Businessman leading team meeting
Truly great leaders understand that they must be lifelong learners. The more insight they acquire, the more they have to pass on to their employees. Here are five leadership courses that will help you cultivate a healthier work environment.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, executive, manager, or entry-level employee, developing your leadership skills is crucial to your career trajectory. Once you get too busy to devote any time or attention to further learning, stagnation will set in. As President John F. Kennedy succinctly summarized, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
The best leaders are self-aware. They believe in the value of servant leadership. They understand the value of constant improvement and are lifelong learners, no matter how much they achieve. They understand that acquiring knowledge alone is insufficient. As they take in new information, great leaders are constantly asking themselves the same question; “Who else could benefit from this information?”
With in-person conferences and training opportunities still limited by the pandemic, on-demand courses are one of the most convenient ways to boost your leadership skills. Don’t wait for someone else to teach you lessons the hard way. Stay proactive by taking a closer look at these five leadership development courses.
1. Discovering And Developing Core Values
It’s relatively easy to spot companies that operate without a defined and widely shared set of core values. Just look for employees and management who seem tired all the time. These people constantly feel as though they are walking uphill, fighting a strong headwind and steep incline.
Some of these companies can enjoy success for years, or even decades, before a lack of core values will come back to bite them. Most often, any lack of clarity around core values will eventually result in scope creep, mission drift, or worse.
While finding and developing core values is critical for effective leadership, it can be hard to know where to start. This course includes an exercise that guides participants through creating and refining their own personal list of core values. Especially helpful for entrepreneurs, Discovering and Developing Core Values coaches participants through a proven method to identify, articulate, and apply core values to both life and career.
2. Body Language For Authentic Leadership
We all know that it’s possible to say the right thing and still get it wrong. In the 21st century, business leaders, in particular, need to be increasingly aware of silent messages they might unintentionally convey through body language. Body Language for Authentic Leadership contains strategies leaders can use to become more self-aware about their body language and connect with the people they lead to build trust and get better results.
Unlike many other courses on this topic, Body Language for Authentic Leadership does away with outdated, one-size-fits-all approaches. Recognizing that there is no one right way to stand or gesture, this course seeks instead to connect with individual styles and make the best use of who you already are. The result is a noticeable improvement in unspoken communication and visual cues that does not feel fake or forced.
3. 52 More Hours
As you rise in the leadership ranks, you’ll find increasing demands on your time. To effectively lead others, you must control your schedule. 52 More Hours includes realistic strategies to help participants manage time more effectively and free up dozens of hours every year. This course is short and powerful, as you would expect a productivity course should be.
52 More Hours participants will get the help they need to find more time and energy for the work they’re passionate about, limit the daily drain of email and meetings, maintain focus, balance day-to-day responsibilities with doing what they’re best at, and create a reasonable work-life balance. By identifying and executing the most important things each day, participants save at least an hour per week that can be used for whatever matters most.
4. Leading Without Authority Video Series
Those in authority aren’t necessarily good leaders, and sometimes the best leaders are those who have no official authority whatsoever. Individuals at all levels of an organization can build effective partnerships, help elevate their co-workers, and demonstrate true leadership without waiting to be given official status. The key is putting people and mission ahead of turf and the desire for recognition.
Leading Without Authority offers proven strategies to help employees at all levels of an organization hone and apply their leadership skills. This video series will teach how to exert influence and build the experience required to take on greater leadership roles in the future. It includes actionable strategies that, when implemented well, can lead to exponential transformation in the workplace.
5. Leading With Emotional Courage
Leadership is not always about knowing the perfect thing to say or do. Instead, true leadership is about showing up brimming with confidence, connected to others, and committed to a common purpose in a way that inspires others to follow. It’s primarily about whether you are willing to experience the discomfort, risk, and uncertainty of saying or doing it. If you are willing to feel everything, you can do anything.
Leading With Emotional Courage takes participants on an immersive journey to show how to use emotional understanding to inspire ourselves and the people we lead. The course explores the importance and elements of emotional courage and offers actionable advice to help you apply this quality to your life and leadership.
Leaders are often only as good as the expertise they learn from others. Consider investing in one or more of these courses to upgrade your leadership skills and make a bigger impact, both at work and in your personal life.
