Level 5 Certificate & Diploma in Leadership & Management

The courses are delivered through a combination of coaching, online and work based learning. They are split into modules, each with a blend of online and practical activities.

Students have a monthly coaching session, via Skype or phone, with their own coach. They submit an assignment for each module, based on applying their newly learned skills in the workplace, and they are provided with prompt and detailed feedback, incorporating reflective questions that encourage further personal development.

The Certificate consists of six modules which provide a broad coverage of the key skills required to practise as a middle manager. This provides a solid foundation for personal development and valuable insights into a variety of situations.

The Diploma builds on and broadens the skills and knowledge gained in the certificate. Students work with their coach to develop a personal development plan, based on an analysis of the challenges faced by themselves and their organisations.

They then work on their PDP for the remaining months of the programme, interacting with their coach and reflecting on progress and achievement monthly. Then, at the end, they evaluate the impacts on themselves and their organisation. The process is assessed through a continuous assessment process.

Both courses are delivered through a unique blend of coaching and work based learning, designed to develop real impacts in the workplace.

Their learning will evolve as students progress, drawing on both structured on-line learning and a large library of materials, provided by both the Institute of Leadership and Management and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Accredited Prior Learning

This programme offers participants the opportunity to gain recognition, formal credit and exemptions for learning acquired prior to enrolling. If you are awarded credit for prior learning you have the opportunity to complete the course sooner and also reduce the cost of your learning. For further details please contact us.

What will you experience on the programme?

• Our team are practitioners and coaches with experience of working in senior management positions
• Activities are practical, current and relevant to the 21st century organisation
• The courses are highly interactive and informative
• Learning is flexible and does not involve any time ‘off the job’, apart from monthly coaching tutorials
• Our methodology is constantly cross referenced with new concepts and thinking

Programme overview (click on the details tab for more)

The Certificate consists of six units. The Diploma has a further single unit lasting 6 months.

All are designed around the units of the qualifications:

Certificate (6 months)

Six units, each lasting one month, covering a range of leadership and management issues. Units covered are:

Becoming an effective leader

The effectiveness of leadership within an organisation is pivotal to the success or otherwise of the organisation. Developing a deep understanding of leadership roles and the need for effective leadership will provide strong foundations to enable you to develop your capabilities and competence as a leader to meet the demands both of today and the future.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) encapsulates a range of skills and attributes that enable us to lead people effectively. It enables us to identify, understand, and manage emotions positively to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.

This unit will help you to learn more about how being self-aware and understanding the impact you have on others is a crucial element of leadership.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to develop the knowledge and understanding of effective leadership as required by a practising or potential middle manager.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• understand your own ability to fulfil key responsibilities of the leadership role
• evaluate your own ability to lead others

During this unit you will:

• evaluate your own ability to use a range of leadership styles, in different situations and with different types of people, to fulfil the leadership role
• use theories of emotional intelligence to review the effect of emotions on your own and others’ performance
• review your own ability to set direction and communicate this to others
• review your own ability to motivate, delegate and empower others
• produce a personal development plan to improve own ability to lead

You will be expected to:-

• ensure that you feel comfortable with the learning approach for this unit
• take part in a tutorial with your coach
• complete the learning allocated to Weeks 1 to 3
• complete a written assignment to be submitted at the end of Week 4

You will be guided through this process by your coach and your course timetable. The purpose of the tutorial is to support your learning and your personal and professional growth and development.

You may also wish to use some of this time to talk through your proposed assignment and any issues and challenges facing you in your professional life.

Managing projects in the organisation

The effectiveness of how projects are managed within an organisation can be pivotal to the success or otherwise of the organisation. Indeed, it is now expected that most effective middle managers will possess sound project management skills.

This unit will help you to learn more about the key stages of starting, planning and successfully delivering a project.

It will also help you to learn more about managing quality, resources, budgets, the project plan, risk and other issues that may arise during the project life cycle. You will also consider how projects are evaluated and how you can further develop yourself as a project manager.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to develop the understanding and ability to be able to manage projects, as required by a practising or potential middle manager.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• manage a project in an organisation
• evaluate your own ability to manage a project

You will be asked to demonstrate that you can:

• assess the usefulness of project management tools and techniques for managing a project within own organisation
• plan the implementation of a project within your own organisation
• communicate the project plans with appropriate colleagues and stakeholders, gaining agreement where necessary
• implement the project plan, monitoring progress against agreed targets
• use feedback from others to critically evaluate own ability to plan and implement a project, identifying strengths and weaknesses
• create a self-development plan to improve your own performance in managing projects

You will be expected to:-

• ensure that you feel comfortable with the learning approach for this unit
• take part in a tutorial with your coach
• complete the learning allocated to Weeks 1 to 3
• complete a written assignment in two parts

Your assignment for this unit is to plan and implement a project in your organisation.

