Millsaps College Executive Education, 1701 North State Street, Jackson, MS (2026)

10/20/2026

The Vulnerability Paradox: Why Strong Leaders Show Weakness

There's a myth in leadership that you're supposed to have it figured out. That showing doubt is showing weakness. That admitting you don't know something undermines your authority.

So leaders project certainty. They have the answers. They don't ask for help.

And their teams stop trusting them.

Here's the paradox: the most powerful thing a leader can do is admit what they don't know.

When you say:
- "I made a mistake"
- "I don't know how to handle this"
- "I'm struggling with this"
- "I need your help"

Your team relaxes. They stop trying to read your mind. They stop worrying that they're the only ones struggling. They realize you're human.

And they start telling you the truth.

There's a difference between appropriate vulnerability and oversharing. You're not supposed to dump your problems on your team. But you are supposed to be real.

What appropriate vulnerability looks like:

- You admit when you're wrong
- You acknowledge when something's hard
- You ask questions when you don't know
- You share what you're learning
- You're open to feedback

The leaders who command the most respect aren't the ones with all the answers. They're the ones who are still learning and smart enough to know it.

Your certainty isn't your strength. Your willingness to be real is.

10/15/2026

The Strategy Trap: When Having a Plan Becomes a Prison

You spent months on the strategy. You got leadership alignment. You communicated it to the team. You're executing.

But the market shifted. A competitor moved. A key person left. The assumption you built your strategy on turned out to be wrong.

And now you're stuck. Do you pivot or do you stay the course?

Most leaders stay the course because they've publicly committed to it. Changing direction feels like failure. So they double down. They push the team harder. They ignore signals that something's not working.

That's the strategy trap.

A good strategy is like a map, not like a prison. It gives you direction. But it's not the territory. When the territory changes, you adjust the map.

Here's how real strategy works:

- You choose your direction based on what you know today
- You stay attuned to signals that the world has changed
- You build in regular review - not just "are we on track?" but "should we still be on this track?"
- You're willing to pivot without seeing it as failure - you're learning
- You communicate the thinking - not just the new direction, but why the old one isn't working anymore

The leaders who seem most strategic aren't the ones with the best initial plan. They're the ones who are paying attention and willing to adjust.

Your strategy should be flexible enough to bend when reality pushes back.

10/06/2026

The Power of Repair: How Leaders Fix What Broke

You made a mistake. You said something in a meeting that came across harsh. You made a promise you didn't keep. You didn't follow through on something you said mattered.

And now there's a rift. With your team. With a peer. With someone you lead.

Most leaders try to move past it. They stay professional. They hope people will forget.

That's not how it works. The rift stays. It festers. Trust erodes.

Real leaders know how to repair.

And repair is a specific skill, not just an apology.

What repair actually looks like:

- Acknowledgment. You name what happened clearly. No minimizing. No "if anyone was offended." You're specific: "I spoke over you in that meeting. I wasn't listening."
- Understanding the impact. You ask, "What did that land like for you?" And you listen. You don't defend.
- Genuine remorse. Not guilt. Not self-flagellation. Real remorse - "I care about our relationship and I handled that poorly."
- Changed behavior. You show up differently next time. You've learned something. You're not repeating the same mistake.
- Time. Trust isn't rebuilt in one conversation. It's rebuilt through consistency over weeks and months.

The leaders with the strongest teams aren't the ones who never mess up. They're the ones who know how to fix it when they do.

What relationship needs repair?

09/29/2026

The Mistake That Derails Mid-Career Leaders

You got promoted because you were really good at your old job. You were the person who could execute flawlessly, hit targets, solve complex problems.

So now that you're a leader, you do the same thing. You execute. You hit targets. You solve problems.

But something's wrong. Your team isn't growing. You're exhausted. You're still doing work you should be delegating. And you can't figure out why the next promotion isn't coming.

Here's why: your old strengths have become your new limitations.

The skills that made you successful as an individual contributor - deep focus on ex*****on, perfectionism, self-reliance - are the opposite of what you need as a leader.

As a leader, you need:

- To get things done through people, not by yourself
- To think about systems, not just tasks
- To develop others, not just be the smartest person in the room
- To communicate constantly, not just deliver results
- To ask questions, not just have answers

A lot of leaders never make this shift. They keep operating from the playbook that got them here. And they plateau.

The leap from individual contributor to leader isn't a promotion. It's a role change. It requires you to become a different kind of person.

Here's the good news: this is learnable. But you have to be willing to let go of the identity that got you here.

You can't be the person who knows everything and does everything. You have to become the person who brings out the best in others.

Are you willing to make that shift?

09/23/2026

Is an Executive MBA worth the investment?

It’s one of the most important questions to ask when considering an EMBA—and this Thursday, you can hear the answer directly from two people who have experienced the Millsaps Executive MBA themselves.

Join Dr. Veronica Carullo, MD, MBA, FASA and Dr. Saurabh Chandra MD, PhD, MBA, Millsaps EMBA alumni, as they share how the program impacted their careers, their professional growth, and their perspectives on the return on their investment.

If the EMBA has been on your mind, join us. Bring your questions!

