Influencing the Organisation (Coursera)

Influencing the Organisation (Coursera)

In this course, you will look at how you can effectively manage stakeholders and industry/organisational politics, whilst successfully mobilising people. This course is aimed at leaders and managers who have five to six years experience and who are beginning to manage teams, customers and clients more regularly or more directly. Learners will likely have a technical or professional early career but as they are progressing in their careers, they are having to start grappling with the issues of team and organisational leadership.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

You will:
– Consider how to build momentum and how to work across organisational, sectoral and country cultures.
– Explore how you can align your mission with the organisation’s purpose and manage the politics to influence the organisation.
– Look at how to lead in a matrix/complex structure as well as how to make your changes real.
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
– Work across organisational boundaries and engage with a wider group of stakeholders.
– Navigate the realpolitik of their wider organisation and understand the importance of engaging with the political dynamic.
– Extend and leverage your networks to be better positioned for the next phase of your career.
– Identify levers for change and how best to utilise these in order to increase the possibility that your initiatives and programmes will be adopted.
Course 4 of 4 in the Leadership Out of the Box Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Leading at an Organisational Level
This week we are going to explore how you can expand your perspective to think about leading at an organisational level. We shall consider some of the major obstacles that are faced when leading more broadly and we will help you identify areas into which you might want to expand. We will look at organisational politics and the opportunities and benefits they present, and how to successfully navigate organisational dynamics. You will consider the strengths you bring to the organisation and look at how you can maximise and extend your network.

WEEK 2
Aligning Your Mission with the Organisation’s Strategy
This week we are going to look at how you can effectively align your mission with the organisation’s strategy, and explore how you can build your personal brand and reputation across the organisation. We will consider how to create a compelling, “purpose-led” story to tell as you develop your broader leadership role, as well as how to respond to and overcome resistance.

WEEK 3
Making Your Changes Real
This week we will take you through how to make your changes happen, and explore the reality of change management. We will look at what gets in the way, the dynamics, tools and levers at your disposal, and how to create your own change plan. We will explore the phases of change and highlight key areas for attention during change initiatives.

WEEK 4
Managing Your Transition
This week we are going to look forward to your planned or possible transitions in the future. We will ask you to think about your current career and your aspirations, as we share our advice on successful career development. We will provide you with some helpful tools to enable you to effectively manage your transition, ensuring that you end your old role and transition to the new effectively.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Managing Social and Human Capital (Coursera)

Based on their popular course at Wharton, this course will teach you how to motivate individual performance and design reward systems, how to design jobs and organize work for high performance, how to make good and timely management decisions, and how to design and change the your organization’s architecture. By the end of this course, you'll have developed the skills you need to start motivating, organizing, and rewarding people in your organization so that you can thrive as a business and as a social organization.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting (Coursera) Coursera
Measure What Matters

OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting (Coursera)

“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” -John Doerr. In this one-of-a-kind OKR Certification, John Doerr builds on his New York Times best-selling book, Measure What Matters. The chairman of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) can lead to exponential growth.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Management of International Development: Towards Agenda 2030 (Coursera) Coursera
Università Bocconi

Management of International Development: Towards Agenda 2030 (Coursera)

Welcome! This course provides participants with the opportunity to explore the multifaceted concept of international development in order to be able to interpret and lead its challenges, opportunities and constant evolutions. Starting from an in-depth analysis of the current international development architecture, its key actors and trends, the course then illustrates the main international organizations' governance systems; identifies their funding and financing tools necessary to implement development programs and achieve sustainable development goals; and explains how to effectively leverage on human capital to drive organizational success and be ‘fit for purpose’ in an ever changing international development scenario.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Manager dans l'incertain (Coursera) Coursera
Institut Mines-Telecom

Manager dans l'incertain (Coursera)

Le MOOC “Manager dans l’incertain” s’adresse aux étudiants comme aux porteurs de projet et managers (qu'ils soient en activité professionnelle, juniors ou seniors dans leurs domaines de spécialité) mais aussi à tout acteur du monde de l'entreprise susceptible de prendre des décisions dans un contexte imprévisible. Ce MOOC vous invite à suivre une démarche de décision en 12 étapes propre à la méthode du D.M.C. (Decision Model Canvas).

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change (Coursera) Coursera
Case Western Reserve University

Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change (Coursera)

This course aims to inspire and empower women and men across the world to engage in purposeful career development and take on leadership for important causes - to lead change with more conviction and confidence - and improve our workplaces and communities for all. By offering more complex understandings of issues related to professional women and work, the course will help you increase self-knowledge about your own values and vision, as well as enhance your capabilities as a leader, manager, and team contributor. We will examine the opportunities, challenges, trade-offs, and organizational dynamics experienced by women in work organizations, as well as reflect on and practice effective individual behaviors.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Population Health: Fundamentals of Population Health Management (Coursera) Coursera
Leiden University

Population Health: Fundamentals of Population Health Management (Coursera)

What are the principles of Population Health Management as a pro-active management approach to improve health and to tackle health disparities? In this course we will discuss the basic principles of Population Health Management that will help you as (future) health care professional or policymaker to analyse current healthcare challenges and to design possible solutions using the Population Health Management Approach.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Interpersonal Communication for Engineering Leaders (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

Interpersonal Communication for Engineering Leaders (Coursera)

This course covers communication skills that engineering leaders use every day to motivate, inspire, and support the people in their organizations. Speaking and writing are basic leadership communication skills. (We covered these topics in the Specialization course 1 and 3.) However, leaders also need to be skillful interpersonal communicators.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,London Business School

Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera)

The aim of the course is to provide you with a comprehensive framework for understanding both the traditional principles of management inside companies today as well as the alternative principles that are becoming increasingly important. It provides both theoretical and practical perspectives on the nature of management in today’s organisations.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
The Cycle: Management of Successful Arts and Cultural Organizations (Coursera) Coursera
University of Maryland, College Park

The Cycle: Management of Successful Arts and Cultural Organizations (Coursera)

What makes a successful arts and cultural organization? Led by DeVos Institute Chairman Michael M. Kaiser and President Brett Egan, this course will introduce you to a management theory called the Cycle which supports thriving arts and cultural organizations. Learning from our work with managers from over 80 countries around the world, the DeVos Institute developed the Cycle as a simple, but powerful tool to assist managers in their effort to respond to an increasingly complex environment and propel their institutions to excellence.

Nov 2nd 2026
5-12 Weeks
Programación y presupuesto del proyecto (Coursera) Coursera
University of California, Irvine,Tecnológico de Monterrey

Programación y presupuesto del proyecto (Coursera)

En este curso, aprenderás los principios fundamentales de la gestión del tiempo y costo en las etapas de planificación. Se identificarán las actividades del proyecto a partir de la EDT, se establecerá la secuencia, recursos y duración necesarios para finalmente desarrollar el cronograma detallado del proyecto.

Nov 2nd 2026
4 Weeks