MBA programs are oversold by most of the B-schools. Commercialization of education has led to more & more confusion about – the career choices, the streams to specialize and to give pace to the professional skill set for gaining momentum.

There might be tens of reasons which the B-schools try to sell their programs for ranging for hefty packages to corporate back-ups. There are also reasons slated as promising careers, quick recruitments as considered to the age old medical & engineering fields. But the question arises – are these reasons valid enough to be marked as the sustainable takeaway of business education?

The reasons slated above are short-termed; there are no second thoughts that they are exciting and relevant to almost everyone who is ambitious enough and dreams of a career. They are in fact also valid for the parents – who most of the times assess a choice of career – as a return on investment nowadays, thanks to the institutes which charge a bomb for no value addition. Having said that, I would like to share what I felt shall be considered as the sustainable takeaways of management or B-school education.

Sustainable here does not only mean polishing your skill-sets and knowledge in your area of expertise or work but by sustainable takeaways, we would be sharing the life-long lessons one gets to learn in b-school education. Few practices and lessons of B-school education go forever and of the many management graduates I came across, agreed that this helps in the growth of an individual not just as a professional but as an individual. Getting on to the takeaways now –

Personal Grooming:

B-school education can work as the second best school for an individual after a parent. It helps you assess yourself, your skill-set, exposes you to the career options and establishes your preferences to learn & pursue a career.

A good program equipped with extra-curricular and life-skills/behavioral coaching helps an individual in personal grooming, self understanding and improvising the personality as per the industry segment s/he choose to pursue a career into.

Communication Skills – I would like to mention here is the foremost requirement for anyone in this world to excel in anything one does.  At IBS, we were all privileged to have worked so much on the communication skills – oral or written, it works to the best for anyone & everyone.

Decision Ability & Tolerance:

Most of you must be wondering on reading the heads above, how tolerance can be learned through a 2 year program?

If the program design is good, the pedagogy is apt, you are sure to learn, improvise the decision making and tolerance skills. And this is one of the most significant take away of a b-school education. And the beauty is – this is not something which is taught, or could be understood through theorems but this is something which a student learns during the course of action for the 2 years.

In IBS, they follow the Case Methodology which – in a unique way helped us all in thinking analytically, to derive logic and that is how business decisions happened to most of the students during the business strategy case studies. That is the effectiveness of a b-school education, a management program.

Tolerance on the other hand – could be learned during the management festivals – which are the most amazing part of a b-school education. You read, gain knowledge, you participate and learn team work, you fight and learn competition, you excel and learn management.

And during the entire gamut of learning – you become tolerant. You manage people, you handle situations, you adapt and hence you sustain.

It Pulls you out of the Comfort Zone

It is most sustainable trait of any individual to be able to work even when out of his/her comfort zone. Many of the students come directly from a family life- the pampered ones etc and with a management course this certainly isn’t an easy thing to do.

But a B-school education promises the student to learn to work outside the comfort zone. Your internship projects, the assignments are all centered at polishing knowledge even when you learn in those situations.

Get Together & Networking:

B-school education embarks on bonding together and learning together. The group dynamics and team skills can be best achieved in a b-school; provided it is a good B-school. You meet, connect and make lifelong relationships, several turn out of the power networked, few become co-founders. I know many of the likes, my friends which were then batch mates at IBS, Bangalore are partners in business now.

And that is the reason, I feel the still to network and networks itself are a sustainable take away for anyone at any given point. Strong relationships foster strong businesses and create entrepreneurs. I have seen many – how about you?

Cross Cultural Solidarity

This might sound a little weird but cross cultural cohesion is certainly a sustainable takeaway from b-school education. One gets to meet people from all different & diverse family backgrounds, various geographic locations, different set of educational & professional backgrounds and learning happens. They learn together, live together and adapt to cosmopolitan practices and this works forever, this creates synergy.

In corporate lives or in life as general, it helps if one is familiar to different cultures, well travelled and understands – the behaviors, insights and markets at large. And this is not something which could be taught in a book or explained in a class – this is learning my living.

