Master of Arts in 领导 Compared to the Traditional MBA Degree Path

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作者:Doug Paxton博士

As our nation 和 world continue to be buffeted by the adaptive challenges of 2020-2021, 我们注意到,不确定的时代如何让我们中的许多人反思,在我们的工作和生活中,什么是最重要的. 人们将教育视为一种重启职业生涯的方式,并更充分地实现自己的使命/目标. 英国《十大网赌平台》 reported recently that “64 percent of business schools have seen a rise in domestic applicants.” I share my story below 和 offer an educational alternative to the traditional MBA degree — 以领导力为基础的课程和硕士学位 — that might be of service to you 和 worthy of your consideration.

 

选择研究生院

年前, 而且是在历史上不那么戏剧化的时期, I was unsure about my future 和 was looking to find a career where I could make a difference. 研究生院在招手. 我希望我能在这个过程中找到自己的使命. 我参加了耶鲁发明的一个项目——公共和私人管理硕士(MPPM)——一个本质上是MBA的项目, designed “to train managers who could be effective in the business, 政府, 非营利部门, 谁会有这样的技能, 理解, 以及在这些部门之间有效移动的视角.“几年后,他们将学位改为MBA. Even Yale couldn’t compete with the success of the MBA degree. In 1986 there was no such thing as an MA in 领导 for me to even consider as an option. 十大正规网赌平台领导艺术硕士 该学院成立于2001年,是美国首批独立的领导力硕士课程之一.

 

MBA的历史

商科研究生教育 has been around since 1900 (Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth), 哈佛大学在1908年创造了MBA这个名字. 在美国.S. today, more than 100,000 MBAs are granted each year, 和 the popularity shows no sign of waning. In 1986 it felt like a safe move for me in an uncertain time. MBAs are still considered a better investment compared to other graduate degrees.  

 

mba的发展

十五年后(2003年), 在公司有过不同的工作经验之后, 非牟利及公营机构, 我发现自己又回到了商业教育领域, this time as the founding program director of the Presidio 研究生 School’s 可持续管理MBA. We sought to bring social 和 environmental 责任 to business education, not by adding a few courses to the traditional MBA curriculum, 而是通过将社会公正和环境可持续性的价值观融入到每门课程的设计中. In 2015, 在一篇研究哪些MBA课程能帮助人们在职业生涯中达到他们想要的目标的文章中, 《十大正规网赌平台》的达夫·麦克唐纳 wrote, “If you want to change the world, go to Presidio 研究生 School.“Presidio和其他创新的MBA项目帮助重塑了商业教育的格局. At Saint Mary’s, we are proud of the tagline of our MBA programs, “放眼全球,负责任领导.“虽然我当时并不知道, my calling was coming slowly into focus: How do we bring values, 责任, 并强调领导力发展到教育?

 

办公仓库的故事

In preparing to launch a new kind of MBA program at Presidio, 2002年春天,我参加了一个名为“商业环境学习与领导力”的会议。. 主题演讲是由 布鲁斯·尼尔森,欧得办公的首席执行官. 在他的讲话中, 尼尔森解释了公司将如何设立一个新职位——社会责任总监——以更好地应对诸如环境抗议之类的事情, 更负责任的采购, 等. 作为世界上最大的纸制品销售商, 对于那些致力于保护原始森林或抗议其他国家工作条件的人来说,Office Depot是一个方便的目标. We had the opportunity to ask questions of Nelson, 和 mine was the following:

"We are a room of business educators, developing people that you hire. 你是我们的客户. 我们做得怎么样?? 你需要我们做什么?"

He smiled 和 affirmed the need for people who know accounting, 金融, 和市场营销, 和 acknowledged that MBAs were good at bringing those skills. 然后他停顿了一下,若有所思地选择了下一句话:

“我们真正需要的是情商高的人,而不是擅长拿A的人. We operate in 40 countries 和 deal with enormous complexity; teamwork 和 collaboration are essential. 我不知道发生了什么, but the people we are hiring are needing more of that kind of social intelligence, 和 we are having to figure out how to train them on the job. They don’t seem to be developing enough 社交和情商 in business school."

他的话深深地引起了我的共鸣. 根据我自己的经验, 我的商业教育课程在多年后仍然与我的生活息息相关,这些课程教会了我什么是领导力, 团体动力学, 简而言之,还有人际交往能力, 社交和情商. 不管你来自哪个行业, 如果一个人在事业上步步高升, their job will increasingly be about working with 和 influencing other people. 对我来说, leadership 和 interpersonal skills are practices we evolve along our life journeys, 而不是可以从待办事项列表上划掉的目的地. Bruce Nelson was reminding us of the old adage, “develop the soft skills for the hard results.” As Garth Saloner, Dean of Stanford’s 研究生 School of Business (2006-2016) put it:

“金融、供应链管理和会计等较难掌握的技能,在管理教育中已经变得更加标准化, have become kind of a hygiene factor everybody ought to know. Those skill sets are pretty widely available; to be perfectly honest, there’s not a ton of differentiation in those across a number of providers. 但是软技能, 真正的领导, 与他人合作并通过他人执行任务的能力——这仍然是非常稀缺的."

