Leadership Principles vs. Organizational Leadership: Which Course Is Right for You?

Leadership is an elusive quality some innately have and others don’t. Yet you can develop it through education, hard work, and practice.

If you want to advance your career, Harvard Business School Online offers two courses dedicated to building your leadership skills: Leadership Principles and Organizational Leadership.

Taught by HBS Professors Joshua Margolis and Anthony Mayo, each course provides the skills and frameworks needed to lead at different points in your career.

Here’s a breakdown of each and the HBS Online learning experience to help you select the best leadership training course for you.

Course Comparison: Leadership Principles vs. Organizational Leadership

Leadership Principles

Leadership Principles is a six-week online course. If you’re an early- or mid-career professional, new leader, or early-stage or aspiring entrepreneur, this is the course for you.

In Leadership Principles, you'll:

• Develop your leadership style by understanding your motivations, emotional intelligence, and communication methods
• Learn how to handle challenging leadership situations and pivot your style when necessary
• Explore how to coach colleagues to bring out their best performances
• Drive your professional development as you transition from an individual contributor to a leader

“When I think about the audience for Leadership Principles, I think it’s anybody who’s currently in a leadership role or somebody who’s stepping into that role,” Mayo says in a video interview about the course. “For individuals who are stepping into that role, it gives them the tools, techniques, and approaches to be able to see themselves as a leader. For people who are in a leadership role already, it helps them reaffirm what things they’re doing well, what things they might want to improve, and what blind spots they may have.”

Margolis adds that the course is an effective primer for individual contributors who want to be considered for leadership roles. He also notes that it can benefit professionals managing new leaders who want to refresh their knowledge of foundational leadership concepts.

Abby Katz, a senior manager at influencer marketing organization Mavrck, enrolled in Leadership Principles at her supervisor’s recommendation to build the skills to become a team leader.

“I found the content of the course to be extremely informative and applicable to the real challenges of being a leader,” Katz says. “I loved the frameworks and the case study model of the course, and I thought it was very manageable on top of a full-time job."

If you, like Katz, aim to develop your leadership style or skill set, Leadership Principles can help you achieve your goals.

Organizational Leadership

Organizational Leadership is a seven-week online course designed for experienced team leaders and entrepreneurs who want to take their leadership skills to the next level.

In Organizational Leadership, you’ll learn how to:

• Communicate purpose and vision and inspire others to execute effectively
• Identify misalignments between your organization and its broader market dynamics
• Evolve your leadership style to guide others and meet the challenges of managing dispersed teams
• Shape organizational culture to leverage diversity, maximize performance, and drive innovation
• Craft strategies for planning and executing organizational change

“This course will prepare you to set and communicate direction, influence through other managers, drive innovation, and engineer change,” Mayo says in a video about the course.

While Organizational Leadership is a standalone course, it’s also a logical next step for those who took Leadership Principles and want to continue developing and expanding their leadership scope.

Types of Leadership Training Courses

When considering which leadership training course to take, you’ll likely encounter a variety of formats. An in-person course can be a good fit if you know you learn best in that environment and can commute to a campus location. If you want a more flexible, global experience, an online course is the right choice for you.

Online courses are more than just substitutes for in-person ones; they provide a host of benefits, including:

• Time and location flexibility
• Potential cost savings
• Self-paced learning
• Global connections

Not all online courses are created equal. If benefits such as peer interaction, world-class faculty, and engaging content are important to you, research programs that include those, like HBS Online’s offerings.

The HBS Online Learning Experience

By taking either course, you’ll experience what makes the HBS Online learning experience unique. All courses feature:

• World-renowned HBS faculty
• Self-paced coursework with deadlines
• Engaging, interactive content
• Social interaction with fellow learners
• Examples of real business challenges faced by experts
• The HBS Online Community, a global network of lifelong learners

You can also experience a return on your investment; a recent survey shows that 42 percent of HBS Online learners earned a $17,000 average salary increase after completing a course—a 10-times return on their investment.

The HBS Online learning model’s combination of flexibility, quality, connection, and real-world examples sets you up for success, regardless of which leadership and management course you choose.

If both Leadership Principles and Organizational Leadership fit your career path, consider pursuing a Learning Track. Doing so enables you to take three courses in the leadership and management subject area and earn a Certificate of Specialization upon completion.

Selecting the Right Leadership Training Course

Because there are many types of leadership training courses, it’s important to consider your experience level, educational goals, and career aspirations when selecting one.

Take stock of the skills you’d like to build: Which course will provide the tools and frameworks to do so?

If Leadership Principles or Organizational Leadership align with your experience and aspirations, they’re effective ways to gain the skills needed to advance your career.

Are you interested in developing your leadership skills with HBS Online? Explore Leadership Principles, Organizational Leadership, and other leadership and management certificate courses. Download our flowchart to determine which is right for you.