Emotional Leadership Development Course - Online Cohort Based

I really enjoyed learning more!

This is a photo of my set up each week as I prepared for the weekly cohort coaching calls. The 5 cards selected (and in the foreground) are the cards I chose for the reflect and review activity - in the context of how I felt through the learning experience. Added to these is the ECD black card 'Proud' I have that card near my workstation to remind me to celebrate every day what I have just accomplished with the generous support of ECD mentors and my peers in the same cohort group. Thank you :)

I've spend 20+ years as a leader and the use of Emotions and the deck is so smart that i wish i had it when i was starting out and not halfway through my career.

The facilitators are engaging and an excellent resource to help in launching the program into our organization

Really enjoyed the course and found the community very welcoming!

Amazing course that delves deeper into how to lead self then others.

What impressed me most was the clear focus on leaders doing this work themselves first. Emotional awareness, psychological safety, and healthy cultures don’t just “happen” in organisations; they are modelled and set in motion by leaders who are willing to lead the way. I also loved the perspective shift of first asking how I want to feel as a leader before thinking about how I want my team or organisation to feel. That framing felt deeply human and practical. Finally, the course connected theory to practice by showing the real impact of emotional contagion in everyday leadership. I walked away with tools and insights that I am excited to apply: from integrating emotional leadership more intentionally in my 1:1 sessions, to finding ways of working with senior leadership teams on culture design and change.

I loved this course, as a new(ish) manager who has experienced other leadership development tools, this is the one I continue to think about, talk about with colleagues and other senior leaders, and implement in a daily and weekly manner.

Fantastic.

It was thought and feelings provoking to me. Got me curious to learn further about emotions and to use the tools with myself and my teams. Loved the tips and how the content is shared in a collaborative and humble way.

Absolute game changing for me in all aspects of my work, my own leadership and working with leaders. I love it!

I'm a big fan of the work Jeremy and his team are doing and I've benefitted immensely from using these tools!

Interesting flipping of the approach to lead with emotions - but they are, afterall, the powerhouse of what drives us to action.

It gave me practical tools to better understand and support both my own emotional wellbeing and that of my students/staff. The use of the Emotional Culture Deck helped me reflect deeply on how emotions influence classroom dynamics, relationships, and leadership.

I have found the ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course very beneficial, both on a personal level and on a professional level. The self-reflective practices while completing the course have been very powerful and I feel more confident within myself as a result. Going through the programme has also helped to look at my organisation, our rituals, our culture and think about what we do really well and areas for development. I have a lot more reading and upskilling to do now as I am inspired and energised to learn more.

Excellent course I loved the insights into lead yourself then lead others.

The EDC Emotional Leadership Development Course has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I gained valuable insights into myself and truly came to understand the impact and importance of emotions in the workplace. If you’re considering it—do it. You won’t regret it.

I thought this was a fabulous course with practical tools that I have already used with a variety of leaders. It helps improve their self-awareness as well as it is a tool that can be used to help improve a leader's ability to create psychological safety.

it was a good course with lots of materials

Well structured course with a great blend of activities, research, quotes, stats and plenty of self reflective activities to really dive deep into my own emotional landscape.

Great course. It's encouraging to think about what workplaces could be like with leaders doing this work.

I'm have just completed studying Emotional Culture Leadership with Riders & Elephants, through Jeremy and his amazing mentors, experts and the wider ECD Community. I cannot recommend this course highly enough. It will be useful and a game changer for any HR, Change Management, Wellbeing/H&S, Managers & Senior Leaders. As an experienced People, Capability and Wellbeing practitioner I cannot believe how easily the ECD opens up possibilities and supports solutions in my practice that would otherwise be a challenge to achieve. (The ECD also has a Te Reo version which is even better given I work in a Kaupapa Māori space ). You really have to see and experience it to believe it. You can either harness the power of emotions in your mahi and for your teams, or you can be subject to them. Take the leap, you will be grateful you did and your team and those you support will thank you ✨️

This course was an invaluable addition to my leadership toolkit. I love that the ECD is such a flexible and agile tool to deepen insights as a human, a leader, and a learning professional.

The course gave me some really great insights into how I can use the ECD for my leadership development work. I have dabbled with it a bit following my previous ECD certification course but had not used it specifically for leadership. I now feel so much more confident, not to mention inspired and energised, to use this with leaders and make it an integral part of how I work with my clients. Thanks Jeremy!

I thought the course offered practical tools and interactive learning/workshop plans to develop emotionally intelligent leaders in an adaptive, practical, engaging, and impactful way.

