Where do MBA Leadership Development Programs Lead?

MBA students find leadership development programs an attractive career option after graduation. TopMBA.com explores where leadership development graduates end up.

Leadership development programs prepare high-potential candidates for senior roles through a structured framework of activities and assignments.

With amenities like executive mentorship, personal coaching, skill assessment, project work in different parts of the company, networking opportunities with senior leaders and extra consideration for full time roles post-program, it’s easy to see the appeal.

It’s almost like a corporate continuation of your MBA program, only this time you get paid – and sometimes handsomely.

But these perks come with high expectations.

Leadership development programs

Companies invest in leadership development programs to inject high performers into their workforce and deepen their pool of potential senior managers. They want hard workers and they want results.

Successful graduates of leadership development programs emerge with several key assets that employees outside of the program may not have: a network of senior leaders, visibility into multiple parts of the company and a clear view of where opportunity is and how to get it.

But throughout their tenure, program participants are expected to drive their own career development and continually prove themselves.

“We have found that individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit and an internal drive towards results have been the most successful [in our program],” says Tracy Goodwin, manager of development and communications at Fortune 500 health insurer, Humana.

She adds that Humana’s two-year ‘Infusion’ program gives top performers a chance to “showcase talents and compete for selective roles.”

When working effectively, development programs succeed by benefiting both employer and employee: companies get effective new leaders, and program hires get special support for career advancement.

Leadership development programs: how they work

To what extent are people who complete programs prepared for leadership and managerial roles? What happens to program graduates?

Scotiabank, an international financial services company based in Toronto, has been running its International Associate Development Program for 15 years and counts 90 program alumni across different areas of the bank and the world.

69% of the program’s graduates go into senior manager roles and 61% enter roles outside of Canada.

Barb Rosen Schrieber, Scotiabank’s program director, set expectations with new recruits that they will be ready for a senior manager role at the end of the program.

“We reverse-engineer rotations to build a path for people to get them where they want or need to go based on their existing skills and interests,” she notes.

Liberty Mutual, one of the top property/casualty insurance companies in the US, has enjoyed similar longevity with its Corporate Development Program (CDP).

In operation since 1999, program hiring was increased by 50% in 2009 due to its popularity with corporate executives as a funnel of high quality talent.

Leadership development programs: staff selection

Most development program directors will tell you that the only way for a program to work is by hiring the right people.

Development programs represent a significant investment in what are essentially unproven candidates. To mitigate the risks, the recruiting and interviewing process is refined and rigorous.

Ann Nowak, manager of college relations programs at insurers Liberty Mutual, and director of the CDP, says that the organization has identified personal competencies that are important for success in the program they use these to screen candidates.

“We know what we’re looking for,” Nowak says. Among other attributes, “candidates need to have the ability to balance a strategic view with a day-to-day view, and they need to know when to stop the analysis and make the decision.

"Those that struggle with ambiguity or wait for directions won’t do very well in this program.”

Scotiabank puts applicants for its International Associate Development Program through a multi-phase selection process.

“We set up phone screens for about 145 of the 800 applicants we got last year,” says Schrieber. “From that pool we set up 55 face-to-face interviews and selected 16 candidates to interview with our leadership panel. We hired ten.”

Leadership development programs: proven to be a success

At Liberty Mutual, participants have graduated into a variety of ‘significant management’ roles upon program completion. Examples include: the president of Liberty Mutual’s Thailand business, the general manager of International Mergers and Acquisitions, and the head of Strategic Planning in Brazil are all CDP graduates.

With Humana’s Infusion program, success comes from making an impact with each step of the process.

One recent associate made the climb from HR analyst to director of business improvement, leveraging the mentorship, exposure and the Six Sigma Black Belt training that the program provided him. “Once he began getting traction and exposure with [his first] project, he was being called upon to help with more projects that required his expertise,” says Tracy Goodwin. “Infusion may have given him a foundation to start, but he really took control of his career.”

For a select group of people, MBA leadership development programs offer more support and sometimes more opportunity than you’re likely to find in a regular job. But they don’t offer guarantees. The programs that work best have participants who understand this.