LEADERSHIP EDUCATION

Does an MBA degree make you a good leader? If the number of leadership schools sprouting across the world is anything to go by, the answer could be debatable

Leadership education is picking up like never be fore, with corporate organisations, educational institutes and top MBA schools joining the fray with gusto.

Harvard Business School has an in-house `leadership initiative' that undertakes cuttingedge research and course development projects about leadership and leadership development, both within Harvard Business School and through collaborations with other organisations. The Piramal Group also undertook a similar initiative with the Piramal School of Leadership. And then, there are individual initiatives like the National School of Leadership (NSL) and the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), which focus almost entirely, on courses that groom senior professionals to be great leaders.

What sets these schools apart from a run-of-the-mill MBA institute is that most of their students are professionals who are already heading departments in their respective organisations. Take Umesh Bhapkar, head IT infra operations & CISO, Tata Technologies for instance. A student of NSL, he says, “I believe like most human capabilities, leadership capability falls along a bell curve with about 10-15 per cent at the tip of the bell curve; they are `born leaders' who start out good and tend to get better.

At the bottom of the curve is the 10-15 per cent of people who do not make it however hard they try. In the middle of the curve is the vast majority that have some degree of innate leadership capability that can be developed. This is where the real potential for `made leaders' lies.“

MBA students at Stanford's Graduate School of Business take part in experiential leadership labs and project-based simulations that present students with real-life leadership issues like negotiations, while Teachers College at Columbia University offers a PhD in Education Leadership with three potential concentrations in leadership, policy and politics or organisation, leadership and learning. So who should go for a leadership course? “I would recommend that one takes up a shortterm programme for understanding some basic leadership concepts,“ suggests Anil Sachdev, founder and CEO, SOIL. “Participants pursuing these programmes include on-campus students, working professionals including senior management from companies, institutional and corporate trainers and multiple organisations who get their leadership trainings conducted by us,” says Dr Satasuryaa K Sharma, chairman, NSL. 

Leadership education doesn’t come cheap. So is the effort worth it? “What leadership certification doesn’t do is build you a reputation of success as a leader or much else for that matter,” cautions GSS Gopal Krishna, country head, TCS and student of NSL. “A well-known development model is the 70:20:10 model where 70 per cent of effective development happens through ‘on-the-job experiences’ , 20 per cent through feedback and mentoring and ten per cent through formal training,” says Sonali De Sarker, director, human resources staff, NetApp India R&D. 

While organisations do take note of leadership certifications, they have to be combined with real-life examples that demonstrate your leadership abilities. “A certification proves candidates’ interest towards learning, which is an appreciable quality but a certificate is not the only source of credibility for being a leader. The profile of a candidate must display initiative taken towards handling challenges and overcoming them,” remarks Santosh Verma, director, My Eco Energy. “Sometimes, leadership certificates are instruments of attracting people to attend the course, which can be used for decorating one’s profile. But in the professional life, the same person may not have successfully demonstrated leadership qualities,” warns Dr Rajeev Mishra, VP corporate HR & admin, AMW Motors Ltd. What they promise to do is eliminate flaws and orient you to think in a manner conducive to better decision-making. Are you game?

Source | Economic Times | 22 July 2014