Elevating Potential at the Center for Leadership Studies
The sun had been up for only an hour or so but Brent and I were already on the road and Southbury bound.
“So, what do you think today’ll be like?” I asked, sipping a fancypants latte as I reviewed a slew of interview questions prepared for the international executives we were soon to meet.
“Dude, I have no idea,” Brent replied. “Just expect the unexpected.”
It turns out that this was rather good advice.
Brent and I attended two days of the Center for Leadership Studies Master’s in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) program, held at The Heritage in Southbury, CT. As part of the Fathom team helping MAOL create a brand new web experience set to launch this summer, Brent and I were excited to get an in-person perspective on the decidedly unique leadership degree program for which we’d been feverishly writing copy and designing comps since late 2008.
Mel Toomey, The Center for Leadership Studies’ warm, magnetic leader, was addressing the class of mid-career executives when Brent and I arrived. In lieu of formal introductions and stiff how d’you dos, we sat down, dove in, and proceeded to get personal.
Over our two on-site days we got to know global executives from IBM, Johnson & Johnson and countless other international organizations. The group convened last week in Connecticut for the third time to learn about creating change in their organizations through heightened self-awareness, highly honed intention, and breakthrough business initiatives that they themselves design—no easy feat. The overwhelming response of current MAOL candidates and the graduates with whom I spoke, however, is that the effort is more than worthwhile; it’s transformative. MAOL faculty and Conner Partners Chairman, Daryl Conner, explains.
“Students bring a really substantial ROI back to the company, but how much they shift personally and how much they report evolving as individuals, not just as executives, is extraordinary,” he notes. “Across the board, candidates have a much higher tolerance for ambiguity and a much greater ability to embrace diversity of thinking. They have a lower tolerance for pat answers and a predisposition for creative answers to problems.”
As interviewer for a series of video clips that will be featured on the new Center for Leadership Studies website, I had the opportunity to ask graduates, current students and faculty about their MAOL experiences. They shared that what they’d learned while in the MAOL program had revolutionized their organizations and leadership styles as well as their lives.
“This program has brought tremendous benefit to my organization,” said Tim Orr who, since graduating from MAOL, has sponsored two of his employees through their degrees. “I learned that if you’re going to produce extraordinary work and develop yourself as an individual, you have to constantly move out of your comfort zone. I now make self-checking a practice. Am I too comfortable with the way that I’m approaching work or my life? Is it time for me to reach beyond my comfort zone and reach beyond to the potential we all have as individuals?”
The thoughtfulness and quality of the responses were far beyond what I’d dreamed, and in the coming weeks I look forward to collecting more and beginning to compile faculty, student, and graduate profiles that will be featured along with the new site’s video footage.
Look for the new Fathom designed Center for Leadership Studies website this summer. In the meantime, stay tuned for more MAOL experiences. Fathom’s Executive Creative Director, Brent Robertson, is enrolled in the program and is hard at work architecting his own business breakthrough.
Written by: Caitlin Schiller
Email the author: caitlins@fathom.net
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