King Global Leadership Program

The 9-6-3 Leadership Model

KHS built its own leadership framework: nine traits it reinforces in the community, six behaviors it designs programming around, and three goals for graduating scholars. It's not about authority — it's about impact.

9 traits

KHS doesn’t list the nine traits in text on its leadership page. The closest published list is the nine characteristics recommenders rate in the application:

• Curiosity and open-mindedness
• Creative and visionary thinking
• Analytical ability
• Courage and resilience
• Ethical decision-making
• Potential to inspire others
• Collaboration and empathy
• Acting in service of others
• Humility and trustworthiness

6 behaviors

• Navigate complexity
• Build trust
• Catalyze innovation
• Communicate persuasively
• Foster inclusion
• Drive systemic change

3 goals

• Develop multidisciplinary approaches to complex challenges
• Build skills to lead across cultures, sectors, and geographies
• Cultivate a lifelong commitment to service and ethical leadership

KHS publishes the 9-6-3 structure; the behavior and goal wording above is our summary of it, not KHS’s official text. Confirm the current model on the official site.

What the KGLP Includes

Leadership workshops

Regular workshops led by Stanford faculty, external experts, and sometimes current scholars. Topics range from negotiation and conflict resolution to design thinking and ethical decision-making. These aren't lectures — they're interactive sessions where scholars from wildly different fields work through problems together.

Speaker series

World-class speakers visit Denning House for intimate conversations with scholars. Past speakers have included heads of state, Nobel laureates, CEOs, social entrepreneurs, and activists. The format is typically conversational — small group, lots of Q&A, not a formal lecture.

Global experiences

One-week trips led by Stanford faculty, held after classes end in June, before classes begin in September, or over the December break. Each scholar may take one trip. Past destinations include Berlin, Costa Rica, Norway, South Africa, Jordan and Turkey. These aren't tourist excursions — they involve meetings with local leaders, NGOs, and organizations working on complex problems.

KHeystone projects

Scholar-led projects that bring together multidisciplinary teams to tackle real-world problems. These are collaborative ventures where an MBA student might work with a medical student and a law student on a single challenge. KHS provides mentorship, funding, and access to Stanford resources.

Denning House community

Denning House is the physical home of the KHS community on campus. It serves as a gathering space, event venue, and social hub. Scholars don't live there (they live in Stanford graduate housing), but it functions as a “home base” for the community — drop-in coffee, informal dinners, study sessions, and program events.

Retreats

KHS hosts local weekend retreats where scholars build community and practise leadership skills in workshops. Scholars have described an autumn retreat at Stanford Sierra Camp near Fallen Leaf Lake, but KHS does not name the venue on its site.

All 7 Stanford schools and which programs KHS scholars commonly choose. Stanford programs guide →