Manage risk, navigate disruption, and frame business problems to drive alignment across your organization.
As market disruptions, societal pressures, and emerging technologies continue to reshape competitive dynamics, leaders are increasingly called upon to make complex decisions under uncertainty. Risk, Strategy, and Decisions is an executive education program designed to equip mid- to senior-level leaders with a practical, adaptive framework for navigating today’s high-stakes business environment. As market disruptions, societal pressures, and emerging technologies continue to reshape competitive dynamics, this program helps leaders build the strategic clarity, risk intelligence, and influence skills needed to drive results and build resilient organizations.
Through real-world case discussions and hands-on exercises, participants will learn how to frame challenges with precision, assess risks beyond the obvious, and lead persuasively across diverse audiences. From managing crises and making trade-offs under pressure to adapting strategy in response to unforeseen disruptions, the program connects leadership principles to the urgent realities of the present moment. Participants will leave with a stronger ability to anticipate change, align stakeholders, and make decisions that not only withstand uncertainty but turn it into a strategic advantage.
Key Takeaways
- Build a practical framework for making smart, responsible decisions.
- Learn to identify and manage risk across strategic challenges.
- Understand how to align stakeholders and build trust in your decisions.
- Balance ethical, social, and business factors in complex situations.
- Boost your agility and confidence in shifting environments.
- Apply insights to real-world cases and your own organization.
Who Should Attend
Ideal for professionals at all levels, from seasoned executives to emerging startup founders, this program provides the critical tools and insights you need to thrive in an AI-driven world. Whether you are leading a team, launching a new venture, or shaping organizational strategy, you will learn how to harness the power of human and AI collaboration to make smarter decisions, drive innovation, and advance your career with confidence.
Meet Your Instructor
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Building your professional brand for executive excellence.
Unlock your full leadership potential with our dynamic Leadership Brand Advantage workshop, designed to equip you with the tools and insights needed to elevate your professional brand, communicate effectively, and align your leadership with strategic organizational goals for optimal performance and outcomes. A powerful brand empowers individuals to better position themselves within their organization and industry.
Why a Strong Leadership Brand Matters
Every effective leader has a strong professional brand that defines who they are, what they stand for, and why others should trust and follow them. As leaders grow and take on new responsibilities, their professional identity must evolve to match their evolving goals and responsibilities, including leading large and diverse teams, building coalitions across stakeholders, and balancing the authority and trust needed to make bold decisions.
As a leader, whether you aim to project greater gravitas, be known as a kind yet honest communicator, or foster innovation within your team, aligning your brand with the necessary leadership traits and skills is crucial for taking your leadership to the next level.
Key Takeaways
- Gain a deeper understanding of your personal leadership brand, including your strengths and unique qualities, to better position yourself within your organization and industry.
- Develop tools and strategies to effectively communicate your brand and your value proposition to a variety of stakeholders, including direct reports, clients, and C-suite leaders.
- Align your brand with organizational goals to strengthen individual and team performance.
- Create a brand that promotes an organizational culture built on authenticity, accountability, and shared values.
- Enhance your impact within your team and across your organization.
- Better position yourself for future roles and increased responsibilities.
Who should attend?
This program is designed for executives, chief officers, and mid- to upper-level managers, who are interested in building a holistic leadership brand to enhance visibility, expand networks, and demonstrate their value.
Participants will build a leadership brand action plan and examine their leadership persona and its alignment with strategic initiatives, including fostering innovation, building internal and external stakeholder buy-in, and leading dispersed teams.
How to discuss program investment with your employer
Many organizations support employees' attendance in Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education programs by covering the program fee, travel expenses for in-person programs, and granting time away from the office.
Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education understands the investment in attending our programs or earning our Certificate in Executive Leadership may require additional information for your employer. To help facilitate the conversation, we have drafted a justification letter for you. It outlines the benefits of participating in a Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education program.
Understand what it takes to be an inspired and effective leader while successfully leading teams in a dynamic world.
Today’s business climate is marked by shifting global trends, increased pressure from new and different competitors, and the need to respond and adapt to change. More than ever, organizations need inspired and effective leaders to produce a sustainable competitive advantage. With its comprehensive, integrated design, the program strengthens the abilities and confidence of managers and executives to successfully lead their teams in a dynamic world.
A unique strength of the program is the integrated approach tying the learning from different fields to actual personal leadership challenges.
Focusing on experiential application, participants are provided with the knowledge and tools to effectively address the challenges they face every day, enabling them to develop a greater understanding of their leadership style and create holistic strategies to be successful in different situations.
Participant Insight
"This program was unlike any I’ve attended before. There was strong attention to detail, and the interactions feel personal and attentive. The professors and support staff were extremely engaging. We received plenty of tools to work with, and there was an atmosphere of well-being that’s not often achieved in training programs."
– Procurement Analyst, Defense Industry
Key Takeaways
- Further advance your leadership point of view during challenging times
- Develop effective change management tools for complex organizational environments
- Master informal organizational networks in order to effectively manage beyond hierarchy
- Strengthen your leadership communication skills to diverse stakeholders
- Expand your leadership toolbox to create high performance teams
Who Should Attend
This program is designed for executives and mid- to upper-level managers. Recommended participants include those who:
- Supervise departments or diverse teams
- Lead complex projects or organizational change
- Manage relationships between different functions and stakeholders
- Are accountable for delivering results in global business
- Hold or aspire to a key role in their operation
- Develop talent within their organization
How to discuss program investment with your employer
Many organizations support employees' attendance in Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education programs by covering the program fee, travel expenses for in-person programs, and granting time away from the office.
Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education understands the investment in attending our programs or earning our Certificate in Executive Leadership may require additional information for your employer. To help facilitate the conversation, we have drafted a justification letter for you. It outlines the benefits of participating in a Carnegie Mellon Tepper Executive Education program.
