These courses are an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge with Open Learn which anyone can join.
This course, Collaborative leadership in voluntary organisations, will help you to reflect on and develop collaborative leadership practices that will make a difference.
The course is aimed at people who work within voluntary organisations as paid staff or as volunteers or for people who work regularly with voluntary organisations, such as public sector staff or politicians.
The course will take approximately 24 hours to complete. It is divided into 8 weeks, each of which follows a standard pattern to make it easier for you to plan your time. There is a quiz at the end of each week to check what you have learned.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- describe the context and need for collaborative forms of leadership
- describe the range of different leadership identities suggested by collaborative settings and the power relationships implied in these identities
- plan and think about the challenges of leading collaborations
- experiment with a range of practices of collaborative leadership that will help one enact better leadership in a range of settings
- practice collaborative leadership in a more robust way within voluntary organisations and across organisational boundaries
- offer a critique of collaborative leadership in relation to its potential and limitations for leadership of voluntary organisations
- discuss and reflect on collaborative leadership in the voluntary sector in relation to power.
Course duration : 24 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
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This free course, Collective leadership, will give you an insight into the importance of how to be a more effective leader, and how to better engage and work with ‘followers’ in an organisational setting.
It considers the ‘heroic’ leader of the past and how leadership studies historically focused on the individual. It then builds on what is meant by Collective Leadership, using real-life case studies as examples.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- briefly describe leadership theory, considering the leader, the follower and the collective
- understand the metaphor of the ‘Collective Canyon’
- understand the importance of a collective leadership approach.
Course duration : 6 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
Leaders are all around us – we encounter them at work and in our spare time, we read about them in the press – but have you ever wondered what makes them good or bad at their role? You might be considering a leadership role as your next career step, or maybe you’re in a leadership position already and finding it difficult to move your team forward. If you’re interested in finding out more about leadership, from the perspective of a leader or a follower, then this free course, Leadership and Followership will help you. Working through this course will help you to explore what makes a good leader, recognise common leadership challenges, and identify the skills you need to develop if you want to enhance your own leadership experience.
You’ll start this course by considering your own leadership experience and learning more about different leadership styles. As you progress, you’ll focus on key leadership skills and how you might develop them yourself, exploring elements of both good and bad leadership and looking at possible solutions to problems that can arise. Followership has an important connection with leadership and you’ll find out more about what makes a good follower and how leaders can develop their followers to create more productive relationships and encourage them to consider leadership roles in the future. You’ll look at common leadership challenges and the future of leadership in this changing world. Finally, you’ll identify how you want to develop your own leadership skills and devise a plan to build your experience.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- describe a variety of leadership styles and approaches and analyse how they fit with personal preferences
- recognise the skills required for leadership and assess personal experience and capability
- define followership, from the perspectives of both the leader and the follower
- identify how effective leadership can overcome a variety of common challenges
- reflect on personal experience, start a leadership journal and devise an appropriate plan of action to develop leadership skills.
Course duration : 24 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
This free course, Managing and managing people, will introduce you to the world of management. We will be looking at a range of topics, including what managers do, what skills they require, and how you can develop as a manager.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand what is meant by management and managerial effectiveness
- identify the roles which are fulfilled while working as a manager
- identify managerial activities that contribute to managerial effectiveness
- identify a cause of stress in managerial life from a range covering mismatches between capabilities and role, player-manager tension and everyday stressors
- understand time pressures and the need for time management.
Course duration : 8 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
This free course looks at how teams ‘travel’ together on a journey of development. Those journeys are hardly ever smooth. The course encourages you to recognise difference and challenge amongst individuals in the team who are pulling in different directions. It will help you identify where such challenges can be embraced for the benefit of your team and your organisation.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- recognise and value ‘challenge’ in teams
- understand how to harness creative tensions for the good of the team
- recognise team interactions that nurture trust and strengthen a team’s capacity to support itself and innovate.
Course duration : 2 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
Gain an insight into facilitating meetings and discussions in the workplace. In this free course, Facilitating group discussions, you will look at some of the behaviours effective facilitators exhibit. Informative and engaging videos will introduce you to examples of facilitation in practice.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand the key skills and behaviours required to facilitate a group discussion
- prepare effectively before facilitating a meeting
- consider some of the difficult behaviours that can occur in meetings
- think of some possible strategies for dealing with these.
Course duration : 2 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
Are you always the quiet one when it comes to group discussion? This free course, Groups and teamwork, will help you improve your working relationships with other people in groups of three or more. The course also deals with project life cycles, project management and the role of the leader.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- describe the main features of work groups and teams
- discuss the main group processes that affect work group or team effectiveness
- describe the main features of projects, project teams and project management
- discuss some types of theories about effective leadership.
Course duration : 20 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
To succeed in management you need good interpersonal skills, you need to understand how to deal with other people. This free course, The importance of interpersonal skills, will help you gain an awareness of your own skills and understand that an awareness of the interpersonal skills of others can help us enormously in dealing with the work tasks we are responsible for.
Course learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- recognise the importance of interpersonal skills
- describe how good communication with other can influence our working relationships
- outline the roles we play in our work groups and teams.
Course duration : 3 hours
You can start this course straight away. Please follow the link in your confirmation email to take you directly to the course.
This is an access anytime e-learning resource provided free of charge in association Open Learn
(If you do not receive a confirmation email please check your spam/junk email boxes or sign into the ‘Your Account’ section of the Learning Hub website to retrieve all of your booking and course information)
All Open Learn courses and have been shared by permission of The Open University copyright © and have been licensed for use under the ‘Creative Commons ‘Attributions; Non-Commercial; Share Alike’ License.
For full information about the Open University visit Home | OpenLearn – Open University.
For any further questions or clarification around usage, visit Frequently asked questions | OpenLearn – Open University
PRESS HERE to book now
