- Career Fulfillment
- Self Awareness
- Personal Development
- reflection
- Learning from Failure
- Strategic Leadership
- Change Management
- Leadership Development
- Learning
- Decision-Making
- Management
- Learning How To Learn
Strategic Leadership: Impact, Change, and Decision-Making Specialization
Become a Better Business Leader Today. Using Professor Sydney Finkelstein's renowned research into the art and science of leadership and years of experience working with managers and executives around the world, this specialization will help you build the wisdom and skills you need to grow and change as a leader—and as a person.
Offered By

What you will learn
How to understand common leadership mistakes and keep them from happening to you
How to balance the rational and the emotional to make the best possible decisions
How to crack the code on talent to accelerate your career and help other people get better
How to become a wise leader at work, at home, and in life
Skills you will gain
About this Specialization
Applied Learning Project
There's no one applied learning project in Strategic Leadership: Impact, Change, and Decision-Making, because the specialization is the applied learning project. Throughout each of the courses, frequent integrated application exercises offer the opportunity to immediately use Professor Finkelstein's teachings to solve your own real-world challenges in real time. These unique exercises are personalized, practical, and—if done with serious intent—will pay off in more ways than you can imagine.
Participants should have a keen interest in becoming a better leader and a willingness to change in order to accomplish this.
Participants should have a keen interest in becoming a better leader and a willingness to change in order to accomplish this.
How the Specialization Works
Take Courses
A Coursera Specialization is a series of courses that helps you master a skill. To begin, enroll in the Specialization directly, or review its courses and choose the one you'd like to start with. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. It’s okay to complete just one course — you can pause your learning or end your subscription at any time. Visit your learner dashboard to track your course enrollments and your progress.
Hands-on Project
Every Specialization includes a hands-on project. You'll need to successfully finish the project(s) to complete the Specialization and earn your certificate. If the Specialization includes a separate course for the hands-on project, you'll need to finish each of the other courses before you can start it.
Earn a Certificate
When you finish every course and complete the hands-on project, you'll earn a Certificate that you can share with prospective employers and your professional network.

There are 4 Courses in this Specialization
Why Smart Executives Fail: Common Mistakes & Warning Signs
We don’t often talk about mistakes and failures, but there’s so much to learn from what goes wrong. In this course, Professor Sydney Finkelstein will teach you why leaders make mistakes, and what you can do to avoid making those same mistakes yourself. Using real-life examples of smart executives who failed, Professor Finkelstein will walk you through scenarios that prepare you to understand, manage, and even take advantage of the continuous change that is inevitable in organizations and in life.
Decision-Making: Blending Art & Science
Why do smart people sometimes think they are right when they are very, very wrong? Our brains are designed to make quick decisions, and sometimes we miss out on what’s really going on. Knowing this, Professor Sydney Finkelstein walks you through the neuroscience behind decision-making, and teaches you to make conscious decisions that are right for you at work and in life. By teaching you to reflect and move forward even better than before, Professor Finkelstein will help you to be the best you possibly can at whatever you do.
Superbosses: Managing Talent & Leadership
How can a company thrive for the long term? It always comes down to people: finding talented people, retaining those people, and doing it continuously. In this course, Professor Sydney Finkelstein will teach participants how to support and leverage their biggest asset, the people around them. By learning to find world-class talent and help them move forward in their career, you will learn to build success for your organization and yourself. Using examples like the NFL’s Bill Walsh, the Slow Food Movement’s Alice Waters, and fashion’s Ralph Lauren, Professor Finkelstein shows that superbosses can be found across industries and up and down the org chart—and teaches us to find the superboss within.
Lessons on Wisdom: Personal Leadership for Your Life
Lessons on Wisdom: Personal Leadership for Your Life is the culmination of four decades of studying and sharing about leaders and life for Professor Sydney Finkelstein. This course will teach you how to be a wise leader both personally and professionally. It is a personal, meaningful course that encourages all participants to change and grow. In it, you will be asked to think differently about who you are and what you do, so that you can take charge of your own life. By understanding nuance and paradox, by learning who you are as an individual, you will find yourself a wiser—and perhaps even happier—person.
Offered by

Dartmouth College
Founded in 1769, Dartmouth is a member of the Ivy League and consistently ranks among the world’s greatest academic institutions. Dartmouth has forged a singular identity for combining its deep commitment to outstanding undergraduate liberal arts and graduate education with distinguished research and scholarship in the Arts and Sciences and its four leading graduate schools—the Geisel School of Medicine, the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Is financial aid available?
Can I take the course for free?
Is this course really 100% online? Do I need to attend any classes in person?
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
How long does it take to complete the Specialization?
What background knowledge is necessary?
Do I need to take the courses in a specific order?
Does this specialization feature an applied learning project?
How can I stay in touch with Professor Finkelstein after completing the Specialization?
More questions? Visit the Learner Help Center.