Heath Harding
Director of Learning and Development
Heath Harding in the Spotlight
“Running fast and holding hands…”
Heath Harding has spent his entire professional career shaping, developing, and guiding leaders to reach their full potential and impact. While today you can usually find him outside hiking in the mountains around his Colorado home or walking his dog, his passion for developing and teaching leadership skills has its roots in his rural Midwest upbringing.
“I grew up in a rural community in Kansas where people helped each other with a cup of sugar, sharing farm implements, and fixing a fence,” he said. “Community services has been a part of my life since the beginning.”
Beginning at his alma mater, Kansas State University, Heath spent the first several years of his professional life working in academia at multiple universities as a lecturer and leadership program director.
It was during his time in Manhattan, Kansas that his leadership philosophy first took shape. Working as an assistant director of the school’s leadership program, Heath heard the program director describe their rapid growth by saying, “We were running fast and holding hands.”
“That has become a mantra since then. It’s not if you stumble but when you stumble, you don’t face plant in the dirt because someone is on either side of you carrying you in that moment,” Heath said.
A Career Leading Leaders
After leaving academia, Heath took a position he said would later result in some of his proudest work. In April 2012, Heath began working with the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Executive Institute. Beginning as an adjunct faculty member and later as a full-time faculty member, Heath worked with the institute’s legacy program, Leadership for a Democratic Society.
“That was an incredible honor and life-changing experience,” Heath said. “When I’m 90, that’s one of the things I’ll look back on and be incredibly proud about.”
For five years, Heath served as the program director and managed the four-week leadership development course with officials from across the federal government. From the military to the IRS to NASA, Heath and his team gathered these groups together to learn from each other.
“To work with that group of leaders and hear what’s going on at that level and across government is really impactful,” he said.
This role also gave Heath the chance to lead courses and seminars across the country and around the world, allowing him opportunities to enjoy his passions for travel and mountains.
“I fell in love with hiking while living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virgina,” he said. “I would try to hike less travelled trails so I might have a chance to see or at least hear black bear in the forest.”
During one trip in particular in May 2023, Heath traveled to Peru where he led a USAID course at the US Embassy in Lima. The experience gave him the chance to take his love for the mountains to South America and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience traveling to Machu Picchu.
Leadership from the Whole Person Perspective
Heath stressed that the Leadership for a Democratic Society Program worked with participants to develop what he called whole person leadership, which incorporated all aspects of a participant’s life into their work to become better leaders. It’s a perspective he’s bringing with him to his work with CI International.
“I bring that sense of leadership to CI,” Heath said. “Whether I’m working with colleagues or someone else, it’s the whole person. ‘Where are you? How are you doing? What’s going on in your life?’.”
He added that in accepting this position with CI, he was continuing his commitment to public service.
“I think of my contribution at CI as an extension of service to my country by helping leaders in the Federal government who serve the American public,” he said.
Heath will take on the role left behind by John McCann, who is retiring after more than two decades working with CI International. Heath said he and John share a great relationship, and he knows following someone who was such a cornerstone figure for CI International will be a difficult task.
“I called him and said, ‘I’ve got some mighty big shoes to fill,’” he said. “I’ve been learning from him as we talked about the industry and where he’s coming from, his perspective on what makes effective leadership from a teaching standpoint. I also asked for his wisdom on what makes effective leadership as the director of this division.”
With CI International, Heath believes he’ll be able to guide leadership training principles forward for the next generation of leaders.
“If the way we lead is changing, then the future of leadership development has to change,” he said. “Those are the areas where CI can push to be a leader in the future of leading and the future of leadership development.”