IMD MBA core themes

The MBA leadership stream runs throughout the year with the goal to equip you with the tools, skills, and self-awareness necessary to develop into reflective and responsible leaders of today and tomorrow. These are the tools needed to navigate group dynamics, manage one’s own power in an organization, achieve interpersonal influence, foster diversity, successfully negotiate with others, and be leaders who possess integrity and stimulate trust.

Experiential exercises, one-on-one coaching, peer learning, and classroom activities are just a few of the many methods we will use to deliver these tools and to equip you with the skills needed to address the challenges and ambiguities of business in a fast-paced, evolving world.

• In-depth self-analysis and individual sessions with a psychoanalyst will help develop your self-awareness and enable you to better understand your personal leadership style.

• On and off-campus team-building exercises with professional coaches improve your understanding of what makes effective leaders and how group dynamics impact performance.

• Structured peer evaluations highlight the situations in which your strengths are most effective and where you need to further develop.

• Projects and labs will combine your learnings with the necessary entrepreneurial, global and digital skills so that you can drive innovation and explore the impact you can have when faced with conflicting objectives across organizations and cultures.

Feb: Honesty vs. Kindness – Jennifer Jordan

This debate examines how to resolve one of the most fundamental right vs. right challenges for leaders: that of being candid in feedback or what is said versus being kind in what and how something is said. Of course, these values don’t always come in contrast. But sometimes they do.

May: Communication – Omar Toulan

“Stand up as a leader for what you believe in, so you can stand out in life and business” Innovation, new strategy, remote working, limited resources,…for many leaders across the world, the daily reality of the fast and rapidly changing world. We need to keep evolving to be able to answer the questions of tomorrow. The only thing is…does the rest of your organisation/team think in the same way? All this vision, strategy and change is very powerful when everybody agrees and plays along. If not, you will just be a professional in a meeting room with a good idea. So, time to stand up for what you believe in and communicate it in the right way so it becomes convincing and trustworthy and will inspire others to follow your lead.

Aug: Short-term profit vs. long-term gain – Jennifer Jordan

A leader is often pressured to deliver short-term wins – not to mention the fact that short-term wins can have huge positive impact for a team or organization. However, these short-term wins sometimes don’t bring benefits for the longer-time horizon, which is a critical horizon for sustaining organizational well-being. How do you balance this fundamental tension as a leader? We’ll explore this fundamental tension and how to resolve it. That is, we will examine how to resolve a fundamental right vs. right challenge for leaders: that of acting in a way that brings immediate rewards versus sets a leader or organization up for long-term success.

Sept: Standards vs. Tolerance – Jennifer Jordan

To lead an organization or group – especially at scale – standards for output or behavior are critical. At the same time, the more diverse an organization or group, and the larger the size, the more difficult it is to expect all people to adhere to the same standards. Sometimes, exceptions and tolerance are required. In this session, we’ll explore the right versus right dilemma between standards and tolerance.

The Career Development Stream runs throughout the year to help you define and achieve your career goals. To do this we work very closely with you, the entire IMD eco-system, and external consultants. You will also be assigned an individual career advisor who will guide and support you throughout the year.

The stream is as central to the program as functional core courses in which you need to demonstrate competence. Sessions and workshops cover a range of subjects from defining your value proposition to salary negotiations and career strategy

With your career strategy in mind, start preparing to meet recruiters and discover new opportunities:

• Effective Interviewing – workshops and industry-specific simulated interviews with consultants and experienced alumni.
• Mentoring Program – start building your own Board of Mentors who can advise you on the different aspects of your career journey.
• Career advice – continue to work with your career advisor on the process of your individual search.
• Company presentations – learn about different companies and their cultures; discover current sector and company challenges and the career opportunities those challenges create; and meet with company representatives to expand your network, explore new options, and fine-tune your career aspirations.

Our dedicated Career Development team assists recruiters in identifying the best talent for their immediate and future business needs. They will also work closely with you to prepare for interviews, either on-campus, virtually or anywhere in the world.

We partner with companies from key industries, with diverse opportunities for our MBA graduates, while also encouraging you to use your own networks, those of your classmates and those of the entire IMD eco-system.

Your individual career advisor will continue to ensure that your job search strategy is on track and address any further issues or specific questions related to your search. Workshops will focus on the final stages of your recruitment, with topics such as salary negotiations.