Duke MBA: Beware Of ‘Jerks & Weenies’

You mentioned in the book that you’ve met some great people at Duke, Coach K, as well as a Fuqua classmate who helped champion Ford’s underwriting of your team – the first American women’s expedition to Everest. Can you talk about how meeting people and getting to know them is a leadership trait?  

It is important to have strong networks because you never know who you might need to call on for help at some point. The first thing I do when I get to base camp on any mountain is walk around and talk to every other team that’s there. People make fun of me all the time, they always say, “Oh Alison, you’re so social.” But it’s not about being social—it’s about having backup should something happen to someone on my team.

It seems like all too often I hear a story about some climber struggling to survive high up on Mt. Everest while other climbers march right past this person because no one wants to give up their summit bid to stop and help save a life.  It’s tragic that this happens— it should never happen—but unfortunately, it does happen. I guarantee you that if you have those relationships in place with people outside of your immediate team, no one will walk past you in your time of need. But it’s up to you to be proactive about forming those partnerships.

Your book is mostly about leadership in extreme environments – mountains, polar ice caps, or the U.S. Army.  You also give examples about leadership in business.  What would be some ways to demonstrate leadership in business school?  

Look at your classmates as your team members. All of them; not just the people in your section or the people you are assigned to work with on a case study. Look out for one another. Encourage one another. Sometimes the environment will feel very competitive, but keep in mind that you all need to be helping one another to move through the program and achieve whatever goals you set out to achieve. Make it a group effort. There is power in numbers. No one should ever feel like they are on a solo journey during the two years when you’re in the program.

What advice would you give to a prospective MBA student today to get more out of the experience? 

Challenge yourself and get the hell out of your comfort zone. Skip the classes you’re proficient in already and replace those with classes where you are completely unfamiliar with the subject matter.  Also, spend time with the international students and learn as much as you can about other cultures, and then travel during your breaks whenever you can. Once you graduate, you may not have large chunks of time off again for a while.

Really, you are advocating skipping classes?  You tell a great and funny story in the book about blowing your derivatives final. But you landed a job at Goldman Sachs after graduating from Fuqua. How did you manage that?  

Well, even though I failed the exam, I still passed the class. And luckily very few recruiters ever ask you about your GPA before extending a job offer, or at least that was the case when I was in business school. (That doesn’t mean you don’t have to study!) Most firms would rather have a well-rounded employee than someone who is an academic standout but has nothing else to offer besides good study habits.

One of the things that attracted me to Goldman was that there were all kinds of people working there who had excelled in things outside of academics. I worked with concert pianists, fighter pilots, and former Olympians. My guess if that some of those folks may have blown an exam or two along the path to working at Goldman as well.

You talk a lot about teamwork in the book, particularly that each member of the team has to be a leader. How can that be? All chiefs and no Indians?  

If you’re in the middle of Antarctica and something happens to the “designated leader” – the rest of the team needs to be able to step up and carry on with the expedition. And that’s why it is important to realize that everyone is in a leadership position―regardless of title, tenure, where you work, what you do, how large of a budget you oversee, whether you have people reporting to you or not.

Leadership is really about looking out for others―at work, at home, and in our communities. I want people to realize that they have the ability and the responsibility to have impact on the people around them. Good leaders know that they need to step back and allow others to lead at times too. Just because you’re the leader doesn’t mean you are calling all the shots 100% of the time.