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There are 7 modules in this course
Welcome to the Leadership Skills course! In our increasingly complex world, understanding the practice of leadership is critical. In simpler words, leadership is the practice of influencing people to meet the challenges that will enable them to achieve important individual and organizational goals. This course provides a foundation for leadership practice and aims to take you on a journey of self-discovery. You will also gain insight into building inner stability and developing your leadership skills.
This is a beginner course designed for professionals from diverse work backgrounds. The course helps you lean on your experiences and strengthen your capacity to lead across boundaries, from any political or organizational position, with or without authority. The course will also enable you to learn important leadership skills, clarifying the relationships among key concepts such as definitions of leadership, self-management, authority, power, influence, politics, negotiations, change management, decision-making, and various leadership styles. This knowledge will provide you with a practical and coherent theoretical framework for applying and exercising leadership. Lastly, the course explores the challenge of managing the inevitable personal stresses and dangers of leading a team. The course draws from business management, philosophy, spirituality, history, literature, sports, communications, and psychology.
To succeed in this course, you should have experience or a basic understanding of working in organizations.
In this module, you will learn about introspection, closely analyzing your inner self, and developing the ability to be self-led before leading others effectively. This module highlights the importance of leading oneself by elaborating on aspects of psychology, brain sciences, and human behavior. You will be introduced to some key challenges faced when interacting with others and find ways to better manage your behavior and conduct. In addition, you will also gain insight into core psychological strengths and positive mindsets, as they are essential to be an effective leader. Lastly, the module discusses issues about automaticity, inner game, mindfulness, multitasking, emotional intelligence, inculcating a learning mindset, and positive strengths.
Emotional Intelligence: Managing Shame and Guilt•6 minutes
Emotional Intelligence: Managing Envy•7 minutes
Emotional Intelligence and Our Inner Talk•8 minutes
Understanding the Learning Mindset •7 minutes
Building a Learning Mindset•6 minutes
Positive Strengths: Hope•5 minutes
Positive Strengths: Optimism•6 minutes
Positive Strengths: Resilience•5 minutes
Positive Strengths: Self-efficacy •6 minutes
6 readings•Total 110 minutes
Course Overview•10 minutes
Essential Reading: Mindfulness, the Myth of Multitasking, and Winning Our Inner Game•15 minutes
Essential Reading: Emotional Intelligence and Conflict Management in Virtual Workplaces•15 minutes
Recommended Reading: Case Study: Mohan Dixit•30 minutes
Recommended Readings: Leading the Self: Mindfulness, Inner Stability, and Positive Strengths•30 minutes
Recommended Readings•10 minutes
4 assignments•Total 70 minutes
Mindfulness and Inner Stability •12 minutes
Emotional Intelligence •9 minutes
Understanding and Developing Positive Strengths •9 minutes
Graded Quiz: Leading the Self: Mindfulness, Inner Stability, and Positive Strengths •40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Heal Your Thoughts•15 minutes
Leading Downward: Leader Behaviors and Leadership Styles
Module 2•5 hours to complete
Module details
This module will focus on leader behaviors and different leadership styles. You will learn about the TREAT leadership framework and the different leadership styles proposed by the TREAT leadership theory. The TREAT framework has been developed based on rigorous research, and it highlights the leadership competencies that should be developed in leaders of new-age organizations. You will also gain insight into how the framework highlights the importance of five behavioral competencies for leaders: task orientation, relation orientation, empowerment, authenticity, and team building. Finally, the module elaborates on each one of these behavioral competencies and delves deep into how you can develop and incorporate these into your behavior.
Essential Reading: Leading Knowledge Organizations in the Post-Covid World•15 minutes
Essential Reading: T-R-E-A-T Leadership for New-Age Organizations•15 minutes
Recommended Reading: Case Study: Meera Nair at PhoenixWay: Which Way to Go?•30 minutes
Recommended Reading: ‘T-R-E-A-T’ Leadership for ‘L-E-A-P’ in a Knowledge-Based World•15 minutes
4 assignments•Total 85 minutes
TREAT Leadership •21 minutes
Leadership Styles •15 minutes
Understanding Your Leadership Style •9 minutes
Graded Quiz: Leading Downward: Leader Behaviors and Leadership Styles•40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Leadership Styles and Effectiveness•15 minutes
Building Sustainable Relationships: Supportive Communication and Decision-making Biases
Module 3•6 hours to complete
Module details
This module focuses on enabling you to create sustainable and positive relationships. You will learn about supportive communication and decision-making biases, which are important aspects of building sustainable and positive relationships. The module also covers the theory of empowering communication and some key aspects that leaders must keep in mind when communicating with their subordinates and peers. It also discusses some biases that impact our interactions with others. You will also explore and review the work of Nobel laureates and other behavioral economists. Lastly, you will analyze key biases that impact a leader’s decision-making.
