In today’s fast-paced world, continuous learning is essential for personal and professional growth. Whether you’re an aspiring leader or an experienced executive, the right course can ignite your potential and elevate your career. We’ve curated a list of the top 21 leadership and personal development courses that cover a diverse range of skills and insights. From mastering Scrum to empowering women in leadership, these courses are designed to meet the unique needs of individuals at different stages of their leadership journey. Explore now and take the next step in your growth.
Skip ahead:
- Change Leadership Accelerator
- Paradigm Management Foundations: Set to Scale Membership
- The prioritized leader
- ELEVATE Women’s Management Program
- Future Ready Leadership Essentials
- The Science of People: People School
- She Is Uncompromising
- Woman Up! Ignite the Leader in You
- Essential Skills for Managers
- Think Like a Leader with Brian Tracy
- Leading Organizations and Change
- Leadership Principles
- Leaders eat last
- Managing Tough Conversations: Mastering Workplace Dialogue with ImprovEdge
- The Leadership and Management Bundle from Easy Train Now
- Influence Without Authority
- Reforge’s Marketing Leadership Course
- Manager Boot Camp
- Manage with Meaning
- Leadership Masterclass with Erik Therwanger
- Executive Leadership Essentials
Have you ever taken a leadership course and found that the theoretical information wasn’t all that applicable when push came to shove? The Change Leadership Accelerator was created to combat this by providing leaders with the practical skills and tools needed to confidently lead and manage change. This comprehensive online program is tailored to those who are responsible for leading change — both experienced leaders and those just getting started in change management.
Key topics covered
The six-module course represents a step-by-step learning journey that should provide the skills needed to effectively manage change.
- Mastering change leadership fundamentals: Understand the role of a change leader and how to apply change leadership skills
- Raising influence by building change competencies: Discover how to persuade and influence others to buy-in to change
- Designing and building your agenda for change: Learn how to anticipate and better respond to change, and create a tailored change strategy
- Mobilizing and preparing your team for change: Gain insights into stakeholder buy-in and creating a change plan
- Managing resistance to change: Understand and recognize resistance to change and learn strategies to overcome barriers to change
- Exploring change models and frameworks: Introduction to key change models and how to select the best model for your situation
Features and benefits
- Online and self-paced: You can access the course anytime, 24/7, and absorb the content at your own pace
- Live coaching and mentorship: Benefit from monthly live coaching and mentoring sessions to accelerate your learning
- Community support: In addition to the coaching, you’ll get one year of access to an exclusive private change management community for ongoing advice and networking
- Practical approach and resources: The course offers practical change leadership strategies, tools, and best practices and includes templates, checklists, and cheat sheets you can take away and use in your day-to-day
- Money-back guarantee: If you follow the program and don’t get the desired results, a total refund is offered within 12 weeks of purchase — a rare offering for online courses
Price: $1,297.00 USD (One Time Payment) or 3 x $497.00 USD (Split Payment)
Many people work their way up to leadership roles only to realize there’s no real playbook for how to lead. The skills you build as an individual contributor will help you as a manager, but they don’t prepare you for everything that comes with driving goals forward or being an effective people leader. With that in mind, Paradigm Management Foundations built out their Set to Scale membership. This is far more than just a course (though it has one of those) — it’s an entire support system for HR and Team professionals.
Key topics covered
The Set to Scale Course Framework comprises 134 lessons and tutorials covering everything you need to lead but at an entry level so you can actually understand it, including:
- Your organizational structure: This includes how to plan your company culture and properly prepare before you hire
- Attracting your dream team: Job description templates, interview scripts, how to leverage contractors, and more
- Ethics and logistics: Tough but important lessons on how to build inclusivity, offer fair play, and stay compliant
- People management: Performance evaluations, managing a remote team, and avoiding a meeting-heavy culture
- Termination and other people issues: How to deal with the emergencies and difficult situations that come with running a business
Features and benefits
Beyond this course, this membership is packed with value including
- Personalized coaching and guidance: Twice monthly group Q&A calls and the ability to book hourly consultations
- Slack community: One member of your team will be able to access experts and other business owners for further learning and consultation through the STS Group Slack
- A template library: Dozens of ready-to-use HR and leadership templates to help you put your learnings into practice
Price: $2,497 USD/year
The most senior leadership positions in a business don’t just come with the most responsibility; they also come with the most complexity. This bundle of courses and workbooks from Five Capitals is a start-to-finish look at what it takes for an executive or senior team leader to excel and drive business success.
