Amongst the various reasons that have made management education so popular is the fact that it ensures the development of an individual. This is because these courses do not just impart the necessary technical and conceptual skills that can help the trainees become successful managers. Rather the programs are designed to enhance the various life-skills that can take the students on a path of exceptional personal and professional growth. However, there are two key skills that the even the best PG diploma courses need to imbibe in an extremely deep manner. These two skills are innovation and leadership, which can play a critical role in helping the management professionals to reach the heights of success.

Innovation And Leadership – What Business Organizations Expect

Business models today are undergoing a constant change and most organizations expect the management professionals to have an innovative approach towards problem solving. The companies expect these professionals to possess a flair for coming up with new ideas and executing them in the most efficient manner for assured business growth. At the same time the business organizations expect the management professionals to have developed an attitude of efficient leadership suited for mod-management roles, during the pursuance of the management program itself. Thus, the inability of the management graduates to fulfil these key expectations puts the very goodwill and competence of their certifying institutions under a dark cloud.

What Management Institutions Need To Do

The above facts make it quite clear that fostering innovative and leadership skills is no longer a choice but has become a necessity for management institutions today. However, the big question is how the institutes can go about ensuring the same. The best way to resolve this problem is for the institutes offering PG courses in India to first start assessing the challenges they face in fostering these skills. Only after gaining a proper understanding of these challenges, can the institutes work towards developing the most effective strategies to overcome them.

The other major task that the institutes need to work towards fulfilling is that of increasing their focus on integrating other related skills into the management course curriculum. This can be ensured in the following ways.

Teaching Using Real Life Scenarios

The faculty at these institutes should adapt a teaching methodology that helps in improving the skills necessary for promoting innovation and leadership amongst the students. They should also provide multiple real life scenarios, where the students can use their leadership and innovative skills for problem solving. These sessions should be challenging enough to force the students to think out of the box and give them an opportunity to explore their leadership capabilities.

Seeking Guidance From Known Business Leaders

Another way of effectively imbibing the skills of leadership and innovation amongst students is by seeking the guidance of popular business leaders. Most students are naturally inspired by the management leaders in their respective fields. As such they are more likely to develop the habit of innovative thinking and leadership skills, if they learn about its significance from the favorite business leaders. The more interactive these sessions with business leaders are, the better benefits they can offer to the students.