Associative Coherence and Decision-Making Bias•5 minutes
The Anchoring Bias•6 minutes
The Availability Bias•6 minutes
Overconfidence and Confirmation Bias•7 minutes
Framing Bias•8 minutes
Attribute Substitution and Representative Bias•7 minutes
Sunk-cost Bias•7 minutes
Understanding System 1 and System 2 of Decision-Making•9 minutes
Developing Skilled Intuitions•7 minutes
Supportive Communication•6 minutes
Principles of Supportive Communication: Listening•7 minutes
Principles of Supportive Communication: Non-judgmental•6 minutes
Principles of Supportive Communication: Validating•7 minutes
Principles of Supportive Communication: Authentic•4 minutes
Fundamental Techniques of Handling People•7 minutes
5 readings•Total 150 minutes
Essential Reading: Caselet: Prakash Mehta and Chandresh Desai•30 minutes
Essential Readings: Types of Decision-Making Biases (And How To Recognize Bias)•30 minutes
Essential Readings: Biases in Decision Making•30 minutes
Essential Readings: A Complete Guide on Decision-Making Biases •30 minutes
Recommended Readings: Building Sustainable Relationships: Supportive Communication and Decision-Making Biases•30 minutes
4 assignments•Total 91 minutes
Associative Coherence and Decision-making Biases •18 minutes
Attribute Substitution and Decision-making Biases •15 minutes
Supportive Communication •18 minutes
Graded Quiz: Building Sustainable Relationships: Supportive Communication and Decision-making Biases •40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Demystifying Intuitive Capabilities•15 minutes
Power, Politics, and Leading Upwards
Module 4•7 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, you will learn about power, politics, and how to lead upwards. The module will introduce you to power and politics in organizations, different sources of power, and how to acquire those sources of power. The module also discusses how to lead upward and manage your supervisors and bosses. Power and politics are integral to any organization and exist everywhere. It is extremely difficult to run away from these issues. Hence, it becomes important for leaders to embrace these challenges and learn to manage them effectively to suit their own and the organization’s larger interests. You will also gain insight into different sources of power, how to develop power, and the use of politics to influence people positively toward achieving their goals. Lastly, you will learn to apply these ideas to forge effective boss-subordinate relationships that can enable effective performance and long-term success.
Essential Readings: Relational Power: The Importance of Networking in Organizations•15 minutes
Essential Readings: Leading Upwards: Art of Working Effectively with Bosses•15 minutes
Recommended Books: Power, Politics, and Leading Upward•30 minutes
Reference Watch: The Pursuit of Happiness•80 minutes
4 assignments•Total 85 minutes
Understanding Power •15 minutes
Developing and Leveraging Networks •18 minutes
Politics and Leading Upwards •12 minutes
Graded Quiz: Power, Politics, and Leading Upwards •40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Importance of Power and Politics in Organizations•15 minutes
Ethics, Culture, and Change Management
Module 5•6 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, you will learn about managing ethical dilemmas, developing organizational culture, and managing change. Ethical dilemmas are inherent to leadership. Leaders need to make a decision and decide between two rights or two wrongs. In this module, you will gain insight into how to navigate life’s ethical dilemmas. In addition, the module discusses the usual organizational culture and how you can build a transformational culture that is conducive to high performance. You will also learn about the LEAP framework of culture. Lastly, the module explores how you can lead and manage change in organizations. Using the real-life example from a corporate organization and public life, you will learn how leaders can inspire change in organizations.
