Is a Master’s in Business Leadership Worth It? Yes. Find Out Why

February 12, 2021 | Read Time: 5 Minutes

By Kait Smith Lanthier

If you’ve landed here, chances are a business school is on your mind. Maybe your career is feeling stagnant. Maybe you’re ready for a new personal and professional challenge, like stepping into a leadership role. Whatever your situation, you might find yourself asking: is a specialized masters program, like a masters in business leadership worth it? Will it help me achieve my goals? To answer those questions, you’ve come to the right place.

Why is a Masters in Business Leadership Worth It? The Mindset.

Let’s cut to the chase. Is a masters in business leadership worth it?  

If career acceleration, increased salary potential, and gaining an entrepreneurial mindset are on your mind, then yes. This specialized master’s program is a smart choice to help you meet your goals. 

In every industry and every role, great leaders have one thing in common: an entrepreneurial mindset. This make-it-happen mentality means having the ability to innovate and inspire. Possessing this mindset opens doors for personal growth, professional advancement, and organizational success. That mindset can be taught in leadership masters programs, like the Master of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership (MSEL) at Babson College.  

As the No. 1 school for entrepreneurship, this specialized masters program gives learners the tools they need to catalyze their careers and lead organizations by developing an entrepreneurial mindset. 

But, don’t just take our word for it. We asked graduates of Babson College’s entrepreneurial leadership programs for their insight. Here’s what they said:

To Experience Hands-On Learning

To be an effective leader, you need to do more than just think—you need to know how to take action. The right leadership masters program will set you up with the skills needed to take that action, and the hands-on experience to go with it. To get this experience, it helps to step beyond the traditional business degree, and into one that prioritizes immersive, hands-on learning. Learn more about what experiental learning involves.  

In Babson’s leadership masters program, faculty focus on individualized experiential learning, building both the hard and soft skills students need to achieve their career goals. An examples of hands-on learning in action for masters in leadership students at Babson College:  

• Students in the MSEL program take Creating You: Building Your Professional Life, a course that includes opportunities to coach aspiring high school entrepreneurs along with skill building and personal reflection. 

In and out of the classroom, hands-on learning and leadership opportunities help students like Kaylin Goncalves MSEL’20 develop real-world skills.  

“(These experiences) helped me work on adapting my leadership style and recognizing the impact I was having on the people around me. I was able to learn how to read people and switch from a pacesetting leadership style to a coaching leadership style,” she said.

To Develop A Big, Diverse, and Global Network

Masters students bring a diverse set of skills, talents, and backgrounds to their programs. At Babson, these learners are accountants, financial analysts, and entrepreneurs, but also athletes, nonprofit organizers, writers, and artists. And they come from all over the world. Community alone is a big reason why so many students say yes to a graduate degree in leadership. 

“The Babson community is the most supportive and resourceful community I have ever seen. Since I am moving to Shanghai soon, I have already got in touch with alumni there and will be meeting them,” said Yirui Su, MSEL’22.  

Collaborating with peers from diverse backgrounds gives your leadership skills a boost, too.

Earning A Leadership Degree Salary

According to Payscale, masters of science in leadership graduates can expect salaries, on average, upward of $77,000 a year.  

Another benefit of a leadership master’s program? Career acceleration.  

From switching industries to having a more substantial impact in their current organization, master’s leadership students at Babson have big goals. And, they’re on the path to achieving them.  

In 2022, 90 percent of graduates of Babson College’s specialized masters programs, including masters in entrepreneurial leadership alumni, found jobs within six months of graduation.  

Beyond a rewarding masters in leadership and management salary, graduates are prepared to change careers, launch new ventures, or take on new leadership roles within their existing organizations. Learners enrolled in the program with career goals like: 

• Moving from a career as a product manager to starting a small business that will change the world 
• Bringing new ideas for advancement and innovation back to their current company 
• Building a teaching and research hospital in South America

What Can You Do With A Master’s In Organizational Leadership?

In Babson’s leadership masters program, graduates are versatile and can pursue careers in a wide range of organizations and industries. Moreover, students and graduates with an entrepreneurial leadership skill set have a competitive advantage: they can exert influence and lead from any position within an organization. 

What can you do with a leadership degree or entrepreneurial leadership masters? Some popular roles include:

• CEO: In 2022, $100,090 was the median take home pay for American CEOs. Beyond the attractive salary, many leaders are drawn to C-level roles for the opportunity to shape strategies that directly affect the organization’s trajectory. Many CEOs also are motivated to inspire a broad range of employees.   
• HR Manager: Human resources managers work across all industries in organizations of all kinds, ensuring that programs and policies comply with ever-evolving employment laws. The average salary for HR managers in 2022 was $130,720.   
• Corporate Trainer: According to 2022 data, corporate trainers can expect annual salaries averaging around $120,000. It’s a career perfectly suited for extraverts who thrive in collaborative, people-focused environments. It’s also a career path with faster-than-average projected growth over the next 10 years.

The Last Word

If you’re looking to accelerate your career, break into a new leadership position, or grow personally and professionally, a masters in business leadership is worth it. Which program you choose depends largely on what those goals are, so keep them in mind when evaluating your options.

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