MBA Applicants: 7 Leadership Qualities you Should have

Leadership traits cannot be learned from manuals and textbooks. It consists of behavioral patterns and traits that are organically evolved in people. Some traits are inherited and others, acquired, but the important ones are acquired by overcoming challenges.

For instance, choice between ethics and inflated profits is a clear test of the leader’s moral compass. The best decisions, maintain a balance between good ethics and healthy profits. If an ethical dilemma prevails, then leaders should rely more on hindsight and less on intuition. It is not easy to judge leadership potential, but most MBA AdCom agrees that applicants with leadership potential show most of the following qualities.

1. Self-regulation

Self-regulation determines the manner in which leaders behave in the workplace. The leaders who do not keep emotions in check, would likely put off people; and the ones who do, gains amiable support from peers. Before enforcing rules and regulations in business, leaders should ensure complete adherence from their part. One of the ways to gauge this trait among MBA applicants is to look at past records – both academic and professional. A simple phone conversation with one of the supervisors or professors and some probing would reveal key characteristics of the applicant. They might not give you a complete picture, but helps in classifying “the good from “the bad’ to the “terribly awful.”

2. Promoting Teamwork

Teamwork is an often-measured trait in MBA Application. Leaders are the last to take credit for the team’s success and first to take responsibility of the team’s failure. This is not a learned skill. It comes naturally to the leader. If you read MBA Application essays of top performers, this trend becomes visible.

In addition to taking the ownership of the team, leaders are generous when it comes to praising team members in public, and private with criticism. The story about team member’s journey from an amateur to a professional becomes folklore and motivates newcomers to give their best for the company.

3. Catalyst for change  

What distinguishes Managers from leaders is this key skill. Managers have limited motivating capacity when it comes to triggering change. They are narrowly focused on the output without understanding how they can contribute towards changing the company culture or team’s effectiveness. Although MBAs are designed to create Managers, the top programs focus heavily on creating leaders who are honest with feedbacks, and proactive with corrective steps. The new breed of leaders demonstrates courage, authenticity, passion, and collaboration.

4. Empathy

Although great leaders are honest with feedback, their advice on improving key functional and soft skills are conveyed with empathy. This trait is partly a learned skill, developed through experience working with diverse team members with different expertise, functional skills, and temperament.  Leaders have learned that tactical diplomacy works better for the team than coercive force. Before making any major change in an organization structure or project schedule, leaders evaluate the repercussions of the change from the team’s perspective first before taking into consideration the impact on the bottom line. This strategy works in the long-term, as experts cite the lack of empathy as number one cause for attrition – a cost that impacts the bottom line more than any failure on deliverables.

5. Problem Solving

Leaders make sure that they are surrounded by functional experts. The advice from a diverse group makes for an engaging for and against argument on every decision. This avoids ineffective decisions resulting from confirmation biases. Solving problem requires contextual knowledge, and it comes only through daily interaction with experts. Although leaders have expertise in one or two areas, they rely mostly on understanding trends in each industry, and experience of key advisors.

In modern business where information spreads fast with high-end technology, defining problems have become tougher. Leaders have to gather, allocate and integrate vital business information in time; and frame feasible business solutions. Problem solving demand an inherent cognitive skill in leaders. John Kotter defined this cognition as “above average intelligence” and “Keen Mind”. It is different from the functional problem solving skills that require narrow focus and limited expertise. Leadership decisions can be made only through a broader understanding of how various Business elements interoperate and how demand-supply cycles influence strategic decisions.

6. Salesmanship

MBA AdCom hates salesmanship when the story is one sided, but they enjoy a good story from a salesman where he had to overcome many failures. Good Leaders are great salespersons. They are passionate about their product, and lead the client presentation. There are no task delegations when it comes to product launch. They are good at owning the presentation, and motivating stakeholders towards a vision that might seem far-fetched in current reality. A leader is closely involved in client meetings, team meetings, product launch, seminars, and conferences. She is the face of the company.

7. Adherence to Ethics and Law

What might seem a rather inconsequential decision, involve ethics and morality, usually hide unforeseen consequences.  Most Business Schools include instances of ethical decision making in one of prompts in essays, interviews, or recommendation letter. Reputation of the company is influenced by the decisions taken by its top management. With a vigilante group of journalist, and free flow of information through social media, unethical decisions taken by the management can no longer be hidden through a consolidated network of private broadcasters. Information is flowing freely, and by admitting candidates with low tolerance for unethical decision-making, AdCom have realized that the next generation of top Management would be filled with professionals who value fair competition and strategy over greed, and unethical shortcuts.

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