Program Experience

Highlights and Key Outcomes

Led by Wharton professor Samir Nurmohamed and a distinguished group of faculty, the program blends rigorous research, experiential learning, practical tools, and peer exchange. Participants translate insight into action by developing a personalized Resilience Action Plan they can apply immediately in their roles.

In The Resilient Leader: Strategies for Leading Through Uncertainty, you will:

  • Learn to reframe resilience as a leadership capability that can be intentionally developed, rather than as a fixed personal trait
  • Recognize when resilience requires perseverance, when it calls for adaptation, and when to redirect effort toward more productive paths.
  • Understand how to embed resilience across individuals, teams, and organizations.
  • Map the relationships, emotional dynamics, and leadership narratives that help teams stay grounded, connected, and effective under pressure.
  • Apply practical strategies that help teams adapt, recover, and perform under ongoing uncertainty and stress

Experience and Impact

The Resilient Leader: Strategies for Leading Through Uncertainty classroom experience is designed to actively engage participants in applying ideas to real leadership challenges. Faculty-led sessions integrate research-backed frameworks with facilitated discussion, diagnostic assessments, and hands-on exercises. Through simulations, team-based work, and structured reflection, participants test how they respond to uncertainty, constraints, and trade-offs, and learn from peers facing similar challenges. Participants also examine the human side of resilience — how leaders interpret emotional cues with curiosity, communicate in ways that create shared understanding, draw on diverse perspectives, and build networks of support before pressure becomes crisis.  The result is a set of leadership approaches that can be used immediately.

Over the four-day program, participants develop a personalized Resilience Action Plan and articulate their own resilient-leadership narrative. Together, these tools help translate research, dialogue, and lived experience into clear leadership commitments that participants can take back to their organizations, strengthening their ability to lead in environments where sustained uncertainty, complexity, and pressure are part of the job, not the exception.


Convince Your Supervisor

Here’s a justification letter you can edit and send to your supervisor to help you make the case for attending this Wharton program.


Attend as a Team. Amplify the Impact.

Wharton Executive Education offers group-enrollment benefits for organizations sending four or more participants. Learn More »


Due to our application review period, applications submitted after 12:00 p.m. ET on Friday for programs beginning the following Monday may not be processed in time to grant admission. Applicants will be contacted by a member of our Client Relations Team to discuss options for future programs and dates.

Who Should Attend

This program is designed for mid- to senior-level leaders who are responsible for guiding people and teams through complexity, change, and sustained uncertainty, including:

  • Executives and managers with direct responsibility for leading teams
  • Leaders stepping into expanded or evolving roles that require operating in ambiguity
  • Managers and emerging enterprise leaders expanding from individual contribution or functional expertise into broader people, team, or organizational leadership responsibilities
  • Leaders guiding organizations through transformation, disruption, or ongoing volatility
  • Executives working in environments where influence, trust, and adaptability matter more than formal authority
  • Executives from corporate, health care, government, nonprofit, and mission-driven organizations
  • Leaders who must influence across functions, geographies, or stakeholder groups where resilience depends on relationships, trust, and shared purpose

Plan your stay in Philadelphia

Plan Your Stay

This program is held at the Steinberg Conference Center located on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. Meals and accommodations are included in the program fees. Learn more about planning your stay at Wharton’s Philadelphia campus.


Group Enrollment

To further leverage the value and impact of this program, we encourage companies to send cross-functional teams of executives to Wharton. We offer group-enrollment benefits to companies sending four or more participants.

Faculty


Samir Nurmohamed

Samir Nurmohamed, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Academic Director

Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Adversity, motivation, behavioral ethics, resilience, storytelling, punishment, whistleblowing, cover-ups, socialization, onboarding, injustice, stereotypes, stigma


Quinn Bauriedel

Quinn BauriedelSee Faculty Bio

Speaker, Pig Iron Theatre Company


Henning Piezunka

Henning Piezunka, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Competition, collaboration, crowdsourcing


Nancy Rothbard

Nancy Rothbard, PhDSee Faculty Bio

Deputy Dean; David Pottruck Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: Emotion and identity, work motivation and engagement, work-life and career development


Amy Wrzesniewski

Amy Wrzesniewski, PhDSee Faculty Bio

William and Jacalyn Egan Professor; Professor of Management, The Wharton School

Research Interests: The experience and meaning of work, creation of meaning in challenging organizational and occupational contexts, the valuing and devaluing of work

Testimonials


This was one of the most practical and impactful leadership development programs I’ve attended. Even after many years in leadership and HR, it gave me new perspectives and actionable frameworks for navigating adversity, uncertainty, and change. The experience challenged my thinking and ultimately made me a more thoughtful and intentional leader.”

Julie Hess Vice President of Human Resources, MasterSpas


Wharton Executive Education’s The Resilient Leader program provided practical, research-backed strategies that I can put into practice right away. The combination of expert faculty, meaningful peer discussions, and experiential learning created an engaging and impactful experience.”

Andrea Trach Senior Learning Experience Architect, Transamerica

Date, Location, & Fees

Contact us to schedule a personalized consultation:  +1.215.898.1776  execed@wharton.upenn.edu

November 10 – 13, 2026Philadelphia, PA$10,750

June 7 – 10, 2027Philadelphia, PA$10,750


Hotel Information

Fees for on-campus programs include accommodations and meals. Prices are subject to change.

International Travel Information »

Plan Your Stay »


Contact Us

Schedule a personalized consultation to discuss your professional goals:

 +1.215.898.1776

 execed@wharton.upenn.edu

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