Meet Your Instructors
Request Info -- Lead with confidence for a competitive edge!
Click here to view the Carnegie Mellon University Privacy Notice.
Solve complex business problems through human-AI collaboration.
This innovative two-day course merges Design Thinking and AI to tackle complex, systemic problems and foster groundbreaking innovation. Learn to apply AI technologies, such as big data, natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs), and generative design to boost creativity and craft human-centered solutions. Explore creative applications of AI for faster ideation and bias minimization while mastering powerful metacognitive tools that help when thinking gets stuck.
Through hands-on sessions that fuse AI tools with Design Thinking methods, you will address real-world business challenges while building creative confidence, developing a comprehensive understanding of integrating AI into your strategies, equipped to drive innovation, solve complex challenges, and develop solutions that are both technologically advanced and human-centric.
The program culminates with an exploratory discussion on how to apply Design Thinking and AI to your specific context, emphasizing futures thinking, collaboration, ethics, and creativity. You will leave the program with a tailored action plan to ensure Design Thinking’s relevance and practical application to your organization’s challenges.
By the end of this program, you will be equipped to generate impactful solutions for today and navigate the evolving challenges of tomorrow.
Participant Insight
"Design Thinking pushes us to be iterative and helps me keep hope alive. This program is seriously shifting how I think about AI—not just as a tool for convenience, but as a creative partner that can help unlock new ways of solving problems. One of the coolest moments so far? Getting hands-on with OpenAI, Figma AI and Fliki AI—not just for rapid prototyping but even crafting a full-on commercial. Seeing these tools in action has me thinking about how AI can push the boundaries of design, accessibility, storytelling, and conflict-solving in more equitable, human-centered ways. AI isn’t here to replace creativity—it’s here to expand it. And when we pair it with Design Thinking, we make sure innovation is driven by real people, real needs, and real impact. I can’t wait to bring these insights into my work in the arts, history, and museum spaces."
– Vice President, IDEA, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
Key Takeaways
- Learn strategies for integrating AI into the Design Thinking process
- Understand how AI can aid human creativity and brainstorming
- Develop innovative data-driven solutions
- Foster a culture of collaboration through co-creation and application
Who Should Attend
- Whether you are an executive in a global business or an early-stage start-up founder, this program will elevate your skills and boost your creativity, equipping you with the tools to advance your career and entrepreneurial efforts through human-AI collaboration.
- Designed for professionals from all backgrounds and levels of experience, this program requires no prior experience with AI.
- Individuals interested in pursuing their Certificate in Executive Leadership + AI.
Meet Your Instructors:
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Click here to view the Carnegie Mellon University Privacy Notice.
Enhance your written communication and elevate your leadership brand to influence and inspire.
Clear and persuasive writing helps you lead with impact. It grabs attention, inspires action, and keeps your message sharp, even across today’s dispersed, global, and hybrid work environments.
Your ability to write well is a vital part of your leadership toolkit. It helps you organize your thoughts, influence decisions, and communicate your vision. When you write with confidence and clarity, you strengthen your personal brand and keep your team aligned.
In this interactive online workshop, you will gain practical strategies to turn your writing into a powerful leadership tool. You will learn how to analyze your audience, build a clear writing plan, and deliver messages that resonate. You will also explore how to use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to support and enhance your writing. By the end, you will be ready to create more effective emails, business documents, and presentations with tools you can use right away.
Meet Your Instructor:
Key Takeaways
- Harness the power of a six-phase communication planning sequence to expertly analyze your audience and plot your approach to writing a persuasive message that gets results.
- Practice simple but powerful writing “moves” for navigating difficult communication scenarios effectively, ensuring you get your message across while maintaining good working relationship.
- Learn three interlocking techniques for crafting organized, efficient messages.
- Leverage best practices of formatting and structuring to design highly skimmable messages that busy readers can navigate quickly.
- Adopt an effective approach for writing with generative AI.
Who Should Attend
This program is designed for leaders interested in building a toolkit of writing skills they can leverage in corporate, public sector, entrepreneurial, academic, or nonprofit environments.
Develop improv-based communication skills to lead with ingenuity, empathy, and resilience.
Today’s business environment demands more than traditional leadership—it calls for adaptability, creativity, and the confidence to lead through change. As organizations face rapid transformation, your ability to connect across functions, foster innovation, and respond in the moment is what sets you apart.
This program helps you strengthen one of the most powerful yet underutilized leadership skill sets: improvisation. Improv-based communication gives you the tools to think on your feet, listen with empathy, empower others, and turn uncertainty into opportunity. You’ll learn how to lead with presence, collaborate more effectively, and navigate the unexpected with clarity and confidence.
Over two days of immersive, interactive learning, you’ll draw from social psychology, behavioral science, and improvisational theatre to become a more agile and inspiring leader. Through small group work, role-playing exercises, and real-time feedback, you’ll practice techniques that promote inclusive leadership, idea generation, and courageous communication, all in a supportive, risk-free environment.
Walk away with practical tools you can immediately apply to energize your team, respond to change, and lead with intention.
Key Takeaways
- Sharpen critical soft skills to become a more creative, flexible, and strategic leader.
- Adopt an improvisational mindset to build self-awareness and strengthen your interpersonal toolkit.
- Build teams that work as co-creative ensembles.
- Leverage improvisational communication skills as a catalyst for positive change.
Who Should Attend
This highly interactive program is designed for leaders who want to expand their interpersonal skillset, develop their creativity, and enhance their ability to adapt, innovate, co-create, and manage risks.
This program is ideal for business professionals who are taking on a new leadership role or who are facing increased demands to adapt to change.
