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Mike H.

Former Director of Programs and Admissions at Stanford GSB

Because I've been an educator (lecturer, coach, consultant, facilitator, program and admissions director) on the topic of leadership', I primarily think of myself as a student. I recognize great leadership takes many forms, and I believe leadership development starts with who you are, what you have to offer, and where you want to go, rather than an abstract idea of what a leader should look or sound like. As we said at the Stanford GSB, it begins not by asking, "what makes a great leader?," but by asking, "why would anybody follow me?" Keep this in mind when applying to school. Maybe there's an archetype of what the perfect applicant looks like, and there are obvious elements that strengthen any application, but the best schools want to recruit people of diverse backgrounds, talents, and perspectives. Rather than trying to fit a particular mold, show how much you would add to the overall mix--intellectually, socially, personally and professionally. In your application, you need to demonstrate why the faculty would value your unique input, why your classmates would learn from your unique experiences, and why the school would be uniquely proud to call you an alum. Having read many applications, I know that what most often stands out are the unexpected things, making an applicant memorable and authentic. Cookie cutter approaches rarely work. Half my career was spent at the Stanford GSB--first as an MBA student, later as Executive Director of the GSB's Center for Leadership Development and Research, and then Director of the Stanford MSx Program and Director of Admissions. I was brought in to the GSB to help oversee the launch of its MBA core leadership curriculum (Leadership Labs, Arbuckle Leadership Fellows, GSB Executive Challenge). Later, I helped revamp the Stanford MSx Program and oversaw admissions. Outside my academic and admissions work, I've had diverse roles: coached and facilitated leadership programs with community leaders and CEOs, worked as a strategy consultant, co-founded a microbrewery, served as a Peace Corps volunteer, been angel investor and advisor to startups. But while I've worn different hats, my approach to making an impact has generally been to help people with great potential to become better leaders. (...OK, maybe the microbrewery had different goals). My recent personal work is focused on the impact that AI is having on leaders, teams, and ...applicants. After writing a book, "Leading Teams in the Era of AI," I became fascinated with the learning and personal development processes that LLMs could support, and turned some of that learning on the admissions process. These experiments led to the launch of MBAI (mbai.app), a platform that uses agentic AI workflows to help MBA applicants develop richer narratives, focused goals, and stronger applications. Sign up and try out some of our tools for free.