Think of leaders you admire. What qualities do they embody? What abilities do they have? Even if it seems like leadership comes naturally to them, they had to learn, build, and hone their skills.
“Leadership is sometimes misunderstood as a mystical quality that some people embody and others don’t,” says Harvard Business School Professor Joshua Margolis in the online course Leadership Principles.
The truth is: Anyone can learn how to become an effective leader. The process of gaining and practicing leadership skills is called leadership development, and it’s beneficial for new and seasoned leaders alike.
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DOWNLOAD NOWWhy Is Leadership Development Important?
Whether you’re about to make the jump from individual contributor to leader or have years of experience and want to sharpen or update your skills, there’s a leadership development option for you. In addition to gaining new skills, taking a development program can signal to your employer that you’re serious about your leadership journey.
If you’re an experienced leader, it can show that you’re willing to grow and adapt to the ever-changing business world. If you aim to advance into a leadership role, it can indicate that you have the skills and drive to do so.
Related: 5 Ways to Demonstrate Your Leadership Potential in the Workplace
Whereas individual contributor roles require specific technical skills, leadership requires more “soft skills” and emotional intelligence. That’s what drove Riya Dashoriya, who works at global learning platform Quizlet, to pursue a Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management, which she earned by completing three HBS Online leadership and management courses.
“I was having a hard time trying to convince leadership at my company why I deserved to be an engineering manager so early in my career,” Dashoriya said. “Earning a Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management helped me boost my skill set and build the confidence to ask for a promotion.”
Furthering her education paid off for Dashoriya.
“I'm now an engineering manager and get to apply what I learned in my daily life,” she said. “All three courses help me from time to time.”
Dashoriya isn’t alone. In one City Square Associates survey of HBS Online learners, 31 percent reported earning a promotion after taking a course. In another, 90 percent said they feel more self-assured at work, and 84 percent have more confidence making business decisions.
It’s evident that taking a leadership development program can help you increase your confidence, earn a promotion, and gain new skills. But how should you go about selecting one? Here’s a breakdown of factors and three types of programs to consider.
Factors to Consider When Planning Your Leadership Development
It’s crucial to determine what you want and need from your leadership development program before researching options.
Factors to consider include your:
- Existing skills: What leadership skills do you already possess?
- Goals: What do you want to get from a leadership development course? What skills do you need to reach your goals?
- Schedule and time commitment: How much time can you dedicate to your program per week? How long would you prefer its duration to be?
- Budget and program cost: What’s your budget, and how much are you willing to pay? Explore whether your employer can help fund your professional development.
- Credential or certificate: What will you earn? Decide whether you want a certificate, a credential, or a more specialized option.
Related: How to Choose the Right Online Certificate Program for You
Types of Leadership Development: Finding the Best Fit
Once you’ve taken stock of your goals, skills, and logistical requirements, it’s time to research programs. In terms of topics, there are three types: those that teach foundational skills, those that teach specialized skills, and those that teach both.
Foundational Skills
Those that teach foundational leadership skills are ideal if you’re an aspiring or a new leader who wants a shorter-duration program. They offer guidance on adopting a managerial mindset, developing your leadership style, making difficult decisions, and influencing others.
HBS Online offers several certificate courses—running between six and eight weeks—that fall into this category:
- Leadership Principles, taught by HBS professors Joshua Margolis and Tony Mayo, helps you develop your personal leadership style and bring out the best in yourself and others.
- Management Essentials, taught by HBS professors Joseph Fuller and David Garvin, equips you with everything from perspectives on management to tools for guiding organizational change.
- Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability, taught by HBS Professor Nien-hê Hsieh, outlines how to define and act on your responsibilities to stakeholders and lead with integrity.
- Power and Influence for Positive Impact, taught by HBS Professor Julie Battilana, provides a framework for understanding power and using it to positively impact others, your organization, and society at large.
Specialized Skills
If you already have a solid leadership foundation, a development program focused on more specialized leadership skills could be the right fit.
Courses in this category teach more granular skills, including honing in on specific steps of the strategic process, leading change at scale, and being a more effective leader. They can also focus on topics surrounding leadership’s future, such as digital transformation and artificial intelligence.
Listen to HBS Professor Linda Hill discuss leading change and the paradoxes of management on The Parlor Room podcast below, or watch it on YouTube.
HBS Online offers several certificate courses—running between seven and eight weeks—that fit this description:
- Organizational Leadership, also taught by Margolis and Mayo, prepares you to elevate your leadership style to apply it to larger teams and scale up your influence and organizational alignment.
- Strategy Execution, taught by HBS Professor Robert Simons, zeroes in on the strategy process’s final step and helps you overcome execution challenges, manage risk, and measure strategies’ success.
- Negotiation Mastery, taught by HBS Professor Michael Wheeler, equips you with the skills to analyze negotiation dynamics, de-escalate conflict, and maximize value in agreements.
Comprehensive Program
If you aim to build both foundational and specialized skills, research leadership development programs that encompass both.
One example is HBS Online’s Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB). Comprising seven courses, this yearlong program culminates in a capstone project to apply your learning.
CLIMB offers two learning paths—New and Experienced Leaders—to cater to where you are in your career, with courses including:
- Dynamic Teaming, taught by HBS Professor and CLIMB Faculty Chair Amy Edmondson
- Leading in the Digital World, taught by HBS Professor Linda Hill
- Personal Branding, taught by HBS Senior Lecturer Jill Avery
- Leadership Principles (New Leaders) or Organizational Leadership (Experienced Leaders), both taught by HBS professors Joshua Margolis and Tony Mayo
- Business Strategy, taught by HBS Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee (New Leaders), or Strategy Execution, taught by HBS Professor Robert Simons (Experienced Leaders)
- Finance elective of your choice: Leading with Finance, taught by HBS Professor Mihir Desai, or Financial Accounting, taught by HBS Professor and HBS Online and Executive Education Senior Associate Dean V.G. Narayanan
- Open elective of your choice from HBS Online’s course catalog
CLIMB pairs foundational (leadership, strategy, and finance) with cutting-edge (dynamic teaming, leading in the digital world, and personal branding) topics to create a leadership development experience that prepares you to excel now and in the future.
Level Up Your Leadership Skills
Determining what you want and need from your leadership development program can set you up to select an offering that helps you reach your goals.
As you progress through your career, explore how to expand, hone, and refresh your skill set—because a strong leader never stops learning.
Are you interested in building foundational and cutting-edge leadership skills? Explore our yearlong Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program, comprising seven courses for leading in the modern business world. Download our CLIMB brochure to learn more about the curriculum, admissions requirements, and benefits.
Unsure which leadership and management program is right for you? Download our free flowchart.