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Bolstering leadership skills is a critical component of almost any MBA program. A recent article in U.S. News offers a glimpse at some unique courses that build such skills—with a twist.

“Leadership and Theatre: Ethics, Innovations and Creativity”

This course at Darden School of Business forces students, many of whom have never participated in theater before, to unleash their inner thespian. Actors, like business leaders, need to be true to themselves before they can persuade an audience, course instructor Ed Freeman says.

The class teaches its two dozen participants that, as in business, effective leadership is crucial for actors. The notion is put to the test in the finale to the course, when students put on a community performance.

“There is probably not any class that I look back on, in all my education, which has taught me more about leadership,” Darden graduate Akanksha Manik Talya tells U.S. News. “I am much more conscious of the things that you should be thinking while you’re working with people.”

“Getting Along and Getting It Right: Consequential Leadership in Action”

This mandatory program for full-time MBA students at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business is an intense week-long conference that kicks off the students’ second year of school.

According to the article, class activities include improvisational leadership sessions, interactive theater performances on business issues, and an elaborate, scripted court hearing complete with costumed students playing the prosecutors, defendants, judges and jury.

Second year students are put on trial for “failure to use their graduate experience for developmental purposes” and must develop plans to enhance their education. One plan may ultimately be funded and implemented by the school, the article reveals.

Strengthening one’s leadership ability is key to driving employees to deliver. “You can have the best spreadsheet in the world, but unless you can get others to work with it as a leader, that plan isn’t going to go anywhere,” says Darden instructor Lynn Isabella. “Those financials aren’t going to leap off the page and bring themselves to life.”

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Spain’s IESE Business School has released its deadlines for the 2010-2011 MBA admissions season. The six rounds are as follows:

Round 1
Deadline: October 25, 2010
Notification: December 3, 2010

Round 2
Deadline: December 7, 2010
Notification: January 28, 2011

Round 3
Deadline: January 17, 2011
Notification: February 25, 2011

Round 4
Deadline: February 28, 2011
Notification: March 25, 2011

Round 5
Deadline: April 11, 2011
Notification: May 20, 2011

Round 6
Deadline: June 6, 2011
Notification: June 21, 2011

Applicants should note that rounds 4, 5 and 6 are provisional and subject to change. IESE Business School recommends that all non-EU citizens apply by the R5 deadline in order to assure time for visa procedure.

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Asian universities have stepped up their game when it comes to competing for students as Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, the region’s top-ranked graduate school of business, joins with three rivals to raise their visibility in North America and Europe and lure more Western candidates to Asia to earn MBA degrees.

Bloomberg is reporting the Hong Kong university will recruit jointly with the China Europe International Business School, the Indian School of Business and Nanyang Technological University.

The Asian allies have created a brand, Top Asia B-Schools, they hope will generate the sort of cachet associated with the Ivy League, Nick Soriano, director of marketing and admissions at Nanyang, in Singapore, tells Bloomberg.

“There’s the Ivy League in America, so we thought why can’t we Asian business schools do the same kind of thing,” Soriano says. “Even though we are very much each other’s competitors, we thought we can all work together in trying to attract and convince people to come to Asia for their MBA.”

Calling itself “Asia4,” the group has established a web presence and touts the region as the first-choice destination when it comes to management education, a place where you can learn to address the challenges of today’s increasingly complex business world.

Lower program costs and Asia’s ever-increasing economic relevance, plus the use of English as the language of instruction, makes this quartet particularly appealing to students in the West.

Officials from the four Asian schools will travel later this year to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, London, Paris and Madrid to speak with students at recruiting events, says Pauline Cheung, director of overseas marketing and admissions at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

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