Creating adaptable leadership
In a general ‘person on the street’ sense, leadership is often treated synonymously with management – but in reality, they’re two distinct concepts. This has been taken to heart by the business world over the last few decades, effectively creating a ‘transfer market’ for leaders and managers, with each skillset being prized in its own right.
While at one point, you’d likely have expected to spend your working life with one or two companies, this is no longer the case. The assumption was that industry specific knowledge that gave leaders and managers the ability to do their job was limited to that particular sector. In truth, good leadership skills make leaders valuable in lots of different areas – one of the most famous industry leaps was when Steve Jobs brought John Sculley to Apple from Pepsi Co. John became CEO and oversaw the early golden age of Apple, and their revenues leapt from $569m to over $8.3bn.
Building adaptability into your skillset
We now have a business environment with an open exchange of leadership and, with the right skills, people can move sideways into almost any arena – but it means that adaptability has become essential. No single industry has the perfect ‘one size fits all’ approach to guaranteeing success in any other business, so the ability to read, change, adapt and predict to fit the nuances of a new business is imperative to success.
The good news is that strong leadership principles have the effect of building adaptability, allowing your leadership style to be applied to different arenas. Skills like critical approaches to problem solving result in finding the best and most expedient solution, while the ability to communicate effectively increases the chances of the resolution being successful. Maintaining insight into both personal and project development allow potential complications to be identified early, which can be corrected with critical approaches.
Gaining the right skills
Giving yourself the basis to become an effective leader and open the doors to a whole new career can seem like a daunting task. This is why the University of York has three disciplines of MSc Leadership and Management degrees, to help generate the people that businesses need.
The University of York has applied knowledge from its world-class academics to a 100% online Masters degrees in Innovation, Finance and International Business, allowing you to demonstrate the right skills through a prestigious Russell Group university qualification. As all learning is delivered online, you’re free to study when and where you like, meaning that you can work flexibly around your current role and learn while you earn. Not only do you not need to take a career break, but courses are broken down into a pay-per-module structure, so there’s no large, up-front payments to worry about. There are also six start dates throughout the year, so you can begin as soon as you’re ready.
The UK Commission for Employment and Skills predicts an increase in demand for managers, directors and senior officials of 1.9 million roles by 2024; a flexible approach to a Masters degree could put you ahead as an adaptable business leader of tomorrow.