Management Leverage Blog

As a management educator, it pains me to tell you this. But an MBA won’t ensure you an enviable career. Neither will memorizing all the latest business books. At least that is what I told some of our incoming MBA students this week.

Careers are built on performance, which is made up of technical skills, management leverage (time, influence, power), social capital, and political capital. Period.

If you want to get an MBA, or memorize the latest business books, make sure you understand this formula

MBA (or books) =Enviable career IF

MBA (or books)=Education=Performance

The sad truth of the matter is that you can get a degree without getting an education. And just because you have letters behind your name (or an enviable library) and an education, does not mean you will perform better than someone without letters behind their name and whose library consists of the complete set of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.

So how can you, or your direct reports, make sure an MBA, or a business library, leads to the career of your dreams?

Instead of thinking about what won’t work, think about how each pearl could help your career .  For example, imagine you are a finance person sitting through a marketing class, or reading a marketing book. Rather than ruling out everything as useless, think about what aspects you could alter and use in your career.

If you spend your time trying to figure out what the professor wants you to know for the test, your education is in ‘test taking’, not in business.

So even if you are not getting an MBA, go out and get a leading book in another field. Don’t just read about what you already know. Branch out. What aspects can you embrace? For example, how does Good to Great apply to marketing?

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Ok. So here is blog post number 1.5. I’m hesitant to call it my second post, because it probably should have been my first. But it is 6 years late anyway (did even blogs exist back then?), so half a post probably doesn’t make much difference.

Several years ago students started telling me I should blog all the (unsolicited) career advice I give class. Just like Penelope, I didn’t listen to them. I had always planned to write a book, but blogging? Now that’s a commitment.

If I had listened to my students, I would now be writing post number 1500, instead of number 1.5. I would have a much wider audience, enough material for a book, and most importantly, I would have stayed in much better touch with those students who have slipped away over the years.

I didn’t get married until I was in my thirties, and I don’t have any tattoos, but I wouldn’t say I’m afraid of commitment. I just respect it. And at this point, my commitment to this blog seems a little vague, at least in terms of the path this blog will take. In class, I can tailor my unsolicited advice to the business undergraduate, MBA, or executive MBA audience. Hopefully, I can find a common thread in this blog that will appeal to all three levels. Nudge me if you think I haven’t found that fine line yet.

So let the conversation begin.

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