How an MBA Degree can Boost Your Leadership Skills?

Introduction

It has become quite hard to get into those coveted management roles in any industry these days based just on hard work. Especially, with the economic recession fueled further by global tensions making big companies downsize, leaving millions unemployed. In this situation, how do you plan to enter the elite circle of management personnel when people are even struggling to make ends meet?

Let’s break this conundrum down logically. What makes management qualified to manage? If you think about it deeply, you’ll realize the only difference between you and Carl from Management is that people listen to him immediately. Why do they do that? Is it because he has the power to make them suffer if they don’t? No. Fear doesn’t work in the long term, people would’ve rebelled eventually.

The only other conclusion you might’ve come to is that Carl has amazing leadership skills to boot. And you can have that too if you put in some hard work and get into an MBA degree program. An MBA (Master of Business Administration) course can act as a catalyst for developing your inherent leadership skills, while also teaching you about the ins and outs of the business world. Let us now look at a few ways an MBA can help you boost your leadership skills.

Challenge Your Beliefs

Before we jump on the train of how to improve your leadership skills , take a deep breath. To lead others, you must know yourself first. If you look deep inside and be completely honest with yourself, you will notice that there are areas where you are extremely capable and also areas you could improve a lot in. Introspection will give you the humility to accept that like every other human being, you are fallible, prone to flaws in character and judgment.

Now let us come to why introspection and humility are important to become a good leader. Oftentimes, in a meeting, you will have to listen to all your teammates’ inputs, as well as those of people working under you. These views might not always align with your priorities or opinions and herein lies the problem that many top brasses struggle with.

You have to be open to changing your own beliefs based on input from others, who are specialized in their own field and understand the subtleties of their field more deeply than you. Otherwise, you might make horrendously bad business decisions just because you were so focused on the big picture that you failed to listen to a detailed account of various small cogs that are responsible for churning out the big picture in the first place.

Teach You Social Responsibility

Social responsibility is one of the trending topics on the internet right now, since our recent brush with the grim reaper as a global community. The hardships and losses that the world had to go through in the days of the pandemic have made people take their relationship with the Earth and those around them more seriously. Hence, it's not only the millennials and GenZ who are supporting companies that make a social impact, but that’s the market trend these days.

It would be exhausting to list all the number of ways or the number of companies that are getting behind the social and environmental cause these days. Instead, let us just agree that having a bigger, nobler cause is a big selling point these days. Business schools like MGU now include a module in their syllabi on sustainability and these can be very effective in cultivating MBA leadership skills like appreciation of social duties.

Boost Interpersonal Skills

Good interpersonal skills are vital to any leadership role. Leaders have to be likable and respected to be effective managers at all levels and to do that, you need to develop a lot of important interpersonal soft skills. Some of the interpersonal skills that you will learn during an MBA course are mentioned below.

• Communication skills
• Teamwork and team building
• Networking

Learn Positive Leadership Models

Just as there are various types of leadership positions in organizations, there are different ways to approach them based on environments, audiences, etc. Effective leadership is more about sympathizing and inspiring those around you to improve constantly, rather than just handing out tasks and expecting them to be done these days. People want leaders they can look up to, and who inspire them. The best MBA colleges like Mansarovar Global University teach an introspective approach to leadership, so that you can always be aware of your own shortcomings, and hence be more sympathetic and supportive when people mess up. Using positive reinforcement when tasks are done well also builds trust and respect in your peers.

Automate Critical Thinking and Risk Management

Critical thinking is a skill that is entwined with every other leadership skill that we have discussed so far. From introspecting to acknowledging that positive reinforcement is a better way to lead than just dangling reward or punishment, natural leaders are natural critical thinkers too. Involving the use of hard logic, data, knowledge, and experience, solid critical thinking skills in a leader is intrinsic to some degree. This is the skill that will help you to deal with problems efficiently when and where they arise.

Risk management is another skill that an MBA degree will definitely teach you. Critical and strategic thinking will help you assess risks by analyzing them on all possible ends and taking the best course of action based on the limited information that you have.

Also Read - Which MBA program is best after BTech?

Conclusion

There is no doubt that an MBA can help you develop leadership skills through its syllabus based on experiential and up-to-date business and finance practices. To be eligible for most MBA programs you only need a graduation certificate at most, so there is no reason not to sign up for one once you’ve completed graduation. As for how MBA degree helps in career development, we have outlined some of the basics already, but to get the full picture, there is only one way - to experience it by studying in an MBA program.

FAQs

• Can I learn leadership skills through an online MBA?

  Yes. While it is possible, we recommend physically attending MBA classes to immerse yourself in problem-solving and gain practical experience, rather than virtual.

• Is there a term for positive leadership models?

  Yes. The term that is often used for positive leadership is transformational leadership.

• What is meant by networking?

  Networking means developing connections and relationships with your peers, both in and out of the industry you work in and it helps a lot to know people in high places like you will be after your MBA degree.

• How will an MBA help me in networking?

  You will be put together with many others in a similar position in life such as yourself, or even more experienced people in an MBA program. Interaction with them as you’d do with your classmates naturally will help you build your network organically.