Equip yourself to successfully lead organizations through clarity of purpose and effective collaboration — by building and motivating teams; designing and delivering powerful stories; developing strategies to appropriately influence; understanding underlying customer analytics and applying innovative approaches to deliver impact.
How do aspiring managers succeed in an ever-changing business environment? How do they lead different groups to action? This specialization equips aspiring managers to lead change and leverage different roles and functions within for-profit institutions to create lasting value in the marketplace. Throughout the five courses, we will explore how great leaders assess themselves and lead collaborative teams that effectively manage negotiations and conflict. We will discover how leaders communicate through storytelling and employ other communication strategies to influence. Furthermore, we will learn how organizations start with the clarity of purpose that comes from an understanding of customers’ needs, including leveraging data analytics, and use that focus to drive the design of products and services to meet those needs effectively. At the end of the coursework, students will create a capstone project that allows them to apply what they have learned.
Each of the individual courses can be audited for free: 1-High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation, 2-Leadership Communication for Maximum Impact: Storytelling, 3-Leadership Through Social Influence, 4-Leadership Through Marketing, 5-Leadership Through Design Innovation.
Organizational Leadership Specialization
Successfully Lead in an Ever-Changing Business Environment. Master key strategies to successfully lead an organizational change effort in just five courses plus a final capstone project.
Offered By
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 6 Courses in this Specialization
Course1
High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation
4.8
866 ratings
Are leaders born or made? Learn the essential skills to develop and expand your leadership repertoire, design teams for collaboration, and craft win-win negotiation strategies. High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation focuses on leadership, teamwork, and negotiation. Students will engage in self-assessments to analyze their leadership style, develop team charters to optimize their groups, and develop a game plan for effective negotiation.
Recurring course sessions repeat every 2 weeks on Monday with an enrollment period of 5 days.
Course2
Leadership Communication for Maximum Impact: Storytelling
4.4
464 ratings
Storytelling is an essential part of leadership. Effective leaders communicate to inspire talent to excel; to partner with investors and communities; to engage with customers and clients and to grow their impact in the world as part of a global community. Cultivating an authentic, trustworthy and compelling narrative is vital to a leader’s success. This course helps leaders find their own story through personal branding; develop storytelling success with all constituencies; initiate an effective voice for crisis; interact well through social and third party media; and communicate a vision for innovation.
Course3
Leadership Through Social Influence
4.5
399 ratings
This course will provide learners with a systematic general framework for analyzing persuasive influence situations. Learners will be able to identify different challenges faced by persuaders and to fashion appropriate strategies for addressing those challenges. The broad goal is to provide learners with not only an extensive persuasion tool kit, but also with an understanding of how different tools are useful in different situations. Specifically, the course will address four broad topics: strategies for influencing people’s personal attitudes; strategies for affecting social factors influencing behavior; strategies for affecting people’s perceived ability to undertake the desired behavior; and strategies for inducing people to act on their existing intentions.
Course4
Leadership Through Marketing
4.6
250 ratings
The success of every organization depends on attracting and retaining customers. Although the marketing concepts for doing so are well established, digital technology has empowered customers, while producing massive amounts of data, revolutionizing the processes through which organizations attract and retain customers. In this course, students will learn how to identify new opportunities to create value for empowered consumers, develop strategies that yield an advantage over rivals, and develop the data science skills to lead more effectively, allocate resources, and to confront this very challenging environment with confidence.
Instructors
Tom Collinger
Executive Director Spiegel Research CenterMedill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Hud Englehart
FacultyMedill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Sanjay Khosla
Adjunct Professor of Executive EducationKellogg School of Management
Daniel J. O’Keefe
Owen L. Coon ProfessorDepartment of Communication Studies, School of Communication
Ernest Duplessis
FacultyMedill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Leigh Thompson
J. Jay Gerber Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution and OrganizationsKellogg School of Management
Florian Zettelmeyer
Nancy L. Ertle Professor of Marketing, Director, Program on Data Analytics at KelloggKellogg School of Management
Greg Holderfield
Pentair - D. Eugene and Bonnie L. Nugent Clinical Associate Professor of Design, Director of the Segal Design Institute, Co-Director of the MMM ProgramMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science (Segal Design Institute)
Elizabeth Gerber
Associate Professor, Co-director of the Research Cluster at the Segal Design InstituteMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science (Segal Design Institute), School of Communication, Kellogg School of Management (by courtesy), School of Education and Social Policy (by courtesy)
Pam Daniels
Clinical Assistant Professor, Design Innovator in ResidenceMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Segal Design Institute)
Ed Colgate
Allen and Johnnie Breed University Design Professor, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Director of the Engineering Design and Innovation Masters Program at the Segal Design InstituteMcCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
Candy Lee
ProfessorMedill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications
Greg Carpenter
James Farley/Booz Allen Hamilton Professor of Marketing Strategy, Director of the Center for Market Leadership, Faculty Director, Kellogg Markets and Customers Initiative (KMCI)Kellogg School of Management
Barbara O'Keefe
Dean of the School of Communication; Professor of Communication Studies; Annenberg University ProfessorSchool of Communication
About Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research and teaching university with campuses in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, and Doha, Qatar. Northwestern combines innovative teaching and pioneering research in a highly collaborative environment that transcends traditional academic boundaries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the refund policy?
Can I just enroll in a single course?
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
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?
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Specialization?
This Specialization doesn't carry university credit, but some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
How long does it take to complete the Organizational Leadership Specialization?
Time to completion can vary based on your schedule, but most learners are able to complete the Specialization in 3.5-4 months.
How often is each course in the Specialization offered?
Each course in the Specialization is offered on a regular schedule, with sessions starting about once per month. If you don't complete a course on the first try, you can easily transfer to the next session, and your completed work and grades will carry over.
What background knowledge is necessary?
This course is best suited for aspiring leaders who are already leading, to a certain degree, within their organizations but not necessarily large teams.
Do I have to take the courses in this Specialization in a specific order?
We recommend taking the courses in the order presented, as each subsequent course will build on material from previous courses.
Will I earn university credit for completing the Organizational Leadership Specialization?
Coursera courses and certificates don't carry university credit, though some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
What will I be able to do upon completing the Organizational Leadership Specialization?
(A) Optimally design a team for success (B) Negotiate in a collaborative fashion in large and small business situation (C) Utilize primary action strategies to achieve personal branding (D) Develop strategies for initial crisis response (E) Analyze techniques for communication to different constituencies (F) Formulate strategies for storytelling for innovation (G) Develop strategies to influence others (H) Create a market focused strategy (I) Use analytics to improve marketing efforts (J) Utilize design methods to identify opportunities and develop a range of solutions (K) Bring human-centered design approaches inside the organization to build a culture of innovation
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