Which MBA skills will fast-track your path to leadership?

An MBA is about more than building business knowledge—it’s also an opportunity to develop the leadership qualities that employers value most.

Leadership skills are among the most sought-after skills for employers, with 53% ranking them among the most important traits when hiring, according to our latest Corporate Recruiters Survey.

Whether you’re managing a team or driving business strategy, strong leadership can help you motivate others and make informed decisions. By exposing you to real-world business challenges, growing your network, and providing an environment to apply business learnings in practice, an MBA can help you develop these important skills.

We spoke to insiders at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) to find out more about how students become leaders during their MBA journeys.

How can an MBA help develop your leadership skills?

Apply business learnings in practice

Alongside business theory, experiential learning is a vital part of the typical MBA curriculum which allows you to put into practice the various learnings you’ve gained across areas such as finance, organizational behavior, and marketing.

At CBS, the Leadership Discovery Process (LDP) aims to prepare students to become leaders by offering such practical opportunities to apply their skills.

“The LDP helps you reflect on the type of leader you want to be and think about leadership from a 360-degree perspective,” explains Tal Ziv (pictured), an MBA student at CBS. “The program also provides different opportunities to actually practice leadership, from different competitions to use cases or speaking in front of the class.”

In addition to this, the MBA classroom also provides a safe environment where students can test these theories and have space to fail without the threat of real business consequences. This leads to learnings they can apply throughout their careers.

“We try to create a classroom that is a low-stakes context where students can practice leadership, including the important habit of speaking up, voicing well-supported views, and persuading others when they think there is a better way to do something,” says Julia Bodner, professor of strategic human resources at CBS.

“It’s especially important going forward, because as leaders we need to be able to create spaces for others to contribute, as well,” she adds. “Which is about people feeling like they can raise their hand and say ‘I don’t think we should do this’, or ‘here’s another idea’. Generative AI can’t do that —raise its hand, question an idea, or offer a different perspective—unless it’s prompted.”

Understand different cultures and perspectives

One of the key benefits of an MBA is the opportunity to be part of a diverse cohort of peers, where students can lean on their different experiences, cultures, and ways of thinking.

Learning to understand different perspectives is an important part of leadership. The more you can empathize with alternate viewpoints, the better equipped you’ll be to lead diverse teams, navigate challenges, and lead in a global business environment.

“At CBS, we have such an international class, so you get exposed to people all over the world, from all kinds of backgrounds,” says Tal. “It’s really enriching, especially for people who aspire to be leaders.”

For Tal, learning from classmates was one of the most valuable parts of her MBA experience.

“You get exposed to such an abundance of perspectives, which within itself is a reason to study an MBA, because nothing is more challenging than hearing how people from other countries and cultures view things—it really opens up the mind,” she adds.

Understanding different cultures and viewpoints is essential to prepare for working in diverse teams and managing people effectively.

“As organizations become more specialized, you need to coordinate more and more people who are not automatically integrated, because they have different cultural and functional backgrounds,” says Julia. “So, students need to be really good at bringing different perspectives and skills together.”

Work effectively with others

Being able to work well with others is arguably the most important aspect of leadership—whether it’s while managing your team and coaching them to succeed, or networking with potential new business partners.

“Those who will get the most out of the MBA are those who just say yes and take on opportunities,” explains Tal. “You have to be out there, meeting people, and applying the things you learn in class.”

Julia (pictured) agrees, adding: “Leadership isn’t just about motivating people to work towards a shared goal, but actually giving them the skillset to do it.

“As organizations become more complex, people skills are becoming more and more critical in aligning people around what organizations are doing.”

Develop your confidence

As a rigorous learning experience with demands on your time, energy, and focus, studying an MBA provides the opportunity to take on ever-increasing challenges and grow on a personal level.

“The MBA helped me to find my leadership voice and feel more confident in rooms that I didn’t before,” says Tal. “It helped me to be more well-spoken, more structural in my thinking, a better critical thinker, and opened my mind to areas I’d never studied before.”

Confidence is vital in leadership, providing the ability to challenge existing ideas, suggest your own solutions, and back them up with evidence.

“We encourage students to be confident enough that, when they see a practice that isn’t aligned with what they have learned or the latest research we have, they can suggest an alternative approach and present their reasoning for it,” adds Julia.

For Tal, this confidence translated directly to her career. Building a broad business acumen means she now feels better equipped to pursue a wider range of career opportunities after graduating.

“The program gave me the confidence to know I can take on the next career move and be open to different roles I didn’t think I could do before.

“I feel much more prepared to work in these fields and to apply my knowledge, rather than just going back into what I did,” she adds.

Developing as a leader means being willing to challenge yourself and others, embrace uncertainty, and keep learning throughout your career—which is why Tal believes an MBA is just as much about personal growth as academic achievement.

“An MBA is about much more than grades,” she says. “It’s about betting on yourself, moving out of your comfort zone, and believing that it can take you to the next level.”