Illustration by: https://www.istockphoto.com/portfolio/YutthanaGaetgeaw
Many senior leaders reach a point where the demands of their role leave little time for an important resource: time to think. As responsibilities grow, so does the complexity of the decisions they face: leading organizations through uncertainty, managing competing priorities, and making choices that shape entire systems.
For Amber Smith, former chief financial officer at Redbrick LMD, prioritizing her personal growth gave her the preparation to make complex decisions at work. Smith carved out time to think and grow when she enrolled in the Stanford Executive Program (SEP).
“The one thing that surprised me the most about SEP was the personal growth I experienced in such a short amount of time,” says Smith. “The intersection, progression, and culmination of all the different classes have allowed such tremendous growth personally, professionally, and socially.”
SEP brings together senior executives from across industries for an immersive learning experience centered on reflection, rigorous academic inquiry, and peer relationship building. Through Stanford GSB’s Whole You approach, participants engage in a curriculum that integrates leadership development with personal growth, helping leaders examine not only what decisions they make, but how they make them.
A Day in the Stanford Executive Program
SEP introduces a different cadence for executive leaders. Without the constant pull of operational demands, leaders are able to step back from the immediacy of the day-to-day in their professional role.
Participants feel the change of pace from day one. Whether you’re participating in a full-time or flex cohort, you’ll kick-off your experience on-campus with a warm SEP welcome. We’ll help you get to know your cohort, show you around campus, and share all the information you’ll need to get the most out of your SEP experience.
A Day In the Life: How Learning and Connection Happen Each Day
At Stanford GSB, we believe that evolving as a leader also means evolving as a person. Leadership development is grounded in what we define as the “Whole You” approach, a multidimensional curriculum that integrates personal growth with rigorous academic learning. Movement and structured pauses are designed to sharpen focus, strengthen decision-making, and sustain high performance.
Participants work through case studies that mirror the high-stakes decisions leaders face every day. Experiential learning and team-based exercises extend that work, giving leaders the opportunity to test ideas and apply concepts directly to real business challenges.
Daily SEP activities include:
- Faculty-led sessions focused on real-world leadership challenges
- Simulations and case discussions that push participants to make decisions in complex scenarios
- Structured experiential learning, including workshops and team-based activities, that apply concepts to real business challenges through hands-on collaboration
- Informal peer conversations between sessions, which surface diverse perspectives and build on classroom learning
- Time for reflection and introspection, supporting focus and long-term performance
- Evening events and cohort gatherings that strengthen relationships to form a global community
Mornings typically begin with a workout before shifting into classroom sessions, where faculty draw from their own research to guide discussions. Through simulations, case discussions, and team-based exercises, participants test ideas and work through real business challenges. In the evenings, the cohort often gathers for group dinners and informal gatherings.
At times, the experience extends beyond campus, with participant-organized opportunities to explore California alongside your cohort — whether that’s cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge or visiting a local museum. These activities help further cultivate the cohort bond, strengthening the connections you’re building with your peers.
The Cohort: How Global Perspectives Shape Leadership Thinking
Each cohort is carefully curated to maximize your learning and experience of SEP. Participants come from across industries, geographies, and leadership contexts, each bringing a distinct perspective shaped by their experiences. Together, leaders exchange ideas and learn how others approach and solve complex decisions.
For Mody Alkhalaf, Director of Guest Experience at Riyadh Air, the cohort model was what drew her to SEP: “To leave for six weeks and meet new people from all over the world… I would not have had this experience anywhere else.”
Because participants live and learn on campus, these conversations extend well beyond the classroom. That proximity creates space for deeper reflection and more open exchange than most leaders experience in their day-to-day roles.
“These are individuals that have gotten hard-fought, hard-won, highly accomplished things done in their own careers,” says Dean Paron, Vice President at Microsoft. This depth of experience, combined with a willingness to share openly, makes peer learning especially powerful.
Dean insists the most unique advantages of the program are “the opportunities we have to share stories on professional or personal challenges that we faced, and build real relationships that will last beyond SEP.”
Learn more about a day in the life of an SEP participant.
The Academics: What to Expect from the SEP Curriculum
Faculty-led discussions build on the experiences participants bring from their own organizations, creating an environment where leaders are continually challenged to test ideas and rethink familiar approaches.
SEP participants learn from tenured Stanford GSB MBA faculty who draw directly from their own research and case studies, sharing frameworks in the classroom frameworks that are actively shaping business and policy. In coursework, participants engage with a rigorous academic curriculum spanning strategy, organizational behavior, finance, innovation, and more.
Topics include:
- Competitive strategy and positioning in dynamic markets
- Organizational design and leading teams at scale
- Decision-making under uncertainty and risk
- Financial analysis, capital allocation, and value creation
- Innovation, technology, and leading change in complex systems
- Negotiation, influence, and high-stakes communication
Across sessions, participants examine questions that senior leaders face every day:
- How do you make decisions when the path isn’t clear?
- How do you lead organizations through change while navigating risk?
- How do you respond when your thinking is challenged by a room full of experienced peers?
For Mody, questions like these were instrumental in expanding her conception of growth. “What surprised me was learning about things I had never stopped to think about, such as celebrating failure,” she says. “I learned that failure is the path to creative genius.”
The Experiential Learning: A Sneak Peek Into This Dynamic Method
Throughout SEP, participants apply these ideas through live business exercises and decision-making scenarios.
In a recent session led by Stanford GSB professor Christian Wheeler, whose research focuses on decision-making and judgment, participants worked through a high-stakes leadership scenario designed as a live business exercise. The case: you’re leading a company through a period of uncertainty and facing a room of investors demanding accountability and direction. Wheeler asks, “How will you handle those difficult questions?”
- Participants begin by assessing the scenario individually, identifying risks, trade-offs, and possible responses.
- They then move into small groups, where they compare approaches, challenge assumptions, and refine their thinking.
- As the exercise progresses, new variables are introduced — shifting the context and forcing participants to adapt their strategy in the moment.
- The session culminates in a facilitated discussion, where participants present their decisions and unpack the reasoning behind them. Faculty guide the conversation, connecting each approach back to leadership frameworks and decision-making principles, while peers offer direct feedback shaped by their own professional experience.
This structure — assess, decide, test, and reflect — shifts how leaders operate in real time. “You never predict the future,” says Dr. Wheeler. “But you need to be able to adapt in that moment and come up with creative solutions.”
How the Stanford Executive Program Transforms Leadership Perspective
Leadership at the highest levels leaves little room for pause. At the same time, it’s more important than ever to step back and rethink how decisions are made.
SEP creates space to do just that, inviting experienced leaders to step away from daily demands and engage more deeply with how they lead.
By the end of the program, participants describe a shift in how they think and operate. They leave with a more disciplined approach to decision-making, and a broader perspective on the systems they lead, and a global network of peers.
“I’m sitting here on the Stanford campus, feeling uncomfortable but okay being uncomfortable,” says Pritika. “It’s a network, it’s a family, it’s a connection that you can continue to build on and give back to… I’m so glad that I’m here and I’m doing this.”
