centered learning methodology” and case method. It encourages reflection, discussion, critical thinking, and immediate application. The overall impact is both personal and transformational. As much as possible we engage the senior leaders as role models and teachers. Leaders not only learn by doing, but also by teaching.
Target Audiences: The format works very well for executives, managers, and high-potential individuals who want to develop their leadership and management capabilities in a broad range of areas and advance their leadership skills in specialized business domains.
Benefits of Leadership Direct
- Participant-Centered Learning. Cohort teams collaborating as peers and mentors with leading experts makes a deep impression and drives real behavioral change. Action-learning projects further advance skill development and drive measurable progress in areas such as new product developments, services, and process improvements.
- Proven Business Multiple Learning Modalities. Participants actively engage in online discussions, case studies, virtual workshops, and action-learning projects; and can access additional resources such as eLearning courses, case studies, research studies, videos, articles and tools.
- Custom-Tailored Fit. Curriculum is developed specifically to meet the cohort’s developmental goals and the organization’s strategic objectives, and may include content drawn from your organization as well as external partners and Harvard Business.
- Scalable. The program is deployed using online platforms and tools combined with virtual events, and is designed to support a global audience, available any time, anywhere 24/7.
- Added Value. As a development benefit, Leadership Direct enhances talent recruitment and retention.
Experts: This unique participant-centered learning delivers a wealth of knowledge from Harvard Business School experts and other preeminent sources, including best selling authors and renowned business leaders.
Program Elements
The Leadership Direct program includes:
- Tailored Curriculum: A deep and broad range of Harvard Business Publishing content including case studies, articles, faculty seminar videos and other multimedia assets, plus materials from other high-quality institutions, deployed in an online library or as assigned weekly readings.
- Experts: Webinars and online workshops presented by Harvard Business School faculty, well-known authors, leading practitioners, and other experts.
- Moderated Discussion: Harvard Business Publishing moderators facilitate online discussions and webinars including analysis of case studies and articles, online jam sessions on topics selected by the cohort, and live virtual Question and Answer sessions with experts.
- Project Teams: Participants may be organized into project teams to work on selected projects, facilitated by Harvard Business Publishing moderators.
- Queries: In addition to group discussions, participants can ask Harvard Business moderators for additional information or insights on areas of particular interest.
In addition to the online discussions and virtual workshops, Leadership Direct provides participants with an archive of supplementary learning resources, including case studies, eLearning courses, videos, FAQs, articles and tools.
Please contact us for more information.