Baldrige Executive 

Fellows Program

Hands-On Leadership Development

Join a Community of Visionary Leaders

The year-long Baldrige Executive Fellows Program—offered by the nation’s premier 

performance excellence program—is designed to propel you and your organization to 

higher levels of performance. Ideal participants are rising senior executives committed

to organizational and personal performance excellence—direct reports to the most 

senior leader in the organization or business unit leaders. 

As a Baldrige Executive Fellow, you’ll be part of a cohort of senior decision makers 

who learn from each other and from winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National 

Quality Award, the nation’s highest award for organizational performance excellence. 

From personal visits to these role-model organizations and their senior executives and 

from interactions with your cohort, you’ll establish relationships that will benefit you and 

your organization now and in the future. 

You’ll learn about the Baldrige Excellence Framework, the impact of systems thinking 

on organizations, and how successful organizations have used the Baldrige framework 

and its Criteria to achieve their goals.

The program prepares rising senior executives for impactful leadership and helps 

them emerge with a broader perspective on how to achieve performance excellence, 

stimulate innovation, and build the knowledge and capabilities necessary for 

organizational sustainability.

Program Benefits

In-depth learning from world-class 

organizations and their senior 

executives 

A peer network of fellow executives 

to tap into now and in the future 

Best practices and solutions to 

drive improvement in your 

organization’s results 

A capstone project to address a unique

strategic challenge or opportunity 

facing your organization 

A deeper understanding of strategy; 

sustainability; integration of processes,

plans, resources, and goals; and 

measurement of the right things 

(Im)Prove Your Performance® Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • www.nist.gov/baldrige/fellows
Invest in Your Organization’s Future

Baldrige Executive Fellows Program activities are structured for maximum 

exposure and learning while minimizing time away from work and home. 

In small-group sessions with visionary leaders who have achieved exceptional

results, you’ll learn how executives have used the Baldrige Criteria to 

lead their organizations effectively. A key component of these in-person 

sessions is discussion of questions and issues that relate to your own 

organization’s challenges and needs, such as how to create and deploy 

a balanced scorecard that will integrate and optimize an organization’s 

business strategy, how to create a more integrated knowledge management

system, and how to drive improvements across a complex supply chain. 

This interaction continues in virtual sessions held throughout the year.

As a Baldrige Executive Fellow, you’ll develop individualized learning 

objectives based on your needs and those of your organization. To address 

these objectives, you’ll carry out a capstone project addressing a unique 

challenge or opportunity facing your organization. For example, capstones 

have improved supply chains, customer relationships, workforce engagement,

and measurement and review systems. Coaching is available during the 

program to help you hone your executive leadership skills.

From the Executive Fellows Program, you’ll bring home knowledge that 

will help your entire organization. With a renewed focus on strategy and 

implementation through the lens of corporate sustainability, you’ll be 

positioned to improve your organization’s results in all areas and to 

build the wisdom, skills, and confidence necessary to lead your 

organization through complex challenges.

What Executive Fellows Are Saying

life changing

Dr. Brian E. Condit, Mountain States Health Alliance

The program was life changing for me. 

The opportunity to work with an exceptional group 

of Fellows, the faculty, and the Baldrige Program 

itself was all I hoped for and more.

true payoff

Steve Schloss, United States Golf Association

The Fellows Program provides senior leaders the tools, 

framework, relationships, and best-practice sharing in a 

highly interactive and thought-provoking environment. 

We tend to move quickly and take little time out to learn 

and invest in our own growth. The one-year program 

commitment will have a true payoff personally and 

for my organization for the long term.

Sessions

Program Kickoff (April)

Annual Quest for Excellence® Conference

National Harbor, MD (near Washington, DC) 

On-Site (June) 

Baldrige Award recipient organization

On-Site (September or October)

Baldrige Award recipient organization

On-Site (January)

Baldrige Award recipient organization

Graduation and Capstone Project Highlights (April)

Annual Quest for Excellence® Conference

National Harbor, MD (near Washington, DC) 

Contact

For more information on the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program:

www.nist.gov/baldrige/fellows | 301.975.2036 | baldrige@nist.gov

03/2019 

Photo credits: ©sdecoret/Shutterstock, ©Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce