Sharpen your technical leadership skills with the Effective Technical Leader short course

Have you reached a point where you need leadership skills to complement your technical expertise? Would you like to take the lead on projects at work, but don’t feel prepared? Or, do you come from a non-technical background and need strategies for successfully managing your technical staff members and team? As your company faces growing complexity and uncertainty, it’s an opportunity for you to stretch your developing leadership skills. This short course from Kelley School of Business Executive Education is designed to strengthen the leadership capabilities sought after by technical teams and organizations across a variety of industries.

For professionals with a technical skill set, this course equips you for a higher level of responsibility as you lead teams and organizations through periods of rapid change or uncertainty:

Build an awareness of your individual leadership style
Learn how to navigate interpersonal issues specific to technical teams
Gain leadership strategies for decision-making and conflict management.

Managers from a non-technical background can gain strategies to effectively lead technical teams to meet their highest potential.

Upcoming dates

April 8 and 9, 2025

Price: $1,450
Delivery: Two consecutive days on the IU Bloomington campus

Showcase your new skills

In addition to earning a certificate of completion after finishing this program, you will also earn a digital badge to showcase your skills on platforms like LinkedIn. These credentials show your network the concrete and in-demand skills you earned from taking this Kelley program.

Are you ready for higher levels of responsibility, greater success with your teams?

A technical leader instructor teaching students

Request information about Developing the Effective Technical Leader Short Course.

KSBEE - Developing the Technical Leader

Upcoming dates

Fall 2024 Short Course

September 17 and 18, 2024

Key takeaways

Is this short course right for you?

This program is designed for people who want to gain leadership expertise to support high-performing individuals, teams of technical professionals, and technical organizations. Technical professionals including business analysts, computer scientists, engineers, and more, can achieve personal and professional leadership skills that prepare them to step up as a manager and leader. Project and team leaders, including managers with non-technical backgrounds, can develop leadership abilities that address needs specific to tech teams, organizations, and industries.

For those with strong technical background, but limited in formal leadership education and who want to assume a leadership position, for those in their early to mid-career who want to improve their leadership capabilities, or for those non-technical leaders who work in technical organizations, this short course equips you with specialized skills in high demand by a rapidly growing industry.

Develop strengths in reflective leadership as you:

Understand how managing people differs from managing data
Develop skills in self-awareness, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and the power of influence
Learn effective leadership strategies for complex and changing environments
Customize your plan to become a successful leader within an organization

“Developing the Effective Technical Leader Short Course's information on conflict resolution was very helpful and the class was engaged on the issue. The stories that our instructor, Pete, shared were fun and applicable. This course had a personal touch—both with the course execution and the instructor.”

David Reed

Program schedule

Morning sessions

Introduction
Leader effectiveness
Professional competence
Interpersonal skills
Self-reflection and constructive feedback

Lunch and networking

Afternoon sessions

Professional development
Feedback on leadership style and effectiveness
Addressing unwanted or unacceptable behavior
High-performing teams

Evening reception and networking

Morning sessions

Problem-solving in a complex world
Reimagining conflict
New strategies for conflict

Lunch and networking

Afternoon sessions

When things go sideways
Mental models
Addressing complex environments
Making the Commitment to Lead Communities of Practice

Community of Practice: Meet on schedule as agreed to by team members
Live virtual follow-up 1: 30 days after program completion
Live virtual follow-up 2: 60 days after program completion

Download schedule

Integrated curriculum

The course is presented on two consecutive days on the IU Bloomington campus, with two hour-long post-program sessions being offered virtually. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to meet in small groups virtually after the program in a Community of Practice to assist with the application of what participants learned after returning to their jobs.

Meet your instructor

Peter A. DeLisle

Peter A. DeLisle, PhD has extensive experience helping engineers and other technical professionals learn how to integrate interpersonal and business skills into more effective management and leadership practices. His human resources experience includes roles at two high-tech firms—operating division personnel manager at Hewlett Packard, and vice president for human resources at Convex Computer Corporation. He served as a program manager and senior associate at the Center for Creative Leadership, and as an organizational development consultant to the National Science Foundation.

Over the last 25 years, he has worked extensively with engineers, architects, computer scientists, and a broad range of technical managers and professionals. He was the first holder of the Severns Chair in Human Behavior in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. He has worked with several nationally recognized colleges of engineering to design curriculum to assist engineers and engineering students in developing critical leadership competencies.

Questions? Contact us.

To learn more about the short course, contact us at keep@iu.edu.

Sharpen your technical leadership skills with the Effective Technical Leader short course

Upcoming dates

Showcase your new skills

Are you ready for higher levels of responsibility, greater success with your teams?

KSBEE - Developing the Technical Leader

Upcoming dates

Fall 2024 Short Course

Key takeaways

Is this short course right for you?

Develop strengths in reflective leadership as you:

Program schedule

Day 1

Morning sessions

Lunch and networking

Afternoon sessions

Evening reception and networking

Day 2

Morning sessions

Lunch and networking

Afternoon sessions

Post-Program Virtual Sessions

Integrated curriculum

Meet your instructor

Peter A. DeLisle

Instructor bio

Questions? Contact us.

Social media

Additional resources