Institutions providing executive education can play a vital role in assisting managers develop leadership skills. An executive MBA programme will help individuals who want to give their career an upper edge without leaving their current jobs, says Dr Ajay Mehta
Effective leaders are effective not because they have more knowledge or experience but, it’s because they have a higher ratio of applicability and efficient way of managing the multifaceted consequences they face. In today’s global organisations, leaders are confronted with more difficult decisions and situations than ever before. Therefore, increasing and developing strong leaders from within an organisation is becoming more vital if the organisation wishes to succeed in the global competition today. This raises an important question: “How do we go about building and developing leaders for these difficult times.”
A degree in management is being measured as a great solution to rewarding job offers. Even engineers and doctors these days, who have job offers in hand, wish to put off their entry in the corporate world to improve their qualifications in front of their prospective employer. By acquiring a management degree they can far improve their career and earn better remunerations. Paradoxically speaking, doing a regular course may not be feasible for everyone due to time constraints, financial or family commitments. Also, it may not be possible to leave their jobs completely just to do a degree course.
The ‘Executive’ MBA (EMBA) was introduced in graduate schools in order to meet to the requirements of working professionals along with the managers who need to return to graduate school for relearning, updating their knowledge, and augmenting their career mobility opportunities.
lEADERSHIP CHAllENGES IN 21ST CENTURY AND BEYOND
In order to explore the challenges that leaders will be facing in the future, one should start by defining the term ‘leadership’ and identify its characteristics and various challenges. There has been altogether a different thinking strategy the leaders of tomorrow might have and act very differently given the possible future challenges which can range from professional survival to ethical fiscal and technological challenges.
This puts a question that: “How can leaders be supported in acquiring the skills needed to deal with future challengesIJ There are various ways that leaders can be assisted in developing the skills required of them and one specific means is through the work of executive education institutions that helps to acquire new tools or sharpening the old ones.
It is therefore critical that the role that these institutions are currently playing and should be playing in training leaders for the future is thoroughly considered. Executive education institutions, therefore, can play a vital role in assisting leaders in developing the correct leadership skills required.
Apart from the current offerings, executive education institutions might have to re-examine and revamp their current learning philosophies and methodologies considering the future business challenges.
BACK TO BASICS
The EMBA course, besides developing general management skills, also develop a strong network of links with managers from various industries which is another important feature, an add on beyond the realms of the syllabus. There is an unavoidable need to develop another set of managerial skills which will provide them with the cutting edge which they find lacking. Some of them could be as under:
IMPORTANCE OF EXECUTIVE PROGRAMMES
Due to the extreme competitive environment, it has become compulsory for every working professional to have uniqueness among themselves apart from his technical knowledge that makes him important, in order to raise and accomplish something. A well known post graduate degree like an MBA definitely helps an employee gain an edge over his fellow competitors in the industry. However, not all the employees are lucky enough to grab this opportunity because of the financial pressure or excessive work pressure for which the candidates hardly gets time for further studies.
The EMBA programme came as a relief for all such individuals who want to give their career an upper edge without leaving their current jobs. The immediate advantages of this programme aren’t limited to the skills acquired through this programme but it also boosts the confidence of the candidate to stretch and increases his applicability in the organisation. Moreover, the EMBA course allows an individual to execute the skills gained through the programme straight away in his work environment thus making an immediate impact.
Benefits of an E-MBA programme
nHandsome income and networking: Increase in salary and incentives are the foremost advantage a student gin. The only reason behind this is that an EMBA student owns greater loyalty towards an organisation along with the academic profile which makes him valuable asset for the organisation. It’ll give you a different kind of platform where you can interact with professionals having various ideas and experience that will help you build a strong professional network.
Ramping up strong management skills
This programme mainly focuses on the development of professional skills which will help them exhibit originality, firmness and advance thinking in their work culture and turn them into a strong leader. Improved communication, better responsiveness, problem solving etc are some of the areas this programme focus on an individual.
Helps in proper planning
Coming up with the right kind of planning or strategies to resolve the complex issue is one of the most important benefits a candidates gain form an EMBA course. This helps individual to figure out new strategies efficiently and productively for the betterment of an organisation. The emerging business movements entail corporate houses to generate a pool of multipurpose executives with an outstanding base of functional knowledge along with general management perception. Professional education can be best acquired by gaining of knowledge of theoretical concepts followed by proper application of the concepts to real life situations.
Some of the individuals opting for EMBA course already have one or two master degrees (eg economics and law); some of them are associates in global consulting firms or have experienced international careers with global corporations. Still the relations with professors and the group, and systematic high quality discussion of all relevant management subjects are a lifetime experience for them. Individuals, who have been going through an EMBA, become far more conscious of their own abilities and the need for continuous learning and developing as an effective leader and an efficient manager.
The writer is professor of HR at ERA Business School.