Home Collections 15 Best Free Online Leadership Courses with Certificates

15 Best Free Online Leadership Courses with Certificates

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A group of 5+ members at takethiscourse.net has put in efforts and after enough research, we present to you a list of best paid and free online leadership courses with printable certificates. According to the list, there are best leadership training courses in it that anyone can enroll in and start learning.

# Course Name University/Organization Ratings Duration
1. Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader University of Illinois ★★★★★ 4.8 14 Hours
2. Leadership Theory: The Basics Coventry University ★★★★★ 4.8 06 Hours
3. Leadership in 21st Century Organizations Copenhagen Business School ★★★★★ 4.8 38 Hours
4. Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence Case Western Reserve University ★★★★★ 4.7 19 Hours
5. 21st Century Leadership Training: Inspiring Excellence and Engagement Learning Tree
6. High-Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation Northwestern University ★★★★★ 4.8 14 Hours
7. Agile Leadership Principles University of Maryland 12 Hours
8. Building Your Leadership Skills HEC Paris ★★★★★ 4.6 18 Hours
9. Entrepreneurial Leadership Toolbox Babson College 24 Hours
10. Project Manager Leadership Training: Building and Leading High-Performance Teams Learning Tree
11. Adaptive Leadership in Development University of Queensland 120 Hours
12. Leadership: The Emotionally Intelligent Leader Udemy ★★★★★ 4.5 5.5 Hours
13. Leading Teams University of Michigan ★★★★★ 4.8 11 Hours
14. Applying Leadership and Strategy Fundamentals in Healthcare Doanex
15. International Leadership and Organizational Behavior Bocconi ★★★★★ 4.8 17 Hours

What is Leadership?

Leadership is known to be having an ability to put influence on others and guide them. In any organization, the job of a leader is to guide his team or any other member of an organization. In organization, if any such qualities are depicted by an individual, he can then ascend to executive management or C-level positions easily.

Importance of Leadership:

Leadership plays an important part in the success of any business or organization.

  • A leader helps his team to make sure that the organization’s resources are directed for improved efficiency and goals are achieved on time.
  • An effective leader always provides clarity of purpose.
  • Similarly, without an effective leader, a team can never stay focused and determined.
  • It is the leader who guides his team to realize its mission.

Top 5 Leadership Skills:

Below are the required top 5 leadership skills.

  • According to today’s company requirements, having the ability to think strategically has become quite important. Thus leaders must have the ability to act and think strategically.
  • Innovation is another skill that is highly demanded by organizations in leaders.
  • A leader must be an effective communicator.
  • Similarly, a leader must have the ability to solve real-world problems in real time.
  • Lastly, a leader must have a spirit of team player.
In order to help our readers in taking a knowledgeable learning decision, TakeThisCourse.net has introduced a metric to measure the effectiveness of an online course. Learn more about how we measure an online course effectiveness.

List of Best Free Online Leadership Courses with Certificates:

Below are the names and short descriptions of the best online leadership certification free and paid courses.

Leading Teams: Developing as a Leader

University of Illinois via Coursera
154,114 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (5,165 Ratings)
This Online Leadership Courses is Part of Strategic Leadership Specialization & Master of Business Administration (iMBA) degree.
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
615 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
1,100 Reviews
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
317 Reviews
4.9 / 5.0
★★★★★
229 Reviews

Leading Teams - Developing as a Leader Course Effectiveness Review

In the Online free Leadership courses, you will get access to all the learning material that will help you understand what leadership is? Training first module is the head and heart of everyday leadership. You will get to examine what it takes for an everyday leader to accomplish all its core tasks.

  • From making to implementing all the decisions, you will understand even the minute concept in detail. You will understand the importance of inclusiveness in leadership. Similarly, in the next module, the focus will be on the management of information on everyday leadership.
  • You will examine decision analysis as a systematic approach and also how you can use it to make decisions and understand the weaknesses and limitations of decision analysis. Thus this and many other topics will collectively help you understand the foundations of the everyday leader. You might also be interested in best ways to develop leadership skills.
I believe that this course has a very good introduction to leadership. The learning content of the course was exactly what I had been looking for. Thank you so much to the instructor for this engaging course (David B,★★★★★).