Key topics covered
This bundle includes five modules:
- Purpose: How to build a purpose-led organization, build your brand vision and values, and put it into practice with your customers
- People: Frameworks for finding and keeping the right people, bringing out the best in your team, and identifying your own and your team’s weaknesses to drive individual growth
- Pace: Determine how fast your organization needs to move to seize opportunities and sustain success while avoiding the potential pitfalls of an unhealthy pace.
- Perception: How to create a growth mentality through innovation internally to position your company as a leader externally
- Profit: Learn the five best practices for profitability and other principles to fuel your organization’s financial growth
Features and benefits
- A ton of applicable content: This bundle’s five courses include a total of 33 lessons and numerous takeaways you can immediately apply to your work
- Bulk discount: By choosing to purchase this bundle of courses (versus individual courses), you’re committing yourself to learning and saving money in the process
Pricing: $150 USD
Elevate Your Leadership Skills with the ELEVATE Women’s Management Program
Women continue to face different leadership challenges than their male peers. With that in mind, the ELEVATE Women’s Management Program equips participants with the skills to lead effectively while navigating organizational gender biases. The course is designed to be immersive and supportive while also providing applicable tools to bring back into the workplace.
Key topics covered
- How to confidently make bold choices using your unique strengths
- How to be more self-aware by recognizing the patterns and habits that hinder or help you as a leader
- How to leverage relationships and connections to cultivate inclusive strategies while finding allies
- How to be conscious and courageous in giving and receiving feedback, setting goals, resolving conflict, and thinking strategically
- How to successfully manage and overcome gender barriers and workplace challenges faced by women leaders
Features and benefits
- A mixture of synchronous and asynchronous sessions: the approach allows you to learn around your schedule while still benefiting from the learning community
- Bonus material: access to the course comes with a full syllabus of books, articles, and videos to expand on the session learning
- Lifetime access: The learning doesn’t end when you complete the ELEVATE program; you can come back and refresh your learning at any point in the future.
Pricing: The course is priced at $1,849.00, with a monthly payment plan available (4 x $500).
The Future Ready Leadership Essentials program is really designed for people transitioning into leadership roles for the first time. Over five months, the course offers training and resources intended to help participants move from ‘buddy to boss’. And because this course is produced by an accredited college, Mohawk College Enterprise, you know going in that the quality of the program is quite high.
Key topics covered
- The course consists of five introductory leadership training courses presented in turn over the five months. They are
- Stepping into Leadership
- Communicating Effectively
- Developing Engaged Employees
- Dealing With Difficult Behaviors,
- Applying Essential Skills
- Leadership competencies: Students will learn, develop, and self-evaluate 11 competencies including team leadership, presentation skills, emotional intelligence, continuous learning, and conflict resolution
Features and benefits
- The course and content is ideal for employees transitioning into leadership roles
- You have the option to pursue the course online or face-to-face, with instructor sessions happening one day per month
- Between each course, participants have to complete an ‘Apply the Learning’ assignment. This work reinforces learnings while also preparing you for the next session.
- New resources are provided to learners daily, so by the end of the course you have a substantial amount of content to bring into your new role
Pricing: $2,225 CAD
Confidence and communication are undeniably key skills when it comes to being an effective leader. People School is a massively-successful course focused on helping you master the art of communication. With simple frameworks and scripts, you can immediately make impactful changes to your communication as you continue to learn lessons and skills that will stay with you for the entirety of your career.
Key topics covered
People School focuses on 12 advanced people skills that will improve your communication and unlock career and leadership opportunities. These include:
- The Charisma Formula: how to make a great first impression every time
- Powerfully sharing ideas: how to get your ideas noticed and achieve the results you want from your interactions
- Communicating with power: how to command authority and respect, and be taken seriously.
