Executive Education
Unlocking Your Leadership Potential

student raising hand

Empathy. Vision. Courage. Imagination. Communication. Intuition. Anticipation.

These are core attributes of successful leaders, that are irreplaceable by artificial intelligence. For generations, these have been considered “soft” skills that a leader must either be born with or acquire haphazardly through experience. But at The Ohio State University, groundbreaking research has uncovered the hard facts of how to train leaders to develop and fine-tune these skills. Crucially, we have developed—and scientifically proven—new methods for unlocking leaders’ brains so that they can access these skills authentically.

At the core of these methods is a technique known as narrative re-cognition, or in other words, the stories you tell yourself. Tell yourself one story about where you came from and where you’re going, and it can make you curious, caring and resilient. Tell yourself another story, and it can make you inflexible, self-centered and quick to anger.

This innovative training is based on cutting-edge neuroscience, forged in partnership with teams at US Army Special Operations, published in 2022 articles in Harvard Business Review and New York Academy of Sciences and Modern Warfare Institute.

On the first day of this program, you will develop your own personal narrative to unlock your deep leadership potential and learn to lead in your own unique way.

On day two, you will build on developing your personal leadership narrative and focus on leadership excellence. Through focused effort, introspection, self-analysis, interactive discussion and small group breakouts that our faculty experts will guide you through, you will unlock your unique leadership potential and learn to become an authentic and exceptional leader.

 

Program Details

Program dates

May 16-17, 2024

Register

Registration Deadline

May 2, 2024

Delivery Method Two full days, on campus
Cost

$1,950 per participant 

Promotions and Available Discounts

  • Discounts are available for Ohio State University employees, OSUWMC employees, Veterans, employees from non-profit organizations and organizations who send three or more employees.  For more information about discounts please contact Jennie McAndrew at mcandrew.28@osu.edu.
Prospective Participant Profile

This unique curriculum offers invaluable advice on leading and influencing others in the workplace. Executives and managers of all experience levels will benefit from its interactive sessions that provide useful frameworks for mastering leadership skills.

Program Schedule Download Sample Program Schedule

Course Takeaways

  • Open/Close At the conclusion of the program you will be able to...
    • Understand the psychological processes that drive core leadership skills such as empathy, vision, courage and imagination
    • Discover why a common sign of a leadership glitch is communication breakdown—and how successful leaders communicate authentically, in their own unique ways
    • Explore the learning cycle of push to failure, narrative reflection and personal growth
    • Discover how to maximize your brain’s natural ability to risk-take intelligently
    • Learn how to rebound from setbacks and failure, maintaining initiative and intelligent risk-taking
    • Learn how to boost your mental agility, allowing you to pivot strategy faster in response to emergent challenges and opportunities
    • Better lead a team to achieve a high level of success, including high-performance teams
    • Better understand how your past has influenced and shaped you as a leader
    • Consider your values and motivations and their impact on your leadership style and decision-making ability
    • Authentically lead others in a way that is natural and right for you, and compelling and inspirational for those around you
    • Develop your own personal leadership legacy statement that is your core purpose as a human being

What You Will EarnExample certificate of completion

Once you successfully complete the program, you will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. You may proudly display this certificate in your office or home to showcase your accomplishment. You may also add this certificate to the licenses and certifications section of your LinkedIn profile. This will allow you to showcase your newly acquired experience to your network and stand out in your field.

We also value your commitment to learning, and as a token of appreciation, we offer a 10% discount on future topic-based programs you wish to pursue through Executive Education at Fisher College of Business. We believe that learning is a lifelong journey, and we are proud to be a part of yours.

