Being a good leader takes effort and devotion. To become a great leader, leadership courses online are at your service. The leader isn't the one who wears an illusory crown and is feared by all. People forget that fear is on the opposite end of the spectrum from respect.
To be fair, leadership is often considered a vital component of success. Moreover, there are people who naturally have leadership qualities, nevertheless, the skills can also be learned manually. For example, by taking leadership classes.
Furthermore, even if you are already a leader of your team, or you are reaching to become one — taking one or two courses on the subject, surely wouldn’t hurt.
There were estimated to be approximately 213.65 million companies worldwide in 2020. So, there is no surprise more and more of them seek better quality leadership. Sometimes, it's the factor of whether the company will thrive.
This article briefly discusses my top handpicked Udemy, edX, Skillshare, Coursera leadership courses online, available at the best MOOC platforms.
Table of Contents
- 1. Why You Should Take Leadership Courses Online?
- 2. The Science of Leadership (Enroll Here)
- 3. Management Skills: New Manager Training in Essential Skills (Enroll Here)
- 4. Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills! (Enroll Here)
- 5. Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles (Enroll Here)
- 6. Leaders of Learning (Enroll Here)
- 7. Creative Leadership Toolkit: Curiosity, History, and Discovery (Enroll Here)
- 8. Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization (Enroll Here)
- 9. Conclusions
Why You Should Take Leadership Courses Online?
Let’s discuss why you should take leadership courses, shall we?
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Leadership is a subject of study that is required in more professions than you may think. Even while it appears to be a simple ability to master, this is not the case.
Furthermore, in a professional setting, teammates need a leader for the company to succeed. Leaders motivate, help and encourage people. In regards to that, where do you need those things the most? In work and school settings. Would you agree?
Speaking of the need, studies show, that even healthcare requires leadership[1].
Also, leadership ideas have evolved[2], and now newer characteristics of leaders include being a team builder, possessing creative and strategic thinking skills, demonstrating honesty and integrity, and having the ability to motivate others to action.
Keeping that in mind, let’s break down simpler qualities you need to become a leader:
- Management knowledge
- Understanding team dynamics
- Knowing how to give and receive feedback
- Creativity
- Compassion
- Motivation
To gain those qualities you would need to take one or two online courses. Why?
Firstly, let’s be honest with ourselves, leadership isn’t a field that necessarily needs to be studied in a University. Moreover, going into in-person leadership classes could be a plan, but there are better options.
Better options — leadership courses online. By studying online your daily duties aren't going to be shifted as much. If you are already a leader in a company, you might as well attend courses in between working, without leaving your office building. So, no traveling is needed.
Furthermore, if pricing is a major factor for you — online education is one of the most affordable types of learning.
As well as you have a broad range of courses to choose from. And let me tell you — the quality of them can be unbeatable. So, you would be sure to gain all the knowledge needed to evolve in your career. By doing that, success follows along.
So, maybe it’s time to take a look at my list of the best Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Skillshare courses, to become a leader?
The Science of Leadership (Enroll Here)
- Platform: Udemy
- Duration: 3 hours
- Price: €119.99
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
In a need for leadership courses online that dive deeper into the concept of leading? It’s your lucky day!
Neuroscience has a deep history of close collaborations across fields.[3]
Something to keep in mind is that most of the human behaviors and qualities can be backed up by science and neuroscience. Knowing the scientific background to the skills you want to achieve can be a game-changer.
If you would like to know the fundamentals of leadership science, subconscious motivational processes, then this is a perfect course for you. The Science of Leadership is a beginner-friendly course that is suitable for managers, professionals, and just people who are in charge of a team.
Nevertheless, you’ll be getting scientific insights into people’s behavioral problems, and answers to why some people are incapable to lead a team. You may know the main factors, however, would you like to know why they appear?
The foundational knowledge, presented in this course, can be used as the first step before moving on to larger topics, and specific management techniques.
Divided into 6 sections, the leadership class focuses on the main blocks of neuroscience as to why leadership is effective. Going from the basics of the brain to the environment. In the last section, you will have a qualified assessment.
If you are worried about your time management, this, one of the leadership courses online on this list, takes only 3 hours to complete. Besides, it's completely self-paced and stress-free, so you don’t need to worry about finishing it in an instance. You can even rewatch the video material as much as you want since Udemy provides lifetime access.
Those enrolled will learn:
- A model of leadership
- The distinction between lasting and temporary motivations
- What truly motivates
- How to improve hiring protocols
- How to increase engagement
- How to gain self-control, adaptation, focus, willpower, creativity
- To improve meetings and brainstorming sessions
- Genetic programming
- To improve coaching skills
- How to deal with bullying, sexism, racism
- How to create a solid team
- How to boost loyalty
Yes, this course is bursting with information and different topics. Let me remind you once again, it takes only 3 hours to complete this course! Talking about getting straight to the point. Everything essential is covered without any unneeded turns.
