Leaders throughout every rung of the organization ladder are integral to the overall success of the business. Effective leadership is about executing the company’s vision and setting the tone and the culture for that particular organization. Effective leadership is almost always one of the main and primary drivers for growth, development and innovation. Topics covered in this module include: why leadership is important, defining effective leadership, effective managerial leadership and managerial skills, and the four major leadership paradigms that have developed over the years.

Global corporate scandals have led to a distrust of leaders. Leaders set the ethical climate and are responsible for employee ethical or unethical behavior. Ethics are the standards of right and wrong that influence behavior. Ethics in Leadership examines traits and personality, personality profiles, and leadership trait universality gaining an understanding of the leadership process and leadership models relative to helping people and organizations in creating an ethical working environment that benefits stakeholders, employees and employers.

The fundamental task for leaders is to motivate followers. Research findings conclude that the behavior of leaders affects follower performance, and that leaders need to use behaviors that promote, develop, and maintain team performance. In Motivation Strategies That Improve Individual and Group Performance, we examine behavioral leadership models and motivation theories that assist leaders in inspiring high performance teams.

Leadership is the “influencing” process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives. Organizations are fundamentally political entities, and power and influence are key mechanisms by which things get done. Successful leaders master the art and science of influence in organizations. In this module we will analyze the invaluable skills of: analyzing the distribution of power in organizations, identifying strategies for building sources of power, developing techniques for influencing others, and appreciating the role of power in building cooperation and leading change in an organization.

Leadership success is based on interpersonal skills. The focus of Effective Communication, Coaching and Conflict Skills is on three important interrelated parts of interpersonal skills. Communication, coaching, and conflict skills. Effective communications is the foundation for coaching and managing conflict. In this module we will examine ways you can meet the needs of employees and co-workers through effective communication, feedback and coaching. Coaching followers and managing conflicts enhances both individual and team performance.

Effective leadership is a function of the interactions between leaders and followers representing active and dynamic roles in every level of organizations. LMX Theory, examines how leaders and managers develop relationships; and how those relationships can either contribute to growth or hold people back. Leader-Member Exchange and Followership, examines the intricate nature of the relationship between a leader and a follower and the influence a high LMX relationship has on job satisfaction, commitment, and performance.

Teamwork is a way of life in modern organizations. Organizations have adopted team-based structures as the tool to promote cooperation and coordination of actions enhancing performance. The increasing realization is that teams typically outperform individuals in tasks requiring multiple skills, abilities, and experiences. Team leadership competency is now a key requirement in leaders. Benefits of Effective Team Leadership examines the growing use of teams in organizations, identifies popular types of teams, explores decision making in teams and explains how to plan and conduct effective team meetings.

Qualities Associated with Charismatic and Transformational Leaders are similar in that they both rely on the ability of the leader to influence and inspire followers. Transformational and charismatic leaders motivate the individual or those around them to be better and to work for the greater good of an organization or society. In this module we will examine charismatic and transformational leadership qualities that enable leaders to influence followers to rally towards a shared goal. Additionally, we will explore the related topics of stewardship and servant leadership.

Organizations that consistently achieve significant results exhibit a strong or high-performing culture. Organizations with strong cultures have an unmistakable profile that sets them apart from average performers including characteristics of a shared value system, a reputation for ethical leadership, and a talented, motivated, and diversified workforce. Leadership’s Effect on Culture, Ethics, and Diversity Within an Organization examines leadership’s role in cultural identity, guiding and reinforcing standards of behavior, beliefs, norms, attitudes, values, assumptions, and ways of doing things that creates the organizational DNA.

Strategic leadership is a leader’s ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for an organization. In Effective Strategic Leadership and Change Management Strategies we will examine the necessary strategic leadership skills to anticipate change, challenge status quo, interpret data, promoting effective decision making in alignment with stakeholder needs while providing the leadership and inspiration necessary to create and implement a firm’s vision, mission, and strategies to achieve organizational objectives.

