CUHK MBA Equips Students with Leadership Skills to Cope with the Competition in the Banking Industry
In an interview with eFinancialCareers, Prof. S. Noorein Inamdar says that “banking is a competitive industry which attracts very talented people, but it’s lacking in leadership skills because its leaders are often hyper-focused on their work and don’t spend the time and effort needed to become more self-aware.”
S. Noorein Inamdar, Associate Professor of Practice in Management of Department of Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School, says banking is facing a “leadership crisis”. She teaches the leadership development course in MBA program, and is determined to get that message across to her students, many of whom are in management roles in the finance sector or aspire to be in the future.
“Banking is a competitive industry which attracts very talented people, but it’s lacking in leadership skills because its leaders are often hyper-focused on their work and don’t spend the time and effort needed to become more self-aware,” says Prof. Inamdar in an interview with eFinancialCareers, a London-based financial services careers website.
“There’s a global shortage of competent leadership, including in the banking sector. I make it very clear from the start that MBA students need to take leadership development seriously if they want to progress in their careers,” she adds.
“Some students think leadership ability is set in stone and consists of a pre-defined set of skills, but I tell them there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Leadership is about matching style with context, while also being authentic to yourself – it’s a personal journey. Many in the class have an ‘aha moment’ when they realize this.”
One of the first steps to developing as a leader is becoming more “self-aware”, says Prof. Inamdar. “This means having an honest understanding of your own values, motivations, strengths and weaknesses – and how they come together and affect others.”
Self-awareness is not woolly management-speak, warns Prof. Inamdar, it contributes to the bottom line by making leaders and their employees perform better on the job. “And from my experience and research on leadership, the more self-aware leaders tend to make the more ethical business decisions.”
Self-awareness gives you the ability to adjust your leadership and communication style to suit individual members of your team.
The leadership development course in CUHK MBA is particularly useful for students with a banking or finance background because it lets them “step back and assess their leadership abilities in a way they could never do at work,” says Prof. Inamdar.
To bring home the importance of self-awareness, she makes her MBA students take leadership development assessments, which allow them to learn more about themselves in areas such as self-confidence, cognitive thinking, communication style, and working in teams… Read More
Source: eFinancialCareers
Date published: 18 February, 2017