LEAP Organizational Culture: Learning Mindset and Enjoyment•8 minutes
LEAP Organizational Culture: Autonomy and Performance•7 minutes
Cultural Transformation: TREAT for LEAP•6 minutes
Challenges of Change Management•8 minutes
Essentials of Change Management: Leadership•8 minutes
Essentials of Change Management: Coalition•8 minutes
Essentials of Change Management: Culture•7 minutes
8 readings•Total 155 minutes
Essential Reading: Cultural Transformation at Microsoft •30 minutes
Essential Reading: Leadership and Organizational Culture: Two Sides of a Coin•15 minutes
Essential Reading: T-R-E-A-T LEADERSHIP FOR NEW-AGE ORGANISATIONS•15 minutes
Essential Reading: How Satya Nadella Brought a Growth Mindset to Microsoft•15 minutes
Essential Reading: Satya Nadella’s Transformation of Microsoft•15 minutes
Recommended Reading: Case Study: Satya Nadella at Microsoft •30 minutes
Recommended Readings: Ethics, Culture, and Change Management•30 minutes
Reference Watch: Invictus•5 minutes
4 assignments•Total 85 minutes
Navigating Ethical Dilemmas •18 minutes
Leadership and Culture •15 minutes
Leadership and Change Management •12 minutes
Graded Quiz: Ethics, Culture, and Change Management •40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Means and the Ends•15 minutes
Leadership and Ancient Indian Wisdom: Lessons from the Mahabharata
Module 6•5 hours to complete
Module details
This module covers leadership lessons from the great Indian epic The Mahabharata. The fundamental question is: can leadership lessons be learned from the Mahabharata? In this module, you will look into the lives of important characters from this ancient Indian epic and analyze various aspects of leadership, such as demonstrating the correct values, decision-making ability, integrity, principles, and leading oneself and others. Borrowing from different disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, politics, and psychology, the module will present a leadership triangle comprising six levels. These levels are positive personality, peace with personal identity, purpose, positive use of power and politics, paradoxical leadership, and principled pragmatism. Finally, you will explore the grounded approach where mythology and leadership amalgamate through scholarship and practice.
Mahabharata Characters: Bhishma - The Grandsire•7 minutes
Mahabharata Characters: The Kauravas•6 minutes
Mahabharata Characters: The Pandavas•6 minutes
Mahabharata’s Other Characters: Karna, Dronacharya, and Ashvatthama•7 minutes
Karna: The Quest for Identity•7 minutes
Ashwatthama: Mindfulness and Emotional Stability•7 minutes
Kunti: Vision, Values, and Positive Leader Behaviors•7 minutes
Shakuni: Power, Politics, and Stratagem•9 minutes
Bhishma: Life and Deeds•7 minutes
Bhishma: Resolving Paradoxes•6 minutes
Krishna: Life and Deeds•6 minutes
Krishna: Principled Pragmatism•9 minutes
The Mahabharata Code: The Leadership Triangle•5 minutes
2 readings•Total 105 minutes
Essential Reading: Demystifying Leadership: Unveiling the Mahabharata Code •60 minutes
Reference Watch: Mahabharata•45 minutes
4 assignments•Total 85 minutes
Understanding the Mahabharata and its Characters •18 minutes
Lessons from the Mahabharata: Individual and Organisational Leadership •12 minutes
Lessons from the Mahabharata: Resolving Paradoxes and Ethical Dilemmas •15 minutes
Graded Quiz: Leadership and Ancient Indian Wisdom: Lessons from the Mahabharata •40 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 15 minutes
Leadership and Ancient Indian Wisdom•15 minutes
Final Graded Assignment (AI Reviewed)
Module 7•12 hours to complete
Module details
This is a peer-review assignment based on the concepts taught in the Leadership Skills course. In this assignment, you will be able to apply the skills you learned to become more adept in your journey of leadership.
What's included
1 video1 assignment
Show info about module content
1 video•Total 6 minutes
Course Wrap-up•6 minutes
1 assignment•Total 720 minutes
Leadership Lessons from the Life of a Legend or a Hero•720 minutes
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The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) is a premier, global management Institute that is at the forefront of promoting excellence in the field of management education. Over the 60 years of its existence, it has been acknowledged for its exemplary contributions to scholarship, practice and policy through its distinctive teaching, high-quality research, nurturing future leaders, supporting industry, government, social enterprise and creating a progressive impact on society.
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Learner reviews
4.8
2,234 reviews
5 stars
88.18%
4 stars
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3 stars
0.71%
2 stars
0.49%
1 star
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Showing 3 of 2234
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B
5·
Reviewed on Oct 24, 2025
I am very pleasant for completing course.I am thankful to Dr Vishalji for his excellent video lectures.I am e lightened and use this skills of leadership in my future journey.Thank you once again.
M
MG
5·
Reviewed on Jun 19, 2023
very good course. covered all aspects of Leadership Skills and the instructor Dr. Vishal Gupta is a great faculty. His method of presentation and explaining each topic is very clear and specific.
P
PR
5·
Reviewed on Feb 10, 2025
It's fantastic course for everyone includes beginners and seniors. It provides good knowledge about leadership skills and I recommended all to go ahead and clear it on within time limit.
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What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
Is financial aid available?
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.