Making decisions requires critical thinking and a solid understanding of your field. Without forgetting personal relations skills, which, in the long term, can make the difference between a simple manager and a true leader of change
“Few things give us more satisfaction than hearing from students who, after having attended one of our Executive MBA courses, contact us years later to tell us how relevant the skills they learned continue to be,” states Antonella Moretto, Deputy Director of the MBA & EMBA area of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano.
“People who choose to follow an Executive MBA have high expectations. It is aimed at professionals with significant seniority, already established in the world of work and willing to sacrifice a considerable part of their time. It is therefore an important commitment as well as a real investment in the future. This is why it is crucial to develop managerial skills that can be exploited in the long term.”
The first skill is the critical thinking
But even before the skills, the educational approach common to all our Executive MBAs involves the development of a primary capacity: of all the course objectives, critical thinking is fundamental. “All the subjects covered by the Master’s course are tackled from this perspective,” explains Antonella Moretto. “Students learn to take decisions mindfully, thanks to a critical approach that enables them to analyse situations rapidly and thus find solutions to even the most complex issues.”
This forms the essential basis for the actual skills: “We go from analysing and interpreting business procedures to the ability to draw up a business plan, read a financial statement, understand the dynamics of business and identify the channels in which investors may be found. But a particularly important aspect, from our point of view, is innovation management.”
In international scenarios, competition is at its highest levels, fuelled in part by increasingly invasive digital transformation: knowing how to manage and exploit it is fundamental. “Innovation should be planned carefully. It cannot be implemented without having fully understood the existing dynamics,” warns Moretto. “Only on the basis of this expertise can you revolutionize existing projects, products and business models.”
The soft skills of a competitive manager
Don’t imagine that, being a technical school, the Politecnico overlooks soft skills in favour of hard skills. Quite the opposite. The Future of Jobs Report, produced by the World Economic Forum in 2018, shows clearly that, in 2022, it will be precisely soft skills that will be the most in demand on the labour market, especially in those areas with a noticeably fast growing economy.
The MIP follows this path. “We have always believed in hard skills and continue to do so,” explains the Deputy Director of the MBA & EMBA area, “but it has been demonstrated that, in the long term, the difference between a manager and a true leader of change within your company is given by the ability to develop excellent soft skills.” Within this same context, these skills can branch out in multiple directions: “We go from the multicultural team management to team management in increasingly virtual environments, more traditional and also more emotional leadership skills. Not forgetting public speaking and time management. All these skills were once regarded as an added benefit, whereas today they are considered indispensable for anyone aiming towards career development.”
