Top Online Courses for Fine Tuning Your Leadership Skills This Fall

Polish Your Leadership Skills with These Top Online Courses for Professional Development

• Strong leadership skills are a crucial asset in IT project management
• There are distinct differences between managers and leaders
• Online courses are available to help polish your leadership skills with little time investment

Strong leadership ability is hands down one of the most important attributes of an IT project management professional. Leading a project towards successful completion requires being able to inspire your team, create a cohesive work environment, and keep everyone motivated at the same time. Rather than calling it project “management”, your role really should be defined as project “leadership”.

Management and leadership might seem like the same concepts on the surface, but they are quite unique from one another. Strong leaders nurture a vision, rather than outline directives, they think in the long-term vs the short term, and they motivate and inspire innovation rather than enlisting micromanagement techniques.

True leaders require constant nurturing and professional development, and there is no time like the present to get started. Here are the top online courses to help you develop your leadership capabilities this fall.

To-the-Point Short Term Courses When Time Isn’t a Luxury

It would be great if you had the time and other resources to head back to a collegiate environment to sharpen your leadership skills, but as a busy professional you simply doesn’t have time for that type of investment. Udemy, one of the leading resources in professional development courses, offers a spectrum of leadership training options that are short term and easy on the budget. A few to consider include:

• The Science of Leadership
• Seth Godin’s Leadership Workshop
• Leadership Lessons and Building High Performing Teams
• Team Facilitation: The Core Skill of Great Team Leaders

Online Leadership Training From the Most Respected In the Field

Leadership is one of those topics where someone can talk a good game without much substance to back them up. These types of insights aren’t of much value in IT project management, making it important to develop your leadership skills through the advice, knowledge and direction of the only the best.

Coursera is a leading resource for academic level courses, taught by instructors at some of the world’s leading universities and educational institutions. A few of the top leadership development courses that you’ll find at Coursera include:

• Leading People and Teams (University of Michigan)
• Organizational Leadership (Northwestern University)
• Inspired Leadership (Case Western Reserve University)
• Culture Driven Team Building (University of Pennsylvania)

Polish Up Your Leadership Skills in 2 Hours

Feeling like you need to brush up on your leadership skills before you head back into the office on Monday? You can learn a great deal and feel a surge of motivation by listening to a short lecture on the art of becoming a great leader. One example is a free course offered by Alison titled What Great Leaders Do. This short course defines the hallmarks of great leaders and the habits that help create them. There’s plenty of actionable insights and advice that you can begin implementing immediately in your project management.

Build Your Leadership Skills with a New Career Opportunity Today

One of the most effective ways of building your leadership skills is by looking for a new career that gives you the opportunity and room to do so. At nTech Workforce, we specialize in placing top IT talent with the companies that want to watch them succeed. Contact nTech Workforce and speak with one of our talent specialists today.