Leadership Development Series Hones MBA Skills

Anlei Lee was surprised to learn this past year that there is nothing arrogrant about wielding power--that the use of power and influence is, in fact, essential to leading an organization. This was one of many insights the recent MBA graduate gleaned through the Berkeley-Haas Leadership Development Series.

The Haas School developed the workshop series this past year to further expand the leadership skills of Berkeley MBA students. Epiphanies such as Lee's were experienced by hundreds of students through the Leadership Development Series, which featured workshops on topics from tackling tough issues to artful bragging and from avoiding political blind spots to building a personal brand.

Taking on these topics was a high-powered cast of workshop leaders that included William Arruda, Entrepreneur magazine’s anointed “personal branding guru,” Patrick Lencioni, author of the client-loyalty guide Getting Naked; and acclaimed author and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith (pictured above). The series also featured highly regarded Haas associate professors Cameron Anderson and Laura Kray.

The Evolution of a Leader
The series is part of Berkeley Innovative Leader Development, or BILD, a connecting theme that runs through the school’s newly revamped MBA curriculum. The core courses, electives, and additional content such as the Leadership Development Series all deliver into the school’s focus on developing innovative leaders. “We want to prepare leaders who define what’s next for our markets and our societies,” says Dean Rich Lyons.

Pullquote The series is patterned after the applied leadership programming offered to senior leaders at top companies and addresses leadership from three perspectives: self, team, and organization. “We considered a number of models,” says Abby Scott, executive director of MBA Career Services, who was part of the cross-departmental Haas team that launched the Series. “We chose this approach because students aspiring to leadership roles must start with their own self awareness and development, focusing on their communication style and leadership presence,” says Scott. “As they progress in their careers, they need to be able to manage people and build great teams and, ultimately, will need to focus on skills essential to running an organization, such as power and influence and leading change.” Scott says feedback from recruiters and alumni informed focus areas for the series.

Lessons Learned
Associate Professor Cameron Anderson taught the workshop on power and influence, based on his highly popular course of the same name. “Many people are ambivalent, if not disdainful, of those who seek to wield power and influence at work,” says Anderson. “But organizations are fundamentally political entities, and power and influence are key mechanisms by which things get done.”

Lee, a 2010 graduate of the Evening & Weekend MBA Program and public works programs engineer, walked away from Anderson’s workshop with “ multiple principles that I can use to increase influence” and says, “I learned that in order to be heard, we need to understand how to create power and persuade others." She participated in nine of the workshops and was not alone: At every workshop, more than 90 percent (and often 100 percent) of participants said they planned to come back for more.

Will Wright, who graduated in December 2009 with an MBA and a Master’s in Public Health and is now an associate with McKinsey & Company in Brussels, helped book some of the speakers and attended a number of the workshops. He found Marshall Goldsmith’s exploration of how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder, titled “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” to be particularly powerful. “Goldsmith helped me crystallize two powerful concepts,” says Wright. “The first is that we spend most of our time complaining and, second, that we say ‘no’ too often. While I used to think that either habit helped me identify and correct problems, Goldsmith helped me see that problem-solving and a negative attitude do not go hand-in-hand. The effect—on my professional and personal life--has been dramatic.”

Both Lee and Wright participated in William Arruda’s session on building a personal brand. “I definitely came to understand that in a third millennium world, it’s very important to think about how you are perceived,” says Wright, "to make sure how you are perceived is congruent with how you want to be perceived.”

Lee notes that “William Arruda wasn't just teaching us how to manage our brand and how we are perceived online, but actively showing it to us through his own persona, actions, and the way he was sharing information.”

Arruda, Goldsmith, Anderson, and Professor Jennifer Chatman are among those slated to speak as part of the 2010-2011 Leadership Development Series. “Many of these speakers would have cost me a lot of money to see if I was trying to arrange to see them on my own,” says Lee. “I value Haas' efforts to help students gain more hands-on practice in a safe environment.”

Adds Wright, “There's the idea in "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" of "sharpening the saw" - most of the time, you can get what you need done in a lot less time than you think if you yourself are sharp. I took these sessions to sharpen my own saw and have found that the time I've saved by simply avoiding mistakes I would have made has been well worth it.”

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