Understanding financial management

It is a crucial element of the role of a practising or aspiring middle manager that they understand the financial context of their own organisation.

This unit will enable you to explore the different types of organisation that exist today, the financial context of your own organisation, its financial stakeholders and how financial management and management accounting contribute to overall business performance.

On a practical level, managing a budget requires managers to understand how identify when things are not going to plan and how to control costs. This unit will help you to identify, evaluate and address variances. You will also learn more about techniques to monitor and control costs.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to develop understanding of finance within the context of an organisation, as required by a practising or potential middle manager.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• understand finance within the context of an organisation
• understand the value of recording financial management information
• understand budgets for the management of your own area of operation

You will be asked to demonstrate that you can:

• describe your organisation’s sources of finance or funding
• analyse the range of financial stakeholders and explain their various expectations of the organisation
• explain the importance of cash flow forecasting and cash flow management to the organisation
• provide a general assessment of business/ organisational performance using appropriate financial measures
• explain the role of financial performance indicators in monitoring the achievement of objectives
• explain the purposes of the main financial documents used within the organisation
• explain the process of budget setting used in the organization
• explain how to use budgetary techniques to contribute to controlling cost in your own area of operation

You will be expected to:-

• ensure that you feel comfortable with the learning approach for this unit
• take part in a tutorial with your coach
• complete the learning allocated to Weeks 1 to 3
• complete a written assignment in Week 4

Management coaching and mentoring

Organisations have come to understand how valuable coaching and mentoring can be, and many are adding the ability to coach and mentor others to the list of skills required in their managers.

This unit will enable you to explore what is meant by coaching and mentoring, and the difference between the two. You will also explore the benefits of a coaching and mentoring approach, and how to make a case for using it to improve individual and organisational performance.

You will learn about structuring, planning and implementing a programme of coaching and mentoring. You will also consider established models of coaching and mentoring and how you can maximise the impact of your coaching and mentoring interventions, and how to evaluate the success of your coaching and mentoring.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to understand:

• the purpose of coaching and mentoring within an organisational context
• the skills, behaviours, attitudes, beliefs and values of an effective coach or mentor
• the role of contracting and the process to effectively coach or mentor
• the principles of effective coaching or mentoring in practice and how to evaluate benefits

You will be asked to demonstrate that you can:

• define what coaching and mentoring is within the context of an organisation and explain the similarities and differences between coaching and mentoring
• identify potential individual, operational and organisational barriers to using coaching or mentoring and develop appropriate strategies for minimising or overcoming these
• present the case for using coaching or mentoring to benefit individuals and organisation performance
• critically explore the knowledge, skills, and behaviour of an effective coach or mentor
• analyse why coaches or mentors require effective communication skills
• review the responsibilities of the coach or mentor to manage relationships (including values and power) and remain ethical and non- judgemental
• review a model or process which should be followed when formally coaching or mentoring
• analyse the rationale for and the characteristics of effective contracting within coaching or mentoring
• explain the necessity of exploring the expectations and boundaries of a coaching or mentoring programme with all stakeholders
• justify the rationale for supervision of coaches and mentors in practice
• critically review the elements required for effective and integrated coaching or mentoring
• analyse how the benefits of coaching or mentoring should be evaluated

Leading innovation and change

To be able to successfully implement change in the workplace, managers need to be aware of the different types of change, the origins of change and the ways in which people react to and cope with change.

This unit will enable you to develop a fundamental understanding of change and the concept of innovation within an organisation. You will also consider how to create an environment that encourages innovation and consider some barriers to change.

