The Post-Graduate Certificate in Leadership Excellence is exclusively for students admitted to the Post-Graduate Diploma in Professional and Leadership Studies. The Post-Graduate Certificate in Leadership Excellence is offered face-to-face on the Dalhousie campus, with four required courses totaling 144 hours of learning. The four courses focus on leadership, ethics, strategy, and risk management. With an emphasis on groupwork and presentations, students will develop the crucial leadership skills of collaboration and effective communication. The certificate provides a robust foundation for current and aspiring leaders to develop an authentic, flexible and adaptable leadership style for today's complex, dynamic organizations and landscapes.
The Post-Graduate Certificate in Leadership Excellence is applicable to individuals in a leadership role or aspiring to a leadership role in any type of organization, be it non-profit, for-profit or public sector. The knowledge, strategies and skills in the certificate courses are foundational to building confidence in your personal leadership style and being authentic as a leader. Assessments in the courses allow you to apply what you learn to your organization and your leadership journey.
What You Will Learn
As a result of successfully completing the Post-Graduate Certificate of Leadership Excellence you will be able to:
- craft an authentic personal leadership style based on current theory and practice applied to your personality and experience;
- flexibly adapt your leadership choices to different complex dynamic contexts and situations;
- apply a deep understanding of ethics to your daily decision-making;
- manage your organization strategically drawing upon multiple theories and practices of strategy to lead with excellence;
- implement risk management strategies to mitigate risk across your organization;
- combine your understanding of leadership, ethics and strategy to lead with excellence.
Who Should Take This Certificate?
This certificate is only available to approved Dalhousie Post-Graduate Diploma students.
How Will You Benefit?
The Post-Graduate Certificate in Leadership Excellence can help you:
- discuss and analyze leadership challenges using current theories and frameworks;
- explore yourself as a leader through multiple theoretical and practical lenses;
- identify leadership characteristics and styles that speak to you as a person and that fit into your authentic leadership style;
- apply a variety of approaches to strategy to your decision-making and learn to manage strategically;
- evaluate your actions and decisions as a leader through an ethics lens;
- fill in foundational knowledge, approach and skill gaps in your leadership repertoire;
- integrate key concepts on leadership, ethics and risk management strategy into your daily behaviours, decision-making and choices.
Certificate Requirements
The certificate consists of four required courses:
- OLCD-PALS0012 Leadership Dynamics
- OLCD-PALS0013 Ethics in Action
- OLCD-PALS0014 Mastering Strategy
- OLCD-PALS0020 Risk Assessment and Management
Schedule
The certificate runs in September, January and April. Each course is 4 weeks long and requires a minimum of 36 hours of learning engagement. You should expect to spend a minimum of 9 hours per week engaged in learning the course material; many participants choose to spend more than the minimum of 9 hours per week in order to dig into the material and assessments more deeply. Courses will be held face-to-face on the Dalhousie campus. All four courses must be completed with a grade of 70% or higher to earn the Post-Graduate Certificate in Leadership Excellence.
For assistance or more information, please contact openlearning@dal.ca