Harvard Business School dean wants candidates who are leaders

Hint:
It’s not, “How are your grades?”

Harvard
Business School/Facebook

• Harvard
  Business School dean Nitin Nohria said he looks for candidates
  who have displayed leadership potential.
• Whenever someone says they’d like to attend HBS, Nohria
  told Business Insider, he asks them to consider one question:
  “What is it that other people would say that would describe you
  as a leader?”
• That could be through college extracurricular
  activities, military service, or running a business.
• Candidates’ leadership skills are more likely to tip
  the scales in their favor than stellar grades, Nohria
  said.

If you’re thinking about applying to Harvard Business School,
know that your academic achievements — however impressive —
aren’t going to be the deciding factor in whether you get in.

To be sure, grades are important, but there’s something else even
more so.

That’s according to HBS dean Nitin Nohria. Whenever someone says
they’d like to attend HBS, Nohria told Business Insider, he asks
them to consider one question:

“What is it that other people would say that would
describe you as a leader?”

Nohria said HBS wants to help candidates explain “in what ways
they have already exercised leadership and how they hope to
exercise leadership in the future.”

Somewhat frustratingly, Nohria added that there’s no single type
of answer that will win over the admissions staff. “We will take
people who have very different passions,” he said.

Indeed, the
HBS admissions website indicates that candidates may display
leadership through, for example, military service, “running an
independent business,” or “spearheading initiatives at work.”

Stacy Blackman, the founder of Stacy Blackman Consulting
who helps clients earn admission to top MBA programs,
previously told Business Insider that candidates need to
prove that they made a difference with their leadership efforts.
Or, as she put it, “that you left indelible footprints.”

Nohria breaks down leadership into two components — competence
and character — and he said HBS students learn to develop both.

Competence is about getting people to
trust you and your decisions: “It’s not like you can call
yourself a leader just because you have an important position,”
he said. Character is about your values, and your ability to make
ethical decisions.

Ultimately, HBS doesn’t want students to be carbon copies of one
another, especially in terms of their leadership experience.

“We are excited about leaders of all kinds,” Nohria said. “They
just need to be people who are pursuing a particular passion in
which they are likely to be very good leaders.”