“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.
In reality, anyone can learn to become an effective leader, manager, negotiator, or change-maker with education and practice.
To equip you with the necessary skills, HBS Online offers six leadership and management courses: Leadership Principles, Management Essentials, Power and Influence for Positive Impact, Negotiation Mastery, Strategy Execution, and Organizational Leadership.
Whether you’re a new leader or manager building a foundation for success or an experienced one striving to hone or expand your skills, there’s an HBS Online course for you. Here’s an overview of each course to help you decide.
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If You’re a New or Aspiring Leader or Manager
Do you want to lead an organization or manage teams? Have you recently earned a promotion and want to bolster your skill set? Start with foundational skills in leadership or management.
Leadership Principles is a six-week course that will empower you to unlock the potential in yourself and others. Taught by HBS professors Anthony Mayo and Joshua Margolis, this course guides you in developing your personal leadership style, provides the tools to mobilize others, and prepares you to pivot and lead in stressful situations.
Management Essentials is right if you want fresh tactics for designing organizational processes, influencing decision-making, and spearheading initiatives that enable your team and organization to be at their best.
This eight-week course is taught by HBS professors Joseph Fuller and David Garvin, who equip you with everything from broad perspectives on management to tools for guiding organizational change.
Related: 5 Critical Steps in the Change Management Process
Power and Influence for Positive Impact is the right course for you if you’re interested in the role power and social influence play in enacting positive change.
Taught by HBS Professor Julie Battilana, this six-week course offers a detailed framework for understanding how power works, guidance for gaining power and influence no matter your role, and how to harness it to positively impact others, your organization, and society at large.
If You’re an Experienced Leader or Manager
If you’re a seasoned leader or manager, consider taking Leadership Principles, Management Essentials, or Power and Influence for Positive Impact to brush up on your skills and gain new perspectives from HBS faculty and business experts from leading companies.
If your goal is to deepen or expand your existing skill set, explore one of our other three courses.
Organizational Leadership is our second course taught by Mayo and Margolis. It can be taken as a follow-up to Leadership Principles or on its own. This seven-week course is right if you’re an experienced team leader who wants to prepare for expanded leadership roles.
Through this course, you’ll learn how to elevate your personal leadership style to apply it to larger teams, influence through other managers, and create organizational alignment by effectively communicating purpose and vision.
Related: 4 Organizational Leadership Skills for Aspiring Executives
If you aim to hone your negotiation skills, Negotiation Mastery is the right choice. Over eight weeks, HBS Professor Michael Wheeler will teach you how to analyze negotiation dynamics, prepare an agile negotiation strategy, de-escalate tensions before they become conflicts, and maximize value in agreements.
Finally, Strategy Execution rounds out our leadership and management offerings. This eight-week course taught by HBS Professor Robert Simons prepares you for what many managers call the strategy process’s most challenging aspect: implementation.
You’ll learn the skills to tackle common execution challenges, create an organizational culture that fosters successful strategy execution, and apply frameworks for managing risk, allocating resources, and measuring your own strategies' success.
What to Expect from an HBS Online Leadership & Management Course
No matter which leadership and management course you take, there are several hallmarks of HBS Online's learning experience you can expect:
- World-class faculty
- Self-paced online coursework with deadlines
- Engaging, interactive course content
- Social interaction with fellow learners
- Real examples of business challenges faced by experts
- The HBS Online Community, a global network of lifelong learners
Select the course that best aligns with your experience level and goals, knowing you’ll build knowledge that can make you a better leader or manager.
If you still aren't sure which HBS Online leadership and management course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals. If multiple programs interest you, consider pursuing a Learning Track, which enables you to take three courses within the leadership and management subject area.
