Why managers should look into executive leadership training
Written by: Shelby Campbell, Edited by: Valerie Black
Published: April 18, 2025
As a manager, you likely have lots of experience building strong employee relationships and encouraging employees to do their best work. But when you're looking to advance your career into executive or director roles, you may want to consider developing those managerial skills so you can contribute to strategy, innovation, and success.
Explore how executive leadership training can help you develop directive skills and qualify for influential, high-paying leadership positions in the guide below.
What is executive leadership training?
Executive leadership training courses offer strategic business planning and execution skills for people who want to become leaders in their field. As your career progresses, you may become increasingly responsible for setting goals and strategizing how teams in your organization will accomplish them. This requires analyzing the relationship between your team's micro and macro work processes to decide what makes the organization run smoothly.
Executive leadership courses can provide essential knowledge about effective decision-making, such as how to hire specialized teams, communicate short- and long-term goals, and delegate which day-to-day tasks will contribute to these goals.
What is the average cost of executive leadership training?
The cost of executive leadership training can depend on the program you choose. Some executive leadership professional certificate courses cost less than $500, while executive education leadership programs often cost between $2,500-$3,500. Some employers may sponsor their executive leaders' education. Still, many people who finance the classes themselves get a good return on investment (ROI) by becoming qualified for higher-paying leadership positions.
For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that construction and extraction occupations earned a median annual salary of $55,680 in 2023. Construction managers, however, earned a median annual salary of $104,900 in the same year, indicating that leadership and management jobs can offer a higher salary.
What will you learn in executive leadership training?
Executive leadership training can help managers make strategic decisions that maximize their team's effectiveness. Through real-world scenarios and testimonies, these classes teach the types of leadership strategies you can use to influence your team. In executive leadership training, you can refine skills like actionable strategizing, change management, and motivation.
Courses in an executive leadership program may include:
- Leadership for high performance
- Employee development and engagement
- Business adaptability and resilience
- Partnerships and competitors
- Developing new strategies
How to determine if executive leadership training is for you
You may benefit from executive leadership training if you'd like to have more influence over an organization's direction through jobs like:
- Manager: Managers across various industries are often good candidates for these courses because they're familiar with the fundamentals of leadership but generally need further skills to qualify for more influential director or executive positions.
- Entrepreneur: Business owners may also be good candidates for executive training because improving internal systems and communications can directly affect business profit and growth.
- Department head: Directors or department heads are often responsible for translating an organization-wide goal into actionable tasks for employees and teams, making them good candidates for executive training courses.
Many students have a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in their field and experience as managers. Some also join executive training programs with a master's in business administration (MBA) or another business-related graduate degree.