Program: Leadership Programs

Reasoning & Persuasive Skills for Leaders - All New!

July 26 - August 1

Following last year's hit debut, Reasoning & Persuasive Skills is back for summer 2026 and with all new content to grow and deepen skills! In this highly efficient, immersive program, Dr. Ladva will help participants take their critical thinking and personal powers of analysis and self-expression to new peaks.

Students will learn and nurture these skills and techniques:

• to always project their own best reasoning;
• to call on the courage to do so;
• to speak persuasively and with dynamism;
• to find and create consensus;
• to understand the techniques of team building;
• to activate empathy in a group;
• to evaluate when to hold their ground, and when and how to compromise;
• to succeed by bringing others along. By letting others win too.

A unique blend of lively, skill-building seminars, active debates, and hands-on projects helps participants synthesize new skills. Fun, impromptu challenges put learning to the test, giving participants real-life practice in problem solving and thinking on their feet.
 
 

Strategic Thinking for Leaders

August 2 - August 8

Are you able to "Think Big?" To see and "get" the Big Picture? Are you fascinated by strategy in sports, business, games, geo-politics? Can you summon the vision and disciplined thinking to bring a powerful idea to fruition?

In this dynamic week, Professor Temes will guide us as we come to deeply understand the challenges, long odds, and ultimate triumphs of real-life heroes and visionaries. Case studies, compelling historical accounts, and expert guests will inform and inspire participants as they learn what it takes to turn analysis and reason into a long-term success, a victory, a strategic win.

Students will learn these techniques and skills:

• to achieve big-picture thinking;
• to marshal the courage to pursue a lofty goal;
• to pitch an idea and lead a meeting;
• to anticipate obstacles and opportunities;
• to design a roadmap to long-term success.

Participants will flex their developing critical thinking skills for Strategy in practical applications of strategic decision-making in real-world scenarios. Interactive problem-solving exercises and a group project turn learning into action. This is a week not to be missed!

Meet our Faculty

Leadership Program Premises:

• For centuries, Western education included philosophy, reasoning, oratory, rhetoric, and some form of debate. These were among the basic arts and skills of educated people.
• During the second half of the twentieth century, the teaching of these foundational skill-sets has largely been abandoned – even in top-tier schools. The loss has been enormous.
• For purposes of effective democratic governance, the arts of persuasion and compromise, civil discourse, and simply proving one’s point in everyday life, contemporary Americans have suffered a loss.
• We must break with the current trajectory and help the next generation build these skills early and emerge as leaders.

About Nimisha Ladva, PhD

Nimisha Ladva, PhD is a celebrated speaking and communications coach to C-Suite business leaders and Visiting Professor of Writing and Oral Communications Specialist at Haverford College.  A teacher, coach, and speechwriter, she prepares executives and young people for TEDx talks, presentations, feats of storytelling, and all-around better communications. Dr. Ladva will lead a powerful week teaching the arts and skills of critical thinking, persuasion, collaboration, debate, and subtle craft of win-win outcomes.  She is a Moth Radio winning storyteller, a Globe Theater awarded playwright, and a past teacher of writing at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford College.

Dr. Ladva is a graduate of UCLA and holds both a master's degree and a PhD from UC Irvine.  She says about herself, "I help leaders communicate powerfully with every audience, every time."

 
About Peter S. Temes, PhD

Peter S. Temes, PhD is an esteemed thinker and counselor in both corporate and government enterprise circles, working closely with C-Suite leaders on matters of Strategy and Innovation. He will take his Leadership students on an exciting journey into the strategic mind, exploring the skills and powers of strategic thinking.  Dr. Temes regularly works with key executives from such companies as Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Amazon, Hasbro, Disney, Lululemon, American Express, NASA, SpaceX, and GM.  He has also guided entrepreneurs in taking their very first steps. 

In past years, Dr. Temes has taught at Harvard and in the core curriculum program at Columbia. Dr. Temes is the author of several books, including Teaching Leadership, and co-author of We the People: Human Purpose in a Digital Age.  He is past president of the Great Books Foundation in Chicago and helped found the Great Books Summer Program.  Dr. Temes holds a PhD and three masters' degrees from Columbia.  

Join Us for Leadership at Haverford

This is the second year of GBSP Leadership Programs, and we are saving it for the last two weeks of the summer, so that any students from any prior weeks can join. However, by design, space will be extremely limited in this special program.

Please reach out soon to secure your place!