Leadership

Solid Advice from Stanford GSB Leadership Coach

By Stacy Blackman

Updated on: January 27, 2009 / 4:33 PM EST / MoneyWatch

Leadership coach Ed Batista from Stanford's Graduate School of Business had an insightful post last week on three things you probably won't learn in b-school. With a major assist from his colleague Corey Ford, former GSB student and a fellow and lecturer at the Stanford Institute of Design, Batista shares some key lessons most students learn only after they graduate.

Business school will help you get from point B to point Z. Finding out where to get started is up to you...and not something you should hope to figure out once you're already in business school.

Spending two years surrounded by MBAs can leave you unprepared for interacting in the real world once you're on the job. Make sure all of the traits honed in b-school--competitiveness, drive, leadership skills--don't leave other, non-MBA stakeholders in the dust or feeling sidelined as you lead the charge.

Many MBAs are surprisingly risk-averse. By avoiding failure like the plague, Batista says you create a ceiling over your accomplishments. And we all know the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

I thought this was an interesting tie-in with yesterday's post, questioning whether entrepreneurship, as a specific career path, can be taught. I agree that MBAs are risk-averse, which is certainly a barrier to leaving a secure job and starting something new.

For me, some of the toughest challenges I have faced in business have been within my own head. In school, business problems are simulations and don't have the high stakes of real life. Even working on live projects...it's just not the same. In the real world, I have had to battle insecurity, self doubt, questioning my own decisions, taking responsibility for bad ones, fearing the competition is stronger than they sometimes are, and more. There is a very real psychological/emotional component to business, whether you are part of an established company or going out on your own. Managing this is difficult to teach in the classroom.

Check out Batista's complete post, which comes with nifty graphics, too. What would you add to his list of things you probably won't learn in business school?