However, all too often, well-planned change initiatives fail to deliver what is expected because insufficient attention is paid to the needs of those affected. Change is difficult, even when it is good and for right reasons. During this unit, you will examine the importance and the role of communication in the process and how to lead change effectively.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to develop your understanding and ability of leading innovation and change, as required by a practising or potential middle manager.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• understand the need for innovation and change management within an organisation
• propose innovative solutions to improve organisational performance
• lead and manage change within an organisation

You will be asked to demonstrate that you can:

• explain the importance of innovation for your own organisation
• explain the importance of managing change within own organisation
• assess an opportunity for innovation and improvement in own organisation
• justify the improvement identified, in the context of organisational objectives
• use a range of techniques to generate innovative options to deliver the improvement identified
• evaluate options for generating the proposed improvement to determine feasibility and viability
• create a change management plan that is designed to meet stakeholders’ expectations
• implement the change management plan, monitoring progress against agreed targets

You will be expected to:-

• ensure that you feel comfortable with the learning approach for this unit
• take part in a tutorial with your coach
• complete the learning allocated to Weeks 1 to 2
• complete a written assignment

Developing critical thinking

The critical thinking that goes into both strategic and operational decision making plays a major part in defining the level of success or otherwise of an organisation.

This unit will enable you to develop a fundamental understanding of the components of critical thinking. You will also learn more about how to develop an argument or debate and the value and purpose of reflection.

You will also explore how emotions, attitudes, values and beliefs can affect rational discourse, and how significance of beliefs, attitudes and value systems in shaping human behaviours.

Further, it is often surprising how difficult it can be to identify and develop a range of options for meeting identified needs. Evaluating the range of strategic options requires the application of sound judgement, and we will examine a number of different tools and techniques that support the evaluation process.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to develop the ability to think and reflect critically, as required by a potential or practising middle manager.

By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

• critically assess your own beliefs, attitudes and value systems
• critically assess the validity of management theories in relation to your own beliefs, attitudes and values

You will be asked to demonstrate that you can:

• explain the difference between beliefs, attitudes and values
• critically assess the impact of beliefs, attitudes and values on your own behaviour
• identify management theories relevant to your role
• critically assess the impact of own beliefs, attitudes and values on a management theory relevant to your role.
• use the critical assessment to evaluate how someone with different beliefs, attitudes and values might interpret the theory differently

You will be expected to:-

• ensure that you feel comfortable with the learning approach for this unit
• take part in a tutorial with your coach
• complete the learning allocated to Weeks 1 to 3
• complete a written assignment

Diploma

There is one further single unit in the ILM Level 5 Diploma course which is entitled ‘Managing your own Professional Development’.

Successful completion of this unit will enable you to take responsibility for managing your own development.

You will be asked to:

• evaluate your prior learning and work-related experience to identify personal strengths and weaknesses in self-development.
• assess your personal development aims, objectives and priorities for the long, medium and short term.
• evaluate development opportunities for the long, medium and short term.
• justify undertaking planned personal development activities to your employment and learning supervisors.
• negotiate and undertake planned and resources development activities.
• evaluate the effectiveness of the development activities in meeting personal aims, objectives and priorities.
• critically review how learning and development has been applied in the workplace to improve your own or others’ performance.
• review and revise short, medium and long-term goals based upon personal development activities and their impact on the workplace.

The learning is designed to increase your understanding and stimulate your own insights into leadership and management as it relates to your own situation, circumstances and preferences, in order to enhance your performance and that of your organisation.

For instance, learners are advised to consider potential new and existing live business projects in their organisation that they can undertake during the course where they will create, evaluate, implement and critically review their own performance.

You will be asked to explore the following, through critical comparison of your own performance against existing feedback and external sources:

• your performance as a manager
• your knowledge base
• the requirements of your role and / or profession
• your leadership style
• your learning preferences.

Assignment and 1-2-1 Coaching

Your course of study will highlight key questions for you to consider in relation to your own role and responsibilities.

You will be provided with an assignment template which will ask you to design and agree a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plan and will also act as a repository for your ongoing thoughts and reflections. You are asked to submit this at regular intervals for feedback from your coach.

You will reflect on the progress of your plan through the remainder of the course, not just in your assignment but also in your monthly tutorials with your coach. This will provide ongoing opportunities to review your learning and to discuss any issues that arise from it.

Your reflections with your coach will include:

• What learning did I undertake?
• What did I like?
• What did I learn?
• How has this changed the way I do things, or how will it change them?
• What differences has it made, to me, those around me and my organisation?

The purpose of the tutorials is to support your learning and your personal and professional growth and development. You may also wish to use some of this time to talk through the progress of your CPD activities and any issues and challenges facing you in your professional life.

At the end of this unit, you will submit your finalised assignment. This will incorporate all the work you have undertaken over the duration of the course, including your initial review, your ongoing reflections and the final evaluation of your progress and achievements.