Digital Leadership
Course overview
Digital transformation is on the rise, and with it we are seeing a new wave of leaders emerge. A dynamic leader who can identify the need for change, act decisively and lead teammates through results-driven initiatives has never been in higher demand.
Designed for digital professionals, this online course focuses on the processes, characteristics and challenges of leadership in a digital context.
Gain the commercial acumen required to make the case for digital innovation and secure buy-in, and the people and stakeholder management skills to lead the implementation. Fuel your professional development with a slew of leadership skills including:
- vision setting and decision making
- time management
- trust and relationship building
- conflict resolution
- hiring and growing teams
- change management
- commercial awareness
- stakeholder communication
Complement your existing professional expertise and boost your career with in-demand Digital Leadership skills.
Industry-approved content:
- Premium material built in-house, co-created with industry experts from nbn, Accenture, and w3.digital
- 60-80 hours of course content and activities over 12 weeks
- Bite sized, interactive content delivered via a variety of formats – readings, videos, quizzes, case studies, etc.
- Upskill with key leadership skills – leading people and teams, change and stakeholder management, and commercial acumen
- Refine your own leadership style and learn how to navigate team dynamics prevalent in modern work environments
- Hear real battle stories, case studies and tips from practising digital leaders
The best way to learn is by doing:
- Get practical experience that you can immediately use in your job
- Spend a massive 60% of your time on hands-on activities, from writing reflections to case study analysis and participating in feedback circles
- Prepare a pitch for a digital transformation project that’s relevant to your organisation. Graduate with a fully executable business case and report, along with the leadership skills to lead the implementation
- Walk away with a comprehensive leadership toolbox of mindsets, skills, and approaches that you’ll put to use during the course and well after graduation
A highly supported experience:
- Fortnightly mentor-led live video sessions, conveniently held after work hours to facilitate discussions, unpack challenges and bring the content to life
- Two 1:1 mentor sessions for tailored support, available on demand
- Entire teams dedicated to support your learning and progress
- Set deadlines to keep you motivated and on track, while allowing for flexibility in pacing your weekly activities
A social and collaborative learning environment:
- Access course content through our easy-to-use and interactive online learning platform which encourages peer engagement
- Be part of a cohort that will motivate you to extend yourself professionally
- Grow together, share ideas, and build a strong network with our community of passionate, like-minded individuals
Earn trusted and recognised credentials:
- Get a Certificate of Completion to validate your competencies and skills in Digital Leadership
- Add an industry trusted digital credential to your LinkedIn profile
Course timeframe
This course takes 12 weeks to complete. You’ll cover 60-80 hours of learning in 10 weeks, followed by 2 weeks dedicated to your final project/ report. This timeframe includes absorbing the learning materials, attending live video sessions, completing the course activities, completing your assessments, developing and presenting your product strategy, and communicating with your peers and instructor.
This course is to be completed in 12 weeks. However, you’ll continue to enjoy 6 months access to the course content from the time of enrolment.
What you'll learn
Explore what leadership is and what contemporary leadership looks like today, especially in the digital environment. Reflect on your own leadership experiences and what you feel characterises you as a leader.
Topics:
Introduction to leadership in the digital age
- Types of leadership
- Understanding your style
- Managing yourself
Activities:
- Define digital leadership
- Case study: Deloitte’s Decoding Digital Leadership. Align the Deloitte findings to Daniel Goleman’s 6 Leadership Styles (EI)
- Complete a personality test and Johari window exercise to understand your relationship with yourself and others
- Prepare your leadership brand statement
- Participate in discussion forums
In this module you’ll build confidence in what you already know, as well as your ability to lead. Get equipped with an accessible toolbox of mindsets, skills, tools and approaches that you can use and apply right away.
Topics:
- Types of tools and frameworks for leadership
- The art of listening
- 21st Century skills and transferable skills for leadership
- Building trust and relationships
Activities:
- Prepare a growth mindset plan and Get Things Done (GTD) plan
- Map out an Emotional Intelligence (EI) core competencies plan, incorporating workplace feedback
- Practice framing better questions and active listening with a classmate
- Case study analysis: McKinsey – the people power of transformations: ‘5C’ workplace analysis
- Case study analysis and workplace application: High trust leadership behaviours
- Apply “IDOARRT” to design meetings relevant to your workplace
- Participate in discussion forums
Unearth the thinking processes we might use when we are in leadership positions. Explore the importance of making decisions, and the ethics and potential ramifications of getting it wrong. Get exposure to the strategic tools that help craft a vision for the team or organisational unit.
Topics:
- Effective and productive thinking
- Decision making (making better decisions)
Activities:
- Six Thinking Hats exercise
- Eisenhower matrix
- Value ease matrix
- Case study: scaling digital transformations
- Participate in discussion forums
In Module 4 we support decision making and vision setting with commercial awareness. Demonstrating an awareness of how a business operates and the factors that determine its performance, enables compelling business cases for innovation and/or transformation that align company objectives with strategic action.