This was a very thorough and well-made course that helped me learned a lot of new concepts. The course would have been even more interesting if the lecture videos were longer. But the readings took care of that anyway so I think the course was excellent. (Ivan NV, ★★★★★)

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Leadership Theory: The Basics

Coventry University via FutureLearn
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★★★★★ (19 Ratings)

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Leadership Theory_ The Basics Course Effectiveness Review

Do you want to understand the theory that is behind leadership and leadership styles and find out the difference between leaders and managers? From the list of Online Leadership Courses In this course, you will get access to everything you need to understand leadership theory.

  • What are the fundamentals of leadership? What are the evolutionary process of leadership theories and many more topics like these will be taught in this course? Similarly, going further, you’ll understand the skills approach to leadership.
  • After that, you will understand the major conclusions of behavioral theories in detail. Furthermore, the instructor will help you identify the major components of behavioral theories and also give you clarity of what transactional and transformational leadership is.
  • Thus with this course, you will get a chance to understand the theoretical underpinnings of leadership and different styles of leadership and also their respective strengths and weaknesses
What I loved the most about this course was how well the course content had been broken down into digestible bite-sized chunks of information. The quizzes were also very challenging but very helpful (Kylie D, ★★★★★).

A very informative course it was but I believe it was too theoretical. But this doesn’t change the fact that the course was very interesting and made me learn so many new things  (MWEWA M, ★★★★★). 

Leadership in 21st Century Organizations

Copenhagen Business School via Coursera
51,767 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (772 Ratings)
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
122 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
264 Reviews
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
71 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
44 Review

Leadership in 21st Century Organization Course Effectiveness Review

This free online leadership course focuses on Jim Barton’s leadership approach, focusing on understanding concepts and frameworks. It helps avoid outdated actions in the 21st-century world, navigating challenges like specialized workers and responding to external scrutiny in a transparent world.

  • Going further, the instructor will explain to you different ways to avoid slippery slope ethical failures and also how to think more clearly about the separation between public and private life for a 21st-century leader.
  • The skills you will develop from this course are relevant to strategic management, leadership, communication management, and collaboration. So enroll today in these Online free Leadership and management courses to learn all about leadership. You can also checkout why leadership training for managers fail?
If talk precisely, then I would say that I really enjoyed learning from the course. The fictional story of Jim Barton was very educational and entertaining at the same time. Similarly, the course material was also good thus my overall experience is satisfactory. And I would like to recommend this course to all those people who want to become a better manager  (Darryl H, ★★★★★).

I have found this course to be extremely good. Honestly speaking I had never seen the world from a leadership point of view and that is why this course helped me in ways I was not expecting. All the content was up-to-date and relevant and made my learning experience a good one (Christopher AP, ★★★★★).


Coursera Plus Courses

Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence

CASE WESTERN RESERVE University via Coursera
93,563 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (1,183 Ratings)
These Online Leadership Courses is Part of an Inspired Leadership Specialization
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.5 / 5.0
★★★★★
141 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
396 Reviews
4.4 / 5.0
★★★★☆
124 Reviews
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
90 Review

Course Review Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence

Not many people understand that emotional intelligence, compassion, hope, and mindfulness can help a person reverse the damage of chronic stress and help a person build great leadership relationships easily. From the list of Online Leadership Courses In this course, you will learn to do that the right way.

  • The instructor will help you understand the positive and negative emotional attractors that inspire sustained and desired to learn at many levels. The course contains different topics that together will help you develop a good understanding of leadership.
  • You will understand what resonant leadership is and how it can be used to move people and change their viewpoint. Then the instructor will make you understand how renewal acts as an antidote to chronic stress.
  • Going further, you will understand how emotional intelligence has a connection to leadership, and more topics will be taught. On completion of every module, you need to solve a quiz that will help you evaluate yourself.
  • Thus enrolling in the course will be the best way for you to understand what leadership is and how it is connected to emotional intelligence. Check out the best + free economics courses with certificates.
A fantastic and self-motivating course it was. I am so glad I took this course as I always wanted to understand how leadership can be understood through emotional intelligence (Orsolya N, ★★★★★).

I would like to thank myself for finding this course and then making my mind to enroll in it. It was a great way to spend my time during the lockdown. The content is very interesting and the way the instructor has explained all the topics was very fascinating (Aggie H, ★★★★★).

21st Century Leadership Training: Inspiring Excellence and Engagement [On-site/Online]

via Learning Tree
03 Days of effort required!
Study Level: Intermediate

21st Century Leadership Training - Inspiring Excellence and Engagement

In this advanced-level course, you will learn to manage the sea of change that is revolutionizing our businesses. Here you will get to develop the 21st-century leadership style to achieve outstanding results.

