Maastricht School of Management

Certificate in Personal Leadership Skills

• You are in a management or team leadership position or you have aspirations for a management or leadership position
• You want to improve your performance
• You want to develop skills by action learning
• You have an open attitude

Course objectives

At the end of the course you have:

• acquired insights in your personal value system and leadership strengths and weaknesses.
• acquired insights in how you influence and are being influenced
• acquired insights in your personal sources of power and how to use and extend these
• acquired insights in how the working environment influences leadership
• acquired insight in how leadership can be effective in the context of your organisation

Course topics

Part 1: What does it mean to be a leader?
In the first part, we will look at leadership from different perspectives and explore what leadership means for you. There are a lot of different leadership styles and theories. One of the objectives of this course is to define and develop your own leadership style within the context you are operating in. We will shortly explore this context. We will also look into the new developments on brain research and motivation.

Part 2: Leadership power and influence
In this part, we will look at the development of leadership through time and how to deal with power and influence. Topics like mindset and culture are addressed, as well as basic skills of influencing people in interaction settings.

Part 3: How to engage and motivate people?
There is a lot of literature available about the psychology of leadership and motivation. In this part, we work with the newest insights in motivation and communication. We will use models like transactional analyses, to show how you can influence and motivate others by your behavior and vice versa. The leader as a coach is a powerful concept and skill to motivate, develop and grow.

Part 4: Skill of the leaders
In this part, we will use practical theories and exercises in order to increase your influence in interactions. We will explore skills to deal with politics, mindset, negotiating, communication, team dynamics and feedback. We will also look at what makes a leader effective in the organizational context

Part 5: How to initiate and lead (strategic) change?
In this part we will look at different ways and practices of leadership in the context of managing organisational change. How to get things (and people!) moving, and how to set up and implement organizational change.

Teaching methods

The course uses an action learning approach and the input of the participants is highly valued. As such we expect you to take an active role during the course, in order to link the different visions and practices to your day-to-day situation.

Your profile

• You are in a management or team leadership position or you have aspirations for a management or leadership position
• You want to improve your performance
• You want to develop skills by action learning
• You have an open attitude

Certificate

Each participant receives a certificate of participation.
This certificate is being awarded as evidence of participation in a post-graduate training at indicative level 6 or 7 of the EQF. The minimum study load is 14 hours and an attendance level of 80% is required. This certificate is being awarded in the form of a soft copy when the training is online or a hard copy during a face-to-face training. The certificate will mention your full name, training title, training date and comprising core topics.

At the end of the course you have:

• acquired insights in your personal value system and leadership strengths and weaknesses.
• acquired insights in how you influence and are being influenced
• acquired insights in your personal sources of power and how to use and extend these
• acquired insights in how the working environment influences leadership