*Updated 12/8/2025
Inspiring and motivating others to do great things in businesses, organizations, and communities requires a range of communication, interpersonal, and practical skills. While some people are born with a knack for leadership, even they need training to maximize their abilities.
Whether you consider yourself a born leader or are exploring ways to break through career ceilings, a Master of Organizational Leadership (MOL) degree could be your next career step. An MOL program prepares you to work in a variety of organizations, from governments and nonprofits to the military or even your own company.
Students in Southern Nazarene University (SNU)'s Master of Organizational Leadership program have a variety of reasons for returning to school. Some are ready to change organizations or careers. Others have hit career barriers that only an advanced degree can help them overcome. Many are already in leadership positions but need a higher degree to further demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
No matter who you are or what path you take, you can develop the skills to become an inspirational, transformative leader. Here are some interesting and diverse career paths you might pursue after graduating with your MOL.
Possible Careers for Master of Organizational LEadership Graduates
Consultant
Consultants help other people with their organizations and projects. This might mean helping an aspiring change-maker set up a successful nonprofit. It could also mean advising a multinational conglomerate on how to grow efficiently and economically. Consultant roles vary as much as the people who hold them, but they all require a well-developed understanding of organizations, human relationships, and business.
Consultants themselves can work in various roles and settings. You might join a consulting firm and climb the internal ranks thanks to your exceptional leadership skills. With the right experience, you might freelance on the side to pad your income. Or you could start your own consulting firm, working for yourself and on your terms. For this reason, there’s no single average consultant salary or experience. The role is what you make it. However, the average annual wage for Leadership Consultants in the United States is around $103,000 as of December 2025.
Government Administrator
When you think of government, you might think of elected officials, endless political campaigning, and social media arguments. However, virtually every government runs due to the support of a permanent or semi-permanent staff of organizational leaders. This includes city managers, urban planners, finance and business experts, and public servants committed to making governments work for the people they are intended to serve.
Governments need experts on a wide variety of topics, from facilities management to city planning. And those experts need the leadership and communication skills that working with different administrations, political viewpoints, and budgets requires. SNU's MOL degree program offers exceptional preparation for public service. While government administrator positions may vary, and salary ranges vary with them, the current national annual salary for a Government Administrator falls right around $73,000.
Healthcare Administrator
Careers in healthcare are rapidly growing, and healthcare administration is no exception. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, these roles are projected to explode by 23% between 2024 and 2034, much faster than average. With median annual earnings of just over six figures, these jobs offer an enticing salary that may offer a path to a better life for you and your family.
Healthcare administrators work in many roles, from small local clinics to academic institutions and massive hospital systems. This could be the perfect career path if you’re interested in public health, improving the healthcare system, and health innovation.
Nonprofit Director
We tend to think of nonprofits as charitable organizations committed to doing good. However, they’re also businesses that must thoughtfully use often-limited resources. Some nonprofits are even large multinational organizations with numerous partnerships, a large board of directors, and a mandate to remain accountable.
A Master of Organizational Leadership degree can prepare you to give back to your community as an executive director of a nonprofit. Whether you’re serving your local church or joining an international charity, exceptional leadership matters, and it begins with the right education. Like many positions, the salary range varies by the size and scope of the nonprofit organization, but the average annual wage for Nonprofit Directors is around $79,800 nationwide.
Marketing Manager
In 2024, marketing managers had median annual earnings of just over $159,000. Marketing campaigns have gotten increasingly complex as businesses develop digital strategies across dozens of platforms and channels. Marketing managers take a big-picture approach to marketing campaigns while overseeing a team of creatives.
This is a great role if you already have experience in marketing or hope to harness your creativity or analytical insight to help businesses thrive. To succeed in this role, exceptional communication, genuine concern for the people you manage, and an interest in helping brands thrive are key. The right education may be the missing ingredient in the recipe for entering this exciting career.
C-Suite and Other Executive Roles
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) opens a path to numerous business leadership roles, such as chief executive officer and chief financial officer. For some leaders, though, the focus is less on the financial and organizational aspects of business and more on the people who make the business what it is. If this sounds like you, a Master of Organizational Leadership degree might offer a better path to a career you love.
You probably already know that the C-suite earns an exceptionally good living. With stable growth, these careers are highly competitive. Make yourself stand out with a degree that shows your commitment to exceptional leadership.
Human Resources Manager
A business is nothing without the human beings who help it thrive. Human resources (HR) managers help businesses manage their human resources. You may oversee benefits, ensure the business remains compliant with relevant laws and regulations, help onboard new employees, oversee hiring and firing, and more. HR managers often play a key role in building functional workplaces and rooting out office toxicity, so if you’re on a mission to improve the world, you might want to start with improving work. After all, we spend a third of our lives at work.
With stable growth and median earnings of about $140,000 in 2024, a job in human resource management may help you lead a more financially secure life, with job opportunities scattered across the globe. Work in a large business, a nonprofit, a municipal government, or even start your own human resources consulting firm. An MOL degree increases your versatility and hireability in human resources.
SNU: The Ideal Place to Pursue Your Master of Organizational Leadership
An organizational leadership degree can change your life and empower you to change the world around you. At SNU, we believe in offering rigorous programs that craft exceptional leaders. But we also know that learners need support and guidance, so we built our leadership program with busy adult students in mind. Our MOL program is offered entirely online, making it possible to fit graduate school in with your work, family, and other responsibilities.
Are you ready to discover where a Master of Organizational Leadership degree can take you?