The rigorous courses and practices in a B-school help students find time & fine tune with the various cultures and this help them go further in life. This makes them a better Cross-functional professional and a great team player. It takes away the inhibitions based on caste, creed etc – it helps students broaden their vision & thinking and turns them into better human beings.

All of the above are the bigger and better sustainable takeaways from an MBA course. The students in a B-school start thinking differently with a more holistic approach coupled with knowledge of all verticals of an organization. An MBA certainly opens up your mind to things happening around you – the best & the worst and it also empowers you to become the anchor of your life.

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Books may teach you about the business functions but they won’t teach how you can possibly be a part of the functioning. Books may teach you about the business but they won’t teach you about its management. For the on-field knowledge about business, there are B-schools.

Business Management is a craft. It’s based on experience. Then, there’s a component of art, of insight and creativity. It is not a science but it uses science. B-schools teach analysis, teach the functions: marketing, finance, accounting – in terms of theories and cases. B-schools introduce you to the world of business, to the customer, to the people; B-schools teach you the practicality of business industry unlike the bookish theory. Let’s find out.

Teamwork – An overview of corporate world

In the world of ‘I, Me, Myself’, B-schools teach you to give importance to the ‘we’ world i.e., teamwork. At the beginning of the year, they ask you to create a team of 3-4 participants that will give back records. On most occasions, teams are formed by the MBA Program itself and include people of diverse backgrounds and interests. The idea is that through teamwork and interaction, MBA participants will share their experience to provide a more global view.

Pedagogical methods – From theory to practicality

In an open and flexible environment, academic excellence and practical experience, the content of the curriculum in an MBA program is balanced between formal business education and real-life problem solving. It is a mix of teamwork with competition and teaches the skill that will enable the students to grasp new ideas and seize new opportunities. MBA program combine the theoretical and practical approach. The practical approach relies on real-life business cases, the IBS case study approach is unique and one of a kind and allows the student to understand management & businesses better. The theoretical basis relies on seminars and lectures which are equally significant but cannot be utilized without application.

The faculty members – Hear it straight from the horse’s mouth

 The faculty members at MBA program usually have a PhD or experience with a top management level providing a high level of education to the students. From consultation to top companies to applying academic theory and the practical lessons they learned in the management ranks, they have done it all. It’s like taking lessons from the people who have gone to the battle field and conquered it all. Furthermore, there are more and more guest speakers who come to class and bring a practical point of view to the courses taught by faculty members.

Elective subjects – the power of specialization
MBA program offer elective subjects through which students can adapt the course to their practical needs. The student who is interested in a career in finance may focus on electives in the field of finance, the one who intends to start up his own business may focus on small business management or the one who wants to be into HR management can pick management of human resources.

Not only the choice of subjects, the program also offers relevant expertise & experience through – internships & projects in their chosen area of preferred careers.

 Soft-Skills

English – Get a grip of this global language, Being an international management degree and originating from the United States, MBA is usually taught in English. This opens the channel for working in the global markets. Right from educating the industry terminology to sharpening the intercommunication skills, you can master the language and its benefits to apply in your career for years to come.

Not only language MBA @ IBS includes Soft-skills with equal credits as the electives. A student at IBS receives proper soft-skills grooming & training on language, management skills and people skills.

Practice vs. Theory

Books are there to mug up the theory but practice of those theories is necessary to implement the knowledge gained. In order to develop a more practical understanding of business, MBA Programs have developed compulsory industry projects, internships that are part of the curriculum and grading as well.

Social responsibility – It’s important for a progressive Nation

Apart from providing good education, discipline, ethical and moral values, MBA teaches social responsibility to the students. Some MBA schools have special focus on the rural development and they teach as well as take many initiatives to work towards it. A simple contribution like clothes donation to a noble task of teaching the unprivileged, every activity aims in rural and social development. Educating an emerging subject like this goes on to prove that management education is a constantly evolving subject.

Technological approach – A high-tech environ for high-end thinking solution

Technology has helped us traverse not only to space, moon but to a neighboring planet as well. It is this technology that transforms dreams to reality. When it comes to MBA program, they tend to offer the highest possible level of service to their students, including: IT classrooms, completely wired buildings, the most up-to-date information technologies, large libraries, all sorts of business databases etc. This in return makes the students more tech-friendly.

