What Is Leadership? (FutureLearn)

Offered by Deakin University,
What Is Leadership? (FutureLearn)

Leadership is often misunderstood due to its complex nature. Learn what being a leader means and how you can practice leadership. Investigate leaders and leadership to improve your effectiveness as a leader. In this course, we look to answer the question: ‘What is leadership?’ In the first week we explore two fundamental perspectives on leadership: leader as a person and leadership as a practice. In the second week we examine the difference between leadership and management so you can determine whether you are a leader in a management role, a leader without a management role, or a manager who needs to become a leader.

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By exploring sources of power and influence, and how perception shapes behaviour, you will be able to address important issues more effectively.
This thought-provoking course will help you discover more about yourself and others.
This course is part of the program Leadership Practice with Impact, which is one of the building blocks that leads to a degree in Leadership.

What topics will you cover?
This thought provoking course helped you to discover more about yourself and others as we explored:

  • why leadership is different to management
  • what effective leadership is
  • what types of power are needed to be a leader
  • how you can influence other people at work
  • how individual differences shape the way people see leadership

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Explain what leadership means
  • Investigate leader role models and what they represent
  • Explore how you and others around you use personal power
  • Investigate the effect that individual differences have on leadership
  • Identify how leadership thinking has changed over the years
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