So, you think you can manage?

Are you suffering from the urge to coordinate the work of others in your team? Do you lie awake at night figuring out ways to improve processes in your workplace through influence rather than authority? Have your friends ever told you how impressed they are by the fact that you are involved in the strategic planning and decision-making objectives of your company?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, there’s no need to be concerned, the diagnosis is clear: You’re a manager.

Or, at the very least, you are showing symptoms of management experience. It’s true – even if ‘manager’ is not included anywhere in your title or job description, the fever of management might already be running through you. This may come as a shock – but let it be a sign that you’ve already honed some critical business skills into your muscle memory. You’re a natural!

And what’s more – these skills that you’ve acquired count toward the minimum of three years of management experience that the Henley international MBA requires its applicants to have.

But what is management, anyway?

Management is, in short, the act of handling a company’s resources. And these are of course not limited to a company’s people. They include a range of business assets – from cash, trademarks, and databases, to real estate, office equipment, and employee’s skills and availability, to name only a few. It is the duty of the manager to administrate these elements in such a way that they enable the company to meet its goals.

The business, in other words, flows through them.

You’re a manager, Harry!

So, you’ve just found out that you’re a manager. You’re wondering: What other secret abilities might you possess? What else counts as ‘management experience’?

Along with your abilities to coordinate teams, influence positive changes in performance and contribute toward company strategy and decision-making, you may also be familiar with:

1. Meeting financial targets that rely on the efforts of more than one person, or overseeing budgets and the company payroll
2. Structuring your own work over a period of more than one month to solve problems and deliver results
3. Working internationally or having relevant multi-cultural exposure

With your newly diagnosed manager status, you might also be wondering, is there a cure? Well, we’d suggest, enrolling on an international MBA with Henley Business School to buff up your management symptoms so that you can progress into being a full-blown leader in your organisation.

All the skills listed above are on the Henley international MBA applicant checklist. It’s not necessary to have been involved with every single one of these facets in order to apply for the Henley MBA, but the more you can demonstrate that you’ve dabbled in these areas, the better your case for getting into the MBA.

The point is that if you were concerned that the work you have previously done does not meet the application criteria for the Henley MBA, the chances are high that you already have many essential management-related skills, even if they have not been explicitly identified as such throughout your career.

In short: You’re qualified to apply to the programme!

What’s Next?

If you’d like to find out more about the Henley MBA or what the remaining criteria are to join the Henley Movement to Build Africa, simply visit our website or contact yusufe@henleysa.ac.za. 

You can also join our next MBA info session.

And congratulations, again, on discovering that you’ve been a manager all along.