Modern business challenges – Bring it on

Whenever there have been changes in business practices such as globalization and the development of new technology, MBA program have also gone through content and program changes. As a result of these changes, new subjects have appeared such as international finance, supply chain management, total quality management, e-commerce and information technology. New disciplines have also been introduced such as politics, religion, history, ethics and communication. So MBA always teaches us the sense of evolution.

Now, all these are not complied as one chapter of the book though. In the first year of an MBA program, the students learn the core disciplines of management education and then go on for specializations. Initially, emphasis is put on the fundamental subjects such as principles of management education, the basic concepts are taught in the first year of the MBA program, it develops an all round perspective of the student. In the second year, students can opt for specialization in selected areas of management. The second year of elective papers gives a student a good understanding in one particular area and provides them with good exposure to practical work also.

We recommend Books for always but an MBA Program can possibly change what you can extract out of those books.

Contributed by Jigyasa Laroiya

A ship that sails you towards your career path – Set off for an Internship Course for hands down industry experience

The custom of pursuing internships in different industries has been for many years now. Apprenticeships or on-the-job training are tried and true methods of mentoring and teaching students or workers a new trade or profession. Few courses have made it a mandate whereas some take it by choice to get a closer look of the industry they see them in the near future. The college students participating in internship opportunities continue to grow as more and more employers expect graduates to have real world experience.

What is it about?

The main purpose of an Internship is to provide a meaningful learning experience for the students. It’s not a cake walk all the time because the work allotted to you can be very basic, but the things that you are going to observe or learn can be meaningful and will help you understand the job, profession, or field. An internship may take place during the academic year (if it’s a mandate for your course) or you may even apply for an internship after graduation (your personal choice).Internships may not be paid or may not receive academic credit but if you take home the right knowledge, the experience will prove to be priceless in your professional life.

And here at IBS, Internships hold academic credit and many a times have proved significant & decisive move in the final placements of students as well.

How to find it

If your course comes with an Internship ‘must-have’, then expect to get a sorted list at the placement office or at specific department where you can possibly apply. Perhaps the most direct way for students to learn about internships is through the college Internship & Placement Office. Your college can also help students with cover letters, resumes, interviewing skills, and workplace expectations. For students who want to pursue it personally after graduation (those who take it up realize the edge during MBA) or during the MBA Program, can research online or may get in touch with family or friends who are in the same field.

What to expect from it
Now an intern should be ready for all sort of odd errands. That’s the ground level where employers expect you to grow from without complaining. From data entry to fixing appointments for seniors, from filing to taking photo copies, all these will come your way. Expect that!

What they expect from you

Now, they may overload you with gibberish work at times but they expect you to be proactive. Ask for work, question when you have doubt, do research about the company profile, show interest in attending meetings. If people see the interest in you, they will give you real work. But be sure to initially ask your supervisor for work and not the company owner.

Be Social. Make Contacts.

Now, the industry that you are interning now with may be the enter point of your career, so there’s no harm if you socialize a bit with your coworkers. Talk to them, ask them how they got to where they are, pull out contacts, and find out who they know in the industry. A little chit chat could just land you a job as soon as you pass out.

Get a clearer picture

It’s not just an internship; it gives you a real picture. It makes you realize whether you are ready to step in to the corporate life in the coming days. It helps you evaluate what you have learnt and what you need to learn more. You may want to take up a second internship or a third one, that’s ok as long as you make the best of every one of it.

The value of an MBA internship

Now internship isn’t only for graduates, it is also for the students pursuing MBA degree from the most prestigious business school. The skills you learnt in the classroom don’t have any importance if you don’t find its application in the real world of business. As a result, the value of vocational experience for MBA students and recent graduates cannot be emphasized enough.

For the majority of graduating MBAs, internships provide the chance to develop industry-specific abilities; develop strong teamwork skills, interpersonal skills; increase the likelihood of building professional networking contacts, mentoring relationships and so on.

