Paradigm shift
Our prestigious MIT graduate degrees — signals of our technical prowess and nimble rationality that are so valued in this high-tech world — are misleading. There is a mismatch between the leadership skills that the world expects of us and the scientific expertise that our degrees require. To be sure, we will be able to rise to the technical demands of any complicated challenge, incise to its core variables, and deliver a well-defined solution. But we will need to learn the leadership skills, those that determine the impact and thoughtfulness of our solution and the stability of our teams, on the fly. Graduate students in science and engineering need to expand their cadre of research skills to include leadership by shifting the traditional PhD paradigm to one that includes leadership development.