Overview

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What makes a great leader, and does the data actually support it? In this course, you'll critically examine the leadership narratives that have shaped organisations from Ancient Greece to the modern digital age, and discover why data-driven research challenges many of the assumptions we've long taken for granted. With 88% of C-suite executives believing data insights are crucial for maintaining competitive advantage and strategic decision-making (IBM Institute for Business Value, 2025), and 80% of Business Intelligence and Data Analytics teams now viewing advanced data skills as essential to their core functions (TDWI, 2025), the ability to evaluate leadership through a data-driven lens has never been more valuable. You'll evaluate traditional and scientific leadership models, analyse how agile structures differ from hierarchical ones, and assess the role of collective decision-making in data-rich environments. By the end of the course, you'll be able to identify whether a leadership narrative helps or hinders effectiveness in today's organisations, and articulate why that distinction matters. This course is suitable for current or aspiring leaders, managers, and professionals working in or alongside data-driven environments. No prior knowledge of leadership theory is required. References: Source: Research.com. (2026). 2026 current leadership training trends: Data, analysis & insights. https://research.com/careers/leadership-training-trends

Syllabus

The Leadership Legacy

Before we can think about leadership in the 21st Century, the Information Age, we need to think about what people thought about leadership in the past. Why? Because the legacy of these ideas about leadership live on to a large extent. If you have any sort of leadership training, or perhaps read a book about leadership, the chances are you have been exposed to powerful narratives about heroic leaders and authority. Perhaps your current view of leadership is heavily stereotyped? Perhaps the organisation you work for prefers 'traditional' or 'old school' leadership. These paradigms still exert influence; sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. In any case, this module will explain where these views come from and what conditions leaders dealt with. This will help you to understand why we are still dealing with legacy leadership styles, how thet can help, and what new situations call for a different approach.

The Death of Leadership

Some claim that leadership, as a concept, is in decline and may no longer be important. However, this may be a little premature or even naive. Leadership has always been important but authority and centralised decision-making are very recent, perhaps ephemeral, developments. As you move through this narrative of leadership, you will learn how leadership is changing. Due to the data deluge and hyper connected work places, high degrees of centralisation are becoming a thing of the past. Many firms are favouring more networked and less hierarchical approaches . Additionally, the introduction of social science in the 20th Century has radically shaken up some of the romantic ideas about leadership.

The Rise of Agility

So far we have explored the origins of traditional leadership and how this changed in the 20th Century. In the 21st Century we see the birth of a new business model: agility. Agility, like a lot of management and leadership ideas, has its roots in the military. The US military actively researched and developed ways of becoming more agile in the early 21st Century. Many other prominent military powers already embraced agility, especially in NATO. But what is agility and how does it relate to data? In this module, we will learn about agility in leadership.