Of course there is no guarantee that an MBA internship will give students a full time position but it will certainly enhance their chances as it will help them become viable, experienced job applicants when they are seeking employment after graduation. But point to be noted, many employers do consider internship experience in the hiring process, and many look to their own interns as the best potential candidates for full-time positions.

Are they really that important?

Here’s a clearer picture of why participating in an internship is an important experience to complement the learning you are doing in the classroom.

• An internship can serve as a screening device for employers. Also, many employers hire employees from their own internship program.
• An internship gives a student an opportunity to test a job or a field before taking a permanent position.
• Students who complete internships may discover gaps in their practical knowledge and they can fill in those gaps before they graduate.
• Another important take is that an internship looks good on a resume and employers are increasingly expecting to see an internship on a student’s resume.
• An internship in the resume builds the confidence in employers mind to hire the student because it increases job retention. They know that interns have experienced the profession and the work world.
• It may work as a deciding factor whether to take up that particular industry or thrive for a different one.
• Students who complete internships may receive higher salaries when they are hired.
• Very simply, an internship may lead directly to a job offer.
• Internships are fun – and great self-confidence builders.

Both future and current students are thus advised to start thinking about which companies will best help to take their careers forward.

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“Should I go for an MBA degree? Is it really worth it?” These were the concerned questions that an anxious gym-buddy, who also happens to be an aspiring entrepreneur, asked me one day. An apparently affluent non-MBA diamond merchant who stealthily overheard our conversation, interrupted us by highlighting his view which was – “An MBA curriculum is meaningless for entrepreneurial success.”

“Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates of Microsoft, Sergey Bin & Larry Page of Google did not go to business school. In spite of that, they are the some of the richest entrepreneurs in the world! So, it would be better for you to invest the time and money on your dream venture instead of a Business school.” He continued by adding that doing so would more likely increase the odds the start-up’s success. He did have a point there. However, he had inadvertently poked just the tip of the ice-berg . On retrospection, the question seems to have a lot more depth to it. So let’s try to analyze the truth behind the ‘Mark Zuckerberg’ analogy.

Just using ‘Google’ to learn more about the life-stories of the richest entrepreneurs shows us that all of them had a massive interest in the field of their venture to begin with. This was backed by the passion, experience and real-world education in their core fields before they started their ventures. This equipped them with a required set of skills. With Google, Larry and Sergey spent years learning advanced computer science. It was only afterwards that they build a revolutionary search engine.

Similarly, Bill Gates had been programming since the age of thirteen. At 15, he developed a traffic-management program that fetched him $20,000. In 1975, he had dropped out of Harvard and formed the world’s largest software business ‘Microsoft’, just because he was confident of his knowledge, skill-sets and experience of creating something new and managing it. These were the exact things that would have been taught in an MBA school, which is why he dropped out.

The same holds true for Mark Zuckerberg. At a tender age of 12, this child prodigy created a sophisticated messaging program called ‘Zucknet’. Much later, at Harvard, he created ‘Facebook’ after spending hundreds of hours perfecting it in his dorm room. David Fincher’s ‘The Social Network’ is a perfect medium to demonstrate the hard work that went behind creating Facebook.

If you pay attention, you will see that the common thread connecting these three success stories is that all of them basically had an ‘extraordinary product’ that was created by immense talent, passion, effort, time and hard-work. And most importantly, they knew how to manage all these in an efficient manner. Unfortunately, not all aspiring entrepreneurs possess all these qualities at once. This is where the role of an MBA comes into play. An MBA degree will provide you with practical knowledge of business basics. You’ll get to learn useful business concepts, create business plans and acquire finance & marketing tools. An additional benefit of studying at a B-School is ‘Networking’. It would greatly benefit you if you make it your ulterior motive and focus from Day 1 that you have build a personal & professional network with batch-mates and faculty, particularly those with an industry experience.

Networking with batch-mates might seem odd considering all you are starting from the same point. However, their contribution might be helpful in the long run, when they might be successfully managing businesses in various fields. Likewise, choose an industry-based faculty as your mentor. If he is equally passionate about your venture idea, he may even open doors for you into his trusted business network, thus greatly benefiting you in return.