In the first portion of this module we examine crisis leadership. Crisis leadership is about the role of leaders in crisis prevention, planning, preparedness and crisis management should a crisis occur. The second half of the module focuses on organizational learning and knowledge management. Learning organizations emphasize creativity, innovation, and knowledge creation to maintain a competitive advantage. In a learning organization, change is a way of life. Learning organizations are skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge promoting agility and innovation.

A solid argument can be made that an internal employee leadership development program is crucial to the long term success of an organization. The capstone course in the Leading Strategically series focuses on integrating, extending, critiquing and a applying the knowledge gained to date in the series into creating a professional leadership development program that aligns with organizational strategies. Learners assess the current culture and devise a plan for shaping a culture that supports leadership growth and innovation for the organization of your choice.

Defines organizational behavior and describe how it impacts both personal and organizational success. Industry learning partners, identify the basic management functions and essential skills that comprise the management process and relate them to organizational behavior. Learners examine the relationships between strategy and organizational behavior. Additionally learners describe the role of organizational behavior in managing for effectiveness and discuss the role of effective research links in organizational behavior.

Examines the nature of individual differences, the concept of fit, and the role of realistic job previews in organizational behavior and effectiveness. Industry leaning partners describe general personality frameworks and attributes that affect behavior in organizations. Learners identify and discuss other important personality traits and different kinds of intelligence that affect behavior in organizations. Finally learners explore different learning styles that influence how people process information and that affect behavior in organizations.

Analyzes the role of motivation within organizations. Motivation is vital to all organizations. Indeed, the difference between highly effective organizations and less effective ones often lies in the motivations of their members. Learners will characterize the nature of motivation in organizations by examining need-based perspectives and the major process-based perspectives on motivation. In the second half of the course learners examine the motivational role of work and rewards within organizations by exploring how job design, employee participation, empowerment, and flexible work arrangements impact motivation.

Examines how human behavior in organizations and the importance of interactions among people is critical to achieving important outcomes for organizations. Learners identify and describe several types of groups and teams that contribute to organizational effectiveness. Learners explore the stages of group and team development, performance factors related to groups and teams in organizations, as well as determining the opportunities and challenges related to groups and teams.

Examines the many different perspectives of decision making and the impact on organizational behavior and effectiveness. We start by examining the nature of decision making and distinguishing it from problem solving. Next, we describe several different approaches to understanding the decision-making process. We then identify and discuss related behavioral aspects of decision making. Next we discuss the major elements of group decision making. Finally, we discuss creativity, a key ingredient in many effective decisions.

Examines the communication process, some of the basic issues in interpersonal communication, methods of communicating, and how information technology (IT) and the Internet have influenced organizational communications. Learners also discuss some specific communication skills, present some barriers to effective communication, and provide ways to overcome those barriers. This Module should give learners a greater understanding of the communication process of organizational communication.

Examines how conflict is an inevitable result of interdependencies among people and workgroups within organizations. Many feel that conflict is inherently destructive. Learners analyzes how well-managed conflict resolution leads to positive outcomes including better decisions, motivated employees, improved problem solving and innovation, increased employee involvement and commitment, and clarifies work processes and goals. Learners examine the nature of conflict, explore effective conflict management strategies, and apply dispute resolution tactics.

Characterizes why leadership matters in organizational behavior, development and effectiveness. Learners examine the fundamental traditional models that are commonly used as a basis for understanding leadership including a discussion of the meaning of leadership, including its definition and the distinctions between leadership and management. We turn to historical views of leadership, focusing on the trait and behavioral approaches. Next, we examine three contemporary leadership theories that have formed the basis for leadership research. Finally learners explore several contemporary and emerging views of leadership.

Analyzes the nature of power, influence, and politics in organizations. Learners examine how individuals and groups obtain and use power ethically and effectively. Learners discuss various influence tactics and how effectively using power and influence is a skill, and misusing either can quickly derail your career. Examines how organizational politics is closely related to power and influence. In addition to impacting your own success as a manager, politics is important to understand due to its potential effects—positive and negative—on firm performance.

