4 Essential Leadership Courses to Fast-Track Career for Aspiring Managers

Today, we list the four best online courses on leadership for aspiring managers like you. Choose from comprehensive specialisations and bestselling certificate programmes on Coursera, Harvard Business School Online, and Udemy to meet your available learning schedule, skill/knowledge gap, and budget.

Great leaders exemplify self-awareness and lifelong learning. They recognise their strengths and weaknesses and actively work on them.  

Personal development courses provide various tools to practice mindfulness and manage stress with mentorship/coaching best practices. But, they often fall short in crucial leadership areas. Conflict management, team and employee motivation, and resilience building may be lacking. 

Not to say that such courses don’t lay a foundation - they help! But, aspiring leaders need specialised knowledge, not one-size-fits-all solutions. 

Now, mid-level managers who wish to reach the top level or become better leaders should shift their learning focus to advanced leadership development. They can look into specific leadership courses that cultivate and help demonstrate emotional and social intelligence. 

After all, with the steering wheel to drive an organisation forward at that top level, one should certainly practice what they preach.  

Want to elevate your true leadership potential? 

Explore these curated leadership courses.

1. Inspired Leadership Specialization on Coursera

This specialisation of 5 in-depth modules provides a blueprint of modern-day leadership best practices. 

Course Name	Inspired Leadership Specialization
Duration	2 months
Provider	Coursera
Cost to Finish and Earn Certificate	Two months Coursera Plus subscription (USD 49 x2; approx INR 8100)
Instructors	Diana Bilimoria, Melvin Smith, Melvin Smith, and 3 others
Skills Gained	Inclusivity, compassion, conviction, empowerment, and Appreciative Inquiry are core focus areas.
Students Enrolled	34,112
Total Reviews	4.8/5 from 1200+ ratings

What You’ll Learn

• The first 19 hours delve into relationship-building in workspaces, combining leadership and personable skills, including emotional intelligence, compassion, and mindfulness.  
• As you go through the other modules, workplace gender behaviours, women's leadership, research-driven compassionate coaching, and related topics will be covered. 

Pedagogy

Reflective exercises and forum chats enabled across all the modules to apply learning in real-world scenarios of workplace behaviours. A capstone project is included at the end. 

Who are the Instructors?

The faculty of Case Western Reserve University has designed and offered pre-recorded lectures in this course. 

Course Objectives

• Guides your learning path to make you an inclusive leader who has self-confidence.
• Become better at coaching for challenging areas and improve motivation for self and teams. 

When Does It Start?

Enrol now or anytime. 

2. Leadership: Practical Leadership Skills on Udemy

This is a bestselling leadership course on Udemy. There is a lot of practical advice on widely adopted management and team frameworks, offering a perspective on using them effectively for overall workplace of today. 

Course Name	Leadership: Practical Leadership Skills
Duration	3 hours
Provider	Udemy
Cost	INR 3,099
Instructors	Chris Croft
Concepts Covered	Leadership styles, management frameworks
Students Enrolled	243,874
Total Reviews	4.7/5 from 85,483 ratings

What You’ll Learn

• Important concepts, including Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are explained in conjunction with workplace motivation with practical tips. 
• Explore the main leadership theories to delegate responsibilities when required in an informed way. For instance, adapt situational leadership when delegation fails. 
• Learn about the four broad types of people and explore how each can be motivated differently. This can be applied at workplaces. 

Pedagogy

The course has seven downloadable materials with topic-based quizzes. Chris Croft, with his 20 years of training experience, offers practical guidance on theories that are immediately applicable. 

Course Objective

This is primarily a theory-based practical course, forming a foundation for your actions as an effective manager or leader.  

When Does It Start?

This course has been updated in 2024, and you can enrol anytime. 

3. Power and Influence for Positive Impact on HBS Online

As the course title suggests, this course offers a wholesome understanding of how you can assess and navigate your leadership in the political aspects of an organisation in an ethical manner. It comes with a course completion certificate from HBS Online, which is ideal for entry to mid-level professionals. 

Course Name	Power and Influence for Positive Impact
Duration	Six weeks
Provider	HBS Online
Cost	USD 1,850; approx INR 1,55,000
Instructors	Julie Battilana
Skills gained	Bringing effective organisational change through influence skills, network building, conflict resolution, etc.

What You’ll Learn

• This 6-module course from HBS Online focuses on training to-be-leaders to identify power hierarchies and assert influence ethically and responsibly, especially in times of change. 
• It helps learners discover where their limits remain in terms of leadership.

Pedagogy

The course has several exercises after each module that require learners to identify and analyse for practical purposes. In the end, a capstone project culminates with your leadership expertise in using power purposefully by building an action plan. 

Julie Battilana heads this programme and is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the Alan L. Gleitsman Professor of Social Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. 

Her focus on the course is to help professionals develop and understand how to leverage an organisation's power dynamics and lead with influence. 

Course Objective

Learners, through the course, will be able to develop and refine their own influencing approaches and yield ethical power through challenging times of change in organisations through exercises and one capstone project. 

When Does It Start?

It starts on October 16th 2024. 

4. Organizational Leadership Specialization on Coursera

As the course title suggests, this course offers a wholesome understanding of how you can assess and navigate your leadership in the political aspects of an organisation in an ethical manner. It comes with a course completion certificate from HBS Online, which is ideal for entry to mid-level professionals. 

Course Name	Organizational Leadership Specialization
Duration	1 month
Provider	Coursera with Northwestern University
Cost	One-month Coursera Plus subscription
Instructors	Elizabeth Gerber with 13 more instructors
Skills gained	Leadership in different organisational functions - design, marketing, etc.
Students Enrolled	50,545
Total Reviews	4.7/5 from 2672 reviews

What You’ll Learn

• Learn organisational-level collaboration. 
• Cultivate a personal branding storytelling approach. 
• Overcome influencing challenges, identifying behaviour from a social perspective. 
• Embrace technology and data science best practices and retain customers. 
• Find how to lead innovation in a company. 

Pedagogy

The course covers practical learning with developing team charters, game plans, etc. Capstone project included. 

Course Objective

Learners will be able to lead an organisation through tough market challenges. 

When Does It Start?

Enrol now or anytime. 

Ready for the Next Big Step?

These beginner to advanced courses focus on building important leadership qualities required for today's work environments. They will help build the right skillset by helping you work on different kinds of challenges, first starting with how you lead yourself, your teams, and/or your organisation on the road to continued success.