An aspiring entrepreneur needs to tread his path carefully and choosing the right B-School is the first step on the way. It would be helpful to hand-pick those B-Schools where ‘Case-Study method’ is an integral component of their academic curriculum. It will help you understand the pitfalls and risks on which other businesses have struggled with. Let us see a real-life case to support the theories discussed till now.

In the year 2002, Google founders Sergey Bin & Larry Page wiped out the entire managerial layer in an innovative experiment. The motive was to strip away the managerial barriers faced by the idea development team, by flattening the hierarchical structure. The experiment failed terribly and soon witnessed an end. Google realized the hard way that managers, especially those trained in some of the most reputed B-schools, are virtually indispensible in an organizational structure.

A B-School can perform similar wonders on an aspiring businessman who has an entrepreneurial spirit but lacks more formal analytical skills. The skills acquired by a management student remain identical irrespective of whether he becomes a manager in an MNC or starts his own business. However, there is a downside to everything. A veteran management professor once said in an interview, “In my opinion, entrepreneurship is a matter of the heart and education is a matter of the brain. It is difficult to teach a heart.” I share his perspective on the above statement as an entrepreneur may be defined as a person who has a risk-taking appetite and a fearless attitude. These attributes are inherently ingrained into his/her personality.

An MBA education can teach someone to take wise decisions based on calculated risks. But can it teach someone to enjoy taking those risks? I am not very sure about that. Some students who have endured the rigorous years of an MBA program often compare its schedule with the intense military training. So let me to give you a beautiful analogy explained to me by a worldly-wise Indian Army Colonel, who is also a distant relative. This analogy draws the similarities between entrepreneurship and military training.

India, for example, spends crores of rupees on its soldiers so that they are absolutely prepared to fight battles when required. They are trained to fire rifles, use hand-combat and operate in simulated high-pressure situations. Although, all that training only goes so far. The Colonel added that he could never anticipate how a soldier would respond on- ground. He may choose to hide in his foxhole, run in the other direction, play dead or face the situation and fight like he has been trained when the bullets start to fly.

How someone responds to extreme-stress circumstances depends mainly on one’s intrinsic nature, which is hardwired into one’s personality. The training provided will only take you so far. The same theory is applicable to entrepreneurship. Learning Finance, Marketing, HR & Business Strategy can be very helpful. They will fetch you good GPAs, but dealing with the real-world outside your training ground is a different ballgame altogether. It is equally important to be self-confident, passionate, curious and extremely street-smart. If you don’t have these natural qualities and instincts, you are likely to face issues as an entrepreneur.

So I personally believe that MBA programs do equip the future entrepreneurs with some valuable tools. They may help them in avoiding silly mistakes that the beginners make. In spite of all the tools and training, it is up to the individuals to decide whether or not they have the heart to tackle unexpected and unpleasant obstacles that usually tag along with new businesses.

That’s when the real bullets start flying. Do you have it in you? Think! Introspect!

Takeaway: Entrepreneurship is 70% Execution and 30% Analysis, whereas most B-Schools teach you to become the exact opposite. So choose your school with utmost care. To me, real world experience is the best teacher, but an MBA degree will give you a solid foundation which may help you launch your business venture with utmost confidence. I am not sure whether the probability of success will increase drastically but I am certain the probability of failure will reduce significantly.

Contributed By: Pranshu Awasthi ( Class of 2007, IBS Gurgaon ) 

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“This blog post is part of an 11-part series by Sidhartha Mohanty (IBS Ahmedabad 2005). Through this series Sidhartha aims to take you on a ride along with him as he went from being a young student to an MBA graduate to a corporate employee and ultimately an entrepreneur now.” So, this first series will give you an inside story of IBS campus placements.

Placements! The word is enough to stir up various emotions in management students. Apprehension, anticipation, terror (yes, that too) and of course nervous excitement through it all. Placement is the final hurdle before newly minted graduates place their first step on to the corporate world. The world of salaries, deadlines, cubicles, taxes and bosses who can be benign or bossy, colleagues who can be nice or nasty, clients who can be dandy or difficult.