- The Likability Blueprint: how to be more magnetic and memorable
- Decoding People: how to improve your emotional intelligence and read cues to connect with anyone
- And seven more!
Features and benefits
- With 600,000 students and an overall satisfaction rating of 98.5%, you can sign up for People School with full confidence in the quality
- The ability to access this course anywhere at any time from any device means you can review before those pivotal leadership moments, like touch meetings or big presentations
- Monthly live workshops with course creator Vanessa bring you up to speed on the latest science and advice on people skills, meaning the course evolves and improves in real-time
Price: $149/mo for 12 monthly payments or a one-time payment of $1495
If you’re a female entrepreneur or an established leader looking to grow into an executive position, She Is Uncompromising might be for you. Over 4-5 months, this faith-based course focuses on how leaders can build and run profitable businesses. The approach is a mixture of weekly online lessons and more personal interactions including monthly masterminds and work with an accountability partner.
Key topics covered
- Vision, enrollment and accountability, including “the process of building a business God’s way” and how to create a strategic five-year plan
- Operations and human resources, including identifying your organizational structure and legitimizing your business structure
- Finance, including startup costs, operating budgets and financial forecasting
- Marketing and sales, including how to develop your overall marketing strategy, setting marketing budgets, and what tools to use
Features and benefits
- Regular opportunities to learn alongside other participants: Monthly Message + Mastermind sessions, being matched with an accountability partner, and access to an exclusive community
- A focus on affordability: While the course isn’t cheap, they try to provide affordable resources for additional learning and implementation, including low cost tools to help you build your business
- Impressive instructors: Your learning will come from an MBA, a CPA, and a Business and Intellectual Property Attorney, so you’re in very good hands
Price: $999 USD
Women are underrepresented in leadership positions and Sinogad Solutions is doing its best to change that. The Woman Up! program is designed to support women in becoming confident and capable leaders, especially in male-dominated industries. The goal is to equip women with skills and strategies to lead in an empowering way and to educate male allies about increasing gender parity within organizations.
Key topics covered
The course includes 28 lessons covering topics like:
- Emotional intelligence
- Leading with resilience and agility
- Embracing my female power
- Inviting males allies
- And more
Features and benefits
- Self-assements: All participants will complete self-assessments and a 360° survey to assess your strengths and leadership and communication growth areas. This self-awareness provides value beyond the framework of the course.
- A course for the entire workplace: Woman Up! isn’t just for individuals — you can register as an individual or a group. If you do sign up with your organization, you’ll have opportunities to apply learnings by working collaboratively with female coworkers
- Early-bird discounts: The course is given in cohorts but if you register early for the next cohort you’ll get 15% off the cost of the course
Pricing: $2,100
Essential Skills for Managers from University of Winnipeg is an aptly named course as it provides students with the fundamentals for leading teams. With a lean towards soft skills like conflict resolution, coaching, and communication, this course will teach you how to be a strong, cross-functional leader who can “achieve results through others.”
Key topics covered
This online course takes place over three months and covers topics including::
- Tools and models for managing performance expectations and dealing with problematic behaviors among employees
- The core competencies and abilities you need for effective managements
- Key steps to building a high-performing team;
- Collaborative decision-making
- Conflict management skills
Features and benefits
- Price: This is actually one of the cheaper options on this list despite the fact that it’s coming from a recognized university and comprises 36 hours of education.
- Best of both worlds: This course is managed and your work reviewed by real university professors and uses a good old fashion textbook. But it’s also largely done through independent learning without live hours, meaning it’s flexible to your schedule.
Pricing: $525 CAD
Think Like a Leader is a well-established online leadership course by best-selling author and CEO Brian Tracy. His philosophy is that leadership is not something you’re born with, but something you learn. Anyone interested in becoming a leader or strengthening that skillset can find valuable insights in Tracy’s eight core pillars of effective leadership which form the basis of the course.
Key topics covered
This online course includes more than three hours of video lessons spread out over 10 sections and 62 lectures. These cover topics such as:
- How to create and track manageable business goals for you and your team
- Mastering core leadership skills like strategic planning, project management, and communication
- Taking risks as a leader and the benefits of leaving your comfort zone
- How confidence and courage will make you a more effective leader within your organization
Features and benefits
- Proven track record: More than 28,000 people have taken this course and in doing so it has garnered over 8,000 reviews amassing a respectable 4.6/5 stars. Safe to say, this course has proven itself time and time again.
