There’s More Than One Way to Make the Most of an MBA
Success in an MBA
programme may hinge on mastering a friendly sort of rivalry.
The tail end of
summer is a special time of year at INSEAD and business schools around the
world. It’s when classes resume and a new crop of students set out on their MBA
journey.
2017 is a more
exciting year than most to begin an MBA. Politically and economically, the
world is in transition. The pace of change is faster than it’s been in decades.
The careers of aspiring global managers, already unpredictable, seem headed for
even greater uncertainty.
MBA programmes are
designed to equip graduates for the challenges they’ll face as managers and
leaders. But in these highly uncertain times, it’s increasingly unclear what
those challenges will look like. Will the future environment demand more
adaptability or more authenticity? Should the emphasis be on maximising
financial performance, or holding on to one’s integrity no matter the cost?
In principle, the
answer is this: Hard as it might be, any good leader should be able to do both.
INSEAD and many of its peer schools are aware of this. They build their
curricula with a dual mission in mind—placing roughly equal importance on
honing professional skills and assisting personal development. Students are
urged to master management tools while also engaging in heavy-duty
self-discovery.
At first glance, the
two pursuits may seem complementary. However, according to a new study
co-authored by INSEAD’s Gianpiero
Petriglieri and Jennifer Petriglieri, many budding
business leaders won’t focus on both—especially in demanding, fast-paced and
high-pressured MBAs like INSEAD’s.
Instead, soon after
starting, they’ll set out on alternative paths. And while they might suffer
from ‘Fear of Missing Out’, their MBA journey might be all the more fruitful
for it. As long as their school, their classmates—and themselves—acknowledge
the equal value of both paths, which is the hard part.
Meet the “hunters”
and “explorers”
For the study, the
Petriglieris and their co-author, Jack Denfield Wood of CEIBS, followed 55
students before, throughout and soon after a one-year MBA programme. The
school, which they call “Blue” for the purposes of the study, is highly reputed
and traditionally places graduates in top global companies.
Before their
programme began, the authors found, most participants expressed multiple
aspirations. They envisioned future career achievements, for sure. One incoming
MBA candidate said: “I really want to become a general manager that has in his
backpack the MBA of a good and famous school.” At the same time, they were
curious about what they would discover about themselves. “I am hoping that Blue
will take me a step further. I don’t know what that step further is,” said
another participant.
Fairly early on in
their programme, however, the students became polarised. Plunged into the
high-intensity, high-visibility environment of Blue, their insecurities came to
the fore. Each student began to wrestle with his or her individual self-doubt.
Perhaps as a coping mechanism, their anxieties started to cohere around one or
the other of Blue’s dual aims. Some worried they couldn’t live up to the high
performance standards. Others felt they were not clear enough about their true
selves.
By the midpoint of
the programme, the students had split into two informal but quite distinct
camps. Those who measured themselves by performance became what the
Petriglieris and Wood call “hunters”. Hunters placed high value on acquiring
skills that would make it easier to claim titles like “leader”, “manager” and
“international.” They sought to transform themselves into the sort of
professional who could successfully lead no matter where they ended up. For
them, soul-searching had become a distraction. They were intent on persuading
those around them of their “leaderly” qualities.
Participants who felt
most challenged by the self-discovery side of Blue’s mission became
“explorers”, primarily focused on finding and expressing who they really were.
Where the hunters sought fulfilment through external achievements, the
explorers looked within, engaging in “internal struggle, questioning, and
self-doubt”, as one put it. They chafed at the pressure to rack up
accomplishments within Blue’s microcosm of the business world. To explorers,
the prizes and praise available at Blue represented what they were expected to
want, a pale substitute for the treasure of self-knowledge.
A fruitful symbiosis
As you might expect,
the split between hunters and explorers was reflected in the students’
socialising. As one said, “A lot of the people that I am close to all have a
similar motivation for spending a year doing this. That is probably the biggest
thing [that brings us together].”
Despite the two
tribes being more at ease amongst their own kind, the somewhat cliquish
atmosphere never developed into overt conflict or out-and-out exclusion. One
student described the dynamic as “competitive friendliness”. Hunters and
explorers seemed to respect each other’s differences even while not completely
understanding the other group’s motivations.
To the Petriglieris
and Wood, this makes perfect psychological sense. By remaining close enough
with one another to perform social comparisons, both camps sustained clarity
and confidence about their own choices despite the stresses of their academic
environment. Each group member’s focus was strengthened by contact with peers
from the other group. And both groups were grateful to Blue for it.
The “portable self”
Although splitting
into sub-groups served key psychological needs, both hunters and explorers were
doing the same thing, argue the Petriglieris. They were forging “portable
selves” that could help them chart a course through the oceans of uncertainty
their future career might hold in store. For hunters, the portable self was
anchored to their ability to adapt their leadership portfolio across various
contexts. Explorers pegged their portable self to a refusal to compromise core
values.
In both cases, the
outcome was a sense of self-determination that would not have been possible had
they tried to balance both of Blue’s sets of demands. If Blue could not give
them certainty about the future, it could at least give them clarity as to
where they were going, how, and with whom.
Happily, all but a
few not only succeeded in crafting a viable portable self, but also talked
positively about Blue as a community, despite all the challenges. One
participant said, “I was able to connect with people throughout the world, and
that will give me a sensation that I can always count on somebody.”
Mastering the
friendly rivalry between hunters and explorers, it seems, lets both types get a
sense of ownership and direction in their careers—and relationships that can
sustain their pursuits. Those are precious assets for aspiring leaders in a
fluid and uncertain working world.
In short, regardless
of brochures and stereotypes, not every MBA wants to become a CEO or
entrepreneur, or dig deep into their soul to find out who they want to be. That
is OK, but only schools that make equal room for those pursuits will help both
hunters and explorers thrive.
As they gear up for the rigours of
their programme, then, the main question for MBA candidates should be not,
“Where will I be in five years?” but “Who will I be in five months?”
Benjamin Kessler, Asia Editor & Digital Manager | August 28, 2017
Read more at
https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/theres-more-than-one-way-to-make-the-most-of-an-mba-6981?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=5c00247d09-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-5c00247d09-249840429#XetibLqQ5ZBZ9WlS.99
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