Believe me, I went through all of that and more, when my placement season came around. It was the year 2005, the final year of my MBA. This is usually the time when everybody is out networking with their alumni. Some are busy doing their management research projects for the final year while some others are busy talking to placement managers about the schedule of those companies who are expected to come to the campus. Sleepless nights, dark circles, loss of appetite are very common during this time, so don’t worry if you exhibit all these symptoms. It is almost like what you felt before your first date.

Students are worried if they are going to get their choice of roles, their choice of company and most of all, their choice of salary. Some just want to get a job; but there are some who want to make a statement with the kind of job they bag and the kind of compensation they are able to bag. They feel they owe it to their parents/guardians, their classmates and their professors.

There are some however, who are worried about their English language communication skills and how to improve and do well in the placement interviews.

Worries and worries – passing out from a good B-school doesn’t always guarantee a job. Surprised? Yes it’s true. In fact, sometimes the companies see the rankings of the B-schools and if your school is not in the top 10 that year for some year, it is likely that they will give it a miss. Companies also have some criteria when choosing the management institutes they visit in a year.

I remember that year, my friends’ circle and I were not concerned with what our ranking was but we were worried about the type of companies that would be visiting us and whether we would get good placements.

Frankly, each campus had their fixed set of companies coming and recruiting students like us in Ahmedabad. But what happens if you don’t like the role and salary? What if you don’t like the company at all? What are you going to do? Are you going to search jobs outside off-campus? On your own? Through your own contacts? Via the alumni network? Would you be able to do that? Are you making a mistake by not taking up the offer/offers coming your way? What if you passed up this chance and you don’t get a job later?

These questions are likely to plague you during placements. Remember though that it is your efforts and networking that matters the most. A lot of it is in your hands – at least that is what it seems like at the time.

Those who have specialized in finance need a core finance role like corporate finance, investment banking etc., but not a sales role. In the same way if you have a marketing specialization, you need a marketing, communication and strategy role. Most favorite companies for such roles are in HLL, ITC, and Procter & Gamble etc.

If you are from the information technology field, you need an Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra etc. These companies will recruit you for an IT analyst role.

What if you don’t have choices and you are forced to take any role that is offered to you? Obviously you will not like it. That’s the real problem everywhere. So, if you have not networked or met industry people on your own then there it is likely that you might find yourself in this situation. But don’t panic, it’s really not a crisis, though you might think so at this time. I don’t think here the institute can help you, though you can certainly approach some of the career counselors and your professors for some advice and mentoring. Their perspective will help you. However, the final decision rests with you and remember its time to make your choices and live with them. This is your first test as an adult and as a future manager. Its time to start using the skills that you think you have acquired in the last two years.

By the way, our IBS-Ahmedabad campus had a good placement team (and it still has, last time I checked) which attracted lots of good companies on the campus.

I got into ICICI Bank straightaway on my very first attempt. I negotiated a decent salary package with a 2- day training session in Mumbai, which was a big thing in those days.

By the way, how can I forget those sleepless nights in the hostel where we were doing mock interviews among our batch mates and trying to find out our weaknesses and how to improve that?

Yes, placement is the time to put your hard-learned theories to the test. You have to impress the interviewers and prospective employers with your communication skills. You have to convince them that you are the person they are looking for. You have to project the right image. Above all, you have to get it across that you have what it takes to get the job, hold it and make a success of it. You have to make it clear to them that you will be an asset to the company.

Can you do it?

You might be the company’s biggest maker of rain. You may be a brilliant strategy maker. You might be exceeding the performance goals for your unit or your whole company. But after you leave the company one day then what will be the things you leave behind? The only thing which you will leave behind will be your leadership legacy and that is related to your style of leadership and your natural role as supposed to your titles and responsibilities.

Leading a team or a business unit is not an easy task and to become a great leader you will have to look within yourself. You have to examine which style of leadership you have and how effective it is. The most important thing about knowing your leadership style is that you understand the following things well which is very useful for becoming a successful leader-

• Your strengths and weaknesses
• Why you lead?
• The way you lead.
• Whether you can change your style of leadership easily?
• What kind of people you need to recruit for compensation of the areas of weakness

This evaluation is very necessary and you have to take some time out to understand where you stand in the style of leadership. Your style defines your values and perspective and knowing it will help you to communicate better with those you work with. Let us do this by understanding the different styles of leadership in detail and exercise this knowledge to evaluate yourself and improve the way you lead.