- Even more proof: If the massive number of students wasn’t enough, companies like box, Volkswagen, and NASDAQ have purchased this course to offer their employees.
- Heavy on the resources: This course comes with nine downloadable resources for you to take away and use in your work, which is more than most courses we looked at.
Pricing: $279.99 CAD
The business world is in a constant state of change and that’s especially true in this era of global conflict and technological advancement. How can a leader guide their organization through all this change while maintaining positive results? That’s what this course aims to teach. MIT’s Sloan is one of the most widely-recognized and respected business schools in the world, so completing one of their online courses can do a lot for your skillset and your resume.
Key topics covered
This live, cohort-based online course takes between two to four hours per week over two months. It comprises five modules:
- MIT’s Four Capabilities Leadership Model: How to develop your visioning, sense-making, relating, and inventing skills to become a stronger leader
- Three Perspectives on Organizations: Improve your change management by building an understanding of a business’ strategic design, political environment, and cultural norms
- Power and Influence in Organizations: Learn how to identify power structures within your company and leverage influencers to accelerate change
- Organization Networks: Advance your agenda using concepts like the Law of Propinquity, EI Index, and network density
- The Change Simulation: Apply what you have learned in a real-world change simulation developed by Harvard
Features and benefits
- An emphasis on discussion: With six group discussions within your cohort, you’ll have multiple opportunities to hear from others, debate and question what you’ve learned, network, and generally retain the information through practice
- Certification: When you successfully complete the Leading Organizations course, you’ll get a verified digital certificate by Emeritus in collaboration with MIT Sloan
- Possibility of team enrollment: Unlike many university-based online courses, MIT Sloan actually encourages team enrollment so that professionals can skill build alongside their peers and frequent collaborators
Pricing: $1,395 USD
Much like MIT Sloan, the Leadership Principles online course from Harvard Business School comes with the reputation of one of the most prestigious schools on the planet. This course will help you build out your own personal leadership style while learning how to cater it to the different situations you face as a leader.
Key topics covered
This course covers four modules:
- Taking charge: How to transition your mindset and self-perception into that of a leader to better serve your team
- Leading your team: Discover how to create conditions for high performance, including purpose, composition, and processes
- Unleashing potential in yourself and others: How to motivate your team by understanding the “dimensions, functions, and drivers” of your own leadership style
- Your network: Coaching and feedback techniques that allow you to influence people and leverage (and expand) your network
Features and benefits
- Intensive: While this online study is self-paced, it is more intensive than most of the courses on this list, which you might have anticipated being that it’s Harvard. This course is expected to occupy 7-9 hours per week if you’re to meet the instructor’s deadlines.
- Part of a certification: This course is one of seven online leadership and management courses offered by Harvard. If you finish three courses, you would earn a Certificate of Specialization in leadership and management, which definitely looks good on a resume. If you just stick with the one course, you still receive a certificate of completion.
Pricing: $1,750 USD
Simon Sinek took the business world by storm in the past decade, helped along by successful books and some poignant viral videos that struck a nerve. Sinek now offers a slew of educational materials including short courses. One of those courses, Leaders Eat Last, is based on the principles in his best-selling book and covers how leaders can create a team that really works.
Key topics covered
Over the course of the hour and half, Sinek covers::
- The definition of leading; what it truly means to take care of those on your team
- Creating a “Circle of Safety” and how this positively impacts your team’s performance
- How to manage common stresses and conflicts that negatively impact the members of your team and the company as a whole
- How to inspire your reports and ensure they’re getting fulfillment from work.
Features and benefits
- Discount for group learning: Want multiple leaders within your company to benefit from the same training insights? Sinek discounts group signups starting at 10% off once you hit 10 people. There’s also an option to book a private class.
- Lower commitment: Becoming a better leader doesn’t always take months or years. If you’re not looking to commit in the long term, Sinek’s course is a one, 90-minute session — meaning quick learning and quick results. The price also reflects the short course length.
