Understanding how to overcome challenges and become a responsible leader

Executive Diploma participant Samir Bera, explains why he chose to join the Strategic Leadership programme and provides an overview of the course content.

After completing my degree in Computer Science and Engineering from a premier institute in India, I started a career as a software programmer, moving up to a management position as I worked my way up the career ladder. I was working as a head of software development in an IT-enabled company for several years, and as I was occupied with the office, I never gave stress on my own personal growth. Leaving the organisation after 14 years, I decided to work in a contracting role. Then the COVID-19 pandemic came and as everything was running slowly I decided to look into a part-time management programme, as my next career move will be into a senior management role with a strong technical background. After doing some market research, I decided to join the Executive Diploma in Strategic Leadership at Warwick Business School (WBS), mainly for four reasons:

1) It’s a one-year course

2) It’s within my budget

3) It’s delivered at The Shard in London

4) WBS is a reputed institute.

Doing an Executive Diploma at my age seems to be a bit late - but it’s better late than never!

The programme is enriched with theories from Leadership Essentials, Strategic Change and Innovation, Strategic leadership and Strategic Advantage, and has helped me to understand how to overcome challenges, become a responsible leader and how to take a competitive strategic advantage to stay ahead of others with innovation in process and strategy. The programme includes various case studies for each module, which we analysed and discussed during the session. Then, after each module, our assignments related to our workplace, enabling me to relate the theories I had learnt in practical scenarios.  

Most of the teaching staff have worked across industry sectors during their career, and as a result their teaching style mixes theory and practical application. Personal 1-2-1 coaching sessions were also really helpful for me. I had never attended a personal coaching session in my career and these sessions were really eye opener. Using various psychometric tests, my coach outlined my improvement areas and suggested various options for me to mitigate those. They also listened to my personal challenges and advised me on how to overcome those. They even checked in the next session, to see if I was following their advice.

Now I have finished all four modules successfully, I just have the final dissertation to go! Once I have completed the Executive Diploma, my plan is to go back in to a senior management role, where I will be able to apply the theories I have learnt in a practical situation.

Find out more about Executive Diploma in Strategic Leadership here.