CMI Level 7 Extended Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership Practice

Unit Aim

This unit equips leaders with an in-depth understanding of strategic leadership within an organisational context. Effective strategic leadership drives organisational success, and leaders need to be knowledgeable, creative, agile and resilient. Learners will explore the complexities of the role, the theories, approaches, behaviours and skills that strengthen professional practice, and how to respond creatively to complex challenges while setting and delivering sustainable strategic goals.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the role and context for strategic leadership.
• Understand the behaviours and skills for strategic leadership.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an in-depth understanding of how to lead and develop people effectively to optimise organisational performance. Success begins by putting people at the heart of the organisation and creating a culture that sustains performance. Learners will explore the influence of leadership theories, culture, wellbeing, development, design, policy and strategy, and will propose a leadership and development strategy that values people while optimising performance.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the principles for leading and developing people.
• Understand leadership and development strategy.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an understanding of collaborative and partnership arrangements, which can increase profitability and productivity, drive innovation and are increasingly needed to win bids and tenders. Learners will critically assess the scope and value of these arrangements and evaluate how organisational and legal frameworks affect their delivery. The unit concludes with learners presenting a rationale for collaboration or partnership to further an organisation’s success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the role of collaboration and partnerships.
• Know how collaboration and partnerships further organisational success.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to develop and influence an organisation’s strategic direction through a meaningful strategy, essential for operating in complex local, national, and global markets. Learners will critique the factors that drive strategy development and appraise approaches to developing it successfully. The unit concludes with learners developing an organisational strategy to achieve a business goal and proposing how to implement and monitor it for sustained success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand how to develop strategy.
• Know how to develop strategy.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an understanding of the scope, context and complexity of leading strategic change. Navigating change well helps an organisation stay competitive, meet stakeholder expectations and respond to changing markets. Learners will explore how analytical techniques, change theories and models, and creative problem solving equip them to lead change with confidence, and will develop a proposal to lead a strategic change.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the scope and context of strategic change.
• Know how to propose a strategy for leading strategic change.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an understanding of the scope, complexity and role of Finance within an organisation. Finance affects every part of an organisation and profoundly influences the development and achievement of strategic objectives. Learners will critically assess methods for analysing the financial data and information needed for strategic decisions, building confidence in their understanding of the finance function.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the scope of the Finance function within an organisational context.
• Understand the role of Finance in strategic decision-making.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to understand the relationship between organisational design and development and the achievement of strategic objectives. Design and development shape how an organisation responds to new markets, changing work patterns, new technologies and stakeholder expectations. Learners will explore the factors driving the need for agile, adaptive organisations and develop a proposal for sustainable organisational design and development.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand organisational design and development.
• Understand how to apply the principles of organisational design and development.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an in-depth understanding of strategic risk management, which is essential to safeguard an organisation’s prosperity and reputation. Learners will critically appraise strategic risk within an organisational context, assess risk management strategies and the leadership skills needed to lead risk initiatives, and develop a framework to deliver a risk strategy.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand strategies for managing risk.
• Know how to develop risk management strategies.

Unit Aim

This unit encourages leaders to see the strategic management of data and information as an opportunity rather than a challenge. Using data strategically supports complex decisions and judgements that help an organisation achieve its objectives. Learners will explore the strategic value and use of data and information, critique strategies for managing it, and develop a strategy to improve its use in a strategic context.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the strategic management of data and information.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to understand the context in which a marketing strategy is developed. Learners will appraise the theoretical frameworks and processes that inform strategic marketing, reflect on the relationship between marketing and an organisation’s strategic aims, and explore the opportunities and impact of digital marketing. They will consider how to develop a marketing strategy that supports organisational success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the context in which a marketing strategy is developed.
• Know how to develop a marketing strategy.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to explore the principles of entrepreneurial practice, the contexts in which entrepreneurship can flourish, and the characteristics of entrepreneurial leadership. Entrepreneurship can mean pursuing an opportunity, launching an innovative start-up, reinventing a product, service or process, or solving social, cultural or environmental issues. At its core, it is a mindset.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand entrepreneurship in strategic contexts.
• Understand the principles of entrepreneurial practice.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to undertake a strategic management project of their own choosing that adds value to the organisation. Projects may focus on growth, development, change, solving identified problems, or creating new opportunities and capabilities. Learners will develop a business case, propose a research design, recommend project management methods and tools, report on outcomes, and reflect on the skills and behaviours that influence success.

Learning Outcomes:

• Know how to develop a strategic management project.
• Know how to conduct a strategic management project.

