Executive Education – Time to Smarten Up

New-style education initiatives prepare savvy executives to master the tough times ahead. The question du jour, of course, is can organizations afford executive education today? The better question may be, can they afford to forgo it?

Executive education is not immune to economic trends, and one way this is showing up, says Richard Coughlan, senior associate dean at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, is that so-called “open enrollment” – in which an executive pursues an individual program, sometimes with company financial support – is flat. But custom programs – tailored to suit a specific company’s needs – are gaining strength. Fueling that trend, Coughlan says, is a desire for programs that will make a difference to company performance. A custom program, tightly crafted to explore current problems and possible solutions, can provide just the jump-start many organizations now recognize they need.

Emotional Intelligence

Picture the scenario: You are a senior-level executive, and you’re taking a class in which the teacher instructs you to walk into a room where you’re immediately surrounded by two dozen homeless people. What they want from you is insight into how to get a decent job that carries a decent paycheck. What would you say?

Students in the Presidential and Key Executive MBA program at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management – most of whom are C-suiters in their daytime life – had better know what to say, because a chunk of their grade hinges on how well they handle this admittedly out-of-the-box situation, says Wayne Strom, a Pepperdine professor.

One upshot of Pepperdine’s program is that over the years Strom has taught this module, a steady stream of his homeless volunteers – who learn how to handle interviews and leave the session with a solid resume in hand – have reported back that they succeeded in finding work. But for the executives in the program, Strom says, what they are learning is how to really listen, and how to communicate so that the audience hears. They also get a glimpse into Strom’s big takeaway message: “The emotional side of leadership is where the power is,” he says. “So many of our students tell us this is a breakthrough event for them.”

Leadership Lessons from the battlefield

Across the country, in Gettysburg, Pa., groups of perhaps two or three dozen senior executives from one company come together to face a different challenge: thinking through the leadership lessons to be learned from the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the Civil War, and seeing how those lessons can be applied, today, to issues they face in their own businesses. “We walk the battlefield, we talk about the history, but we keep a sharp focus on what executives can use immediately,” says Steve Wiley, president of the Lincoln Leadership Institute at Gettysburg, which provides organizational and leadership training. “Sometimes it’s tough to persuade people they need to get off the treadmill for a couple of days of deep thinking. But when they do, they start seeing much more clearly.”

Thinking about the Bigger Picture

Today’s economic climate has triggered a change in executive education. As Robert R. Ivany, president of the University of St. Thomas , a Houston school offering executive education programs, puts it, “Now is the time to look at your own skills and ask yourself, what can I do to be more competitive?” Not just in your present job, he says, but in the job you’ll have in five years, a job that inevitably will be impacted by globalization, technological advances, and who knows what else. Ivany adds, “This is the time to ask yourself, what am I trying to do with my life? What are my priorities? Are my ethics reflected in my work?”

Those are big topics indeed. “We all need to be cultivating a holistic view of our work in the world economy,” Ivany says. And that is where contemporary executive education offers the most potential. Some programs are structured to deliver focused, to-the-point knowledge (tips on using a BlackBerry, for instance, or how to put together a PowerPoint show that dazzles). But many executive education programs aim to produce transformational change in the individual, change that person will take back to the company and use to help light a fire.

Executive Education Sending the Right Message

Many companies support executive education because they’ve recognized that it helps them retain their best executives. “They cannot afford to lose good people,” says Michael Devlin, associate dean for executive education at Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management, in Cleveland. Any time a company invests in an executive’s education, it sends a message: you matter to us. That, suggests Devlin, is a potent argument for increasing executive education, even in a sagging economy.

But at the same time, corporate customers are asking for something more – and different – out of executive education. Bill Lee, director of energy programs for Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management in Houston, ticks off two current musts:

First there has to be a global economy component. The business world has become truly “flat.” Rice’s program in energy management, Lee notes, now includes a significant module that addresses negotiating in different countries. Reaching a deal is different in Vietnam, Nigeria, or Australia, for instance, and global know-how is key to successful management in larger organizations.

In addition, more follow-up is essential to executive education programs today. “Organizations want to be sure their people are using what they learned,” says Lee. Learning for learning’s sake (and quickly forgetting) just won’t cut it in a bottom-line-oriented environment where every expenditure must bring a tangible return. “Follow-up with students is time-consuming, but we are seeing much more interest in it,” says Lee. Six months down the road, companies that are footing the tuition bills for executives are asking, what do they remember? And educational institutions are scrambling to deliver results that truly last.

Elaine Eisenman, dean of Babson Executive Education in Wellesley, Mass., cites another trend: “Companies are using executive education to put a stronger internal emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship,” she says. “Business as usual just won’t work anymore, and companies are coming to us to help address this need for change.”

Chantal Delys, an assistant dean with the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, reinforces that thought. Companies, she says, are waking up to the truth that “you cannot do business the way you’ve done it. That’s not good enough anymore. Our aim is to teach you on the weekend what you put to use at work on Monday.”

More Than Management

Executive education programs are also adding more soft skills, says Latha Ramchand, an associate dean at the University of Houston’s C. T. Bauer College of Business. Ethics is an important part of the curriculum, as is media training, in which rising execs learn how to deal with the press. Another element of some Bauer College programs is 360-degree feedback. As part of the coursework, a student’s supervisors and direct workplace reports are solicited for unvarnished feedback about what they really think of the student. “We use this feedback throughout the program,” says Ramchand, who explains that what peers say helps to pinpoint areas where a student needs to improve.

At the end of the day, what really matters with executive education? It’s not the diploma or the certificate. “It’s coming out of the classroom with a new way of thinking,” says Ramchand. “That’s where you see the real value of executive education. It changes how people think.” In a world where the competitive terrain is ever-altering, that may be the exact formula for success that lasts.

Source: Smarten Up, by Robet McGarvey