Be ready to lead day one

Become a strong leader, adept at solving problems creatively, influencing and leading, managing under pressure, and thinking beyond personal gain for the greater good. These are the in-demand qualities employers seek to guide innovation and change.

As an integral part of your Wisconsin MBA curriculum, Ignite Career Accelerator seamlessly blends leadership principles and techniques with your academic learning. It combines servant leadership and transformational leadership theory to prepare you holistically to lead effectively in the workplace, day one and throughout your career.

Ignite Career Accelerator

Ignite your leadership potential

Through specially designed courses, experiential learning, and cocurricular activities, you develop essential, in-demand leadership skills as an individual, as part of a team, and as a manager. You will leave the program with confidence and skills to inspire creative solutions, influence direction, guide people through growth and change, and maintain a big-picture focus.

Build career-focused leadership acumen through five program elements

1. Ignite 3-day immersion during MBA orientation. Explore how to lead with skill and confidence.
  • Discover your strengths: CliftonStrengths© Workshop
  • Cultural competence training
  • MBAs With a Heart: community service project
  • Becoming an MBA—Intro to Career Management
  • Emotional intelligence training
  • Workplace and networking etiquette
2. Case challenges. Work in teams to develop and pitch solutions to real-life challenges.
  • Fall semester: Strategize, develop and present recommendations to a local startup
  • Spring semester: Work with a nonprofit to enhance social impact
Woman speaking to a group
3. Workshops and seminars. Activities, events, and opportunities assure well-rounded exposure to leadership application.
  • Leadership class: The Working and Leading in Teams course, as part of your core MBA curriculum, provides a comprehensive overview of team dynamics and influencing team effectiveness, helps you develop skills to diagnose opportunities and threats that face teams, and teaches you practical tools to enhance team performance and leadership.
  • Speaker series: The M. Keith Weikel MBA Leadership Speaker Series and networking receptions bring accomplished individuals in a variety of fields to campus to share their knowledge and experiences.
  • MBA Consulting Practicum: This experiential learning course, a required first-year capstone, ties together all you have learned academically and stretches you to practice the hard and soft skills gained in the MBA program.
  • TED© Talk discussions: Student-led discussions centered around Ted© Talks on business and leadership topics.

4. Discover and activate your strengths using the CliftonStrengths© Assessment. Dive into self-discovery to learn how your natural talents enable you to become a strong, authentic leader. Individual and team training teach you to effectively navigate challenges and team projects. On-site Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches provide 1:1 coaching to maximize your discovery. Capitalize on your career experience to date and add a wide set of skills that employers value and expect.

5. Get on the fast-track to the UW–Madison Leadership Certificate. Many of the leadership offerings built into the MBA program also qualify as criteria toward the UW–Madison Leadership Certificate. Fast-track your eligibility by adding the certificate to your degree. Signal to employers that you are fully prepared to lead.

© CliftonStrengths is a registered trademark of Gallup, Inc. © TED is a registered trademark of TED Conferences LLC.