  • The best thing about this course is its focus on explaining how to navigate multi-generational and diverse teams and champion change in the contemporary workplace.
  • This course is for those who wish to understand the needs of a culturally diverse and multi-generational workforce in an uncertain business environment.

High-Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation

Northwestern University via Coursera
65,631 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (2,163 Ratings)
This Course is Part of an Organizational Leadership Specialization
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
345 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
677 Reviews
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
217 Reviews
4.9 / 5.0
★★★★★
184 Review

High-Performance Collaboration Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation Course Effectiveness Review

Do you wish to learn the essential skills that can help you develop and expand your leadership repertoire? In this course, you will get access to such learning content that will serve the purpose. You will learn to design teams for collaboration and craft win-win negotiation strategies here.

  • With that, you will be engaged in self-assessments for analyzing your leadership style ad develop team charters to optimize the group. You will be given all the necessary instructions to develop a game plan for effective negotiations.
  • The skills you will develop from this course are relevant to negotiation, leadership, collaboration, and team management. So, enroll today and start learning at your ease and pace. You can also checkout the comparison between transactional vs transformational leadership here.
I would say that the instructor of this course has tried to communicate through this course effectively. I really appreciate her teaching methodology. The content was very relevant and the examples used to explain everything kept the momentum. The entire course was fun to learn from (Michael D, ★★★★★).

The professor of this course was indeed very amazing. She kept me engaged by delivering such high-quality content. The course is very valuable to professionals like me who need a refresher outside of the normal company leadership training platforms (Lanita G, ★★★★★).

Agile Leadership Principles

University of Maryland via edX
35,590 students enrolled!

★★★★★ (Advanced Level)
This course is part of the Agile Project Management Professional Certificate

Agile Leadership principle and Practice

 

Among Online Leadership Courses this is a complete course that will help you accelerate and improve team decisions by understanding agile’s facilitating leadership principles. You will get all the guidelines you need to unleash your team’s productivity, motivation, and problem-solving.

  • You will get an overview of agile and an overview of the key roles which include scrum master, product owner, and agile team member. The instructor will give you all the guidelines you need to build self-organizing teams for agile projects. Similarly, you will also understand what leadership is and the power of play.
  • Going further, you will be given an introduction to the human mind heuristics and negotiation styles and techniques. Furthermore, you will also learn to manage bias with the help of mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Thus, learn all agile leadership principles from the comfort of your home through this course.

Building Your Leadership Skills

HEC Paris via Coursera
89,636 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (2,010 Ratings)
This Course is Part of an Inspirational Leadership: Leading with Sense Specialization
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.5 / 5.0
★★★★★
197 Reviews
4.7 / 5.0
★★★★★
462 Reviews
4.6 / 5.0
★★★★★
212 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
161 Review

Building Your Leadership Skills Course Effectiveness Review

Among Free Online Leadership Courses,This course will help you raise your own self-awareness by giving you a set of guidelines that will lead you to build your leadership skills. The instructor will help you gain self-confidence for better leadership.

  • Starting the course, you will discover a new approach to leadership that is based on trust and sense. You will get to know all about the “Savior-Relier” leadership that will enable better team leadership and encourages people to retain their relationships with one another in spite of their differences of opinion.
  • Next, you will get to develop relational skills, self-knowledge, and self-awareness as well that will help you unfold your own leadership style. Similarly, the skills you will develop from this course are relevant to confidence, human resources (HR), communication, and leadership.
When I took this course, I was really confused about whether this course would help me the way I want or not. But after completing all the lecture videos and assignments, I have realized that this course has so much to offer. I never thought this course could be so much fun until I completed it. (Zia A, ★★★★★).

I have sincerely enjoyed learning from this course. I have been in a leadership role for many years now and that is why I needed a refresher course. This course served the purpose really well. (Gary G, ★★★★★).

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Entrepreneurial Leadership Toolbox

BABSON via edX
12,450 students enrolled!

★★★★★ (Advanced Level)
This course is part of the Entrepreneurial Mindset and Leadership Professional Certificate

Enterprenureial leadership

Among Online Leadership Courses In this course, you will get a chance to discover the different ways to generate positive results in your organization. This includes adopting key leadership behaviors and an entrepreneurial mindset. Through this course, you will develop the ability to frame leadership duties with an entrepreneurial perspective.