If you are wondering who is behind this course, let me enlighten you. This leadership class is curated by Gregory Caremans, the founder of the award-winning Brain Academy. In regards to that, there is no doubt you’ll be provided with the highest-quality materials for learning.
Speaking of pricing, you can be sure to get the best communication, management skills based on neuroscience researches for €119.99. I dare to say this is a great deal.
There aren’t a lot of leadership courses online that don’t believe in “surface knowledge”. So, catching this one might make you feel like Harry Potter catching the golden snitch in quidditch.
Start the course here NOW.
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Management Skills: New Manager Training in Essential Skills (Enroll Here)
- Platform: Udemy
- Duration: 11 hours
- Price: €89.99
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
When it comes to choosing online leadership classes, a lot of factors might influence the final decision. These factors might be the price, the duration, the structure, or the subjects covered.
There are people who are seeking a quick course that covers a few key points on the subject. Perhaps, they've already had some experience with leadership. Others, on the other hand, like courses that are a little longer. These ones delve further into the subjects concerning managing abilities.
The second one of the Udemy, beginner-friendly leadership courses online in this list is — Management Skills: New Manager Training in Essential Skills. The program has everything a team leader might need for improvement.
There is no difference if you are just trying to become a leader in your company, or you already are — the course will be an improvement both ways. There is always somewhere to evolve.
Furthermore, the program has both — theoretical and practical learning. Talking about balance, right?
The theoretical part focuses on motivation, leading high-performing teams, and engagement. Moreover, these leadership classes are curated by Larry Miller, an instructor who has 45 years of experience in managing teams. At the moment he is teaching more than 160000 students around the world.
So, when mentioning engagement, he really knows what he is doing, would you agree?
The material is simple to understand because of the additional, practical part. There are thirteen exercises that encourage you to work with your team or practice individually. As the instructor calls it — action learning.
As I’ve mentioned before, this course is more extensive than for example, The Science of Leadership one. Having 13 sections with 82 lectures in total.
The sections go from the introduction to essential skills to decision making and conflict resolution.
Those enrolled will learn:
- Create high engagement in their team
- Lead teams
- Resolve conflicts
- Provide specific job training
- Develop "lean management" problem-solving and process improvement.
So, a fun and valuable learning experience is a guarantee.
Moving on to the important part — the price of this bestseller leadership class. If you are familiar with Udemy, you might know that their courses provide high-quality video materials, resources, and a certificate of completion. Moreover, the programs are priced the same way, usually coming from €19.99 to €189.99 (there are exceptions).
So, this course is nicely in the middle. For as much as €89.99, you’ll finally become the leader your team deserves.
By the way, at the time of writing this, the course has an 89% discount which makes it only €9.99! However, if the discount had already expired, you can check out our Udemy coupons.
Start the course here NOW.
Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills! (Enroll Here)
- Platform: Udemy
- Duration: 4.5 hours
- Price: €89.99
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
When someone asks you to choose, where to go, what to do, and how to solve a problem, do you have a hard time deciding on your answer? Perhaps decision making gives you anxiety? Regardless, you are in charge of a team?
If so, Master your Decision-Making, and Critical Thinking Skills, the course provided by Udemy is perfect for you!
This is the last Udemy course I will mention in this list, however, Udemy is a great choice for those who always seek something new to learn. With thousands of options, you’ll always find something for yourself.
Furthermore, the program stands out from the rest leadership courses online, since it focuses primarily on research-based decision making and critical thinking strategies.
Have you ever heard about ROI (return on investment)? If not, it’s a way to measure performance and determine an investment's efficiency or profitability. With ROI you can evaluate the percentage by dividing an investment’s net profit. How it’s linked to leadership? Find out in this course.
Additionally, the course is mainly video format, with a few quizzes and check-ups along the way. So you can comfortably learn in any space you find yourself at the time. You can even do that in between working, and applying the knowledge on your team immediately!
Compatibility is the cool part of online education. Be modern, be cool, online learning is a great tool! Yes, my career as a poet never took off. But yours as a great leader might.
This leadership class consists of 55 lectures divided into 7 sections. Also, it takes only 4.5 hours to complete the course, so I am sure that you would not face difficulties to take the information on board.
Pricing is an area that usually prevents people from learning. Nevertheless, Udemy pricing is based on complete logic and consistency. These leadership classes cost the same amount as the Management Skills: New Manager Training in Essential Skills course above. Making it €89.99.
Very different courses, but both worth the price, let me tell you that.
