Making Time When There’s Limited Time for an MBA

An alternative title to this piece could be: “If Getting an MBA Was Convenient, Everyone Would Have One.” One common truth for working executives, who still want an MBA, is that they may have put the decision off for years, waiting for the right time. Perhaps they now feel past the time when they should have taken the plunge. To them the “right time” is a panacea where time stops--when the job isn’t going to be so demanding, when the kids can take care of themselves (what a nice thought!), and when their volunteerism and community leadership take a vacation. They are right, and they are wrong.

Waiting for the Right Time versus Orchestrating the Time Candidates most attractive to our admissions committee for the Vanderbilt Executive MBA Program have certain things in common:
• They are at or approaching senior leadership, where problems get larger and more complex. A lull in activity at work isn’t going to happen. If it does, it may indicate you don’t have the skills to be successful with the next messy problem, and that education may be required for getting consideration beyond where you are stalled.
• They are leaders in their communities. If getting an MBA is something you aspire to, plan ahead. Wrap up standing commitments and terms of community service, and “unvolunteer” yourself temporarily, so that you can dedicate that time to school for up to two years.
• They know how to include their constituents in their decisions. This means both at work and at home. Helping your work associates to get excited about the new tools you can bring to the table with an MBA can maximize your ability to leverage what you will learn by creating open space for new ideas. Your spouse or partner must buy into the reality of the time you will need—about 20+ hours a week in the more demanding full-load EMBA programs—if you are going to be successful as a working student. Discuss how that might change your family dynamic.

The Real “Right’ Time—If the demands on your performance are about to escalate or have already escalated past the point of your personal comfort, it’s probably time to get serious about advancing your education. For executives, an MBA is timed best when the skills you have used to get where you are now will no longer get you through the next set of challenges. For most this means that:
• Functional prowess developed over one or more decades needs to be delegated to those junior to you; you need to stop doing and start leading.
• Cross-functional abilities need to guide you from viewing the world through your functional “safe” lens; you need new learning to cross those functional lines, and an executive classroom peer group can provide those other functional perspectives you need in a safe environment for experimenting with new skills.
• People skills will need to be at their peak.

If these sound like your challenges, then it’s the perfect time for an MBA. Consider EMBA or PMBA formats, and pay attention to the peer group that will push you the farthest from wherever you sit too comfortably now. Getting an MBA won’t be easy, but good time management and priority setting will go a long way.