Introducing the Stanford Leadership Institute

I often hear leadership framed as a matter of personal qualities like vision, decisiveness, and charisma. Those characteristics matter. But leadership does not develop in isolation, and today, profound changes — technological disruption, geopolitical realignment, climate risk, and institutional distrust — are rapidly reshaping our world. 

The GSB has always sought to develop leaders who make a positive impact on business and society. As the external environment grows more dynamic, our approach to leadership education must evolve in step. 

To meet this moment, we are launching the Stanford Leadership Institute. An interdisciplinary hub drawing on expertise from across Stanford and beyond, SLI is designed to deepen how we teach, practice, and study leadership. Visionary support from Diane and Andreas Halvorsen, MBA ’90, made the Stanford Leadership Institute possible. 

At SLI, we will equip leaders with the tools to interpret complex systems and act with principled judgment when certainty is scarce. To do so, we will work across boundaries, partnering with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the Hoover Institution, the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, among others. These collaborations reflect a core premise: The most pressing leadership challenges cannot be understood through a single discipline. 

Ken Shotts, the David S. and Ann M. Barlow Professor of Political Economy, is the inaugural Vélez Reyes Director of SLI and oversees events such as the Stanford Leadership Forum, which brings together the many members of our community who are deeply engaged with the profound changes reshaping our world. SLI provides an essential venue for dialogue between academia and industry — and ensures our leadership education is infused with practical, real-world insights. 

Critically, SLI will engage our scholars, like Matteo Maggiori, the Moghadam Family Professor of Finance, who studies geoeconomics and global power; Jennifer Eberhardt, the William R. Kimball Professor, who examines how AI affects policing and public trust; and Associate Professor Rebecca Lester, who analyzes the economic consequences of tax policy. Their innovative research, guided by Senior Associate Dean Amit Seru, the Steven and Roberta Denning Professor of Finance, will flow directly into SLI’s curriculum, a curriculum that expands on how we think about leadership at the GSB. 

Five essential capacities — self-awareness, perspective-taking, holistic communication, decision-making, and contextual awareness — describe what we call the GSB Leadership Model. Self-awareness grounds leaders in their values and helps them recognize their blind spots. Perspectivetaking enables them to understand stakeholders whose experiences and incentives differ sharply from their own. Holistic communication ensures that leaders connect rigorous analysis with meaning. Decision-making translates judgment into action. 

In an era defined by volatility and complexity, I believe one capacity stands out as increasingly urgent: contextual awareness, which is the ability to read the broader environment in which leadership unfolds. Facets of the environment include, but are not limited to, the technological currents reshaping industries, the political dynamics influencing regulation, the cultural norms altering public expectations, and the institutional structures that enable or constrain change. 

Leaders acting without contextual awareness risk making technically sound decisions that falter in practice. A strategy that looks brilliant on paper can collapse when it collides with unforeseen regulatory shifts, cultural backlash, or technological disruption. Leaders who cultivate contextual awareness, by contrast, can anticipate second- and third-order effects, untangle ambiguity, and align strategy with shifting realities. 

Understanding context strengthens and amplifies the other elements of the GSB Leadership Model. It allows leaders to apply self-awareness more wisely, to exercise perspective-taking more expansively, and to communicate with greater resonance. It sharpens judgment and strengthens decisions. 

The Stanford Leadership Institute builds directly on this strong foundation. In a world in motion, context is the terrain on which leadership succeeds or fails. Through our research and teaching, the GSB will continue to prepare leaders who read that terrain and act with the clarity and conviction essential to confronting the challenges of our time.