Effective Leadership

About this course

Leadership is incredibly powerful – and often misunderstood. This course breaks down the essentials of leadership, helping you distinguish between leading, managing, and following.

You'll discover how character and personal strengths drive effective leadership, and you’ll learn to harness relationships and influence to build and sustain high-performing teams. With a focus on communication and constructive conflict, you'll gain practical tools to enhance team dynamics.

The course also covers adaptive leadership, equipping you to navigate complexity with confidence. Finally, you'll explore how to lead with a focus on sustainability, ensuring your impact is both immediate and lasting.

This course is designed to empower you with the knowledge and skills needed to lead (and follow!) effectively in today’s complex and changing world.

On completion of this course, you will receive a Digital Certificate and can apply for credit towards further study into the Graduate Certificate in Leadership and Organisational Capability (C5X). Completion of both the Effective Leadership and Change Management Short Courses will entitle you to a full unit of credit into this Graduate Certificate (subject to meeting eligibility requirements).

Course structure

Module 1: Leading, managing, and following

We often confuse the authority of managing with the influence of leading and following. Here, we decouple leadership from management and explore the power of followership.

Module 2: Exploring your leader character

Good leadership starts with good character. Learn the potential of character, and how to draw on your strengths to lead and follow well.

Module 3: Relationships and influence

Relationships are the bedrock of effective leadership. Learn about the nature of influence and its role in creating and sustaining teams.

Module 4: Communication and constructive conflict

Effective communication is vital to leadership. Learn the potential of open communication and constructive conflict in enabling better team dynamics and performance.

Module 5: Complexity and adaptive leadership

Learn what complexity actually means and how identifying boundaries and creating adaptive space can help you and your team navigate it.

Module 6: Leadership and sustainability

Take a systems lens to learn the importance of leadership that is sustainable and that serves sustainability.

What you will learn:

• Critically analyse leadership theory and principles.
• Evaluate and apply an integrated leadership approach.
• Appraise how principle elements of leadership impact on self, employees, organisations, and society.

Meet your instructor