Yet another brilliant course from riders&elephants

It's a useful addition if you already took the Master Class course

This course has been fantastic to better understand the separate components of leading self and leading teams, but also the link between the two. It's a great tool which can be used for many different purposes, and in practice creates a safe environment for facilitation where participants land on the answers themselves, through their own learning. A really great tool to get a collective moving in the right direction and to be open to different perspectives.

I enjoyed the group webinars, learning from global participants, and realizing that all our organizations are pretty similar in areas they can improve on and how ECD can help with that.

Fabulous! Despite it being an online course I still felt very connected with the cohort and wider community. The calls, weekly summary emails and Jeremy's engagement was brilliant. The design of the course and support info/documentation is excellent and has inspired me for my own practice. Bravo ECD team!

Awesome - can't wait to get stuck in

I am feel excited, enthusiastic, and validated by everything I learned. I appreciate the terrific sense of positive community and all of the amazing learning resources that have been shared, in the course and by others in the comments and video calls.

Thorough introduction of how to use the ECD with a leadeship team - lots of insight and examples.

Having worked on Leadership Development for a very long time, it is always exciting and refreshing to approach training from a new perspective. I am also shifting from a coach and trainer who begun working with teams holistically incorporating the physical and mental with a look at emotions too, to prioritising emotions as the biggest part of what I do. Because they are the driver for the actions we choose to take. This course has given me not only the structure to be able to upgrade and be creative with the various training I do but also a set of tools to be able to offer clients that will make the outcomes and success sustainable.

Investing in this type of development reminds you of the importance emotions plays in how we show up and how we encourage others to show up and how then together, within a work environment, we can achieve high (or higher) performance while appreciating each other as human beings.

Great starter course

It's been a great online course, easy to follow and understand how the deck can be used to build culture and develop leaders. The resources are both top notch and professional. I've enjoyed the links to articles, video's and books to support learning and the content. Unfortunately, I didn't make any of the live calls but great to have the replays. It feels like a very supportive community led by Jeremy.

Powerful, insightful and impactful, with tools, tips and thoughtful hacks I can use right away!

I already have over 50 ECD cards - to do the course, it would have been good to have an option of just purchasing the canvases / conversation guides rather than extra ECD cards which I didn't really need.

great course well balanced - I have signed tyo join the live cohort but really the calls were way too late in the evening so I couldn't attend any of the calls and I missed the interaction part :-(

Fabulous! So inspiring, aligns with my work and values and it leaves me inspired and motivated to use to in ways (big or small) in my own work. Thank you!

Having been in the R&E community for a while now I have already been facilitating Leadership workshops using the tools, so I wasn't starting from scratch. This course was hugely beneficial in that it reinforced what I had been doing, which gave me great confidence. It was also a fabulous learning of additional handbooks / tips I could be using going forward which would enhance and strengthen the work I am already doing. Like most things, we can get in to our comfort zones and have our own rituals of how we approach conversations / workshops and this Emotional Leadership course was a timely nudge into further opportunities and growth. Thank-you

This is an excellent course for leaders - an opportunity to get to know more of themselves and their teams so they can build effective and emotionally, high performing teams

I enjoyed the course and seeing how the various activities using the cards can bring about different outcomes and also can be flexible to the context at hand. Definitely need to play around and experiment different things with it. At the end of the day, it is how you facilitate the process. No right or wrong outcomes.

Great content, well structured, well paced with great facilitators. The handbooks with the cards are a great asset. Emotions are data!!

The ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course offers valuable resources and concepts which are inspiring and practical to apply in the workplace.

The ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course challenged my old ways of thinking of leadership as being a set of character traits, cultivated habits of mind and core processes. Emotional leadership is about shaping the culture of teams and organisations when leaders understand and influence emotions - their own and those of others. The interactions to do this are simple and small and make a big difference and I look forward to sharing what I have learnt to benefit others.

Having worked on Leadership Development for a very long time, it is always exciting and refreshing to approach training from a new perspective. I am also shifting from a coach and trainer who begun working with teams holistically incorporating the physical and mental with a look at emotions too, to prioritising emotions as the biggest part of what I do. Because they are the driver for the actions we choose to take. This course has given me not only the structure to be able to upgrade and be creative with the various training I do but also a set of tools to be able to offer clients that will make the outcomes and success sustainable.