📅 Thursday, September 24
⏰ 12:00 p.m. CT
💻 Virtual

Register Here: https://admission.millsaps.edu/register/ROIEMBAVirtual

09/21/2026

The Unspoken Hierarchy: How Status Gets Decided in Your Organization

People aren't actually equal on your team, even if the org chart says they are.

There's an unspoken hierarchy that has nothing to do with your title. It's about:

- Who gets heard in meetings
- Whose emails get answered fast
- Who has direct access to senior leaders
- Whose ideas get taken seriously
- Who's invited to the important conversations

This hierarchy is created by small decisions you make, mostly unconsciously.

The problem: the formal hierarchy (based on title) often doesn't match the real hierarchy (based on influence and access). And when they don't match, your organization gets stuck.

Here's what good leaders do:

- They notice the informal hierarchy. Who actually has influence? Who's being overlooked?
- They're intentional about access. They don't let whoever's loudest automatically get their ear.
- They amplify quiet voices. Some of your best thinkers might be introverts. Some of your best insights come from people with less seniority.
- They question the hierarchy. "Why is this person's input weighted more heavily? Is it because they're actually right, or just because they're senior?"

The leaders with the most engaged teams are the ones who've thought about status. They've made intentional decisions about who gets heard and why.

Your informal hierarchy is either reinforcing your strategy or undermining it. Which is it in your case?

09/10/2026

Your next great connection might be one handshake away!

Meet in Murrah is Thursday, September 17, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM on the main floor of Murrah Hall.

Stop by, say hello, and build your network!

09/01/2026

The Attention Economy: How Leaders Lose Their Leverage

Your most valuable resource isn't money. It isn't headcount. It's your attention.

And you're spending it on everything.

Here's what most leaders' attention distribution looks like:

- 40% on crises and firefighting
- 30% on meetings and administration
- 20% on the work that actually matters
- 10% on thinking strategically

But if you want to actually move the needle, you need to flip it.

The paradox: leaders who spend the most time managing are usually the ones with the most management problems. They're so busy putting out fires that they never invest in preventing them.

Real leadership leverage comes from where you put your attention:

- On people development. The more you develop your team, the less time you spend solving their problems.
- On system design. The more thoughtfully you design your processes, the fewer exceptions you have to handle.
- On culture. The stronger your culture is, the less you have to police behavior.
- On strategy. The clearer your direction is, the less time people waste on unaligned work.

Here's the hard part: none of that happens if you're in firefighting mode. You have to protect your attention for what matters.

That means saying no. It means not being in every meeting. It means having your team handle things you could handle faster.

It feels irresponsible. It's actually the most responsible thing you can do.

What would you do differently if you had 10 more hours a week? That's the thing you should probably be protecting your attention for.

08/25/2026

The Succession Pipeline Question You're Not Asking

Most organizations have a succession plan. They identify high-potential people. They put them in "high-potential" programs. They groom them for the next level.

But the plan usually fails.

Here's why: they're treating succession planning like it's about the person, when it's actually about the culture.

The question leaders usually ask: "Who's ready for the next role?"

The question they should ask: "What kind of leaders are we building?"

If you're only promoting people who think like you, who came up through your function, who have your background - you're not building a succession pipeline. You're building a clone army. And when the market shifts, you're all equally unprepared.

Real succession planning looks like:

- Diversity of background. Promote people from different functions, different industries, different geographies. Yes, it's messier. It's also more resilient.
- Different leadership styles. You might be decisive and directive. That doesn't mean the next leader should be. Maybe they need to be more collaborative.
- Testing ground before promotion. Don't promote someone into a role because they're "high potential." Put them in a stretch role, in a task force, in a cross-functional project. See if they can handle it.
- Honest feedback. High-potential people especially need to hear what they're not good at. Not to demoralize them, but so they can actually develop.

The organizations with the strongest succession pipelines aren't the ones with the smartest people. They're the ones willing to build diversity into who they promote.

What does your succession pipeline actually look like?

08/18/2026

The Skill You Forgot You Needed: Translating Vision Into Action

You've got a vision. You've communicated it. You think you're good.

But three months later, your team isn't running toward it. They're confused about what it means. They've got competing priorities. They've interpreted it differently than you intended.

The problem: you confused inspiring people with aligning people.

Inspiration is the easy part. You paint a compelling picture of the future. People feel excited. You leave the meeting thinking, "Great, we're aligned."

But inspiration without alignment is just a nice talk.

Real translation looks like this:

- You describe the vision and then the strategy. Not just the dream - the path.
- You make it operational. "Here's what this means for YOUR team, YOUR role, YOUR priorities."
- You check for understanding. "Tell me what you heard. What questions do you have?"
- You stay relentless about consistency. You message it over and over, in different ways.
- You make trade-offs visible. "If we're moving toward X, that means we're saying no to Y."

Most leaders under-communicate their vision. They say it once and assume it landed.

Your team needs to hear it from you, from their manager, from their peers, in meetings, in 1-on-1s, in strategy documents. Repetition isn't boring. Repetition is clarity.

The leaders with the most aligned teams aren't the most inspiring. They're the most diligent translators.

Millsaps College Executive Education

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