A psychology professor, Anders Ericsson, and his peers at Florida State University studied a group’s performances in chess, software design, writing, surgery, and more. Their study led them to conclude that talent is made and not born. There is no substitute for hard work. An individual’s innate intelligence is useless if they put in zero effort to develop cognitive skills and do not rigorously train the mind. Without self-training and practice, one will never be able to use their God-gifted talents to progress or pursue leadership and a better leader.
For workplace success or even entrepreneurship, strong leadership skills are a must-have, and for this reason, a number of people opt for a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA). The degree was introduced almost 100 years ago. Since then, it has produced many world-renowned leaders such as the former United States president George W. Bush, current C00 of Facebook Sheryl Sandberg, former chairman of Barclays Sir John Sunderland, CEO of Target stores Gregg W. Steinhafel, founder of Nike Phil Knight, and many others. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a degree such as an online MBA in South Africa is a perfect degree for you to improve your administrative skills. Keep reading to better understand how an MBA helps shape you to become a better leader.
1. It improves your communication skills
Though no module focuses entirely on teaching communication, the entire degree strengthens one’s abilities to talk effectively to their peers and actively listen to them as Listening is Vital to Communication. Communication forms the basis of a successful business. Leaders need to communicate with their teammates to make sure that they understand not only the task at hand but also the organizational goals and targets. Leaders are also entrusted with the task of encouraging and motivating others to work so that they put in as much effort as possible and produce the best results. Good leaders help corporations and establishments grow by developing beliefs among people that inspire them to work towards those principles. There is a difference between talking and communicating, and an MBA degree teaches students exactly that. A great leader has a clear set of values and can inculcate them successfully into his team via the tool of communication.
2. It teaches you teamwork and relationship building
At some point in our lives during a school group project, we’ve all been that person who does 99% of the work while the others either have no idea what’s going on, disappear at the very beginning of a project or say they’re going to help but do not. Despite how much you hate group projects, know that you’ll have to collaborate and work with others during the entirety of your professional lives. Therefore an MBA focuses on teaching you how to be a team player and play off of others’ strengths and weaknesses to produce high-quality outputs. Not only that, but teamwork also increases learning opportunities, work efficiency, and a sense of accountability.
Another benefit of an MBA degree is the networking aspect of it. During your time studying, you’ll meet a plethora of people with whom you can develop relationships. They can offer you unbiased advice on how to take your work further, give you leadership advice, help recruit good employees and give you a shoulder to lean on during tough times.
3. You develop a strategic outlook
An MBA degree teaches you how to apply practical leadership theories. Leadership skills grow with time and experience, but these theories can also help you in situations that arise in workplaces. Additionally, the MBA curriculum is designed to inculcate a strategic outlook into pupils. Strategies define businesses and give them purpose and value. They teach pupils how to set a vision and develop a mission. It is important to know the difference between the two. Moreover, pupils learn how to achieve an organization’s mission by providing incentives to workers.
Strategies need to be individualized for each workplace according to circumstances and need to be developed and applied to recognize how to obtain the organizational vision and goals. An MBA gives pupils the right tools to not only come up with personalized strategies but also to recognize business plans used by competitors. Strategic plans also help businesses stay on track. Furthermore, rebranding or operation improvement can not be successful without effective strategies in place.
4. It will sharpen your problem-solving skills
Leaders need to have sharp problem-solving skills, amongst other qualities. Throughout their tenure, a leader is bound to hit many speed bumps. Being humans, people will have oh so many problems. Issues might arise in the business architecture of their firm or amongst peers. In any case, leaders need to remain calm and keep their composure while cooking up solutions to the most complex of issues. Often, one has to get creative while coming up with answers as not all problems they will come across will be the same. A leader with good problem-solving skills will be able to lead their team towards the goal smoothly without them feeling frustrated. An MBA teaches you how to effectively apply six important steps for problem-solving, including identifying the problem, analyzing it, using data, communicating, being open-minded, and developing solutions. At the end of the day, a great leader need not be good at technical problem solving but should be aware of the policy and people skills.
Conclusion:
One might think that assuming a leadership position is easy, but it requires a lot more than what meets the eye. An MBA polishes and refines leadership qualities such as communication and soft skills. It also changes your perspective on approaching a business to maximize output and how to handle employees and workplace conflicts. Graduating with an MBA will not just transform you into a better leader but will catapult you to a leadership role if you are looking for one.
