Most Important Skills For An Associate Professor At IESE Business School

I would say you definitely want to be people-oriented. You're dealing with a lot of people, particularly when you teach. We teach at the MBA level and above, so NBA students and executives.

Obviously, you're going to be a good teacher in the classroom, no question. But being good at enjoying relationships and the give-and-take of human interaction is always very helpful. I've found that over the years, it's also been helpful for me.

It helps me get to know the participants better, understand their jobs a little better, and what they're hoping to get out of the class. That's information you might not get just by looking at them in the classroom, but you do find it out by interacting with them. So that's one thing I would say.

Linked to this, I think, is communication. We spend a significant amount of hours in the classroom, so you want to work on those communication skills. This includes how to convey the discussion, how to present things, and how to simplify things that are maybe a little sophisticated.

Make it simple so that anyone in the room can follow, understand, and apply it. That's the second thing.

Maybe a third thing, also linked to this, would be conceptualizing. This means being able to abstract from specific business situations or examples you're using in class. Can you conceptualize and make it universal so anyone in the room, from any industry or background, can say, "Okay, the next time I face this situation, I can use this"?

Maybe a fourth thing is a research focus. That's very important. Research is a bit of a theoretical endeavor, and you need focus. You can't achieve that by only dedicating half an hour here and half an hour there. You need a long number of hours and strong concentration.