Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58063
When business schools introduce MBAs to the competency-based assessment programs used in the corporate world, students quickly develop their leadership skills. by Julie L. Scott Thinkers Leaders M & 40 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2007 ottoes for MBA programs frequently imply that schools are focused on creating leaders. My alma mater uses the tag line "Where thinkers become leaders"—which is wonderful and punchy, especially if it is true. But since graduating from b-school and entering the working world, I have discovered that MBA programs face an inherent limi- tation in their goal to develop leaders. Most MBA programs are founded on quantitative rational analysis; they assume that their graduates will be able to motivate people by providing data to support logical arguments. Rarely do MBA students learn about their own strengths and weaknesses, let alone the strengths and weaknesses of other people. Even more rarely do they learn how to develop the skills they actually need to lead people. As a consultant in organization and leadership development, I've learned that the first goal in leadership development is to learn about people—first oneself, then others. As a group, MBA students tend to be high-achieving go-getters. They also tend to be among the types of people least aware of how others perceive them. But these individuals can be turned into better leaders through self-assessments, 360-degree feedback systems, and indi- vidual development plans. Assessment and competency-based development tools are used by cor- porations around the world to turn their employees into leaders. Because all of these tools help participants think about themselves and others in new and different ways, the earlier people encounter them, the better. I believe it would be relatively easy for any school to incorporate similar tools and as- sessment methods into its two-year MBA program, thus developing students who have the potential to really know how to lead. Learning About Oneself Any leadership development program has three parts: self-assessment, external assessment, and competency development. A program like the one I envision would begin as MBA students start their first year. They would begin their self-assessment stage by going through a development-focused Myers-Briggs Type Indicator analysis. I recommend MBTI because it has the advantage of being built on de- cades of data collection, which offers interesting analyses and comparisons. MBTI poses the same set of questions to each person. When the results are analyzed, each learner is typed into one of 16 categories, each with distinct characteristics represented by a four-letter code. Typing is based on partici- pants' responses to four polar choices—extroversion or introversion (E or I), sensing or intuiting (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F), judging or perceiving (J or P). The new Step II test provides more detail about each of the four choices, while offering less labeling and better insights into what individuals do well and not so well.