  • The instructor will be talking about the key ways to motivate, mobilize, and then enlist others as a creator of positive results. In this way, you’ll come to understand the fact that the best leaders are always the ones who tend to keep learning.
  • You will be looking at old heroic paradigms of leadership that will make you understand that they might not fit today’s world. Similarly, you will also look at what it takes to lead in a world where you cannot know everything. This and many more topics will be a part of this course that will give you all the knowledge you need to bring a positive change to your organization.

Project Manager Leadership Training: Building and Leading High-Performance Teams [On-site/Online]

via Learning Tree
03 Days of effort required!
Study Level: Advanced

Project Manager Leadership Training - Building and Leading High-Performance Teams

This course is all about explaining how you can transition to an effective project team leader who has the ability to inspire a diverse team for working together and delivering customer success.

  • The reason why we chose this course is its focus on explaining how to increase productivity by challenging your processes and motivating your people to perform well. You will learn to develop team identity and how to empower others as well.
  • This course is for those who wish to understand how to build a high-performing team and foster productive team communication at their own ease and pace.

Adaptive Leadership in Development

The University of Queensland via edX
★★★★★ (Advanced Level)
This course is Part of Global Development MicroMasters® Program

Adaptive leadership

From the list of Free Online Leadership Courses, this is a course that will help you gain different skills so that you can become an adaptive leader in the development and learn all the ways to uncover local solutions to complex problems. Taking this course will help you appreciate the fundamental mismatch that is between the policy and practice in development. You will be taught the importance of having context and how to find local solutions to local problems. The learning content of this course will help you develop skills in adaptive development practice and the cycles of experimentation, learning, iteration, and then adaptation. Similarly, you will learn to discern strategies to overcome political challenges and broker new collaborations. Moreover, you will also be taught how to measure progress and manage performance while working adaptively.

Leadership: The Emotionally Intelligent Leader

Robin Hills via Udemy
18,435 students enrolled!
★★★★★ 4.5 (5,614 Ratings)
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.3 / 5.0
★★★★☆
413 Reviews
4.4 / 5.0
★★★★☆
541 Reviews
4.1 / 5.0
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4.6 / 5.0
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In this course, you will discover ways to work with emotional intelligence that can lead to better outcomes with people you are working with.

  • The reason why we chose this course is its focus on determining the best ways to manage and work with energy and using the best sources of energy to support energy dimensions.
  • This course is for those who wish to explore behavioral preferences and understand how to work with others with different preferences.
It was a well laid out course that had everything explained in a clear manner. I was able to learn so much about emotional intelligence from this course (Gill T, ★★★★★).

Leading Teams

University of Michigan via Coursera
68,657 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (1,936 Ratings)
This Course is Part of a Leading People and Teams Specialization
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
169 Reviews
4.9 / 5.0
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294 Reviews
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Leading Teams Course Effectiveness Review

This course aims to teach you all the ways to build your team and then make them work efficiently. You will learn ways that will lead you to improved teamwork and collaboration and sustain team performance through continuous learning and improvement.

  • Among Online Leadership Courses The main purpose of this course is to make you learn best practices for composing a team and then aligning all the individuals and team goals. You will be taught how to establish roles and build structures.
  • Similarly, how to manage decision making so that your team performs well will also be taught. Not just that, the course will also be helping you manage critical team processes such as conflict resolution in a step-by-step guide and much more as you go further.
  • The skills you’ll develop from this course are relevant to leadership dynamics, management, team management, leadership, and more. You can also find out more Top free online Courses with certificates at takethiscourse.net Platform.
A very good and practical course it was on leading teams. Being an experienced team leader, I wanted to learn more about it and this course helped me upgrade my skills and taught me how I can lead teams even more efficiently in the future (Tim M, ★★★★★).

This course has amazing content, lecture videos, and professor expertise and explanation which most courses usually fail to offer. The course taught me so many useful insights, techniques, and concepts that can be applied in a job  (Carlos FG, ★★★★★).

Applying Leadership and Strategy Fundamentals in Healthcare

DOANEX via edX
50 Hours of effort required!
Study Type: Self-paced
This course is Part of the Certified Lifestyle Medicine Executive

Applying Leadership and Strategy Fundamentals in Healthcare

This course will help you understand how a variety of things work within a leadership role. And these things include individual development, communication skills, mentoring, negotiation, coaching, and more.

