Ronald Heifetz

Ronald Heifetz is among the world’s foremost authorities on the practice and teaching of leadership. He advises governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations across the globe. In 2016, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia highlighted Heifetz’s advice in his Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.

Heifetz founded the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School with the essential support of Dean Joseph Nye, David Gergen, and Barbara Kellerman. Heifetz has taught at the Kennedy School for more than four decades, where he serves as the King Hussein bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership. Heifetz played a pioneering role in establishing leadership as an area of study and education at Harvard, in the United States, and around the world. His research addresses two key challenges: developing a conceptual foundation for the analysis and practice of leadership; and developing transformative methods for leadership education, training, and consultation. 

Heifetz co-developed the adaptive leadership framework with Riley Sinder and Marty Linsky to provide a basis for leadership practice and research. His first book, Leadership Without Easy Answers (1994), is a classic in the field and has been one of the ten most assigned books at Harvard and Duke Universities. Heifetz co-authored the best-selling Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Change with Marty Linsky, which continues to serve as one of the primary go-to books for practitioners across sectors (2002, revised 2017).  He co-authored the field book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing your Organization and the World with Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky (2009). His three books have been translated into many languages. Heifetz’s HarvardX online course, Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles (2020), has reached more than 800,000 people and was one of five finalists among global online courses for the 2021 EdX Prize. His more extensive Harvard Online course, Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change, was launched in January 2026.

Heifetz began his focus on transformative methods of leadership education and development in 1983. Drawing students from throughout Harvard’s graduate schools and neighboring universities, his courses on leadership are legendary. His core course is considered the most influential in their career by Kennedy School alumni. His teaching methods have been studied extensively in doctoral dissertations and in Leadership Can Be Taught, by Sharon Daloz Parks (Harvard Business Press, 2005).

A graduate of Columbia University, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard Kennedy School, Heifetz is both a physician and cellist. He trained initially in surgery before deciding to devote himself to the study of leadership in public affairs, business, and nonprofits. Heifetz completed his medical training in psychiatry, which provided a foundation to develop innovative teaching methods and a distinct perspective on the conceptual tools of organizational behavior and political psychology. As a cellist, he was privileged to study with the great Russian virtuoso, Gregor Piatigorsky.