Pricing: $85 USD
The ability to navigate difficult conversations at work is invaluable for leaders. “Managing Tough Conversations” is an innovative training course that equips you with the skills to handle potentially awkward workplace situations effectively and with grace. Drawing on the rich experiences of seasoned improvisers, this course offers a unique and refreshing approach to communication challenges in professional settings.
Key topics covered
The course is structured in four acts meant to improve your improvisational abilities. They cover topics like:
- The power of “yes, and…” or how to build on conversations effectively
- The four principles of effective communication that lead to better understanding and collaboration
- Visioning and effective brainstorming techniques
- Advanced listening skills — how to listen actively and make sure you comprehend the nuances of every conversation
Features and benefits
- Engaging course structure: video, role playing, and reflection are all used to make sure you’re practicing the application of what you’re learning before you bring it into the workplace
- Great value: At $79.99, this course is priced to be accessible, especially if you’re an employer looking to boost employee skills
Pricing: $79.99 USD
East Train Now’s Leadership and Management bundle is different from most other courses in this list in that it’s a subscription. For a monthly fee, you get access to a list of leadership courses that is in a regular state of expansion. That means that every new leadership course they create is added to your bundle — making this a great pick for those looking to regularly skill up or expand their knowledge set.
Key topics covered
Some of the courses currently included in this ever-expanding bundle are:
- Promote innovation in team environments
- Leading difficult conversation
- Support personal wellbeing in the workplace
- Lead and facilitate a team
- Lead the development of diverse workforces
Features and benefits
- Pick and chose courses relevant to situations you’re facing: The advantage of a membership is you’re spoilt for choice. As a leader, if you encounter a new situation and feel as though you might benefit from some learning, you can find a course in this bundle relevant to your present need.
- Favorable pricing: Individually, each of the courses in the bundle range between $125 and $175 USD. If you were to purchase them all individually, it would be the equivalent of more than 50 months of their bundle subscription costs. There’s quite a big of content there, but probably not four years worth, making this great value.
Pricing: $25 USD/monthly
When you’re managing a cross-functional project, chances are you’re collaborating with a lot of people who don’t actually report to you. That will often put you in a position of having to influence people and get buy-in without forcing it using your authority. That’s why The Institute of Product Leadership put together this course: to teach leaders how to influence outside the bounds of a formal reporting structure.
Key topics covered
This self-paced course comprises nine lessons covering topics such as:
- Some of the key differences between influence and persuasion
- A five-step process for influencing collaborators
- Six key principles of influence
- “Currencies and styles” of influence
Features and benefits
- Lifetime access: Once you’ve purchased the course, you maintain access to it forever. When they say self-paced, they really mean it.
- Experienced instructor: This course is taught by Prof. Viswanath Parameswaran. In addition to being an MBA and the President and CEO of The Institute of Transformational Coaching, Parameswaran has worked with senior leaders from organizations including McKinsey, Barclays Bank, Adobe, Deloitte, Shell, SAP, and more.
Pricing: $99 USD
In the technology industry, Reforge is widely-known as one of the top sources for high-quality professional development. If you work in product, growth, or marketing, there are a slew of courses to help you get to that next level in your career. The Marketing Leadership Course is a stand-out. It covers intricate details for how to manage your marketing team and program from top to bottom.
Key topics covered
This on-demand course is broken down into four main modules that Reforge asserts are essential to being an effective marketing leader:
- Manage marketing work: Using the objective and key result (OKR) structure to help your team define and prioritize their work and track its impact
- Manage marketing finances: How to manage your marketing budget and also build strong business cases to justify your spend
- Strengthen your org: Learn what makes a strong marketing team and how to fill the gaps in your group’s competencies
- Nurture your talent: How to develop resources, including frameworks and career pathways, to help your team grow
Feature and benefits
- Built for scaling team: So many leadership programs are intended for new leaders or give high-level information. This program is meant for established marketing leaders who want to scale their teams and their impact.
- Access to way more content: Reforge memberships aren’t cheap, but there’s a reason for the price. In addition to this marketing leadership course, you get access to all on-demand courses and one live course, plus downloadable guides and templates.
