The Discipline of Leadership (Coursera)

The Discipline of Leadership (Coursera)

Because it is likely you either want to improve your leader effectiveness or you may want to increase the number of leadership opportunities you have, this course will focus on outlining the factors that predict leader emergence (whether someone will emerge as a leader) and leader effectiveness.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Because those predictors are numerous, this course will be broken down into three distinct parts: 1) who one is as a leader (evaluating leaders/leadership and applying to your own personality/traits/character); 2) what one's knowledge, skills, and abilities should be (KSAOs); and 3) how leaders should approach and resolve problems when in a position of leadership. Leadership develops over time and can be aided by repetition (experience), feedback, and self-reflection. Unfortunately, no one can teach you how to lead. My goal as your professor is to give you the tools that will enable you to teach yourselves how to be better leaders.
Course 4 of 6 in the Ethical Leadership Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Leader Emergence and Effectiveness
This module will cover key concepts related to personality, leadership traits, and character that can help develop your capacity as an ethical leader as we begin to develop your knowledge of leadership (the K in KSAOs—Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Other). Through lectures, readings, and self-assessments, you will learn about predictors of leader emergence and leader effectiveness. These concepts include the “Big 5” (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism), affect, and mindset. Finally, you will learn that, although your personality, traits, and character might be one way right now, these are also changeable.

WEEK 2
KSAOs: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, Other
While Module 1 started to build your knowledge (the K in KSAOs), Module 2 goes in more depth to add to your knowledge while also covering key skills and abilities (the SAs in KSAOs) that impact leadership. Specifically, we will cover key leadership behaviors, including consideration, initiating structure, and transformational leadership. This week’s lessons also go over the importance of trust, and how to increase the likelihood that you behave in ways that show others you are worthy of their trust. In the second lesson, we will put the content that you have learned thus far together to help guide you through critical thinking about the discipline of leadership. Specifically, you will get to respond to a challenging leadership situation. Together, these elements contribute to your development as an ethical leader.

WEEK 3
Common Situations in Which Leaders Find Themselves
Week 3 covers common leadership situations and includes learning fundamental negotiation basics and change management principles (including effective influence tactics). We will also review essential insights to help you respond effectively to emotionally charged conversations. Learners should leave this week understanding that leaders need a broad array of knowledge to identify and effectively implement optimal strategies for the situations leaders face at work. This insight is key to developing as an ethical leader.

WEEK 4
Putting it All Together
The final week in this course addresses the other factors that can impact the extent to which you are able to execute the leadership lessons we’ve covered so far (the O in KSAOs). Although situational factors are discussed less frequently in the context of leadership, they nonetheless play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Ethical leaders are able to effectively address these situational factors to deliver optimal results.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Leadership and Influence (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Leadership and Influence (Coursera)

The only thing you get to change is yourself, and in the prerequisites to this course we’ve given you real tools to do that. Now, use those tools to influence the course of your future, your team's future, and your organization's future. Make a plan for yourself that will help you help others, and learn skills to make it happen. Listening and being sure of your values underpins everything that comes with professional influencer and leadership soft skills. We’ll go on to look at self-assessment and leadership planning, negotiation, addressing and resolving conflict, and successfully identifying and promoting circumstances you want.

Oct 26th 2026
4 Weeks
The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,Birkbeck, University of London

The Manager's Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Managing People at Work (Coursera)

The aim of this course is to give you a practical guide to managing people at work. It does not matter whether you are a first time manager in a shop or a middle manager in an office environment; the same skills apply to every work place. In the course you will engage with some HR theories and then see how they translate into every day working life.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Impact from Digital Transformation: Full course (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Impact from Digital Transformation: Full course (Coursera)

This course is about what you can do when everything around you seems to be moving due to digital change. It is about how to handle the disruptive process that tends to unfold in industry nowadays due to digitalisation. The way to handle this is what is here referred to as "Digital Transformation" and at the core of it, it is about understanding how the new business landscape is evolving and heading for a new position in that landscape. It is about corporate strategy.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Leadership Through Social Influence (Coursera) Coursera
Northwestern University

Leadership Through Social Influence (Coursera)

