MIT Leadership Center

Support for MBA Students

From day one, leadership is integrated into your entire MBA experience at MIT Sloan. From orientation to core courses to guest speakers, to clubs and activities, you’ll be immersed in MIT's approach to leadership.

The MIT Leadership Center has designed core and elective MBA courses and programs that give you the chance to dive deeper into your leadership development throughout your two years at MIT. 

The Leadership Center's unique approach integrates science-based frameworks, executive leadership coaching, and practice, creating the ideal environment for your transformative leadership development.

MIT Leadership Center Designed Courses for MBA Students

15.336 ID Lab: Individual Development & Interpersonal Dynamics

The central thesis of ID Lab is that being an effective leader requires a deep understanding of what it means to be human in a complex world. The semester-long course requires both a commitment to personal transformation and a willingness to engage with others on a similar journey. 

To maximize the opportunity for a positive, developmental experience, students  in ID Lab work one-on-one with a professional executive leadership coach. Coaching is often critical to the process of translating the self-knowledge gained in class sessions into leadership behaviors and skills.

Read about a previous student's great experience 

Registered students can click here to learn more

15.337: Teams Lab: Leading Effective Teams 

Teams Lab is designed to help you develop the skills and frameworks necessary to diagnose the key barriers and strengths that determine team performance and to intervene in ways that improve effectiveness.

To maximize the opportunity for a positive, developmental experience, students  in Teams Lab work one-on-one with a professional executive leadership coach. Coaching is often critical to the process of translating the self-knowledge gained in class sessions into leadership behaviors and skills.

Registered students can click here to learn more

15.335: Organizations Lab

In Organizations Lab you will learn to connect specific interventions made by individual leaders with organizational and community transformation. It is a class about linking the individual actions you take to the collective outcomes you desire, whatever they might be. 

Registered students can click here to learn more

15.002: Leadership Challenges for an Inclusive World

The drive for increased Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) provides an ideal setting to identify and tackle the challenges of being a “… principled, innovative leader who improves the world.” A commitment to understanding and then advancing DEI is increasingly a prerequisite and foundation for principled leaders to identify a problem and then create a change. The Leadership and DEI component of 15.002 allows you the opportunity to investigate this notion over a day of rich learning and discussion taking place in both plenary and small group formats.

MIT Leadership Center Designed Programs for MBA Students

  • Leadership Foundations

    Self-knowledge is an essential component of great leadership. By participating in Leadership Foundations, students begin their leadership development path by gaining self-awareness, connecting with peers, and setting focus areas for their time at Sloan. Using a 360 assessment tool, students gather observer feedback and data from their own personal assessment to generate an individualized report of their leadership capabilities. After a critical reflection of the report, students meet with a group of their peers and a trained guide to discuss the patterns that they have observed from their reports and begin to set leadership development goals.

  • Orientation

    During MBA orientation, we lead activities and programs that will introduce you to team and group dynamics. Common orientation activities you might take part in include the MIT Sloan 4-Capabilites Leadership Framework and an outdoor experiential team activity held off campus at the Warren Center.  

  • Sloan Intensive Period

    The Sloan Intensive Period (SIP) is a time of intense hands-on learning at the midpoint of each semester that will inject interactive and real-world leadership experience into your MIT education. With SIP, you’ll have the chance to expand how you think and who you know, as you interact with new peers and external practitioners on a wide range of real-world subjects, issues and challenges. SIP comes in many forms. You can sign up for online or in-person sessions, Action Learning labs, seminars, track hackathons or trips, or study trips. SIP can last anywhere from three days to two weeks, depending on the type of experience you choose. Check out the MBA SIP website for more information. 

  • Leading on Purpose

    Leading on Purpose is a  4-day experience for MBAs, which requires a high level of commitment towards transformation at an  intrapersonal level, while deeply engaging on an interpersonal one. The central thesis of this workshop is that being an effective leader requires a deep understanding of what it means to be a human in a complex world. Leading on Purpose enables a deeper pursuit of self- and other-awareness in service of an improved ability to be intentional in how you present yourself, in how you interact with others, and in how you set your personal goals.

  • Final Reflection

    The MIT Leadership Center and the MBA Program Office created Final Reflection to invite the graduating MBA class to spend time reflecting on their MBA experience. This is a highly interactive opportunity to consolidate critical learning, put the last two years in perspective, connect to classmates, and build towards collective memories.
     

—MBA Leadership Elective Courses

Course Title
15.269 Leadership Stories: Literature, Ethics, and Authority Fall 9 Cr.
15.270 Ethical Practice: Leading Through Professionalism, Social Responsibility, and System Spring 6 Cr.
15.281 Advanced Leadership Communication Spring 9 Cr.
15.288 Tough Conversations: Science, Strategies & Skills for Communicating About & Across Difference Fall 6 Cr.
15.309 Leadership Lessons Learned from the Military IAP
6 Cr.
15.318 Discovering Your Leadership Signature Fall 9 Cr.
15.320 Strategic Organizational Design Spring 9 Cr.
15.321 Improvisational Leadership: In the Moment Leadership Skills Spring 6 Cr.
15.321 Improvisational Leadership: In the Moment Leadership Skills Fall 6 Cr.
15.335 Organizations Lab Spring 9 Cr.
15.336 ID Lab: Individual Development and Interpersonal Dynamics Spring 9 Cr.
15.337 Teams Lab: Leading Effective Teams Fall 9 Cr.
15.339 Developing Leadership Capabilities IAP
6 Cr.
15.394 Entrepreneurial Founding and Teams Spring 9 Cr.
15.394 Entrepreneurial Founding and Teams Fall 9 Cr.
15.568 The Art of Leading: Experiencing Leadership in Practice Spring 6 Cr.
15.661 Building Successful Careers and Organizations Fall 6 Cr.
15.671 U-Lab: Transforming Self, Business and Society Fall 6 Cr.
15.674 Leading Creative Teams Spring 9 Cr.
15.674 Leading Creative Teams Fall 9 Cr.
15.941 Leadership in Real Estate Fall 6 Cr.