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It's hard to imagine discussing "the leader of the future" without having a discussion with Ronald Heifetz -- one of the world's leading authorities on leadership. Heifetz, 48, director of the Leadership Education Project at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, is a scholar, a teacher, and a consultant. His course at Harvard, "Exercising Leadership," is legendary for its popularity with students and for its impact on them. His students (many of them in mid-career) include leaders from all walks of life: business executives, generals, priests and rabbis, politicians. His clients have included senior executives at BellSouth, who brought him on to conduct a two-year program on leadership in a fast-changing world, and the president of Ecuador, who is struggling to lead that nation through tough economic times.



What makes Heifetz's approach to leadership so compelling is that he is so honest about what real leadership demands. The book that rocketed him to prominence was called Leadership Without Easy Answers (Belknap/Harvard University Press, 1994). The role of the leader is changing, Heifetz argues. The new role is "to help people face reality and to mobilize them to make change." And making change is painful: "Many people have a 'smiley face' view of what it means to lead. They get a rude awakening when they find themselves with a leadership opportunity. Exercising leadership generates resistance -- and pain. People are afraid that they will lose something that's worthwhile. They're afraid that they're going to have to give up something that they're comfortable with."



A graduate of Columbia University, Harvard Medical School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Heifetz is both a physician and a cellist, having studied with the Russian virtuoso, Gregor Piatigorsky.

Heifetz speaks and consults extensively in the U.S. and abroad with leaders in business, government, and nonprofit organizations.

Presentations Include:

Leadership Has No Easy Answers:
As one of the leading writers and thought leaders on the topic of leadership, Heifetz readily admits there are no easy answers for leaders--but he does provide some practical lessons for practicing better, more effective leadership at all levels of an organization.

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