Authoritarian Leaders

This style of leadership are generally seen in small organizations and untrained employees. Authoritarian leaders know exactly what has to be done, who has to do it and when it has to be completed. Although these kinds of leaders do not offer much room for wiggling but they often get the job done in time. But the drawbacks of authoritarian style of leadership are the absence of feedback and being dictatorial with the subordinates.

Democratic leaders

Democratic style of leadership encourages both employees and the management to take part in the decision making process. This style is present with the experienced workforce and is positive and motivational for all the stakeholders and employees. Since everyone is included in the process of decision making, they have to be knowledgeable about the business, the process, the product and the vision statement. The drawback is that they may require more time to get things done.

Delegative Leaders

This leadership is sometimes called laissez faire leadership because of its minimal interference in the efforts of the employees. The hallmarks of the delegative style are trust and confidence. The employees have freedom to make decisions and get their works done. The delegative style of leadership is popular in the organizations which have employees which are experienced and educated and like to become good leaders by themselves. This type of leadership style is good but leaders have to be careful in using the style with the employees who are insecure, afraid of making mistakes or have difficulty in communicating with the others.

Here are the signs if you follow a particular type of leadership-

Authoritarian Leaders

• You like to have power and a complete control.
• Your employees are allowed to do only what they’re told
• You only decide how to fix problems
• You don’t want to spend time for employee input.
• You tell your employees what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
• Mistakes are not acceptable in your leadership.
• You don’t care what others think. You do what is best for yourself.
• You micromanage things.
• You do not trust your employees at all.

Democratic Leaders

• You listen to others, but you like to have the final word in the end.
• You like to have others also in the process of decision making.
• You recognize achievement and give it appreciation.
• You like to encourage collaborative work.
• You like your business to run through teams.
• You help employees grow and learn.
• You want to hear the employee opinions and work on it.
• You encourage employee inputs.
• You help employees to fulfill their potential.
• You want to have inputs from the employees when things go wrong.

Delegative Leaders

• Your are not an expert in every areas of your business.
• You want followers to have control over the things.
• You encourage group members to create their goals.
• You give freedom to group members to solve their own problems.
• You are not good at following up with employees.
• You give little input as you know employees know their job better.
• You give your employees the right to create their own objectives
• You encourage your employees to form their own decisions.
• You don’t want complete authority and do not want more authority than others in your organization.
• You distribute your power to the entire organization.

These leadership styles have advantages as well as drawbacks. If you really know which type of leadership style you have, then you can utilize it to achieve maximum results and you can also mix different styles to achieve maximum results from your leadership. Leadership does not come in a one- size- fitting-all package and leadership styles vary with different people and each one is good as the other. The only important thing is that you know your leadership style well and draw on its strengths to motivate, enthuse and lead your team in a positive path and manner. The ultimate aim should be to understand both your own leadership learning and to draw on the other leadership styles too. Don’t believe for the adage that “Leaders are the born leaders”. While some people are naturally able to excel as a leader some can really learn to lead provided it all is interesting for you. So know your style of leadership and learn from your weak points and adapt the strong points of every style. In doing that there is no doubt that one day you are going to be the excellent leader of your organization and can leave your leadership legacy as a benchmark for others to come!

Two years back I completed my MBA in IBS but during my journey I made some good moves and some really bad moves that affected my first semester’s performance. But I remember the blunders I committed and hence, I learn one must remember the lessons from them.

Among the wonders the first was adapting to the environment i.e. molding myself to the pedagogy of case study that the institute followed and dedicating myself with heart and soul into it. It is extremely discomforting in the beginning but you need to be stubborn to follow the guidelines and dedicate everything into academics so that you form a habit.

The second wonder was completing projects and assignments before time; which is rarely a case with engineers. It is a pleasant experience to write all your reports, assignments, projects word by word and then later have a chance to revisit and edit before submission. Even in group projects, I suggest you to ensure that on the first day of group meeting, each member’s contribution is clearly decided mutually and hence this will provide you essential time for research, content management, editing, designing and presentation.

