Manchester Leadership Development Programme

ModulesLeadership in Practice

Delivered by Dr Courtney Owens, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Leadership and Organisational Psychology .

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This module is an interactive session which focuses on you as a leader. Using Hogan Psychometric Assessment, you will discover your strengths, your blind spots, how your leadership changes under pressure and how you can improve. Areas covered include:

• Before you lead others, know, and lead yourself
• How your personality influences your leadership
• Leading at your best vs. leading under pressure

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Leading Teams and Talent

Delivered by Dr Paul Evans, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Leadership Development.

Leading Teams and Talent focuses on practical application. During the session you will learn the principles for building and leading a high performing team and understand talent development and the impact on team dynamics. Areas covered include:

• Motivation and influence
• Effective vs dysfunctional teams
• Developing diverse talent

View the module overview for more information >>

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Strategy and Innovation

Delivered by Dr Mike Kennard, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Strategy and Innovation.

This one-day interactive session encourages you to think more strategically about choice, whilst giving you the tools and process for promoting innovation in everyday work. Challenging the assumptions that the two are separate areas, it brings strategy and innovation to life through leadership, because successful leaders know that they cannot do one without the other. Areas covered include:

• Strategic tools, strategic choice and creating great strategy
• Strategy, opportunity and risk
• Driving innovation as a process

View the module overview for more information >>

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Project Management

Delivered by Claire-Marie Boggiano, Lecturer in Project Management, Change Management and Leadership.

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The project management module takes real world examples of projects and applies the common sense, tools, and theories you need to achieve results. Throughout the session, you will progress step-by-step through each stage of a project, learning valuable best practices and avoiding common pitfalls. Areas covered include:

• Lifecycle, processes, tools, and techniques
• Success and failure: evaluation and decision making
• Planning, execution and closing

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Finance for Management

Delivered by Nigel Moody, Financial and Development Consultant.

This module is led by an expert in commercial finance, who will give you the knowledge and tools to join in the financial conversation and make a valuable contribution, even when finance is not your background. You will be taken step-by-step through the key financial documents every leader must understand, interpret and be able to question. Areas covered include:

• Commercial business management
• See company financial accounts in 3D
• Develop your own unique business dashboard

View the module overview for more information >>

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ILM Level 7 Award in Leadership and Management

Ian Crowther, Programme Director

This module takes your learning from the programme and applies it to your working world. You will develop a work-based project, focusing on a real-life challenge or opportunity for your organisation. By applying your learning from different leadership modules through reflective practice, you will critically assess the effectiveness of your leadership. During the module you will:

• Undertake a series of online webinars
• Be supported by academic experts
• Create a 2,500 word project assessment for a Level 7 Award from the Institute of Leadership and Management.
• Explore a real-life challenge or opportunity within your workplace
• Use your knowledge to develop a plan to deliver value

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Leadership Coaching

As part of the course, you undertake one-to-one professional coaching sessions with a qualified leadership coach. Using insight from your Hogan Leadership Psychometric assessment, you will work on the areas most important to your personal development as a leader. The coaching will help you to:

Become more self-aware as a leader

Have a deeper understanding of any obstacles you must overcome

Build your ability to lead with greater confidence.

View the coaching overview for more detail >>

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You’ll learn through a blend of workshops, group learning, reflective discussion, e-learning platform, one-to-one coaching, and guided webinar support.

There will be an assigned assessment (2,500 words) as part of this programme.

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The programme is designed to help you understand how to get the best out of your business, giving you the capability to master the challenges and opportunities you face as a manager and a leader.

• Develop increased self-awareness as a leader
• Understand your team and how to get the best from them
• Build your confidence to ask difficult questions and make informed decisions
• Gain a practical understanding of financial management
• Construct a framework for thinking more strategically
• Learn a proven process for promoting innovation
• Hone your project management skills with a toolkit for delivering major projects
• Design a work-based project to apply your learning and deliver business impact

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The course attracts leaders, managers, directors, department heads, CFOs, and CEOs from a wide range of disciplines including sales, marketing, quality, engineering, health and safety, operations, logistics, customer service, legal and IT.

Professionals from diverse sectors and backgrounds work together around common themes, benefitting from the opportunity to network, generate ideas and share best practice.

There is no formal entry requirements for this programme, but you should have some experience in a leadership or management role.

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This session explores the key drivers of productivity and how leaders can identify practical opportunities to improve performance. You will consider the wider economic policy levers that shape productivity, the factors within an organisation's control, and the trade-offs leaders need to navigate when seeking sustainable improvement.

• Explore the drivers of productivity and how they affect firm-level performance.
• Use a practical framework and checklist to identify opportunities for improvement.

This session helps leaders build confidence in understanding and applying AI responsibly. You will explore the opportunities, risks and governance considerations linked to AI adoption, while experimenting with practical tools that can support leadership tasks and organisational decision-making.

• Understand key AI concepts and how they can support productivity and decision-making.
• Identify responsible approaches to AI adoption within your organisation.

This session explores how organisational design, operating models and processes influence performance. You will consider practical ways to improve effectiveness, manage resources and support continuous improvement in complex and changing environments.

• Explore how structures, systems and processes shape organisational performance.
• Identify practical actions to strengthen effectiveness and adaptability.

This session explores how leaders can support people and organisations through change and transition. You will use practical models and tools to understand why change can be unpredictable, communicate with clarity and build confidence during periods of uncertainty.

• Apply practical tools to communicate clearly and support teams through change.
• Use models such as Bridges’ Transition Model and the 4C framework to strengthen leadership effectiveness.

This session explores strategy as the art of making choices. You will consider how leaders can assess strategic options, make effective trade-offs and allocate resources in a fast-paced world, including the importance of stopping some activities to focus on the priorities most likely to deliver successful outcomes.

• Explore how to judge strategic choices and trade-offs in different situations.
• Apply simple strategic models to support focus, resource allocation and decision-making.

This session introduces risk appetite and enterprise risk management as practical tools for leadership decision-making. You will explore how organisations identify, assess and manage risk, while considering how risk appetite can support responsible business growth.

• Understand how risk appetite supports better leadership decisions.
• Explore practical ways to assess, prioritise and manage organisational risk.

This session explores how leaders can build, protect and manage organisational reputation in complex environments. You will consider the links between governance, strategy, trust and legitimacy, and examine how organisations can respond effectively during reputational challenge or crisis.

• Explore the drivers of reputation, trust and legitimacy.
• Consider practical approaches to managing reputational challenges and values-based relationships.