3 Soft Skills You Need to Future-Proof Your MBA Career

Technology’s impact on business has increasingly led to more complex – and robust - professional networks that put more emphasis on communication skills, whether for the purposes of collaborating or competing in a global market. However, to truly master communication skills like listening and negotiating, MBAs should tak

e into account cultural context. Given that people in the business world today are converging from all corners of the planet, cultural literacy is increasingly important for ensuring one can conduct business well with the diverse range of people they will come into contact with.

Fortunately, MBA classrooms around the world are highly international with many business schools, such as the International University of Japan (IUJ), boasting more than 40 nationalities in a single MBA cohort. Students receive plenty of exposure to different perspectives in this environment, with benefits that many will attest to.

Whether it be for the negotiation and sale of products or ideas, knowledge of how culture influences business dealings is essential. Culture affects people’s value judgment, decision-making styles, understandings about manager-employee relations and expectations in corporate relations. As such, MBAs would be wise to acquaint themselves with international business etiquette outside their own status quo.

Of course in some instances, one’s ability to detach from cultural biases may also be valuable. Strong awareness of how culture plays a role in business matters can allow for better decision making. One research study, by the Sauder School of Business, found that in some cases (such as in finance for a set of multinationals operating in China who were observed), cultural bias often trumps business logic when managers make decisions, which can lead to downfall.

Further reading:

Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations by Geert Hofstede

Social psychologist, former IBM employee, and professor emeritus at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Geert Hofstede examines more than fifty countries through his five ‘dimensions of culture’. This is one of the most comprehensive studies on how values in the workplace are influenced by culture.  

“International Business Etiquette, Manners, & Culture”

An online resource developed by the International Business Centre, with the help of UT Dallas Global MBA graduates, and in which Hofstede has supplied analyses by country.

It can be said that we’re moving beyond the linearity of the conveyor belt or job ladder by increasingly exploring depth – the purpose and meaning in our work, how we feel and how we consequently behave.

Having the right attitude is essential for MBA career success, says Kellogg School of Management’s dean, Sally Blount, who points to the role of self-awareness in pursuit of what she terms ‘long-distance leadership’. Once the pieces come together – the job, mission and boss - “the task shifts to keeping your focus,” she says, adding that this “becomes even more important when you move into a top job, because if you’re successful, you likely won’t be switching roles very often.” This focus on improving self-awareness, from which one’s attitude, purpose and behavior stem from, is also found in other expert discourses on what improves business practice and makes for strong leadership.  

Blount suggests professionals take periodic breaks to reflect on their work and ‘renew’ their perspectives and strategies in order to make sure they maintain a deep connection and commitment to their work. This type of reflection requires self-awareness, of course, and the ability to honestly enquire into deeper truths about your motivations, passions, strengths and concerns, whether personal or professional (and usually interlinked).

Modern work culture is also arguably moving towards heightening the value of an individual’s unique contribution within an organization. In one part, strong leadership has over recent years become less concerned with leading from the top but with leading across and from within, through ‘conversation’ rather than dictation; “The command-and-control approach to management has in recent years become less and less viable,” runs a line in an HBR article on the subject. This flattening of hierarchy and the softening of rigid work conventions may challenge senior managers to think more closely about what it is that each individual brings and can bring to the table in an effort to improve team performance. In order to do this effectively, some experts advise deepening one’s own self-awareness. By becoming more mindful, a leader may get a fuller picture of problems and subsequently better arrive at effective solutions.

Further reading:

Mindful Work by David Gelles  

A New York Times reporter explores the crossover between wisdom and good management to reveal how ‘meditation is changing business from the inside out’.

Search Inside Yourself by Chade-Meng Tan

A practical guide to the fundamentals of emotional intelligence (EQ) by a former Google employee who now runs a personal growth program.

It’s worth noting how the development of these soft skills might play out in a carefully designed MBA program. Through a challenging curriculum, applications of the interactive case study method and experiential learning opportunities, reputable programs offer a plentitude of opportunities to practice motivation skills in individual and group work, hone cultural literacy through international exposure, as well as allow participants to become more self-aware by gaining new perspectives on leadership development.