The Key Executive Leadership Certificate consists of eight courses. Each course's curriculum is directly linked to the Executive Core Qualifications developed by the Office of Personal Management to ensure that participants are learning the skills and advancing their knowledge in the five areas identified by OPM as critical to success in the Senior Executive Service.

Diagnosis and Development of the Leadership Self (ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions)

Students will explore who they are as leader and who they wish to become by building the emotional intelligence fabric that makes for successful leadership.

Participants build a safe, supportive, and collaborative learning community and are challenged to replicate it with those they lead. In addition, participants develop and learn how to leverage their emotional and social intelligence to enhance their abilities in managing conflict for positive results, coaching and mentoring those they lead, influencing others, inspiring others, building consensus, and fostering teamwork in pursuit of agency goals. Participants are also challenged to understand various phases of adult development and learning and identify practical strategies for leading followers at each phase. Finally, this course leads participants through a hands-on application, on a real-time agency problem, using the Action Learning tool to promote the use of reflective questioning and discourse in addressing organizational challenges.

Transforming from Manager to Leader (ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Building Coalitions)

Students will explore the question "Why Lead" and examine the unique role of leadership versus management in the public sector.

In this course, participant's perceptions of management versus leadership are challenged through a series of exercises and class discussions. This course also addresses the unique balance of leader/member exchange, personality, and leadership burnout. Leadership competencies in the public context are presented and discussed, along with significant exposure to the impact of politics, power, and culture on today's public sector leader. Finally, the role of conflict in leadership is explored and applied using real time workplace challenges. Particular emphasis will be placed on: developing an understanding of leadership roles and competencies; assessing your personal style of leadership and how it might be strengthened; examining intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of leadership; understanding and applying theories of power and influence in organizations; and strengthening your sensitivity to constructively manage conflict in a challenging public sector environment.

Leader as a Team Builder and Facilitator (ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions)

Students will learn how to deploy themselves as leader facilitators who act as "instruments of change" by creating high performing teams and team synergy.

Participants are introduced to the concept of building a team charter where they master the art of facilitating their cohort group through the essential building blocks of developing a charge, defining their purpose, clarifying their roles, utilizing norms/procedures, and leveraging relationships. Participants engage in a process of real time team building in an experiential approach where they learn about group dynamics including the tension between task and process, stages of group development, political dynamics, and overt and covert processes.

The major methodology used in the module is to learn how to become team builders and facilitators by working in smaller teams where participants take turns at facilitating the cohort. Participants receive feedback from both the cohort and the instructor after each step of the team charter is facilitated. The final outcome of the class is the construction of a team charter, which is used as a guiding and flexible team plan for cohort interaction throughout the life of the cohort. Participants will take away greater self-confidence that they can readily apply what they have learned back in their home team settings.

Leadership Skills for Program Monitoring and Evaluation (ECQ: Leading Change, Results Driven, Business Acumen)

Students will discover and develop the critical and analytical thinking skills that make leaders better consumers of performance and evaluation information.

The course will provide exposure to the history and methods of program evaluation and the relationship of program evaluation to performance measurement in the context of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010. The use of program evaluation to inform leadership and decision-making challenges in several different federal organizations will be highlighted, with opportunities for participants to offer their insights (or hindsight) based on their own experiences.

Leading Through Strategic Communication (ECQ: Leading Change, Results Driven, Building Coalitions)

Students will dissect the role of strategic communication along with the role of marketing and branding in a public sector context.

This course discusses how to bring the strategic planning and marketing principles that have long been successful in the private sector to public policy work. Topics explored include: how to create a strategic plan to determine your communications objectives; how to develop an audience-based communications strategy; and how to test concepts and materials. The module also looks at how to create a marketing communication strategy that goes beyond informing and begins transforming audiences. Finally, as a government entity or an organization with a social mission, participants need to become depositories of public trust in order to be effective in their work. To achieve this, participants talk about how good branding can allow clear speaking in the midst of competing efforts and a cluttered marketplace.

Leading Organizational Change to Achieve Results (ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions)

Students will learn the importance of managing change effectively to successfully implement public policy.

This course expands awareness, strengthens skills, and integrates into participants' experience useful concepts and practical tools so that students are more able to initiate and lead a successful change effort for results. In addition, participants will: assess change readiness and set the stage for a successful change effort, taking into account the human dimensions of transition; increase understanding of self and others' behavior styles as they relate to change; understand the stages of the change cycle; anticipate and move beyond resistance; examine the role of systems-thinking, mind-body relationship, and state of mind when leading change efforts; and strengthen skills in conducting productive conversation, making agreements, and ensuring accountability.

Leading in the Context of Constitutional Government(ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Building Coalitions)

Students will learn to navigate unique challenges to leading in the public sector including a constitution that provides individual employee protections, 535 members of Congress who serve as a Board of Directors for Executive Branch actions, and a governance system that encourages intense public scrutiny.

Public sector leadership in the U.S. takes place within a democratic-constitutional framework defined by constitutional and administrative law. Legal requirements may be consonant or at odds with achieving mission-based results, cost-effectiveness, motivating employees, and serving customers. However, they are binding on all public managers and employees. This course shows how and why constitutional-legal requirements, and the values underlying them must be integrated into general administrative processes, practices, and systems. It explains the structure of individual constitutional rights, such as equal protection and procedural due process, as well as the rationale for administrative law's commitment to public participation, representation, open government, and fair treatment of individuals. Finally, this module demystifies constitutional and administrative law, improves non-lawyers' communication and understanding of lawyers, and illustrates how to think about law in the context of leadership.

Leading Effective Public Policy Implementation (ECQ: Leading Change, Leading People, Results Driven, Business Acumen, Building Coalitions)

Students will learn that leadership starts with the leader and not the led, and it is through the relationships the leader creates with the led that enables goal achievement for the leader.

This course focuses on reviewing different leadership styles, creating a personal leadership philosophy based on the identification of values and vision, identifying the factors that motivate employees; all with the goal of successfully leading public policy implementation. Participants use individual reflection exercises to build insights into how to apply what they are learning to the issues they are facing in the workplace. Students are encouraged to build networks of colleagues, faculty, coaches, and mentors to support them now and in the future. Participants use individual reflection exercises to build insights and helpful perspectives on issues they are presently facing. Participants are encouraged to build networks and support systems among themselves, faculty, and coaches.