If an MBA is a key, does it open the door to the boardroom? Or to your own belief that you belong there? For graduates of the UN Women Australia MBA scholarship program at the University of Sydney, it's both.
"I hadn't spent much time understanding who I was up to that point," reflects 2015 recipient Anmol Saini, who is restructuring director at advisory firm McGrathNichol.
Born in India, Saini arrived in Australia at the age of five with no English, which left her vulnerable to childhood bullying. That early experience taught her to care about fitting in - a lesson she had to unlearn to reach her full potential as a leader.
Over time, Saini's leadership focus coalesced around supporting other women , but her day to day just wasn't scratching the itch any more: "I needed to do something in a more tangible way," she says. That led her to UN Women Australia and the MBA scholarship program.
Now in its 11th year, the scholarship, worth more than $60,000, is conducted as a partnership between the University of Sydney Business School and UN Women Australia and aims to promote gender equality at the most senior levels of the nation's public, corporate and not-for-profit sectors.
Extra layer
"This MBA was full of heart for me. In addition to all the business opportunities you get, the social networking opportunities you get, which I absolutely did, it had an extra layer for me," Saini said.
"I grew to that point where leadership for me is not about [overworking to prove myself]. It's leading with more empathy, leading with presence, with my junior staff, but also how I approach senior staff as well."
It made Saini an ideal fit for an early scholarship slot, giving her the opportunity to help build the alumni community that would follow. Developing a peer group is a critical part of the MBA experience.
Healthcare boss Marta Vasquez, a 2022 recipient, wrapped up her degree a couple of months ago - while juggling three kids and a full-time job. She says the experience was a great boost to her confidence, if "pretty challenging" and "full-on".
"I was so lucky to have an incredible cohort that has been incredibly supportive," she says. "They're just all-around, really kind and nice people, which I actually wasn't expecting."
Vasquez, originally a nurse by training, was already a chief executive at a non-profit when she stepped into the MBA program, but she felt like she was missing a piece of the puzzle.
"I was thinking that there was going to be all type-A personalities, it was going to be really competitive, and I was going to be this little not-for-profit nurse in the background, just trying to have my voice heard. But it wasn't like that at all, not at all."
Mayuri Manraj speaks four languages. Picture: Louise Kennerley/AFR
Holding her own in an accomplished and varied peer group helped build her confidence, while the course itself gave her the tools she felt she was lacking.
These days 2017 recipient Emma Brown is chief financial officer for AI firm Cube in the UK. The native Brit says building confidence was one of her key takeaways from the program as well.
"I think the self-confidence part was definitely a big factor [for me]," she says. "You always have to do quite high-pressure tasks in a team. And it's the first opportunity that you really get to work in a peer-to-peer team."
People can change, and you've got to give people the opportunity to change.
Emma Brown
"People can change, and you've got to give people the opportunity to change."
Emma Brown
Whether you're 25 or 55 you're on an equal footing, and she says that is a great simulation of what it's like in the C-suite in the absence of hierarchy. "That's one of the major changes coming into an exec team, and those relationships are really, super important."
Brown recalls early days some students who were full of bluster and other quieter people taking a back seat, but she says over the course of the degree everyone levels out a bit.
"And I think that helped me also to see that things aren't fixed, no one's fixed. People can change, and you've got to give people the opportunity to change." She says that has profoundly changed her own approach to leadership and development in her own teams.
Born on the island of Mauritius, Mayuri Manraj speaks four languages: French, English, Hindi and dialectical Creole. As a civil engineer working on massive infrastructure projects, she'd also learned the language of the construction, government and community stakeholders. But she says she was struggling with the language of the boardroom.
"I would get invited to strategic meetings in my organisation, have ideas, but I stayed quiet," she says. "It is very intimidating at times to be in a room full of men who are making the decisions and not having the voice or not having the confidence to be able to voice certain things."
Now a principal at engineering firm Aurecon, Manraj says you could learn the skills or find the confidence that an MBA gives you in other ways, but having that piece of paper is also like the secret password that can get you into the room.
"That higher degree gives me that credibility to be in those rooms, and the confidence to apply to be in those rooms."
This content is published under licence from the Australian Financial Review and Nine Publishing.
Words: Rachael Bolton
Pictures: Dominic Lorrimer and Louise Kennerley