Examines how effective organizational structures improve the working efficiency of the organization, motivate employees and facilitate working relationships among employees and across organizational units. Learners also analyze how an organization’s structure also influences how it operates, how employees communicate, and how they are expected to behave.

Analyzes how organizational culture is essential to organizational performance. Learners examine the meaning, importance, and origins of organizational culture. Discusses how just as organizational structure can be thought of as an organization’s skeleton, organizational culture can be thought of as its personality because it influences the way employees behave. The impact of technology and innovation on organizational culture is explored. Learners identify how effective organizations manage their culture to improve and maximize performance.

Analyzes how organizations need to face the prospect of change and develop processes to ensure their viability in a complex, ever-changing global environment. Learners examine the forces that create pressures for change followed by a detailed explanation of the complex change process. Describes organization development and sources of resistance to change, concluding with a summary view of how to manage change in organizations.

Examines the phases of the change process in our lives and organizations. Learners explore the forces that drive and restrain change as well as identifying the major reasons for resistance to change. Learners demonstrate people-and-task-oriented techniques for overcoming resistance to change to implement improvements in their lives and organizations.

Analyzes reasons why people resist change. Successful leaders understand that employee responses to change vary greatly. Fear about organization change can manifest into questions about job security, satisfaction, demotions or pay cuts. Learners assess their own "resistance to change" level while evaluating both proactive and reactive responses to the process of change which involves moving from the known to the unknown.

Examines the forces for change in organizations which include internal and external factors. Learners explore external factors outside the organizations control involving customers, competition, the economy, technology, political and social conditions. We will also analyze the internal organizational environment including events, factors, people, systems, structures, and conditions that are generally under the control of the company.

Examines successful change management strategies employed by organizations to implement effective organizational changes that create a diverse and inclusive culture. Learners examine how the change is defined, the impact is assessed, a communication strategy is developed, training and support is implemented and success is measured.

Examines types of diversity in the American workplace today. As you look around your office, is everyone just like you? Probably not. The demographics of the American workforce have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Learners assess changes taking place in the workplace that promote a diverse body of talent that can bring fresh ideas, perspectives and views to their work to respond to opportunities and challenges presented by globalization.

Examines the primary reason for embracing diversity to create a high-performance culture. Culturally diverse workers have different opinions, thoughts, beliefs, norms, customs, values, trends, and traditions. One positive effect is that employees belonging to different cultures usually have different ways of thinking and can thus analyze a matter at hand from a variety of perspectives. Learners analyze the four cultural value types, the three levels of moral reasoning and global cultural value differences.

Analyzes the effect of perception and biases on organizational situations. The selection, organization, and interpretation of perceptions can differ among different people. Therefore, when people react differently in a situation, part of their behavior can be explained by examining their perceptual process, and how their perceptions are leading to their responses. Learners examine biases found in organizations and ways to change perception.

Analyzes personal attitudes and biases in the workplace. A bias happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making quick judgments and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, cultural environment, and personal experiences. Unconscious bias acts as a barrier to equality. Learners assess personal, ethic, racial, and cultural uniqueness, and multicultural exposure.

Examines common communication obstacles that occur in the workplace. Learners describe how gender, generational and cultural differences can create obstacles to communication. Learners identify strategies for overcoming these communication obstacles.

Examines strategies for managing cross-cultural diversity in organizations. Learners describe the implementation needs to create cross-cultural diversity in an organization. Embracing diversity, promoting open communication and fostering strong relationships among workers are management tools which create diversity in organizations.

Examines an organization's willingness to change. Learners assess what other organizations are doing to create a diverse, inclusive place of work while developing the “next steps” for change to create a diverse, inclusive workplace.

Examines personal and organizational accomplishments that promote diversity breakthroughs. Learners focus on monitoring, measuring and celebrating progress to create a diverse, inclusive environment in organizations, businesses, workplaces or communities, to reflect the marketplaces and communities of the 21st Century.