I deliver our Whanaungatanga Programme (WP), for kaimahi hou/new staff and we had our inaugural WP for 2025, Monday and Tuesday this week. I used the pdf of the R&E ECD Te Reo Card desk which Denise Hartley-Wilkins had kindly emailed me, and the result was our kaimahi hou/new staff took to it like a master carver to a beautiful piece of pounamu (changing up the ‘ducks to water’ idiom ‍♀️). The fact that we were able to include Te Reo Māori was absolutely incredible and added substantively to the overall experience. Background/lessons in preparations for our session: Unfortunately, I tried and failed to turn the pdf into card decks myself for each participant, they looked awful, and I ran out of time. I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity, so I decided to instead print each page as an A3 poster and put these up for our kaimahi to see on our whiteboard (I know it’s not what we’d ideally like to see, next time I’ll have actual cards for each of them ). The attending kaimahi ranged from having been in the organisation for three months to having started day 1 of the WP, this Monday. (We deliver site inductions at their work site from day 1 of employment and follow up with the WP approach after that, usually). ECD Approach taken: I used the following instructions or questions/patai across different parts of the two-day programme; Choose three feelings that describe your experience of being recruited into Te Piki Oranga, and, Choose three feelings that describe your experience with us once you came on board as kaimahi (or for the brand new kaimahi hou, ‘Describe how you would like to feel over the next month’). I also asked that they choose a feeling to represent how they each felt on day 1 of the WP, and at the end of day 2; the conclusion of the programme. I followed up each of the above patai/questions with ‘Describe what it was that made you feel this way’, which we addressed when we had time later in the programme (Day 2). I added instructions that they may wish to share the answers to these patai/questions with the rōpu/group when the time came, or they can choose not to do so and korero/discuss with me when it worked for them as a different way to feedback. Or alternatively, choose not to feedback at all. I left that decision totally up to them and said to go with whatever felt most comfortable at the time. I also let them know this was a completely new approach and we were learning as we went and encouraged them to raise anything they were unsure or uncomfortable about (interestingly, no one raised anything, they just picked up the wero/challenge and went for it! ) Launching a new, developing session: I was introducing a new session on Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and which also included a discussion of allyship - what a valued ally looks and feels like in our interactions with them. 75% of our kaimahi are Māori/mana whenua, the rest are Tangata Tiriti/treaty partners and allies.*The Treaty of Waitangi, for those outside of NZ, is an international treaty signed between many iwi (Māori), and the crown (Britain). This is our founding document and what Tā/Sir Mason Durie has described as NZ’s first ever social policy document. Our kaimahi work closely with multiple external agencies; the staff of many of which are active allies of our mana whenua. However, some are not and our kaimahi are too often confronted with demands to know why Māori need their own hauora/health delivery mechanisms, and other comments in a similar vein, and many of our kaimahi do not know how, or even if, they should respond. This new session is intended to be a response to this hazard, supporting our kaimahi to mitigate the ongoing impacts of this behavior and safely navigate these complexities. (Basically, the answer to why Māori need separate services is because it’s guaranteed under Te Tiriti, because mainstream services often disadvantage Māori, and culturally appropriate hauora/health services can reach and support those no other services can reach and effect real change with). We don’t expect our kaimahi to tackle this themselves, unless they wish to do so. We offer to address this at higher levels within the organisations concerned and instead encourage our kaimahi to not engage with this kind of behavior. Our current political climate has exacerbated this particular challenge for organisations’ working in this field and for our kaimahi within Te Piki Oranga. The Te Tiriti & allies session turned out to be an amazing session, the kaimahi really engaged with it. I think the focus on emotions throughout the programe prior to this helped them to synergize as a rōpu/group/cohort and meant they themselves took this kaupapa/topic to a level I hadn’t imagined. This can potentially be quite a fraught topic for many reasons, one such reason is that plenty of research has shown that our mana whenua carry the additional ‘tax’ [burden?], of having to educate everyone else. I had introduced this concept as well as an amazing piece of work that highlights the foundations of being a good Treaty Partner - **”17 Habits of a Valued Treaty Partner” by Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna'i, and conversely provided some ideas for our mana whenua to utilize, if they so choose, when working with allies, both internally and externally. The result of this session was so amazing that I’m going to ask this rōpu/cohort to become champions to assist other kaimahi throughout our organisation to understand and successfully navigate this kaupapa. To model what this looks and feels like when it’s done well, and how to navigate any feelings and challenges that arise. A huge win in my book. Thanks ECD & Jeremy!

This was a great course and I believe it should be one that someone should take if they are interested in leadership development.

This course has been a real eye-opener for me. Before starting, I didn’t fully understand how much emotions impact leadership and workplace culture. It has shown me that how people feel at work is just as important, when it comes to engagement, teamwork, and performance. One of the things I really appreciated about the course was how practical and hands-on it was. The Emotional Culture Deck isn’t just a theoretical concept, it’s a tool that actually helps spark meaningful conversations and build stronger team connections. Seeing it in action during the sessions helped me realise how powerful it is in bringing out honesty, vulnerability, and trust within teams. At first, I wasn’t sure how comfortable I’d be leading conversations around emotions, but as I went through the course, my confidence grew. I now see that emotional leadership isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about creating a space where people feel safe to express themselves. That’s a huge mindset shift for me, and it’s something I know will make a difference in how I lead moving forward. Overall, the course has given me a new perspective on leadership, and I’m excited to keep building on what I’ve learned to create a more open and emotionally aware workplace.