  • You will understand all about the motivation theory and its role in leadership. Similarly, you will also examine team development through the topics of facilitation and collaboration in detail. Going further, you will get a chance to analyze individual strengths and areas of improvement within your leadership. Next, you will learn how to assess your personal style of leadership.
  • After that, the instructor will explain to you the practical strategic thinking practices and leadership theories in detail. From the list of Free Online Leadership courses when you completing this course will enable you to evaluate how leadership style can be used to think and act strategically on your own.

International Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Bocconi via Coursera
65,281 students enrolled!
★★★★★ (2,050 Ratings)
Online Course Effectiveness Score 
Content Engagement Practice Career Benefit
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
286 Reviews
4.9 / 5.0
★★★★★
558 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
122 Reviews
4.8 / 5.0
★★★★★
94 Review

International Leadership and Organizational Behavior Course Effectiveness Review

From the list of Free Online Leadership Courses In this course, you will be exploring the theory and practice of international and intercultural leadership and organizational behavior very thoroughly. Social science research has shown some systematic ways in which our behavior differs across cultural contexts.

  • We shall be studying such ways that enable us to work across borders more meticulously. The instructor will be talking about the facts that shape an individual and group decision making. Similarly, you will also understand the factors that enhance or weaken a team’s performance. You will be taught how to build and use social networks in detail.
  • Furthermore among all Online Leadership Course in this course, you will also get to know about the practical experience of international leaders that will allow us to identify concrete steps in boosting intercultural leadership competence. So, enroll today and learn everything there is about international leadership and organizational behavior from the comfort of your home.
Taking this course has been a wise decision that I made. The entire course was very informational but the psychological insight of the course was the most valuable for me and helped me grasp many management-related concepts. Similarly, the additional reading list full of TED talks was also very helpful (Bianca, ★★★★★).

This was a very interesting course that helped me understand what organizational behavior is and what to do while working abroad. In short, the course helped me understand better how to respect different cultures in life and in the work environment (Andrea Y, ★★★★★).

How Leaders are different from Managers?

Leaders are quite different from managers in many ways. But here we are only going to tell you the main difference between them. Leaders are those who have people follow them. And if we talk about managers, then they have people who work for them.  Managers usually have to supervise their team and make sure that they are on the right track. But leaders on the other hand are supposed to coach their entire team. It is the need to act as both a strong leader and manager to become a successful business owner.

Leadership Courses FAQs

Why Leadership is important in business?

In any business, effective leadership plays a very important role, as it can bolster and promote teamwork. With that, leadership can cultivate a sense of greater good and motivate team members to move in a right direction.

In other words, good influence of a leader can resonate in an organization and lead to a good output by the members.

What are the best courses in Leadership?

There are many competitive online leadership courses offered by different platforms. Below are the 5 best leadership courses to consider which are exclusively available at takethiscourse.net.

Which certification is best for Leadership?

Below are the certification programs suitable for Leadership:

Are Leadership Certifications worth it?

If you have a certification in leadership and management then surely it can enhance or upgrade your potential to work. The skills that you earn from the certification can be applied to improve the systems and effectiveness of your organization, and thus can lead to a raise or a senior position. So, yes leadership certifications are worth your time, effort, and money.

Are free Leadership Certifications available?

Yes, free leadership certifications training programs are available. Normally, a leadership program comprises of multiple courses available for free to audit, but in order to get the certificate, one has to pay a minor fee.

What is the average cost of Leadership training?

If you are planning to go for leadership training, then the cost can be around $150 to $200 per hour. And this rate is for mid-level executive training. If we talk about top executives, then the cost could be $500 per hour. Similarly, classroom-based leadership training can cost you around $1500 to $4000 depending on the school.

What are the types of Leadership training?

There are many types of leadership training and some of them are mentioned below;

  • Authoritarian Leadership:

A style where the leader is dictating different policies and procedures in the organization.

  • Participative Leadership:

A type where the leader employs a democratic approach to team engagement.

  • Delegative Leadership:

Also known as “laissez-faire leadership”, this style or type focuses on delegating tasks to team members.

  • Transactional Leadership:

This type focuses on organization, its supervision, and overall performance.

  • Transformational Leadership:

This style inspires positive changes in those who are following the leader.

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Conclusion:

So these are the details of the best free online leadership courses with certificates that you can enroll in and start learning today. Read what each of these courses has to offer and then choose one and never stop learning.