NANYANG MBA

The successful leader’s toolkit

There are no natural leaders – it takes conscious, focused effort to become one, says Professor Boh Wai Fong, as she reveals the 3 essential leadership tools for impactful leadership today.

As Deputy Dean at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore’s (NTU Singapore) Nanyang Business School (NBS), Prof Boh Wai Fong inspires MBA participants with the wealth of knowledge she has amassed from over two decades of intensive research into diverse businesses and the entrepreneurs that drive them.

“There are all kinds of businesses and leaders,” she muses. “Our challenge is to create better leaders who can transform their businesses from inside out.”

Prof Boh and her fellow faculty members at NBS believe that having empathetic, insightful leaders is often a major determinant for a company’s continued success. There are three key leadership tools for success.

Build Connections with Cultural Dexterity

One of the challenges of doing business in different territories is adapting to the cultural diversity and idiosyncrasies of business partners from other parts of the world. How can we succeed in building connections with new business partners?

Prof Boh explains: “Cultural intelligence at NBS means that you can read situations in different contexts and recognise what different signs mean, verbal or otherwise. With this cultural awareness, you can discern the best courses of action when facing different situations and people.” This dexterity will be even more crucial as organisations grow and begin tapping on larger talent pools worldwide.

 “When we spend the majority of our time with people who share similar goals, we will have similar opinions, and therefore effecting any changes can take ages. To counteract that, there’s a need to consciously, and intentionally, hear from people with different perspectives,” says Prof Boh. This is the reason why cohort selection is critical to NBS. The faculty encourages participants to express their views openly and honestly, building on one another’s ideas and industry expertise. This also helps polish their analytical and communicative skills.

Integrate Tech into Business Processes

 As technology and business converge, leaders will work far more closely with their tech teams. They will also spend more time learning about emerging technologies and analysing the potential value they can bring to the organisation. Leveraging artificial intelligence, blockchain, and process automation is not a simple plug-and-play button; instead, leaders must nurture an appreciation of technology to overcome any challenges and manage potential hiccups.

NBS aims to support leaders who can effectively transform and update their organisation’s units with the latest digital technologies. Prof Boh takes pride in the University’s status as one of the few institutes of higher learning in Singapore and in the region that positions its IT and information systems unit within the business school. In most schools, she explains, they are separated because they are considered dissimilar fields.

Although many have begun to realise that tech and business are now deeply interlinked, some continue to view tech as a black box that can be relegated to the ‘techies,’ explains Prof Boh. She highlights blockchain as an example. Industries like banking, healthcare, and manufacturing are all exploring their blockchain use cases for the improved security it offers. But how do hashes work? Why do hashes create immutability? What will happen if leaders choose to ignore the growing use of blockchain? Leaders should understand such fundamentals to make the most of new developments.

Show Empathy in Problem-solving

At NBS, exposure to various industries and people from different walks of life is an additional and invaluable benefit for MBA participants: it cultivates deep empathy, which is becoming critical to organisational sustainability. “Empathy pays off considerable returns to the organisation itself through improved reputation and branding, happier employees, and better connections with consumers,” says Prof Boh.

She highlights the understated importance of empathy in today’s problem-solving and ideation frameworks like design thinking, which is completely ineffective without empathising with the user or stakeholder. “The probabilistic nature of the world demands that we consider and protect the lives of those we touch when implementing various structures, mechanisms, and rules for growth,” she adds.

More than ever, empathy comes to the fore as businesses grapple with new technology’s ethical ramifications. “I used to think that regulator-enforced restrictions could hinder innovation,” says Prof Boh, “for example, compliance costs are commonly considered too inconvenient and burdensome for smaller organisations. But when we practise empathy, we see that a lack of it can lead to dire consequences.” Despite its tremendous benefits in vaccine research, for example, AI and algorithmic bias in healthcare settings have inadvertently contributed to unequal care and widened social gaps.

The path to leadership isn’t easy, and numerous aspiring leaders do not receive the support they need. “No one is born a leader,” says Prof Boh. “It takes conscious, focused effort from many people to become one.”

NBS is committed to equipping leaders with essential leadership tools to scale the heights, create impact, and build a lasting legacy. Beyond the business school’s faculty, there are a series of initiatives and support curated for participants after graduation – committed and engaging staff, an esteemed pool of local and international alumni, and continued guidance from faculty.

If you are ready to take the next step as a leader who can make impactful change, download the programme brochure here or visit our website.

The Nanyang MBA is a flexible 12-month or 18-month programme designed to fuel your growth into a future-ready leader equipped with the skills needed to excel in a global, digital environment. The programme aims to develop impactful, culturally adept leaders who embrace the connection between business, technology, and innovation to excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.