Pricing: Starting at $2,495 USD per year
Do you ever feel like you don’t have the time to actually commit to management training? Or maybe you’re just someone who doesn’t learn well in a traditional course environment? If you check one or both of these boxes, the Manager Boot Camp was built with you in mind. The course is built around short bursts of learning and hyper-engaging and entertaining content to keep you focused and engaged in the small windows you can actually dedicate to learning.
Key topics covered
This eight-week course covers topics like:
- Aspects of emotional intelligence all managers need to know
- How to motivate yourself and others in a hybrid working environment
- Preparing for difficult leadership conversations
- Setting expectations and improving follow-up
- Self-awareness and social awareness
Features and benefits
- Micro-learning: This course is unlike most others in this list in that it’s built for micro-learning — short, consumable lessons under five minutes in length. This lends itself well to the busy schedule of a leader.
- Mixture of live and on-demand: In addition to the 28 foundational video lessons, the course includes a live portion where participants can meet their fellow students or get coaching from instructor Cecilia Gorman.
Pricing: $499 per person with different pricing tier options
https://managewithmeaning.thinkific.com/courses/manage-with-meaning
Building strong relationships with your team members is a key to success for any leader. So-called soft skills like interpersonal connection and authenticity are often-ignored in management training programs but can go a long way in driving team performance. That’s the core focus of the Manage with Meaning course by Manage(Meant) Excellence.
Key topics covered
The course’s 16 video modules cover topics like:
- Empathy and vulnerability
- Radical transparency
- Advocacy and follow-through
- Bad management habits like ego
- Why today’s management often misses the mark
Features and benefits
- Affordable rate: At under $100, this course is an affordable way to brush up on skills that you won’t get in most other leadership training opportunities
Pricing: $87 USD
Erik Therwanger has been through challenges in his life: he’s a former marine, a business executive, and has been the caretaker for his wife during four bouts of cancer. The lessons he’s taken from all of his experiences are brought together in his training programs and speaking engagements. In this leadership masterclass he shares his belief that everyone is a leader, it’s just about honing that potential to its fullest.
Key topics covered
The 46 lessons in this course cover topics like:
- How to recruit and onboard team members, including a deep dive into org charts and job descriptions
- Establishing your leadership principles and culture
- The important difference between being busy and being productive
- How to develop other leaders within your team
Features and benefits
- Other leadership learning opportunities: If Therwanger’s Leadership masterclass was compelling to you, he offers a handful of other leadership learning opportunities including an interesting five-day workplace culture challenge. You can also purchase a membership versus buying individual courses.
Pricing: $500 USD
There’s no point in your leadership journey where you’ll find yourself done with learning. Case and point: Pepperdine’s Executive Leadership Essentials program. Even those at the peak of their careers can benefit from new knowledge, new frameworks, and new perspectives. This course offers members of the C-suite an opportunity to assess their own leadership and hone in on their strengths in order to better serve their companies.
Key topics covered
This live, three-day intensive course is broken into six sessions:
- Leadership agility in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguity) business environment
- Discovering your authentic leadership: personal values and leadership principles
- Driving business results via strategic alignment
- Leading high-performance teams and engaging stakeholders
- Developing your organization’s talent management capabilities
- Creating and implementing your leadership development plan
Features and benefits
Recognized institution: Not only is Pepperdine University is a respectable school, this specific course was recommended by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 10 executive leadership courses that should be on every leader’s radar
Take-away development plan: The main takeaway for people who attend this program is a personalized leadership development plan. Crafted during the sixth and final session, this plan is specifically built for your needs and those of your organization, making it a powerful resource to talk away with.
Pricing: $2,999 USD
Ready to take a leadership course?
Investing in yourself is the key to unlocking your full potential. The courses we’ve highlighted offer a unique blend of knowledge, skills, and insights that cater to various aspects of leadership and personal development. Whether you’re looking to enhance your emotional intelligence, build a cohesive team, or lead with authenticity and purpose, these courses provide the tools and guidance you need. Don’t wait to ignite your potential; enroll in a course today and take charge of your leadership journey.