Unit Aim

This unit enables strategic leaders to develop an evidence-based understanding of applied research methods and how research can be conducted scientifically, ethically and legally in an organisation. Meaningful research can unlock solutions to complex problems and open up new opportunities. Learners will become producers of applied research, generating new knowledge from practical workplace challenges to support strategic decision-making and add value.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the research process.
• Know how to develop a research proposal of strategic benefit.

Unit Aim

This unit supports leaders to understand approaches to personal and professional development, which they must prioritise to keep pace in a fast-moving, unpredictable world. Learners will critically reflect on the relationship between skillset and mindset, assess their own personal, interpersonal and professional competencies and behaviours, and use this reflection to develop a meaningful personal and professional development plan.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand approaches for personal and professional development.
• Know how to develop as a strategic leader through personal and professional development.

Unit Aim

This unit enables leaders to develop an in-depth understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion at a strategic level. Excellent practice has a moral, financial, and legal case, supports strategic objectives, reduces risk, and helps a culture of support and wellbeing thrive. Learners will critically assess structural inequality, discuss how to meet legal and good practice requirements, and develop strategic priorities for equality, diversity and inclusion.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand equality, diversity and inclusion at a strategic level.
• Know how to develop strategic priorities for equality, diversity and inclusion.

Unit Aim

This unit gives leaders an understanding of the impact of mental health and wellbeing on organisational performance. Prioritising wellbeing is increasingly expected, as people challenge the always-on culture and treat work-life balance as a requirement. Learners will critically assess the complexities of managing wellbeing, appraise contemporary approaches to healthy work systems, and propose recommendations to create and sustain a positive culture of mental health and wellbeing.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the impact of managing mental health and wellbeing on organisational performance.
• Know how to develop a culture of mental health and wellbeing.

Unit Aim

This unit enables managers and leaders to achieve business objectives through competent, ethical and professional procurement, purchasing and contracting. Doing this well strengthens decision-making, strategic and operational planning, and on-budget delivery of outcomes. In this unit, procurement is treated as the strategic activity, supported by purchasing and contracting.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the principles of procurement, purchasing and contracting within organisational contexts.
• Know how to apply the principles of procurement, purchasing and contracting to achieve an operational requirement.

Unit Aim

This unit enables professional managers and leaders to understand corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability in an organisational context. CSR and sustainability are closely linked to organisational accountability, and approaches vary with an organisation’s type, purpose and governance. Learners will assess the enablers, constraints and barriers to success, present a case for organisational commitment, identify approaches to implementation and develop strategies to gain ongoing stakeholder commitment.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand corporate social responsibility and sustainability in organisational contexts.
• Know how corporate social responsibility and sustainability are applied in an organisational setting.

Unit Aim

This unit enables professional managers and leaders to understand the rationale for quality management and the approaches used. Effective quality management meets stakeholder needs, builds trust and reputation, and affects profitability, processes and the achievement of strategic objectives. Quality doesn’t happen by chance, so the unit focuses on building quality and continuous improvement into every aspect of practice.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the factors which influence organisational approaches to quality management.
• Know how to lead quality management to achieve strategic objectives.

Unit Aim

This unit enables professional managers and leaders to take a fresh look at the role policy plays within an organisation. Policies set strategic direction and the behaviours and values expected of staff, and writing effective policy takes real skill, along with an understanding of its context, drivers and stakeholder influences. Learners will explore how policy is developed and successfully cascaded to its intended audience.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the context in which a policy is developed.
• Know how to develop, implement and evaluate policy.

Unit Aim

This unit focuses on the coaching skills, techniques and approaches leaders need to develop the knowledge, skills and resourcefulness of others. Coaching has become an essential leadership tool that supports, motivates, and empowers people through conversation, complementing traditional directive approaches. Learners will explore the benefits and types of coaching in different contexts, use coaching skills in their own leadership practice, and critically reflect on their ability to coach.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the benefits, types and application of coaching used by leaders.
• Know the skills, techniques and approaches required by leaders to coach.

Unit Aim

This unit equips professional managers and leaders to make ethical decisions in different organisational contexts. Making ethical decisions under pressure is a fundamental requirement of the role, and it is especially difficult when stakeholders are watching, constraints apply, ambiguity exists, risks are high, or outcomes may be unpopular. Learners will explore how ethical decision-making goes beyond choosing between alternatives, focusing on value-based judgements and complex issues.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand ethical decision-making within organisational contexts.
• Know how to make an ethical decision.