Corporate leadership: What an EMBA can teach you
Business schools are finding innovative new ways to respond to growing demand for these skills
HARVARD Business School professor John Kotter famously wrote in 1990 that “most US corporations today are over-managed and underled”. He stressed the urgent need for organisations to exercise leadership, to seek out people with leadership potential, and to “expose them to career experiences designed to develop that potential”.
And as the business world becomes ever more interconnected, globalised, and complex, the challenges business leaders face have only multiplied – and so has institutional demand for leadership skills. The financial crisis – which saw business leaders discredited as companies crumbled – further accelerated this trend.
RISING DEMAND
Candidates or alumni rarely cite leadership as a reason for pursuing an executive MBA (EMBA) – in part because the average student tends to be older and more experienced (at Said Business School, for example, the average student is 38, and will already have around five years’ management experience). But it is often an underlying factor for embarking on the course, according to QS Top MBA.
After all, anyone in a top position will have to work with people. And this doesn’t just mean manage. As Kotter pointed out over two decades ago, leadership and management are two distinct and complementary skills – and both are necessary for success in a volatile business environment. “A leader needs to be able to inspire, set up the vision, and have a holistic view of the business and industry in general,” says Zoya Zaitseva of QS. “So EMBA students need to learn about strategy, leadership, internationalisation and, crucially, execution and delivery.”
And since the crisis, organisations are demanding more from their top executives, specifically in terms of driving the cultural change perceived as needed. Google even has its own “culture czar,” responsible for maintaining employee happiness. “And the EMBA can teach students how to do this in better, more streamlined ways,” says Dawn Bournand of QS Top MBA.
A FOCUS ON LEADERSHIP
Schools are embracing a range of approaches to deal with demand for leadership skills. Many programmes offer modules on leadership, and every EMBA includes at least some training in the area. According to Bournand, a few also put leadership at the forefront – including UT Dallas, with its Global Leadership EMBA; UCLA Anderson, which offers a leadership development portfolio with its EMBA programme; and IMD, which offers an EMBA aimed at preparing participants specifically for more senior leadership positions.
And some schools prefer to use group projects – often employing unusual techniques – to teach these skills, because “leading people involves more than just an analytical mind,” says professor Hari Tsoukas of Warwick Business School. The school will be holding its inaugural, two-day “Learning to lead wisely” residential course in July.
Using case studies, drama performances and role-play exercises, executives will learn to deal with practical dilemmas faced by business leaders today. “Drama will allow managers to see all 360 degrees of a problem, and open their eyes to other viewpoints,” says Tsoukas. Allowing students to test new ideas and push boundaries in a safe zone of experimentation is often cited by alumni as one of the best aspects of leadership training on the EMBA, according to QS Top MBA.
At Cass Business School, meanwhile, specialists are brought in to run training courses in the areas the school deems most important. “Fundamentally, leadership is all about effectively influencing people,” says Paul Dobson, director of Cass’s modular EMBA. “We’re trying to teach our participants inter-personal skills – skills around persuading, motivating, dealing with the media, and managing upwards.”
Cass also offers a five-day modular programme called The Character of Leadership. Launched in direct response to the banking crisis, it aims to help executives “create the culture, processes and systems that will help the UK’s financial sector rebuild its reputation and success”.
THE INTERNATIONAL APPROACH
But where the EMBA shows its true worth is in the knowledge participants can acquire from their peers. Said’s current EMBA cohort, for example, includes 33 different nationalities across 36 different sectors. “That’s a huge variety of life and work experiences to share in the group – giving students invaluable new insight into different leadership approaches,” says Duncan Macintyre of Said.
The school differentiates itself by offering an intense, one-week course. “Immersive modules give participants the time to get to know their peers within the classroom. You won’t get that depth and intensity of peer interaction if you’re studying on a programme delivered only at weekends,” Macintyre argues.
It’s also why the school has an international focus within the programme: the class itself, an international faculty and trips abroad – to India, China and the US. This is not unique to Said, however. A number of schools give students the opportunity to travel. “Leaders today need to navigate relationships across borders, and be sensitive to the business environment in which they are operating. If you’re going to be a strong leader, you have to be aware of the socio-economic and political landscape, wherever you are,” Macintyre says.
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION
So if leadership is your primary motivation, where should you study? Although every school lays claim to the title of stand-out programme, according to QS Top MBA, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business EMBA “consistently ranks as one of the world’s top programmes”. Wharton has a Center for Leadership and Change management that creates and runs many of the school’s innovative leadership experiences. And IMD in Europe is known as one of the strongest schools for leadership in the region. “The school is very much focused on a practical, rather than theoretical, approach,” says Zaitseva.
CASE STUDY: CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
What makes a good leader? It’s the million dollar question Cranfield School of Management is trying to help its students answer. Such is the school’s drive to make leadership a core part of its offering that it has recently redesigned its course – translating the leadership element of the EMBA from an elective to a backbone of the programme.
“Leadership was an elective, but almost all of our students took it. So why not have the concept form the spine of every course?” asks Kim Turnbull James, Cranfield’s director of faculty development.
Business schools are discovering and adapting a range of innovative new methods for teaching leadership. So to keep up with both demand and competition, as of September 2014, students at Cranfield will study three modules as part of the EMBA programme: Developing My Leadership (which offers personal insight, and teaches participants how to apply this in the workplace); People and Leadership Challenges (addressing the organisational obstacles leaders face in today’s globalised world); and Leadership in Action (in other words, behavioural skills and negotiation).
Like many schools, Cranfield is moving away from exclusively teaching theory, and assessing students on written assignments. It now offers executive coaching and outdoor leadership exercises to help students “work on the kind of leader they aspire to be,” says James. The series of one-to-one conversations aims to help students identify their strengths, and work on their weaknesses. Giving students the opportunity to engage in a personal development plan – as well as test out new ideas – can embed learning and encourage them to think like top leaders.