When investing in an advanced degree, it is very important to make sure that the value–add is clear in two key areas of your life: personal fulfillment and professional development. Fortunately, those two typically go hand-in-hand! For business-minded individuals, a master’s degree that will help you achieve a higher salary and better positions, which are likely to bring personal richness into your life. This is the smart reason why so many aspiring executives decide to enroll in a leadership-focused program.  

A Master’s in Organizational Leadership, or MSOL, is not just a good degree choice – it can be a great one! Here, you’ll learn about the goals of the MSOL degree, and understand how it might be a perfect choice for you and your future. 

Non-Curious Need Not Apply
Did you know that Organizational Leadership is actually a science discipline? However weird it might seem, don’t worry, you’re not going to need to muddle with microscopes, beakers and Bunsen burners. It actually makes complete sense that the MSOL degree is categorized as scientific. Scientists are investigators, researchers, experimenters, and innovators. Coming at the science of business from the quantitative and financial angle, from human psychology, and from organizational theory, prepares a leader to better analyze business processes and implement improvements.  

When you apply knowledge from graduate courses like Sustainability of Innovation and Strategic Advantage and Data-Driven Decision-Making for Executives, which train students on the distribution and implementation of resources, to your career, you can be the instigator that helps your organization meet and exceed goals. A strong business leader adds immense value with their short and long-term vision, founded not just on inclinations and opinions, but on the indisputable science of organizational behavior.  

Management vs. Leadership: A Symbiotic Relationship
An oft-quoted phrase from the respected modern-day business management handbook author, Peter F. Drucker, opens up an interesting doorway to this discussion in the book, The Effective Executive: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”  

Bet you had to read it twice! What does this statement mean? Well, management and leadership are both essential for businesses to succeed. Managers keep employees productive, and they are responsible for meeting very concrete benchmarks, achieved by monitoring performance and adjusting course as needed. In short, managers deliver and own the results. Leaders, on the other hand, envision. They are the risk-takers and change-makers, who sometimes, ironically, are at odds with the goals of managers! It comes down to their approach to variability: Leaders approach variance as a positive, while managers do their best to dodge variability in order to achieve a favorable and expected outcome.   

Why spend the time digging into these concepts? Well, a Master’s in Organizational Leadership prepares a person to wear both hats. Coursework like Leading Organizational Change speaks to the leadership fedora, while Talent and Performance Management is management’s baseball cap. Learning the best of both worlds will help you improve your own marketability, and allow you to present and exercise your broad skillset in more challenging professional positions. As this Forbes article explains, some of the 11 powerful traits of successful leaders include: 

• Acting strategically 
• Having a vision for the future 
• Promoting teamwork 
• Fostering innovation 

You might recognize that you have the best of both leadership and management facets included in these examples! Strengthening your leadership capabilities offers a true asset, no matter the role that you may be applying for. 

The Feather in Your Cap
Talking the talk is one thing, but walking it is another. Make sure that you select an MSOL program that has a Capstone project integrated into the curriculum. This important exercise shows you – and your future employers – that you can put your leadership and management muscles to the test with a real-life project. At Goodwin University, the 15-week Capstone course will push you to your personal and professional limits and goals. With a faculty advisor overseeing your work, you can choose to either apply your leadership knowledge to a case study or simulation, or you can elect to engage in a group or individual consulting project with an external organization, where you endeavor to solve a real leadership issue. The results will be paramount to your career development.  A Master’s in Organizational Leadership is a good degree for you, if think you will enjoy contributing your abilities to an organization’s vision and attacking problems to clear obstacles in the way of success. Now you’re thinking like an executive, vice president, or chief!  

Make it Realistic
Reaching new heights in the workplace sounds great in theory, but it has to make sense in practice, too. How do you achieve a master’s degree as an employed and busy individual? Well, one of the huge advantages to an MSOL program like Goodwin’s is the flexibility. Unlike many traditional MBA programs, this MSOL doesn’t assume that you want an expensive on-campus experience. Instead, this program is designed for working adults, with obligations in addition to their studies. Benefit from a fully online or hybrid classroom and online learning format, and complete your degree in as few as 20 months part-time. The goal of achieving a Master’s in Organizational Leadership? A master’s degree that will help you get ahead, by honing your leadership skills, is within reach. Call us today at 800-889-3282 for more information, and get excited to start classes this September, improve your career, and love your life. 

You may also request more information about the MSOL program online here.