a Wharton MBA essay on Leadership

Learning to Lead: Reflections on the Creation of a Fashion Show

By Arifa Khan, Wharton MBA Student

When it comes to acquiring leadership skills, there is no substitute to going out there and doing something real, no matter how insignificant. When I obtained admission to the Wharton School's MBA program, the only thing I promised myself was to take a lot of risks. And learn from them I did.

The Wharton Culture Club organized the first annual Wharton Fashion Show this past November to celebrate the diverse international cultural heritage, couture, and traditions of the school and the University of Pennsylvania. As president of the Culture Club, the experience of conceptualizing and bringing to life a large-scale event for the first time was fulfilling but not altogether frictionless. Here are several lessons.

Leaders must establish powerful personal credibility: Credibility helps mobilize others for a cause, and it also reduces transaction costs since others have confidence in the leader.

Having launched the venture and wanting it to succeed, I and the seven other members of our executive committee worked to let everyone see that it was nothing less than an obsession for us. We had to persuade all 100 participants involved in the show as performers, designers, and volunteers that our commitment was total. The lesson that I drew was that a good cause does not automatically attract its followers, but rather it requires tremendous commitment of the leaders to enlist the support of others. Their support will come only when they are convinced that our leadership of the cause comes with no personal agendas, and that we will not let the venture fail. By way of illustration: When we did not have access to sufficient funds to cover our very substantial up-front expenses, I placed them all on my personal credit card. After that, everybody knew I was committed!

Leaders must learn to respect themselves and must have confidence in their abilities: There are huge uncertainties involved in undertaking anything for the first time. Since many people have joined the cause because of the leader's championing of it, they are often more skeptical about the likelihood of success. If the leader lets a sense of her or his own uncertainty appear even momentarily, the game is lost. A leader may even have to downplay the real magnitude of setbacks to maintain optimism and faith that the team can reach its goals.

As we had no precedents for this first annual event, we grossly under-estimated the time and resources required of us. As the fashion show drew nearer, we realized that we were nowhere near our targeted sponsorships for designer costumes or event funding. Our executive committee began to see the show as an overly-ambitious project now doomed to fail. My credibility was in doubt, and I received suggestions that we postpone the date. But getting even this far had been arduous, and I believed that any further changes in schedule would have further sapped our team's morale. I therefore drew up a contingency plan to go ahead with the event even if we failed to secure external sponsorships. We recruited a pool of local designers ready to display their dresses, pared down our initial budget, and convinced ourselves that we could organize the event based on these local designers and expected ticket sales alone. Once the sponsorship team was relieved of intense pressure to secure more backing, it then successfully secured the backing of great designer labels. We simply did not allow ourselves the option to back out!

Leaders must maintain macro focus while acknowledging the micro-perspective of team members: When the leader is dealing with a large team, it is not feasible for her or him to give complete attention to all issues and all members. As a consequence, some members become unhappy with the amount of attention that their issues receive from the leader. Sometimes, there may even be mis-interpretations of the leader's intent.

When Murphy's law was at its zenith and everyone had a reason to complain -- the rehearsals were not on schedule, the music had not been fully composed -- one team member responsible for ticket sales became very demoralized because of the conflict within her team. While this became a significant problem, I had to stay focused on the broader agenda and assume that the team would work out the problem ? and it did.

It is opportunities to take risks, think beyond oneself, and shape a collective endeavor ? precisely what we experienced in mounting this first fashion show for our business school ?that helped us appreciate what leadership really requires.