Every Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 11:00 at Aixois Cafe in Brookside, you will find an extraordinary community figure doing her best work. Linda Endecott sits at the same window table each visit, not making lofty plans or serving herself in some way. She is simply connecting, learning and listening.
As Managing Director of the Executive MBA program at Rockhurst University, Endecott has invested in the lives of hundreds of community leaders and their business goals. Yet, she chooses intentional conversation as the starting point for relationships with her students.
“I ask them to meet me here because I want to get to know them. When they meet me on campus, they think they’re supposed to be different. They think they have to give me the right answers,” she said. “It’s a bold move to come back and take an EMBA. It's a lot of work. It's not for the faint of heart. It is worth every single penny they spend on this, and investing in yourself does not get any better than that. It just doesn't.”
The main criteria for students who apply to the 21-month program is eight to ten years of management experience with possible exceptions as people progress in their careers. Built into the curriculum are experiences in strategy, management and networking. Classes are diverse in age, ethnicity and career. But no matter where they are coming from, all students start from the same place on the first day of class–vulnerability.
“If you don't know yourself you actually can't do a whole lot,” Endecott said. “I think what really sets us apart is self-reflection. I love it when I'm talking to people and they're pretty secure with who they are, and then they're in the program and go, ‘Okay, I had absolutely no idea who I am.’”
Learning who you are and how you operate is one of the most powerful aspects of investing in yourself, according to Endecott. It is a journey that she has been on her entire life. Growing up on the East Coast in a steel company family, Endecott gained her footing in business concepts. In college, many of her friends gravitated toward her for guidance and care. Those two connecting points launched Endecott into a life of curiosity, mentorship and service to others. Now, after seven years of leading the oldest EMBA program in the region, she is seeing the fruit of her investment in a variety of ways.
“The program actually teaches them about personal time management. I never thought about that until I got a thank you note from one of the spouses in the first class I had recruited. It said, ‘When my spouse is home, they are very present,’” she said. “What they do just spreads throughout the community. It's extremely rich and they change other people's lives, and it's just awesome. I am so blessed that I get to know these people. It's why I love what I do.”
For a self-proclaimed introvert who “works hard to be an extrovert,” Endecott concludes: “People are what make me click.”
The joy she possesses for people is clear with the pride she feels from watching her students complete the program and taking what they learn back into their communities.
“They come out of an EMBA with a level of confidence that’s hard to put words around. To see who they become and who they are when they graduate just floors the heck out of me,” Endecott said. “When I see their smiles as they're going through their hooding, that's a big deal. Their families are there. Their children are there. They're getting the hood put on, and all of a sudden, everyone is standing a little straighter.”
Endecott challenges anyone who is considering an EMBA at Rockhurst University to not let the excuse of time stand in their way, because no time will ever be exactly right.
“The EMBA program is not for everyone,” she said. “As I tell them, it's the right timing; it's the right attitude; it's right thinking; and the best time to do it is when you're actually thinking about it.”
Waiting at the end of every student’s journey is Endecott at her Aixois table, sipping on a non-caffeinated drink and ready to resume the conversation that brought them here in the first place.
“I love it when they call me afterward and say, ‘Hey, can we just grab a quick coffee, you know, let me tell you about what I'm doing, or can I pick your brain?’ It's just so awesome,” she said. “Those relationships are things I'll remember for the rest of, well maybe, I'll remember for the rest of my life. We'll see! But, it's just a joy. It is joy.”
To learn more about Rockhurst University's EMBA program, visit their website: rockhurst.edu/college-business/helzberg/emba
“If you desire to develop and grow as a leader, and you want to do that alongside some of the greatest leaders in Kansas City, then you should absolutely join the Rockhurst Executive MBA program,” said Steve Tanner, Sr. Director for Global Security at the Kansas City National Security Campus, managed by Honeywell FM&T.