MBA programs are focused on developing future business leaders. However, they expect that MBA applicants already will have started flexing their leadership skills before matriculation. For many applicants in the early stages of their careers, managing people, projects, or budgets is not part of their role. And young professionals working long hours often cannot commit to a leadership role outside of work. One option to enhance your leadership profile is to look for ways beyond your “day job” to lead in your workplace.
Many admissions committees ask recommenders to complete the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) Leadership Assessment Grid, on which they evaluate an applicant based on 12 competencies and character traits, in addition to asking for feedback on applicants’ leadership abilities.
In this blog post, we share excerpts of the Leadership Assessment Grid and some essay questions/prompts as well as examples of how Stratus clients have leveraged opportunities at work to demonstrate their leadership abilities in various areas.
Initiative
Clearly, individuals who are reluctant to take on work or expect others to take the lead are unlikely to secure a seat in a top MBA program. Think about the challenges that your organization is facing, and then look for ways to make a positive impact!
As a recent college graduate and a new hire at a 20-year-old company with more than 15,000 employees, a Stratus client noted that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) were underrepresented and did not have an employee resource group. She collaborated with leadership to secure a budget, wrote a constitution, built a leadership team of ten, and grew the group to more than 500. In response to the rise in Asian hate, she spearheaded anti-bias training for all senior leaders and frontline workers, self-defense training, safe discussion circles, and educational events, advocating for more AAPI mental health professionals through company benefits. Ultimately, the COO and president honored her with the ERG Leadership Award at the company’s Inspiration Awards.
Developing Others
Supporting others within your place of work should be a no-brainer! If you hope to lead teams and organizations in the future, it is essential that you start developing others early in your career. Think of those who have supported YOUR development, and then look for ways to pay it forward.
Another Stratus client was participating in her company’s first-ever junior rotational program. The company had hastily established the program without a great deal of planning or support for early-career workers. This client realized that her experience in the program was not ideal, and she took steps to improve the offering for future participants. She collaborated with leadership to revamp the program, adding components to introduce new hires to the company culture and provide opportunities to learn from senior leaders. Furthermore, she served as a mentor and rallied other previous participants to support the next generation in the program.
Adaptability and Resilience
In addition to emotional quotient (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ), many admissions committees are looking to assess the adaptability quotient (AQ) of prospective students. Although your day job might provide some opportunities to demonstrate your flexibility and your ability to adapt to changing circumstances, you might look beyond your core responsibilities to develop this agility.
One Stratus client who worked for a change management/organizational behavior consulting firm was looking to do more in sustainability, with the goal of working at an electric vehicle or renewable energy company post-MBA. As a step toward her aspirations, she founded and led a sustainability committee at work. She created a vision for the committee and set clear roles and expectations for volunteer members. To execute on the strategy, she collaborated with the COO on key committee activities and adapted to changing organization priorities when developing and implementing organization-wide guidelines for workplace sustainability, helping the company obtain environmental management certification. If the COO (not her direct manager) were to write a recommendation, they could highlight that she was energized by the potential for a high reward and willing to spearhead a novel initiative despite the potential for failure or setbacks.
Strategic Orientation
Working in a consulting firm, one Stratus client observed that as junior staff left for their next job or graduate school, so, too, did much of the knowledge they had developed. Therefore, she took it upon herself to create a knowledge base and, during her downtime from client work, began populating it. Although there was no obvious incentive for others to support her endeavor, she convinced employees that sharing their industry and technical learnings in a formal way would improve efficiency and empower new staff members to get up to speed more quickly. Her recommender could confidently note that she “develops insights or recommendations beyond area of responsibility with impact on long-term business strategy and performance.” Before she left for the Kellogg School of Management, she had put in place processes and procedures for the knowledge base to thrive in her absence.
Ability to Work with Others with Differing Perspectives
Some MBA programs provide essay prompts for applicants or questions for recommenders regarding the applicant’s leadership abilities beyond what the Leadership Assessment Grid asks. For example, Kellogg provides the following prompt to recommenders:
Kellogg has a diverse student body and values students who are inclusive and encouraging of those with differing perspectives and backgrounds. Please tell us about a time when you witnessed the candidate living these values. (300 words)
Similarly, Columbia Business School asks applicants to respond to the following prompt:
The Phillips Pathway for Inclusive Leadership (PPIL) Pathway is a co-curricular program designed to provide students with the skills and strategies needed to develop as inclusive leaders. Through various resources and programming, students explore and reflect on the following five inclusive leadership skills: Mitigating Bias and Prejudice; Managing Intercultural Dialogue; Addressing Systemic Inequity; Understanding Identity and Perspective Taking; and Creating an Inclusive Environment.
Describe a time or situation when you had the need to utilize one of these five skills, and tell us the actions you took and the outcome. (250 words)
MBA programs bring together cohorts of students with a variety of personal, professional, and academic experiences who have worked across functions, industries, and geographies. Much of the learning that happens in business school comes from interactions with classmates. As such, it is imperative that business school students respect and engage with individuals with diverse backgrounds. (See “What Is DEI, and Why Do Business Schools Care About It?” for more information on MBA program diversity initiatives.)
One Stratus client who had spent his entire life in his home country volunteered for his company’s global LGBTQIA+ network as an ally. Within his own office, he helped a faith-based, queer advocacy group implement better practices to improve efficiency and scalability. He also organized Pride events with more than 150 attendees and motivated dozens to participate in a local Pride parade. Clearly, someone writing a recommendation for this applicant could highlight his ability to encourage those with differing backgrounds and perspectives.
Another Stratus client who identified as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community had joined the Pride leadership team at her Fortune 100 company and was responsible for planning Pride Month. Pride Month typically focused on employees at the company’s headquarters. However, she wanted to include factories in the Deep South in the Pride Month celebrations, so she partnered with a satellite factory in Georgia to plan a flag raising. Despite months of preparation, the leadership team called off the flag raising a few days before Pride Month began, claiming they were not ready to publicly support the LGBTQIA+ community. She was devastated and contemplated giving up. But after hearing her colleagues in Georgia express their pain and disappointment, she decided that the only failure would be giving up on the mission and her teammates. Over the next year, she recruited dozens of volunteers, and they hosted more than 15 Pride Month events, attended by in excess of 800 employees. They added leaders from Deep South factories to the Pride leadership team to create meaningful collaboration for workplace equality. The Pride team subsequently organized LGBTQIA+ awareness and ally training events for satellite teams. This client certainly would be able to write a powerful essay about addressing systemic inequity.
These are just a few examples of how young professionals have taken on leadership roles at work. The options are infinite. Identify the biggest challenges that your team or broader organization is facing, and then think about how you can add value. Next, take steps to better understand the problem and bring together individuals with whom you can collaborate on potential solutions. Even if you don’t succeed, trying to solve a problem beyond your day job will demonstrate your initiative and commitment to making an impact.
Not sure how to flex your leadership skills in your workplace? Reach out to Stratus for a free consultation!