For Raneem El Banna, EMBA ‘24, Ivey’s Executive MBA program provided an opportunity to shift into leadership positions and harness the power of her voice to better manage workplace dynamics.

“The Ivey EMBA created a huge shift and opened new doors for me,” says El Banna, Alliance Partner Manager at JAGGAER.

“It helped me refine my leadership and strategic thinking skills and helped me move from a technical role into a more holistic managerial one.”

With the program’s help, El Banna was able to discover abilities and interests she didn’t know she possessed, and it empowered her to address challenges in a new way.

“I'm a very analytical person and I have worked in the technical side of businesses ever since I graduated, but the EMBA allowed me to broaden my perspective,” she says.

“It allowed me to understand people on a deeper level and see the difference between my own biases, my own perceptions and those of other people – how they see things and what their perspective is. And this awareness helped me make better, more informed decisions and to lean on people more than just numbers and facts.”

Courses like Power and Politics also gave El Banna new insights into power dynamics within organizations and how to use certain dynamics effectively to her benefit and to the benefit of others.

“It's not only used for manipulation and power; you can also learn how to tap into the good aspects of this and actually use it to your own success,” she says.

“Women will often shy away from politics and won’t be represented in upper management because we fail to play the power game or shy away from it because we don't want to be labeled as difficult. Men don't care so much about these labels. It was eye-opening to look at it from a different angle and to educate myself and other women in my network about the tools we can use to step into that power without the negative labels. Negotiation, compliments, and positive feedback can take you a long way. You don't have to play dirty politics to be powerful within those structures.”

El Banna also found classroom discussions provided a variety of new perspectives, given the diversity of fields and experience represented in her cohort.

“You have 55-plus people in your class, and everybody shares their professional experience into a topic. Hearing about their challenges, their successes and how they approach it completely differently because of how their industry works, or because of certain unspoken rules, really opens your eyes and broadens your perspective,” she says.

“It also helps you build a huge network across industries.”

Following the EMBA El Banna returned to JAGGAER in a different role, a shift she says wouldn’t have been possible without the EMBA.

“The way you talk before the EMBA is not the way you talk after the EMBA. It just does something to your mindset, and you don't understand it until you’re actually in this kind of a program,” she says.

“It makes you realize that you can do better, be a better leader, and aim to be in more influential positions.

It’s an investment in yourself.”