It was a great honour and privilege to have Professor Roland Koch – the former Minister President of Hesse – as our lecturer in the part-time MBA programme. Professor Koch is someone who has a proven track record of leadership in the business world as well as in the political arena and his experience and knowledge in leadership are a perfect combination for the programme.
The module is designed to make each student thoroughly consider whether they want to become a leader, reflect on lessons learned from past experiences and examine essential leadership qualities for the 21st century. We went through a series of interesting topics, but my personal favourites were Continuous Development of a Leader, Pre-conditions for Sustainable Leadership and The Rise of Agile Leadership. Overall, the content was very well structured, highly interactive and offered many key learnings.
It was particularly insightful for the class to discuss what type of leadership style will be required in the future based on today’s ever-changing business world. In fact, my fellow classmate Michael Kadziela, who is the Head of Sales Central Europe at Hottinger Brüel & Kjær (HBK), fittingly described the benefit of the module as follows:
“When I started my job in 2016, it was my first time in a leading role. I had to face a tough restructuring program which included closing local offices, laying-off employees and adapting to a completely new approach to the market. Back then I had absolutely no idea what leadership is about and how to deal with it. It was a big jump into the deep end. Thanks to the leadership course, I was able to reflect on my past experience, gain some excellent leadership knowledge and learn how to develop my leadership skills and enhance my personality to fit in the leadership environment. Since the next challenge is around the corner with my company, which is undergoing a merging process, I now feel better prepared and ready for this challenge, thanks to the valuable knowledge gained from Professor Koch.”
I would argue that this is one of the most important modules in the MBA programme because it helps you to both develop your individual leadership style and improve your decision making. Anyone taking up the challenge of becoming a leader can safely rely on applying the key lessons from this course and will not be disappointed.
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