- Those enrolled in this course will learn:
- How to improve the quality of your decision making and ROI
- How thinking processes work
- Cognitive biases and logical fallacies and how to minimize effects on them with De-Biasing techniques
When reading the student’s reviews one thing repeating was that the concepts presented were easy to understand and backed up with research. So, you could say that the instructor Sivamaki knows how to transfer complicated subjects, in an understandable and amusing way.
Moreover, Sivamaki is a bestselling Udemy instructor with almost all of her courses being in the top 3%.
Learn how key ideas from research and breakthroughs in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Behavioral Science, and Behavioral Economics may help you make better and more logical decisions, as well as better analyze and solve issues.
These aspects are mandatory for being the best leader your company has ever had!
Start the course here NOW.
Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles (Enroll Here)
- Platform: edX
- Duration: 4 weeks
- Price: €122 (free audit available)
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
Foundational principles are mandatory in lots of fields when it comes to learning. Also, as you can imagine leadership is a quite broad and controversial subject. If you are looking for leadership courses online that focus on new ways to approach complex organizational systems, this course is something you might want to look at.
Unlike most of the profound edX courses, this one is a much shorter course that specializes in a specific branch of leadership — foundational principles and methods. Additionally, the course is designed by Harvard University and thought by Ronald Heifetz, the founder of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy school.
Well, these factors really highlighted the quality of this leadership class, would you agree?
The amazing thing I would like to share with you is that there are free online leadership courses. Or in this case, edX provides a free audit track.
By applying to free leadership courses you will have limited access to course materials, no professional feedback, and a certificate of completion. If that’s fine with you, great! Nevertheless, if you want to get the certificate and other benefits the price stands for €122.
Getting that out of the way, let’s focus on what you’ll learn by enrolling in this leadership class:
- How to identify and solve challenges
- How to understand formal and informal authority
- Key perspectives of stakeholders
- How to build relationships and trust
- How to solve conflict
- How to implement strategies for surviving in change
All in all, you should complete the course in 4 weeks by spending 2-4 hours a week. Moreover, you can do it quicker or slower, since you are able to learn at your own pace. So, no stress, rush nor deadlines are a guarantee.
The syllabus is built from an introduction, 4 key sections, and a conclusion. The sections talk about how to think politically, build trust, orchestrate conflict, and anchor yourself. Moreover, the workplace isn’t a battlefield and it shouldn’t feel like it.
How to make sure that the work environment is calm and professional? Perhaps you are struggling to make it that way? This course might be a game-changer for you.
Also, an amazing benefit of taking leadership courses online is that you can use these coupons and get great deals for your selected course. Furthermore, perhaps having a discount will change your mind about free online leadership courses?
Mobilize people, be the change you want to see in your company and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.
Start the course here NOW.
Leaders of Learning (Enroll Here)
- Platform: edX
- Duration: 10 weeks
- Price: €123 (free audit available)
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
Alright, this one isn’t your ordinary leadership class. However, the information is essential to possess as a leader, since it covers how to be the leader of learning.
What makes a person entertaining, intellectual, and interesting to be around? The answer might be debatable, however, I would dare to say — learning. When you become a leader of learning, you also might be a leader of teaching. Leadership courses online like this one, talk about it in great detail.
Teaching is one of the many things a leader does in his team. So, it’s important to know how to do it effectively. Specifically, to make sure that the teammates learn as much as possible.
So get ready to be an effective learner and develop your own learning theory in 10 weeks! Or spend as much time as you please, since edX courses are 100% self-paced.
Leaders of Learning, edX course powered by the University of Harvard is targeting theories of learning. You’ll discover the differences between studying methods and how to implement them in different situations. For example, in your work environment.
Also, if you are still in need of free online leadership courses, let me remind you that edX provides a free audit option. Moreover, if you want to get a certificate of completion, graded assignments, and exams you would need to pay €123.
So, either free online leadership courses or the verified ones feel the most appealing to you — this course is worth trying out. Besides, it’s a great tactic of self-improvement.
Designed by the research professor of educational leadership Richard Elmore, this leadership class will teach you:
- How to define your theory of learning
- What leadership looks like
- How an organizations structure reflects its theories of learning
- How physical and digital aspects shape learning
- How neuroscience will affect the future of learning
When your struggles seem complicated remember that there is no center to the universe, it’s infinitive. Your problems don't feel as huge now, does it? The best way to deal with upcoming challenges is to learn about them.
Knowing why and how things happen – makes it easier to actually resolve them.
So if your gut is telling you that you NEED this course, trust it.
Start the course here NOW.
Creative Leadership Toolkit: Curiosity, History, and Discovery (Enroll Here)
- Platform: Skillshare
- Duration: 57 minutes
- Price: €11.99 a month
- Certificate: NO
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
Alright, wandering between leadership courses online, we’ve finally reached the shortest one. Only 57 minutes of pure, valuable wisdom on how to be creative in your career.
