The Muddled World of Leadership Cliches, and More – Philadelphia News
As November draws to a close, let’s take a look at some of the biggest business school stories coming out of Philadelphia business schools this week.
Three Big Leadership Clichés – and How to Rethink Them – LinkedIn
Geoffrey Garrett, Dean of The Wharton School and official LinkedIn “Influencer,” recently took to the social media site to talk about the gamut of leadership cliches that dominate the conversation around those roles.
In a conversation with a group of upper-level executives at the Wharton CEO Academy in New York, Garrett pivoted away from the following three cliches, turning them into something more modern, useful, and promising:
1.) Stick to your guns
2.) Question everything
3.) It’s a marathon, not a sprint
On sticking to one’s guns, Garrett emphasizes certain elements of 1980s corporate and political culture that found esteeming value when a leader does not waver on their principles. “Sticking to your guns is valued because it signals strength, courage and commitment under adversity, which is why we so often think about war heroes in this way,” he says.
He notes, however, that there is value in knowing when to “fold ’em” with a key Kenny Rogers reference in tow. “There is no simple score sheet to tell you when the positives from sticking to your guns become outweighed by the negatives. But the world is littered with examples where leaders wait too long to make the switch. Think General Lee’s historic defeat at Gettysburg in the American Civil War, Jeff Immelt at GE or John Chambers at Cisco,” Garrett continues.
“Most leaders will change course eventually because there is not much valor in heroic defeats. But the best leaders will change course long before the writing is on the wall. Compare the demise of Kodak with the transformation of IBM. But how do you know when the writing is on the wall? The answer is judgment, arguably the most valuable trait in a leader. It’s easy to recognize in hindsight, because good leaders make good decisions—the definition of good judgment.”
To see the rest of Garrett’s advice on leadership cliches, head over to LinkedIn.
Drexel Students Win Second Annual Diversity Case Competition – Drexel LeBow News
Students from the Drexel University LeBow College of Business brought home a brand new title as winners of the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Business Case Competition.
Drexel LeBow defeated 11 other local challenging universities in a competition with a goal to “help create a diversity training protocol for Home Away From Home, a global hotel chain,” according to the business school.
Winners from the LeBow College of Business at the second annual Diversity and Inclusion Business Case Competition / Photo via lebow.drexel.edu
The LeBow team of “Johnny Zhu, Kimberly Gain, Stephanie Arredondo, and Rachael Wright” nabbed first place with their curiously-titled “Raising Our One Family (ROOF)” strategy. Zhu explains, “ROOF stands for the overall company-wide training, which is rolled out in the form of top-down management and tailored to individual locations, corporate level, and field level. This proposal is not a mold, but a 360-integrated training approach where as a family, employees are living out the mindset of diversity and inclusion, not only to guests but to each other as well.”
To learn more about the Drexel LeBow team and the case competition, click here.
The Bizarre Bias That Affects How You Shop – BBC
The work of Beth Vallen, a researcher at the Villanova School of Business, was recently highlighted by author Martha Henriques in the BBC regarding just how pervasive “anti-fat” bias can be.
Henriques notes that overweight people tend to statistically suffer when it comes to things like job offerings, and even get less eye-contact than people of average weight and size. It is perhaps not so surprising to find that business models are often altered for overweight people.
In “Shape and Trait‐Congruency: Using Appearance‐based Cues as a Basis for Product Recommendations,” a new study authored by Vallen and colleagues Karthik Sridhar, Dan Rubin, Veronika Ilyuk, Lauren G. Block, and Jennifer J. Argo—published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology—found that overweight customers were offered more products that resembled their body types, even if the products, such as bottles of perfume, were not wearable.
Speaking with Henriques, Vallen says, “Our thinking was these subtle prejudices that lead to these effects are based on something more than superficial shape-matching.”
“We wanted to show that this was a bias that reflects the thoughts and decisions processes of all people, not just sales people.”
To read more about the study, head over to the BBC website and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
New MBA Jobs: NBC Universal, LinkedIn, Time Warner, and More
There’s always exciting new MBA jobs out there for students finishing up their programs, as well for recent graduates looking to leverage their new degree for a management position at a great company. Check out some of this week’s hottest new MBA jobs below:
Ivey Launches New Academy, and More – Toronto News
Toronto’s business schools have seen exciting developments this week. We’ve laid out the highlights below.
