Leadership Training Certificate Programs | Northwestern SPS - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Strategic thinking and leading always appears on the list of highly desired skills for leaders, managers, and key individual contributors. This highly interactive class will use simulations and real life examples to teach you practical strategic thinking practices that you can immediately put to use. In addition, you gain insight into the strengths and development areas of your leadership style, and how your style can help you think and act strategically.

This course uses an adult learning approach. You will be actively involved and apply course concepts to actual situations and case studies in class. This enables you to practice skills and use tools that can be immediately applied when you go back to your work environment. We will apply strategic thinking tools including: Scenario Planning, Systems thinking, SWOT analysis, and Mind Mapping. We will use the DiSC Work of Leaders Assessment to understand your leadership strengths, development areas, and how those relate to strategy and leading people. The instructor will use a combination of lecture, facilitation, and in-class coaching. You will also create a Personal Strategic Plan to help you with your next steps in your professional development.

Registered students can access their online course site here. An activated NetID and password is required for login. *Please note: It may take up to 24-hours for registered students to be added to the online course platform.

Leaders at all levels are often asked to support organizational changes, many of which fail. Have you been asked to explain the “why” of the change, identify and influence stakeholders as the champion for the change, or envision the change plan from idea to execution? You may be leading a small or large change, a change that is within your team or organization-wide, and it may span a few weeks or many years. While each change looks different, there are several models and approaches which will support you as change agent.

Leaders as Change Agents will teach you how to approach leading changes within your organization. We will explore models for change which set the stage for success and can serve as a checklist for you to consider as you move from the idea to implementing the change. You will also create your own “change profile” with your strengths and watch-out areas to help assess your change fluency.

Learning objectives

By the end of this four-week course, you will be able to:

• Utilize multiple change models to design organizational change with increased success
• Analyze the organizational environment and variables to determine the barriers and strategies for effective changes
• Identify your strengths and opportunity areas as a change agent in your organization
• Practice and discuss change approaches through case studies
• Describe key elements of change management, including vision, stakeholders, resistance, and key questions to ask

Registered students can access their online course site here. An activated NetID and password is required for login. *Please note: It may take up to 24-hours for registered students to be added to the online course platform.

Organizational leaders do not achieve their goals by themselves. Effective leaders develop people in a way that promotes individual growth, while improving business outcomes. Students will look at individual development including coaching, mentoring and motivation theory. Team development will be explored through the topics of facilitation and collaboration. Participants will also have the opportunity to assess their personal style of conflict resolution.

Registered students can access their online course site here. An activated NetID and password is required for login. *Please note: It may take up to 24-hours for registered students to be added to the online course platform.