Free Leadership: The Foundation course

Leadership is not a trick you do on the side, but a foundation you stand on every day. And as with a building, the sturdier the base, the more you can build on it.

This free online course is the starter for our full Leadership: The Fundamentals. In the first three chapters you will learn what your role as a manager involves, how communication forms the foundation of leadership, and you will work on your own self-knowledge and self-image. Each chapter ends with a short knowledge check, so you can tell straight away whether it has sunk in.

The full course goes on to cover behavioural patterns and the Leary Rose, conversation skills, managing behaviour and results, feedback and difficult conversations, motivating, delegating, dealing with change, negotiating and time management. Would you like to follow those chapters with an experienced trainer alongside you? Then take a look at the Leadership: The Foundation training course.

Contents:

  • 0.-

    Introduction
    How this free course is structured and what you will learn in the three chapters.
  • 1.-

    The role and position of the manager
    What leadership involves, the transition from colleague to manager and the five roles you fulfil.
  • 2.-

    Communication as the foundation of leadership
    The communication model, three laws of communication and direct versus indirect communication.
  • 3.-

    Self-knowledge and self-image
    The Johari window, your self-image and self-esteem, and your core qualities and pitfalls.
  • 4.-

    Styles and behaviour patterns: Leary's Rose
    The Leary Circumplex explained, your own preferred style and how to deal with the classic difficult types.
  • 5.-

    Conversation skills and active listening
    Active listening versus hearing, barriers to effective listening and how to improve your listening skills.
  • 6.-

    Steering on behaviour and results
    Making expectations clear, holding staff accountable for their behaviour and keeping track of goals without putting the relationship under strain.
  • 7.-

    Feedback and difficult conversations
    Giving and receiving feedback, recognising objections and resistance and how to deliver bad news.
  • 8.-

    Motivating and ownership
    What motivates people, encouraging ownership and which role to use when.
  • 9.-

    Delegating in practice
    Delegating effectively, following up without micromanaging and the four most common mistakes in delegating.
  • 10.-

    Dealing with change and resilience
    Change as a constant, taking staff with you and increasing your own resilience.
  • 11.-

    Negotiating, performance reviews and time management
    Negotiating as a manager, the performance review and ten tips for effective time management.
  • 12.-

    Putting it into practice: your foundation
    Your strengths and points for attention, your personal action plan and leadership in a nutshell.

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Download PDF

Download chapters 1 to 3 in a single PDF, including a practical worksheet and a handy cheat sheet listing all the models.

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Our free courses and webinars

Your own motivation and commitment are essential if you want to master something new. You can get a long way with self-study. Learnit wants to contribute to this by offering valuable content such as free webinars and courses. This way you can get acquainted with new fields of learning. Once you have made a start, you may discover that there are also many advantages to taking a course at Learnit under the guidance of an experienced trainer.

  • You spend several days working dedicatedly on your learning objectives, which means you make progress more quickly
  • The trainer helps you over the bumps and spots your blind spot
  • the trainer can explore what your learning objectives are and show you the shortest learning route
  • You can practise real-life situations really well during the course
  • You get to know other participants with an interest in the same subject

In short, you achieve much more in less time.

The free courses are suitable for home study, as you can download them online as a PDF. The range of free courses consists of IT and Communication & Management courses. Would you like to learn more about these subjects, or is the subject you want to learn about not included? Then take a look at our courses.

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