Topics:
- Cultivating a strategic mindset
- Improving your strategic thinking skills
- Embracing conflict
- Building financial acumen
- Financial terms 101
- Commercial capability
- Commercial viability
- Market orientation
Activities:
- Select a workplace scenario for your course project, or explore the scenario provided
- Create a team budget
- Prepare a one-page business case for hiring new staff
- Work on a financial reports exercise
- Test your commercial acumen via a quiz
- Participate in discussion forums
Learn how to best communicate with stakeholders, which is key to advocacy, managing expectations and securing buy-in.
Topics:
- Identify potential, primary and secondary key stakeholders
- Prioritise stakeholders
- Identify and analyse stakeholder needs, goals, objectives and expectations
- Strategies to influence decision making
- process oriented
- involving teams and stakeholders
- fostering a collaborative mindset
- creating and upholding psychological safety
Activities:
- Determine the key players that influence the ability to finance and hire
- Create a Stakeholder Map
- Complete two stakeholder identification exercises
- Create a stakeholder management plan
- Participate in discussion forums
Effective change management is essential for leading a digital innovation or transformation. In Module 6 we will look broadly at the change process with our focus on digital, consider techniques and reactions to change, and look at methods for addressing negativity and uncertainty.
Topics:
- Attitudinal considerations to change
- Strategies for adopting and adapting to digital innovation and transformation change
- Implementing best practices for driving change
- Common digital transformation pitfalls
Activities:
- Outline a Team Digital Transformation roadmap
- Prepare a Team Digital Transformation plan
- Case Studies: Digital Transformation (3)
- Participate in discussion forums
Implementation time means moving from ‘me’ to ‘we.’ Module 7 is about teams, what that means and how to know if we are moving in the right direction as a team. Explore what kinds of teams and organisational structures represent best practice in the digital space.
Topics:
- Teams and the digital age – creating a learning-culture environment
- Types of individuals in a team – team personas
- Team dynamics – accountability, authority and autonomy
- The 5 dysfunctions of a team (can you make it in the digital age?)
- Types of teams and structures in the digital age
Activities:
- Prepare a team capability matrix
- Participate in discussion forums
Module 8 forms a blueprint on how to build your high performing team. Each topic follows the model of a high performing team: forming, norming, storming and performing.
Topics:
- Forming
- Norming
- Storming
- Performing
Activities:
- Case Study: Digital Teams
- Create a HiPo Matrix based on the previous years reviews
- Provide analysis & suggested actions
- Conduct desktop research and write an opinion piece
- Participate in discussion forums
Once your team is set and you’re leading successfully, what comes next? In Module 9 you will learn how to unleash the potential of your team and what you as a leader need to do in order to enable this.
Topics:
- Leading a team
- Facilitating people and outcomes
- Unleashing creative potential
Activities:
- Set goals for the team and yourself as a leader, using the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal setting framework
- Conduct desktop research and write an opinion piece
- Participate in discussion forums
At some point you’re going to need to stop and evaluate the team you are leading. Are they the right fit? Do we need to grow? Do we need to cut back? Module 10 should equip leaders to face some of the more difficult activities a leader might need to experience. Additionally it explores how to continuously improve your team and create a culture of feedback.
Topics:
- Navigating change and conflict
- Learning loops and continuous improvement
- Recruiting and growing your team
Activities:
- Prepare Job Description for new role(s)
- Outline interview questions
- Prepare candidate assessment criteria
- Create an onboarding pack
Weeks 11 and 12 are all about completing your final project and presentation.
- Present your 90-day plan and FY budget to the group during week 12
- Submit a business case and written report that supports the presentation, curated from your course deliverables
- Receive structured feedback on your presentation and report from your mentor
Who this course is for
This course is designed for ambitious students, ideally with existing experience and knowledge from working in digital team environments. If this sounds like you and you’re after practical, industry-focused training with mentor support and classmate collaboration, this course is for you.
Our Digital Leadership course is ideal for a variety of professionals, including:
- Digital or technology professionals who want to upskill and develop professionally or gain a promotion
- First-time leaders or managers progressing from an individual contributor role to leading a team
- Practising digital team leaders or managers who would like to fill knowledge gaps or formalise their experience
Among others, interested students could be currently employed in roles such as UX UI Designer, Service Designer, Experience Designer, Digital Producer, Digital Coordinator, Product Leader, Project Leader, Digital Designer, Web Developer, Systems Administrator, Digital Marketer, etc.
Earn a digital credential
We partner with Acclaim by Credly to deliver digital credentials for our graduates. Digital credentials are a graphical representation of your skills, combined with a description of the knowledge and activities it took to earn them.
Digital badges can be used in email signatures or digital resumes, and on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
For more info, click here.
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