MBA Dads — Q&A
Around Father’s day we decided that we would like to ask MBA dads some of the same questions we ask our MBA Mama’s, and we received great responses. Check out answers from our featured dads below:
What motivated you to pursue your MBA? How did you know it was the right time to pause your career and start your MBA?
Kyle Smith: While in college, I had the opportunity to intern in the DC Mayor’s Economic Development Office where I worked with some of the nation’s leading real estate development companies. My father was an engineer and architect, so I grew up with a high regard for the design and construction aspects of real estate, but the investment side of the industry was even more intriguing to me.
Additionally, I enjoyed the design and transaction elements of my military experience, which further drove my interest in commercial real estate investing. From these experiences, I knew this would be my next career move once I completed my five-year active duty service commitment. To be technically prepared, I needed to develop strong quantitative skills and the MBA, at Booth particularly, was the best place for me to do so.
Fabrizzio Chaves: When I finished undergrad, I thought I was going to pursue law. I took the LSAT and secured a position as a paralegal at AXA US to gain experience and figure out what type of law to practice later on. As time went on, I realized that being a lawyer was not for me. I was a numbers guy who simply learned to read and draft contracts. As a paralegal, I sought out quantitative analyses, which provided a lot of value to the company discovering cost savings and process improvements, but did not make full use of my talents.
A combination of things led me to pursue my MBA. One factor was my former manager and mentor, Darryl Gibbs, who told me that I needed to make a move that would allow me to use my natural talents at their best. At that point, my Management Leadership for Tomorrow (“MLT”) coach, Holly Jackson, helped me identify real estate as my passion. From there, I focused on assembling an application package that accurately reflected my story and supported my admission into programs with strong real estate curricula and alumni. I was accepted to a few different schools, but Cornell was the right move for me. I wanted to be fully immersed in the experience, and I loved the smaller class sizes. I was considering pushing the decision another year, but when I attended admitted students weekend (aka Destination Johnson), my decision to take the plunge and go full time was solidified.
In your opinion, how does the business school experience differ for MBA dads and MBA moms?
Kyle Brengel: I think the biggest difference between MBA dads and moms is the number of school peers in similar life situations — at Wharton I had many more dad classmates than mom ones. The larger community of MBA dads makes it much easier to find friends for the MBA and their spouse. Some of [my wife and I’s] closest friends during our time at Wharton were other MBA dads and their families — with whom we attended many school events with and spent a great deal of time hanging out together informally.
Theodore “T.R.” Dilla: MBA parents absolutely have it harder than our peers and I think that MBA moms have it tougher than MBA dads. Whether stepping around family commitments in interviews, having a tough time finding a time to meet with a group, or having to forgo social events to watch the kids, it is difficult to make it all work. I was very fortunate to have a dedicated wife who stayed at home with our sons. Her commitment and sacrifice is what made the MBA/Booth happen for me. On the contrary, most of the MBA moms I know had a partner who simultaneously worked outside of the home or was also in school. The juggling of childcare and figuring out who was going to pick up the kids added an additional layer of complexity to their lives.
How has your time at your MBA program shaped your leadership style — as a professional and as a father?
Brady Hilliard: Patience! The Navy highly values the ability to process information quickly and make rapid and decisive decisions. This meant that I became very comfortable making decisions with only 80% of the available information, even when the stakes were very high. Booth and my classmates taught me to harness my decisiveness and be patient, to work for another 10%-15% of the information. “You won’t get what you don’t ask for”, so I learned to ask for more information and ask for help.
The same went for Weston. The Navy taught me that a detailed analysis and thorough planning process could minimize variability and uncertainty. But that’s not the case with a toddler! Weston taught me to go with the flow more and that I can’t control everything through planning. Taking 20 minutes longer to get out the door was perfectly fine, if it meant Team Hilliard was less stressed in the process.
Bryan Jensen: My time at Booth shaped my Leadership style in 4 ways — decision making, delegation, prioritization, and setting high expectations. I learned a simple and effective framework for decision making in my New Venture Strategy class that works really well for me. There are 4 components: 1) Set a goal 2) Gather Data 3) Decide 4) Act. The framework has really helped me focus my decision making on what is really important in my academic, personal and extracurricular roles. In terms of delegation, I used to be a ‘responsibility hoarder’ but Chicago Booth is 100% a team sport and success is built on trusting your teammates. I got very good at trusting others to accomplish their objectives and providing support when needed.
For prioritization, Booth has made me into a huge goal setter. Every week I categorize my goals into four categories: 1) Important and urgent 2) Important not urgent 3) Urgent not important 4) Not important not urgent, and then I choose one or two from each bucket to accomplish each day. This strategy has pushed me to accomplish objectives outside of the “Important and urgent” bucket at school and at home. and finally, in setting high expectations, my time at Booth has taught me that if you have high expectations for those around you and treat those people with every confidence that they are capable and will accomplish whatever they are working on, they get it done. Believing that people will perform at a high level and treating them that way really has an impact. Always stay positive, there is almost never a need to nit-pick.
Kyle Smith: Booth offered me the ability to complement the leadership skills that I developed in the military with the hard skills needed to make informed, data supported decisions. After the Air Force, I felt confident that I could lead a team, but I didn’t have the same assurance in financial analytics, which is very important within my career as a real estate investment professional. Booth has helped me develop technical proficiency and confidence through the program’s quantitative rigor.
Korene and I started a family young so that our kids could see firsthand the effort it takes to be successful. My experience at Booth was shared with my family. We’ve attended numerous school functions together, and my wife and kids have developed strong relationships with my classmates and their families. My daughter, McKenzie, has even attended a few sessions of Corporate Finance and Macroeconomics classes, much to her dismay. But these are times that we hope will be cemented in our kids memories and act as a stimulus of motivation for them personally and professionally.
Do you have any time management tips that help you stay on track?
Charles Mullenger: There is simply no right or wrong manner to manage your time as an MBA parent. One thing that I found in myself was that I became incredibly efficient while my daughter had her naps. During the week, I would watch our daughter, Heidi, as my wife Lindsay handled her responsibilities as a brand manager for Duracell. Luckily, Heidi naps twice a day for about two hours, and in those nap times I became quite the case writing professional. I would read the case out loud to my daughter as she prepared for her nap (seriously), and when she went to sleep I would put my head down and get to work. As with any responsibility in life, you adapt and overcome, but I’d say that parents truly need to learn how to be efficient and use the time, when they are not taking care of their little one/s, wisely.
Conor Dwyer: I tried to have either a morning block or afternoon block free for my family, and then did homework after my kids went to bed. I’d recommend to try and keep at least one weekend day free for your family. I once heard a wiser Wharton grad say, “If I scored above the average on a test, I knew I had spent too much time studying.”
Grades are important to the degree that they add permanent value to your professional capacity, so just judge your GPAs value in relation to you individually. I just saw my final transcript’s GPA and realized that for me, I nailed it: one grade below the Booth average ;).
Fabrizzio Chaves: Before the MBA, I had a lot more flexibility in my schedule but now even free time has to be scheduled in. Going to school, interning, and eventually having a full time role means that you have multiple calendars to manage, and the best thing to get out of the way early is to decide which calendar will be the one everything else reconciles to. Once you have that central calendar, leverage your reminders. Have as many as needed and add an extra day to when you think you need to get something started. You don’t want to miss out on something inadvertently, something I learned the hard way during the school year.
Prioritization is also key. If my wife or son needed me, I dropped everything to focus on them, because while the MBA experience is an important two years, family is eternal and they are not going to forget that time you dropped the ball when you had a Finance assignment due.
