We know that MBAs teach advanced technical business skills, but what about all those crucial interpersonal skills? Drawing on Bartek Ogonowski’s experience at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, we take a look at the valuable soft skills that can set you apart from the crowd in business.
You can find the hard business skills that an MBA will teach you simply by reading a curriculum. You’re likely to find modules on accounting, marketing, and analytics. These are, of course important, but in this article, we’re going to look at MBA soft skills that help you develop as a person. We’ll cover:
Before embarking on his MBA, Bartek studied chartered accountancy before honing his skills for seven years at Deloitte. As beneficial an experience as that was, he chose to do an MBA to flex his entrepreneurial muscles. As he says, there was one overarching goal in his mind: “Removing myself from a corporate environment into a more risk-taking, world-changing, and hopefully entrepreneurship venture.” (03:07)
The entrepreneurial skills you learn in the classroom and from the experience of classmates and guest speakers help to demystify what it takes to launch your own project. Although there is no one route that guarantees success, the MBA skills you learn will give you the confidence to go for it.
Bartek’s aim is to promote education across Africa, and he sees the entrepreneurial lessons learned during his MBA as a key part of his mission. “This gives you a platform to actively follow what you’re passionate about and try and make it as successful as a business as possible. And that for me has been probably the most important thing,” he adds. (10:15)
With 94% international students and an average of five years’ work experience in a variety of fields, each student at Saïd Business School gains an understanding of how people from other backgrounds think. In such an interconnected world, exposure to these different ways of thinking can make international business much more accessible, especially to those who have not lived abroad before.
Bartek was immediately aware of the potential for learning about these different perspectives. “I’m at Oxford which has 71 different nationalities. All of a sudden you start wanting to learn and think about how the world thinks and not how [those] in your country or where you’re from thinks,” he shares. (03:44) As we will see in the next point, these diverse backgrounds will be the cornerstone of your professional network moving forward.
Of all the points on this MBA skills list, networking might be the most popular that prospective MBA students would point to – and for good reason. Institutions with reputations as strong as Oxford University are selective in their admissions process to maintain their high standards. They accept top candidates from all over the world to develop students who excel in a wide range of fields.
It’s not just other business students who you will add to your network. Bartek reveals, “One of the big draw cards of being [at] Oxford is the debating chamber, and every week we have amazing speakers or debates, so that’s also with the wider university.” (13:29)
Your network is often what helps you get through difficult times in your career – a group that will help with job opportunities, advice, and friendship. Therefore, learning to build a network is one of the most valuable MBA skills that graduates like Bartek benefit from.
Closely linked to networking, you improve important skills such as negotiation by mixing with a diverse set of talented individuals. The course itself deals with case studies and best practices.
As Bartek explains, the course made a real-world impact on him. “One of the things we’re doing now is negotiations,” he tells us. “We’ve been taught by an awesome professor who’s been involved with real negotiation skills.” (04:07)
Combining soft communication skills from such a mixed cohort with the more tactical knowledge that is taught in the classroom, MBA grads move into their careers with exceptional perspectives that are almost impossible to learn in other environments.
Time management is one of the most obvious MBA skills to anybody who has been through the experience, but might not even be on the radar for prospective students. An MBA is an extremely time-consuming venture, with work in and out of class, as well as as many events and clubs you can squeeze in on the side.
Bartek clearly saw that simply by throwing himself into the program, he had to adapt and learn to manage his time. He explains, “One of the biggest things in life, and also in the MBA, is also about time management and how to choose and prioritize what should come first and what you should get involved with.” (05:00)
Prioritizing your life is an essential real-world skill that we would recommend you practice before you embark on your course. You may find you need to make sacrifices to a certain extent, but that is part of the deal when tackling a program as intensive as an MBA.
It is possible to complete an MBA in the most stripped-down, basic way possible, but where’s the fun in that? When you’re mixing with a group of lively, determined people, there’s no better time to grab life by the horns and throw yourself into new experiences.
Bartek offers a few examples that he has taken advantage of in Oxford: “I was recording a podcast – something that I’ve always wanted to do but never done it. We’ve done case competitions, media and entertainment, and [more].” (05:35)
By saying yes to opportunities that aren’t necessarily part of your plan, you create a more adaptable profile for yourself. This comes in extremely useful in your later career when you can handle unexpected tasks with ease, rather than allow them to overwhelm you.
If you want to get in touch with Bartek or other Saïd Business School MBA students, it’s much easier than you think! Head to the MBAGRADSCHOOLS Ambassadors Page to talk to them directly.