商业教育工作者越来越关注纳尔逊和塞洛纳所强调的内容. 塞洛纳接着说:

“有一套领导技能是可以教授的. They have to be taught experientially; this is not something you can lecture about. 你必须把人们分成小组,给他们领导任务,让他们完成任务."

塞隆纳的话也直接反映了我的经历. 领导 is one degree that we cannot learn in isolation; we must practice together. We had built the inaugural Presidio curriculum based on four basic curriculum str和s: money, 市场, 可持续发展与人. “人”这条线负责培养纳尔逊和塞洛纳所描述的那种领导技能. After launching 和 running the Presidio program for a year, 我更明白了为什么在MBA课程中很难更深入地探讨领导力发展——在当今的商业世界里,根本没有足够的时间来涵盖成功和责任所需的一切.

 

邀请去圣玛丽教堂

几年后, Dr. 肯水獭 invited me to teach a course with him in the MA in 领导 program. From the start, it was a revelation for me to see the list of courses. 以下是一些亮点:

  • 建立学习型社区的实践
  • 行动中的价值观
  • 领导力与制度变革
  • 建立跨文化能力
  • 团队指导和团队促进
  • 可持续的组织变革
  • 领导力,系统和相互依赖
  • (你的)领导能力的未来

These were the same topics that I had been interested in all my life, I just never realized they could be combined under the umbrella of leadership. 2006年我开始在圣玛丽教书的时候, 我意识到Nelson和Saloner所描述的变革和合作学习是整个课程的核心.   

 

互补的教育

约翰·科尔曼08

In an MBA program, leadership is underst和ably one str和 among many topics. Finance, accounting, 和市场营销 are important subjects that require a lot of attention. If people had the time 和 money, I would recommend they get an MBA 领导力硕士学位作为补充学位. We have alumni who hold both an MA in 领导 和 MBA degree, precisely because they know how crucial leadership skills are to their future, 和 how little time the MBA curriculum devotes to leadership skills alone. As 约翰·科尔曼2008年毕业于十大正规网赌平台领导学硕士,

“作为一个同时获得领导力硕士学位和MBA学位的人,我可以说这两个学位都很重要,而且都是有目的的. 硕士学位为我的研究生学习奠定了基础,使我的研究生学习更加周到和充实. (然后)进入杜克大学福库商学院(Duke’s Fuqua School of Business,简称MBA)时,我发现自己完全准备好了以一种不同于受领导力硕士学位直接影响的同学的方式来研究多方面的商业案例. 现在我已经完成了我的正规教育,我正在实践我在这两个项目中学到的所有东西, 我认识到,领导力硕士学位为我掌握复杂的商业问题和解决方案提供了基础, 定量和定性."

如果你热衷于与人合作,并找到解决我们的文化和世界目前面临的巨大挑战的方法, 那么,投身于领导实践可能是一个值得你关注的方向. 博士. 水獭描述:

"There are many people who find it is leadership that is needed in their enterprises. 他们意识到自己不需要MBA学位, 因为他们可以从经验中获得商业头脑, 其他团队成员, 或者短期课程. 领导力教育的复杂性和协作性使其成为一种沉浸式的研究生学习体验."

 

那些被领导概念所吸引的人有一些特别之处,他们冒着风险学习一门相对较新的学科,这可能需要那些审查你简历的人做出一些解释. Three common themes I have seen in the folks who show up for an MA in 领导:

  1. 对改变的热情无论他们是二十多岁还是七十多岁, 或者来自公众, 私人, 或者非营利部门, they have a shared passion for making a difference in the world.
     
  2. Feeling the Pain 和 Limitations of Current Organizational 文化我们的学员来到我们的领导力硕士课程,因为他们知道人类必须有更好的方式与他人合作,并通过他人进行创新, 合作并获得成功. 他们感受到了公众的挑战, 私人, 以及21世纪的非营利部门,他们需要更多的工具来引导和改变这些组织文化.
     
  3. 自我是领导的工具: People seeking a degree in leadership know that they have more gifts to share with the world. They are dedicated to learning how to bring their best to their families, 组织, 和社区. 

Dr. 谢丽尔·斯坦利, Department Chair for 领导 Studies at the University of San Diego, 打开她的外部审查 圣玛丽大学的领导力硕士课程 有以下观察:

“我们非常需要专业的领导力教育,以应对21世纪的复杂挑战, 全国各地越来越多的研究生领导力项目试图满足这一需求. 加州十大正规网赌平台(Saint Mary 's College of California)的领导力硕士课程在课程设置上很有特色, 方法, 和交付, 为在职成年人提供独特的量身定制的学习体验,这在美国的任何一个硕士课程中都很难找到."

当我们的生命从一段不寻常的时期重新浮现, 我们邀请您找到并迈出领导的下一步. In the words of poet Mary Oliver, how can you make the most of “your one wild 和 precious life?”

 

This article is a revised version of a blog post originally written in 2016.