Ivey Launches Full-Service Academy to Boost Business Education – Financial Post
Western University Canada’s Ivey School of Business recently launched The Ivey Academy, which, according to News@Ivey, “blends top-ranked university-based executive education with strategic design, talent assessment and leadership coaching to create the first of its kind executive education experience in Canada.” Some features of the academy include: Instructional design and advisory services, talent assessments, and leadership coaches.
Mark Healey, Executive Director of the Ivey Academy, says:
“There’s been a gap in Canada’s learning and development market, with companies typically engaging multiple vendors to deliver competency assessments, learning modules, training content and executive coaching. Combining all aspets of learning with independent expertise across the development journey, we are able to deliver sustained behavior change, not just knowledge transfer, and stronger retention and succession pipelines for organizations.”
You can learn more about the recently launched The Ivey Academy here.
Why Likeability Gets You Hired and Promoted – The Globe and Mail
Dan Richards, Professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and author of Getting Clients, Keeping Clients, recently wrote a piece for The Globe and Mail in which he discussed what qualities employers respond to.
First, Richards listed off the more standard characteristics employers appreciate, “the demonstrated ability to produce results, a strong work ethic and being a team player,” but he went on to discuss a trait people rarely list on their resumes: likeability.
Richards cites a study, which finds that when candidates are comparable in every objective area, the more likeable one will get the job a staggering 90 percent of the time. According to The Likeability Factor, it is a skill, and can improve with attention to: “Being seen as friendly, connecting over shared interests, demonstrating empathy, and being genuine.”
You can read more from Richards’ Globe and Mail entry here.
The Top 10 Women in L&D, Serious Games and Virtual Reality – LinkedIn
Dr. Deborah Fels, Professor at the Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management, was named one of the top 10 women in gaming, according to David Chadross, Ph.D. Fels has helped make strides in terms of accessibility of media and technology, including co-creating TerpTube, “a signed language mentoring management system.”
Chadross says:
“Deb runs entirely gamified courses and has done more work in the field of user experience then anyone I have met.”
The article also mentions fellow Ryerson professor, Naza Djafarova, Director of Digital Learning. Fels praises her increasing the revenue of her apartment my $3 million in just a year, spearheading the first large scale conference on serious games.
You can check out the rest of the list here.
What are the Most Successful MBA Startups of 2018?
Earlier this month, LinkedIn released its 2018 list for the Top Startups in the U.S. The list includes 50 of the newest successful startups in the U.S. Most specifically, the list analyzes young companies that are experiencing exceptional employee growth, increasing interest, member engagement, and talent. The social media platform used its network of 575 million members to see which startups commanded the most attention and had the most top talent. To be eligible, startups need to be less than seven years old, have at least 50 employees, and be privately held and headquartered in the U.S.
We decided to take a look at the list and see which of these year’s startups were founded by an MBA. This list is by no means exhaustive, but quickly we were able to find founders and CEOs with MBAs from top universities such as USC Marshall, Wharton, Harvard Business School, and Columbia Business School. Continue reading…
Sally Blount on Solving the Female CEO Conundrum
Just one year after setting the the Fortune 500 female CEO record, numbers are already declining.
Kellogg Launches ‘Ask an Admissions Officer’ Initiative on Social Media
Are you curious about the Northwestern University Kellogg admissions process? Do you want to know if it’s better to apply in one round or another, what the committee is looking for, or how you can apply to more than one program at a time? Kellogg’s new social media initiative, “Ask an Admissions Officer,” offers answers to these burning questions and more.
“Simply put, we are giving people an opportunity to send us questions via Instagram direct message (DM),” explains Kellogg Communication Specialist Rebecca Rogalski.
“Then, our social team is going to collect the best and most frequently asked questions, creating a short series of videos with the Kellogg admissions officers answering those questions.”
Kellogg applicants who want to submit their questions over the next week should do the following:
- Follow @KelloggSchool on Instagram.
- Send the school a question via direct message.
- Check back in early August to see if your question was answered.
This is an ideal opportunity for Kellogg hopefuls to get answers to all their burning questions before the Round 1 deadline on September 19, 2018.
Pro tip: Before you submit your question to Instagram, make sure it doesn’t have an answer that can be easily found on the Kellogg website. We suggest checking the Admission Facts & Tips section first if you need intel on …
- The best time to apply
- Deferrals
- Applying with a partner
- Work experience recommendations
You can also check out last year’s Clear Admit post where Kellogg’s Director of Admissions for the full-time MBA and MSMS Programs Melissa Rapp discussed application essays, female enrollment, and more.
Remember to stay tuned later this month for the Kellogg admissions team to provide video answers to the most frequently asked questions.