This course will provide learners with a systematic general framework for analyzing persuasive influence situations. Learners will be able to identify different challenges faced by persuaders and to fashion appropriate strategies for addressing those challenges. The broad goal is to provide learners with not only an extensive persuasion tool kit, but also with an understanding of how different tools are useful in different situations.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Cómo inspirar y a motivar personas (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Cómo inspirar y a motivar personas (Coursera)

En este curso, aprenderá a crear una visión compartida para su equipo y a comunicarla con eficacia a sus compañeros. También aprenderá a fijar metas y expectativas eficaces de un modo que le permita a su equipo alcanzar esa visión compartida. Por último, comprenderá las necesidades y los factores de desempeño más importantes en todas las culturas y aprenderá a alinear incentivos con conductas deseadas, para motivar a sus compañeros a alcanzar los objetivos del equipo.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Inove na gestão de equipes e negócios: O crescimento da empresa (Coursera) Coursera
Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Inove na gestão de equipes e negócios: O crescimento da empresa (Coursera)

Aprenda a gerir equipes na sua empresa, e também estratégias de como crescer o seu negócio com profissionais das maiores startups brasileiras, como upLexis, Revelo, Playax e Beleza na Web. Neste curso você irá entender mais sobre como escalar, como criar e manter a cultura, como ser um líder, como gerir e contratar equipes, como desenvolver produtos e como cuidar da operação da sua empresa.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change (Coursera) Coursera
Case Western Reserve University

Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change (Coursera)

This course aims to inspire and empower women and men across the world to engage in purposeful career development and take on leadership for important causes - to lead change with more conviction and confidence - and improve our workplaces and communities for all. By offering more complex understandings of issues related to professional women and work, the course will help you increase self-knowledge about your own values and vision, as well as enhance your capabilities as a leader, manager, and team contributor. We will examine the opportunities, challenges, trade-offs, and organizational dynamics experienced by women in work organizations, as well as reflect on and practice effective individual behaviors.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Liderazgo de equipos (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Liderazgo de equipos (Coursera)

En este curso, aprenderá cómo construir su equipo, mejorar el trabajo en equipo y la colaboración, y mantener el desempeño del equipo a través del aprendizaje y la mejora continuos. Específicamente, aprenderá las mejores prácticas para componer un equipo y alinear los objetivos individuales y del equipo. También aprenderá a establecer roles, construir estructuras y administrar la toma de decisiones para que su equipo sobresalga.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
Understanding Korean Politics (Coursera) Coursera
Yonsei University

Understanding Korean Politics (Coursera)

This course will select six most outstanding issues in contemporary Korean politics and will engage in an in-depth, interactive inquiry of those issue. They include Korean politics in history, institutional setting of Korean politics, and dynamics of political culture in Korea, profiles of political leadership, myth and reality of the developmental state and the Korean economic miracle, and debates on Korean unification. The course will expose students to contending theories and empirical reality at first hand.

Oct 26th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Business Implications of AI: A Nano-course (Coursera) Coursera
EIT Digital

Business Implications of AI: A Nano-course (Coursera)

In this course you will learn what Artificial Intelligence is, from a leaders point of view. How shall we, as leaders, understand it from a corporate strategy point of view? What is it and how can it be used? What are the crucial strategic decisions we have to make, and how to make them? What consequences can we expect if we decide on doing AI-projects and what kind of competences do we need? Where shall we start, and what could be a good second as well as third step? What implications for the organization can we expect? These are the questions answered in this course.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks
La gestión de personas y equipos (Coursera) Coursera
IESE Business School

La gestión de personas y equipos (Coursera)

En una ocurrente frase, Peter Drucker, pionero en el campo de la gestión empresarial, afirmó en una ocasión que las personas tienen una tendencia perversa a comportarse como seres humanos. Con ello quería señalar algo que es evidente: que las personas no somos máquinas y, por ello, no somos programables. Sin embargo, sí que tenemos unas necesidades que satisfacer, y unas características comunes. Y conocerlas - qué motiva a las personas en el ámbito laboral, qué necesidades buscan satisfacer, y por qué - ayuda a entender mejor el comportamiento en las organizaciones.

Oct 26th 2026
4 Weeks