Leadership courses/classes/coaching comes in many names and forms, but the susbtance usually fits into one of 2 catergories:

1. Academic Leadership Courses
2. Experience or ‘Hands on’ Based Courses

The differences between the two are very stark: academic courses teach the theory surrounding leadership & management (as the skills needed for both can sometimes overlap). These will involved many leadership theories developed by professors and researchers using scientific methods, and drawing sensible conclusions from their results.

While I wouldn’t want to attack the work of these researchers – it is however important that we appreciate the weaknesses inherent within this strategy of learning.

Weakness 1 : Lack of reality. Sometimes experiments take place in very abstract and artificial settings. They may help us learn and understand human behaviour, but however it is in linking these scientific results to practical approaches to leadership, where this type of leadership course falls down. Due to the rather contrieved settings – the results may simply not replicate in real life due to other factors that always exist in a business like setting.

Weakness 2: No development for the learner. Learning a theory is certainly not the same as being able to apply one. And in this sense: purely academic leadership courses do not even cover all the bases needed to effective improve the leadership (or ensure a marginal improvement) in an individual.

Experienced based courses can take the form of mentoring from within an organisation, or perhaps a real-life based case study for the participant of the course to take part in, such as in an MBA.

These courses are often those recommended by leading leadership experts, leadership consultants, leadership coaches and gurus. They receive this universal support, because practise-based leadership courses are certainly seen as the ‘premium’ or ‘5 star’ way of developing your skills and improving your leadership potential.

Being able to work with someone one-on-one gives you a great attachment and commitment to your leadership course. Not wanting to let your mentor down, you will find that having someone above you, looking down upon your work will tremendously effect the amount of effort you put into it. I appreciate that you may see yourself as a very motivated individual – however the majority of us will still slack off less with a face-to-face leadership ooach.

A course that bases its learning points upon the individual mistakes or weaknesses in a participants actual activity is a great way to ensure that the potential-leader remembers and is able to apply the lessons learnt.

Experience based courses are however far more expensive than purely academic – the most convient of which; online leadership courses, can be avaliable for under £500, (although of course, the less you pay, the less you can expect).

In conclusion, chosing a leadership course or online leadership course is about balancing your own needs. Do you believe that you will be able to action advance leadership models on your own? Or do you believe that having a professional with oversight who will give feedback, will be able to better respond to your leadership development needs?

Author Bio: Simon Oates advises on leadership courses, online leadership courses and leadership training on his personal blog.

Category: Leadership
Keywords: leadership, management, teams, promotions, jobs, education, mba, leadership courses, online courses