Being an innovative leader takes much more than just knowing how to dictate people to do certain tasks. Specific skills are needed to work with different people and lead the company to success.
Because of that, leadership courses on Skillshare aim to help you understand the core of creative leadership. Also, in a very short amount of time. Everyone can find an hour for studying and I will not agree otherwise.
This program is designed as a guide for anyone facing difficulties in their career or as a way of evolving in general.
According to research, there are three key phases to creativity[4]: preparation, which involves the learning of crucial information and gaining skills. The invention, which involves the creation of a creative solution. Lastly, creative production.
The course can also build creativity skills on preexisting knowledge. So it’s suitable for beginners and advanced students. Additionally, classes provide tips and tricks that might even be mind-blowing. You will think to yourself, how could I have been a leader without knowing this?
Because curiosity is considered one of the major factors in creativity, these 8 leadership classes reflect that. In addition to being provided with the best quality video material, students are also encouraged to put lessons into action, by completing the project.
The hands-on class project will ask you to answer the question “What’s my next step?” Expressing the answer the way you prefer — in images or words.
Straight-to-the-point leadership courses online like this one will help you find your creative identity, and view leading not as a dictator, but as an entertaining, intellectual, creative person that everyone trusts.
Another great thing about Skillshare is the prices. If you are new, you’ll get one-month free premium membership just for creating an account. Later on, the subscription is only €11.99. Keeping that in mind, if detailed courses like this one only take an hour to complete, how many courses would you be able to finish in a month? Think about that.
Perhaps think of it as a challenge. It will make the process more exciting.
Start the course here NOW.
Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization (Enroll Here)
- Platform: Coursera
- Duration: 8 months
- Price: From €49.99 (free audit available)
- Certificate: YES
- Level: Beginner
- Discount: Available
- Apply HERE
The last, but not the least leadership course on my list is Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization. It’s self-explanatory that the most profound way to be the best leader is to manage and see what’s works the best.
Nevertheless, this can go in two ways: either your experiments result in great achievements of your team right away, or it can be disastrous. So, it goes without saying that knowing effective strategies, is a life-saver.
This specialization is made up of 7 different courses that teach you the basics of everyday leadership, the “head and heart” leadership, negotiation, feedback, and strategies. So, a well-packed suitcase of information is definitely included.
If you would like to check out the 7 courses more in-depth, this is the list:
- Foundations of Everyday Leadership
- Applications of Everyday Leadership
- Designing the Organization
- Managing the Organization
- Business Strategy
- Corporate Strategy
- Strategic Leadership and Management Capstone
As you can see, this specialization is no joke and by completing it you'll be able to manage any complex organization. A dream come true? Yes, I would agree.
Nonetheless, if you wish to take separate courses from the list, knock yourself out. Simply click on the course name in the list above and start learning!
Speaking of pricing, Coursera provides a 7-day free trial, if you are still debating on whether it’s worth it. After that, when you can’t stop learning and need as many leadership courses online as possible the price starts from €49.99.
Well, if becoming the best leader in your companies history is on your bucket list, after completing this in-depth specialization, you’ll have one thing to cross out.
In fact, investing in this high-quality education should help you thrive in any career path you choose. As well as, in your everyday life. The skills of a leader are beneficial to have either way. You can trust me on that.
Additionally, this leadership class accommodates you with quizzes, professional feedback, graded exams. And most importantly a certificate of completion that will shine in your life description.
Also, since the program is powered by the University of Illinois, you can be sure that it's designed thinking about every detail.
Start the course here NOW.
Did you know?
Have you ever wondered which online learning platforms are the best for your career?
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Conclusions
Oh hi! Nice to see you here, at the end. Summing up the extensive amount of information in this article, I can confidently say — if you are considering taking online leadership courses, you are already one step ahead.
Moreover, there are programs for everyone out there — from complete beginners to the ones that are in the field for a while now. Besides, you can also choose specific topics and the extensiveness of the online leadership courses. The top MOOC platforms have it all.
However, in this article, I handpicked the best Udemy, Coursera, edX, and Skillshare courses for you to become the best manager immediately.
To be good at motivating, providing guidance, and creating confidence in other people, you might need to start from yourself first.
Or, you can also watch the movie "How to tame the dragon", for fun, not for educational purposes obviously.
All in all, thanks for sticking around, and see you in my next article!
Scientific References
1. Daniel F O'Keeffe 'Leadership'
2. Donald J Klingborg , Dale A Moore, Sonya Varea-Hammond 'What is leadership?'
3. 'Working across Disciplines in Neuroscience'
4. Kenneth M Heilman 'Possible Brain Mechanisms of Creativity'
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