This isn’t a conversation about leadership theory, It’s about real moments, real responsibility, and the weight leaders carry — especially when the outcome is uncertain.
What does leadership require when the stakes are high, the answers are unclear, and people are counting on you to make the right call?
That is the question at the heart of a new Poets&Quants feature on Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, DBA, Professor of Practice in Leadership at Crummer Graduate School of Business — and it is also a question that lives at the center of the Crummer MBA experience.
In the article, “From Combat to the Classroom: Lt. Gen Mark Hertling on Leadership That Lasts,” Hertling reflects on a career shaped by service, command, accountability, and the human side of leading through uncertainty. His perspective is powerful not only because of where he has led — from military operations to healthcare leadership to the MBA classroom — but because of how he frames leadership itself.
At Crummer, leadership is not treated as a soft skill or a final chapter in a management textbook. It is woven into how students learn to think, question, collaborate, decide, and act.
That is what makes Hertling’s voice such a natural fit for the Crummer classroom.
His message reinforces what Crummer MBA students experience throughout their programs: that the best leaders are not simply the people with the loudest voices or the highest titles. They are the ones who build trust, exercise judgment, listen carefully, communicate clearly, and make decisions with both courage and humility.
Those lessons matter more than ever.
In today’s business environment — where leaders are navigating AI, disruption, workforce change, ethical complexity, and constant pressure to move faster — technical skill alone is not enough. Executives and emerging leaders need the ability to see the whole field, understand the human dynamics in the room, and make decisions that hold up under pressure.
That is the kind of leadership Crummer develops across our MBA program offerings.
Through faculty who bring deep executive, entrepreneurial, global, analytical, and operational experience into the classroom, Crummer students are challenged to connect business knowledge with real-world application. They learn finance, strategy, marketing, operations, analytics, and leadership not as separate boxes to check, but as connected disciplines that shape how effective leaders solve problems.
Hertling’s journey also reflects something distinct about Crummer itself. A graduate of Crummer’s Doctorate in Business Administration program, he brings the perspective of both scholar and practitioner — someone who has studied leadership deeply, practiced it under extraordinary pressure, and now teaches it with honesty, clarity, and purpose.
We are proud to see this conversation elevated nationally — and even prouder that it reflects the kind of leadership development happening inside Crummer classrooms every day.
To read the full article click on the link below.