The next wonder was learning to work under stressful deadlines that can make you have sleepless nights full of work and efforts. This skill really helps you prepare for real corporate life where the extent and amount of work cannot be entirely controlled by you. The more you are equipped, the better it is!

Moreover, I had to cultivate the habit of rising early and sleeping for restricted hours which makes anyone value time more and use it judiciously like money. This not only made me have greater working hours but also the luxury to do my daily tasks leisurely. This was somewhat of a self-discipline imposed only when I went ill once.

Back to back classes prepare you to deal with several challenges consecutively and accustom your brain with a tendency to be employed for long hours without any break. This is what happens in real life scenarios also because when one project ends, another comes up which is strenuous than the previous one.

The next was learning to work cohesively in groups with strangers and sometimes friends. You imbibe the value of honoring everyone; learning through experiences; adapting to professional behavior; respecting everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and turning the same to everyone’s collective strength. It really teaches you how to mold the situation so that everyone’s combined efficiency is used and substituted for each others weaknesses.

The unexpected wonder that I explored was learning from others and teaching them when required even when you didn’t know them. Helping friends is different but cultivating contacts for each others benefits is networking because each effort in the network you build grows your credibility. If self sufficiency existed, the society would cease to exist and people would remain loners!

Cultivating a habit to read is another wonder as you hardly read books accept during examinations. The hunger to read by the end of the course exceeds 100 pages a day and you seem to feel discomfort in its absence. This not only increases your vocabulary but also your knowledge and willingness to learn and read. This habit not only firms your command over language but also helps you understand corporate phrases and subject related jargon.

Among the blunders, that one must avoid, the first is letting your emotions overpower you. First of all stop taking things personally or attacking people emotionally because that builds bitter foes not friends or strengths. Never let emotions enter your professional life. Be neutral in every sense and avoid taking any emotional decisions regarding projects, assignments, groups etc.

The second blunder that I did was dedicating blind trust in friends. Remember till the time you complete your internship, you have to be careful about trusting anyone because friends are those who will sustain till the last day of the course. If someone sustains throughout, your friendship with them will stand every hurdle in life. Treat people as companions and not best friends forever till you compete with them.

Average grades in my pursuit to be excellent in everything, I didn’t focus on specializing in few subjects whereas maintaining decent grades in some. You must also not try to control everything, else you will end up controlling nothing! My projects scored full but in theory, I remained lagging. I forgot to make some subjects my strengths so that I could capitalize later.

Another blunder one cannot afford at a distance from home is study-life imbalance; which was a massive cause for my failures and dismal first semester. If you lose touch with friends, cousins, relatives and family, you are certainly about to harm your long term personal life. Result: a few close friends would change to friends with formality!

Dismal health was something that hit me when I was giving too much into socializing, studying throughout nights, sleeping less, cultivating dark circles, hair-fall and muscle stiffness. You or anyone for that matter needs ample rest to perform well. After all, it is you who has to come above study, work, preparation etc.

Resorting to hard work than smart work when corporate requires people to be smart and not hard working. Here you will actually realize that you have to get work done in the future and hence you must first be able to do it in the shortest and best manner with precision. Who cares for a person who does a comprehensive task in a whole day as compared to a person who takes a cut, copy, paste approach with smartness?

Being incompetent was one huge mistake I committed while not realizing that people around me were busy preserving their notes, assignments, sources of knowledge etc. You must remember that you must help others study or understand only when your own cup is full. Don’t push to the limits of indulging in people’s assignments when they ask for help at your cost!

Giving thought to what people think about you is another crime. How you conduct yourself is nobody’s business but yours! You are your own judge till the time you follow the institutions guidelines and nobody has power over you to judge or evaluate you otherwise. What you think about yourself is crucial than two things. One, what others think about and second, what you think about others!

I hope that my good actions would be seen as inspiration and implicated in moderation for your own betterment and my mistakes would prove to be a guiding light to those who are about to begin this journey or just begun this journey.