  • Value for Individual
    • Explore your personal narrative so that you can lead more authentically and ultimately more effectively
    • Learn how to recognize when your leadership is falling short and how to respond
    • Learn how to embrace failure as a productive road to discovery and growth
    • Strengthen your emotional resilience with reflection on past accomplishments and communication skills that help effectively motivate and guide teams
    • Learn tools and frameworks to help you maximize your effectiveness in leading high-performing teams
    • Understand the value of authenticity and one’s own life story and learn how they impact leadership style and excellence
    • Develop an increased awareness of your values and motivations, your strengths and weaknesses, and the extent of balance in your life
    • Use your awareness of your life story, values and motivations to help develop your own leadership legacy statement – your core purpose as a human being and as a leader
  • Value for Company
    • Your organization’s leaders will know how to anticipate team breakdown before it happens and correct course for continued success
    • By building trust within a team, leaders will have time to anticipate the future and prepare for the unexpected
    • Your leaders will stretch their creativity muscles to become more resilient and will discover tools to use to manage uncertainty
    • Leaders who are their “authentic selves” will unlock their potential and maximize their effectiveness and are more likely to be engaged in the organization for the longer-term
    • Authenticity is compelling and can be contagious, with implications for positive culture change

Our Faculty

  • Open/Close Angus Fletcher

    Angus Fletcher headshotAngus Fletcher (PhD, Yale) has dual degrees in neuroscience and narrative theory. He is the pioneer of story science, which explores the neuroscience of how the narratives we tell ourselves can shift our performance, increasing creativity, curiosity, empathy, and other psychological skills. His work has been called "mind-blowing" by Malcolm Gladwell and "polymathic" by Martin Seligman and has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and others. His most recent books are Wonderworks (Simon and Schuster, 2021), Storythinking (Columbia University Press, 2023), and A New Humanities (Princeton University Press, 2024).

  • Open/Close Larry Inks

    Larry Inks HeadshotLarry Inks, PhD is Clinical Professor of Management and Human Resources in the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University.  He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level classes in the areas of talent management, organization change and project management, organizational behavior and human resource management, staffing, and statistics and research methods.  He is actively involved in executive education programs and initiatives offered through the Fisher College of Business as well as external consulting and speaking. 

    Prior to joining the faculty at the Fisher College, Dr. Inks had a very successful career in talent management leadership roles at PepsiCo, AlliedSignal/ Honeywell, and Cardinal Health.  Most recently, Dr. Inks was Vice President of Talent Management for Cardinal Health in Dublin, Ohio from 2001-2005.  His areas of responsibility (among others) included culture management, employee engagement, human resource planning/talent review, leadership development, performance management systems and organization change.  Prior to Cardinal Health, Dr. Inks worked with AlliedSignal as head of Organization and Leadership Development for their Polymers business.  He also worked for a number of years with PepsiCo in both talent management and human resource generalist roles.  In addition, he served on the faculty of the Management Department of the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University, teaching in areas of organization development, organization behavior, human resource management and business decision making and analysis.

    Dr. Inks has a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from The Ohio State University and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Purdue University.  He has received a number of teaching and service awards while at The Ohio State University, including the Fisher Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Daniel Westerbeck Pace Setters Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, the Daniel Westerbeck Pace Setters Award for Graduate Teaching Excellence, the Bostic-Georges Pace Setter Award for Faculty Service, and Fisher’s awards for Graduate Teaching Excellence in Management and Human Resources.  He is a three-time recipient of recognition by members of the Sphinx/Mortar Board Senior Class honor society for the faculty/staff member having the greatest impact on the student’s educational experience while at OSU, and in 2015 received Ohio State University’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching (the University’s highest recognition for teaching excellence).

  • Open/Close Cancellation/ Transfer Policy

    All cancellations and transfers must be received in writing. Submit your request via email to Jennie McAndrew at mcandrew.28@osu.edu with the name of the program, followed by “cancellation” or “transfer” in the subject line.

    • Cancellations must be made at least thirty (30) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a full refund.
    • Cancellations must be made at least fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program in order to be eligible for a 50% refund.
    • Any cancellations made less than fourteen (14) days prior to the first day of the program will forfeit the registration fee.
    • If you for any reason are unable to attend the program, please consider sending someone in your place. Participants can transfer their registration to someone else within their organization at no charge up to 24 hours before the first day of the program.
Contact Us

Jennie McAndrew
Education Program Senior Specialist, Executive Education