Center for Leadership
Studies

Barbara Cain had watched a number of people in her organization work through their MAOL degrees, becoming stronger leaders and deploying new tools that helped their business grow. Because she liked the concept of the MAOL program and had already had some contact with Generative Leadership Group methodologies, it was without hesitation that she sponsored Nigel Crabb through the program. Crabb was already adept at managing his current reality, but he had more to offer—specifically, what Cain saw as a very high disposition for being an effective leader.

“Nigel had the basics of being a good manager, but the thing that he had the greatest potential for was to be a leader—someone who can bring about something in the face of having no reason to believe that it should work, someone who can drive something from nothing. Nigel had a lot of savvy, it was just a matter of taking that next step.”

Cain reports that the Crabb who came out of the other end of the MAOL program was a very strong leader who was willing to challenge the status quo for the objective of getting results of which he was formerly unaware. She also notes that this shift may never have occurred without the tools and learning Crabb received through the MAOL.

“His job before was to manage the chaos away. Now, he’s learned to embrace the chaos and get a result from it. To me, that’s great—to go boldly where you have no idea where you’ll end up or if you’ll get any results at all, but you have this gut feeling of something great being possible and you do everything you can to actualize it.”

Since graduating, Crabb has himself grown as a leader and has also developed his people. Crabb has learned to step back further from and empower the managers that work under him, simultaneously inviting them to challenge themselves. This is a process that Cain believes Crabb had enacted on himself while working through his degree.

“MAOL really challenges who you are as opposed to what you do. It not only changed what Nigel did, but it fundamentally changed how he approached things,” explains Cain. “He really has developed skills around listening and relating to people differently in their own context versus his own context. You don’t get that from an MBA. An MBA teaches you mechanics and emerging markets and theory, but it doesn’t fundamentally change who you are.”

Since Crabb has gone through the MAOL, Cain says that she uses him as a sounding board, particularly when dealing with different cultures, time zones, and external teams. Because his understanding of others and how they need to be reached is so complete and astute, Crabb is the person with whom Cain consults to assess how best to engage a particular person or group. He is a valued partner, she explains, which is a shift she says MAOL sponsors must be prepared to welcome.

“When you send a candidate through the MAOL, you have to know that there is the possibility that you are developing someone who could be your successor or your challenger, because you’re now going to be allowing someone to broaden their mind beyond the mechanics of your business. I think as a sponsor you have to be a little courageous, a little out there, and a little willing to grant that what you’ll see happen to your candidate is a little unconventional, but has the potential to bring inestimable value to your business.”