What is the value of Leadership? What vectors in the MBA develop leadership?
This interview checks in with Kathleen Dameron, expert and independent consultant in France in the area of Leadership Development and regular guest Professor in the Kedge Global MBA programme. Here’s what she has to say…
Q: We hear so much about leadership and becoming a leader in the world of business today. And often in the context of an Executive MBA programme? Why do we hear so much about it?...
K.D. Probably because there are about 70 000 books on leadership available on Amazon. So you can see, there is great fascination about how to create, nurture and retain leadership.
No one has found the 100% reliable recipe for creating a leader. There is also great chagrin that leadership is volatile: a great leader in ONE situation, may not have followers in another situation. We have all seen within companies as well as in the general society the difference that leadership makes to financial success and well-being. Companies want to recruit leaders and to foster leadership to create sustainable success.
Q: How does the MBA factor into Leadership Development?
K.D. MBA programs can promise to provide you with knowledge and skills, the access to a network… However, they cannot promise to make a leader out of you. No one can. You become a leader when you get people to follow you. It is that simple! What an MBA can promise is that they provide you with an optimal leadership learning experience, effective tools as well as some passion to grow your leadership.
Q: How would an MBA do this?
K.D. The Emotional Intelligence revolution which pointed out the correlation between E.I. and successful leadership, as well as the recent discoveries in neuroscience, are providing us with a higher degree of reliability about what skills, behaviors, attitudes, «inner games», and somatic behaviors foster leadership-follower relationships. MBA programs have a responsibility to encourage this soft skill as MBA graduates will be put in positions of influence where greater leadership ability will significantly improve OR deteriorate how the company operates.
Q: What’s the difference between leading and managing?
K.D. The simplest solution: you can be appointed a manager. You cannot be appointed a leader. You can be the manager and have direct reports that lead your team or department.
Q: How will leadership skills improve my job performance?
K.D. We tend to speak as if there were ONE leader in an organization. It’s more important to focus on MOMENTS of leadership and EVERYDAY leadership. When as a sole contributor you are recognized by peers for your vision, your pertinence so much that they follow YOUR opinion, YOUR practice, then leadership allows you to have great impact with little effort. Leadership allows you to get things done through and with others.
Q: Succinctly stated, Leadership Development is…?
K.D. Knowing yourself, managing your inner game, creating calmness and passion are all key. The greatest skill : know how to get others to follow you. The second greatest skill : know how to follow others in a way that they give the best of themselves as leaders.
Thank you Kathleen.
Kedge Global Executive MBA Conference:
"Leading Yourself: How Emotional Intelligence Leads To Emotional Agility?''
Led By Kathleen Dameron - Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Join us for a unique MBA Conference with Kathleen DAMERON
"Leading Yourself - How Emotional Intelligence Leads Emotional Agility"
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
18:30 - 20:30
Kedge Business Club, 56 rue de la Victoire 75009 Paris Access Map
REGISTRATION (Free Entry – Limited Places Available)
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Kirt Wood +33 (0)6 03 34 32 94
