In TBS’s Aerospace MBA program, leadership unleashed in all its forms

The winning card to project success is leadership; a keyword that comes across in various forms in all the programs of the Aerospace MBA. Professors of the program share their insights.

“Leadership is the guiding principle of the program” observes Dr. Christophe Bénaroya, Director of the Aerospace MBA at TBS. Regardless of the course offered, the question on leadership comes up and becomes a priority for the delegates, who must learn to break out of their operational role and become leaders”. In a nutshell, we understand that the approach to the leadership concept is at the heart of the learning experience offered. Sarah Kartalia, professor at TBS and consultant, follows the students throughout the duration of their training. “Leadership is a multi-dimensional concept”, explains the professor. “It cannot be summarized by a strategic vision or an influential technique adopted, but is based on three pillars developed by the very modern Aristotle on the “modes of persuasion: ethos, pathos, logos”. Building on this, “logos”, or rational discourse, is the comfort zone for students, particularly in the aerospace sector, which is highly technical and where the safety requirement is a shared objective. The students are much less comfortable with the emotional perspective “pathos”, and we therefore emphasize the study of emotional intelligence in the learning process. Ethos, “integrity of character”, gives full meaning to the word leadership, where by the leader gains in the eyes of his/her team.”

The leadership role in a team

Throughout the training, Sarah Kartalia teaches the students how to put themselves in listening mode and to develop their own style of leadership, to be able identify who they are and what role they play in a team. For his part, Sveinn Gudmunsson, senior professor of strategic management at Toulouse Business School, with the initiative of the logbook project (see below) adds, “every leader needs followers, and followers are inspired by trust and confidence allowing them to better themselves, their workplace and society at large. We are always in a state of being a follower of something or someone, and we become leaders if we are privileged with the trust of others to lead them.”

Dorian Mark Notman, guest professor at TBS since 2002, has worked at many universities worldwide, namely in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Australia and India. He lectures on operations strategy and management, and supply chain management. His courses incorporate his research on the identification and development of innovative supply in aerospace. On leadership, he explains, « it is important that the delegates understand that they can be significant agents of change in their current and future organizations. I expect them to question, analyze, and actively seek out new solutions to the problems that we discuss in the course. I do this to help equip them with the tools and the mind-set to do more than just carry out their organizational activities, but in order to make lasting change they must actively seek out opportunities for improvement, and have the skills and the determination to bring about real change. My role is to help them fulfill their potential to become leaders in the aerospace sector of the future ».

Multicultural leadership: specificity of the aerospace sector

Around the world, aviation and space enthusiasts work together to develop the sector. One of the sector’s distinct features is the cultural diversity of its professionals, and that is also observed among delegates enrolled in all the Aerospace MBA programs . Cordula Barzantny, associate professor and author of a thesis on intercultural management and decision-making by a multicultural executive board, states, “In a team, it is essential to create interdependent relationships and know how to quickly exchange information. The leader has the challenging task of leading and coordinating teams exhibiting sensitive cultural differences, in a highly integrated and yet global context.”

In the aeronautic sector, a leader thus acquires legitimacy through his/her competences and passion for the aeronautic industry. Nonetheless a leader must transcend this globally shared know-how, and work on managerial aspects with international teams coming from diverse cultural backgrounds.

“Today, countries located in the new dynamic zones of the aerospace industry, such as China, India and countries in Africa and the Middle East, have succeeded in strengthening their teams by focusing on technical competences. However, they are now in need of professionals with the capacity to engage and empower employees, regardless of their origin », concludes Dr. Chistophe Bénaroya, Director of TBS’s Aerospace MBA. This is a dimension that the MBA Aerospace training places at the heart of its program.

Sveinn Gudmunsson, Senior Professor of Strategic Management at the Toulouse Business School, started a project called « Logbook » a few years ago. Focus on this unique tool.

“The logbook is a project that introduces a dimension of self-awareness into the classroom. The logbook requires the students to reflect on their experiences during the strategy core module. Since most of the strategy core module is based on active learning through the 3WIM method and the foresight project, students in this controlled environment are subject to difficult situations that expose their strengths and weaknesses in a revealing manner. The logbook allows the delegates to revert back to difficult situations during the day and dissect their reactions and decisions, and think about better reaction strategies for the future. I tell the students that taking risks in the classroom is encouraged as we maximize our learning experience when we lose our footing. However, learning from mistakes depends on afterthought to avoid the negative connotations of failure. Making mistakes is normal, it is what makes us human and many good things come from failure so far as we know how to learn from it. Organizations geared for failure avoidance due to a culture of “no mistakes allowed” stifle their ability to change as mistakes are swept under the carpet rather than being seen as opportunities to learn. The logbook is not only focused on what goes wrong but also aims to identify one’s strength; you will be surprised how many people underestimate their strengths, which leads to missed opportunities and poor career choices. For many people it is not easy to think about oneself in this way, so I see the logbook as a very personal project – it requires some deep soul searching and answering difficult questions about oneself. It is only effective if the students are trusting enough to communicate strengths and weaknesses honestly. Hence, effective use of reflection in higher education depends on trust and confidentiality between the student and the professor.”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.