Loved the format! Very easy to work through and follow and great to make reflections at different touchpoints throughout. I really enjoyed understanding the different ways to tool can be used.

This is a great course! It was great for my self-development and shifted my mindset and perspective in a lot of ways. I look forward to using what I learned to help others.

The Leadership Development Course is a wonderful tool to have in your pocket not just for HR and Trainers, but for leaders who are really wanting to make an impact on their organisation. We often think alignment on vision mission and values is the key - but this work does not talk to what any of this looks like. Starting from a place of how we want our people to feel at work can help create and drive the narrative to align clearly outlining what is acceptable and what is not.

Bite-size learning that provides both visual, auditory and written content that is easy to digest. The learn and play is instrumental - curated time to explore and reflect in the moment was magic.

The Emotional Leadership Development Course has been extremely insightful as it first shifts existing paradigms about who a leader is and what a leader does to how leaders feel and how they want their people to feel. The course fills the much-needed gap in training people to build more emotionally intelligent teams and organisations as while emotions are complex and often avoided, the discussions and conversations can be uncomplicated and the actions towards consistent change are also simple.

The group got a lot of value from considering the cognitive and emotional culture.

Very thought provoking

I thought it was well paced - with excellent resources and though provoking discussion. Lots of learning!

This was my 3rd ECD course, and it did not disappoint. I learned about a few new tools, I learned how to incorporate other tools in new ways, and it gave me fresh perspective and motivation on how to take what I've learned out to my organization.

It's greeeat - so easy to understand, follow and apply. I looooved it! :x

The ECD Leadership Development Course has been an invaluable experience, providing a fresh perspective on the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership.he course effectively highlighted the profound impact leaders have on the emotional well-being of their teams and provided practical tools and strategies to cultivate a positive and empowering environment. I highly recommend this course to any leader seeking to enhance their emotional leadership skills and create a more engaged and fulfilled team.

Thorough, systematic, active learning throughtout. Loved it.

A great approach to develop self awareness in the workplace.

very well done high quality

This course really opened my mind to a whole new way of using the ECD with leadership teams. The canvases and tools were so powerful and I am extremely excited to start using them with my clients to shine a light on emotional culture and re-humanise workplaces

Emotional Leadership Development Course is a great toolkit for both new and seasoned managers, looking to enhance emotional culture within their team and organization.

The course helps to fully understand the breadth of flexibilty available with the tools, guides on how to use for best results, but also encourages freedom to play.

It was a good recap. I enjoyed the pace and length of the lessons. Jeremy has the ability to mix excitement and engagement with a measured delivery style that's easy to connect with. I liked having a transcript I could click on anytime. I found some of the resource links worked and others didn't.

I found the course to be educational and personally insightful and would definitely recommend to others on their leadership journey.

The course is well structured with relevant content. It gives us a wonderful, pliable tool to alter as we see fit to best suit the situation. The tools used appear relevant in a team, work, home or even personal environment. I am looking forward to utilising what I have learned.

This course was insightful, fun and opens your eyes to what it truly means to be connected with your team. Such a clean, simplistic and effective "card game" that re deigns and challenges what you thought leadership is and helps create a new style of leadership! ECD helps guide what once was a difficult interaction with emotional direction to help support your team! Highly recommend!

Great opportunity to reflect and recognise emotional culture as a tool for addressing and managing a wide range of issues.

Very interesting concept and definitely has given me some tools and resources to be a better leader.

I really enjoyed the journey. Great insights that provides tools for practical application while allowing for flexibility.

The emotional leadership development course provides tactile and tangible ways to analyse your own and team emotions, as well as to reflect on and anticipate the emotions of others.

I feel the course is fabulous as refresher for experienced/ positively demonstrated people leaders and definitely a must for any new leader.

An insightful leadership program assisting established and aspiring leaders to better manage teams and their emotional culture.

Its a different perspective to leading.

great. bit repetitive

The ECD Leadership development course is a triumph in the simplicity of showing up using feelings to help navigate conversations and then creating desired rituals and actions to ensure we are feeling what we need to to be successful. A wonderful guide and tool for a leader to be able to use in 1;1's and bigger team settings.

I found it was somewhat beneficial and has changed some of my thoughts on the emotional connection between work and people's output

It has been an eye-opening experience. The Course helped me to realise how important it is to acknowledge peoples' emotions and understand how they drive our behaviour. It has a potential to bring 'human face' to institutional settings.

Once you are open to considering your and other's emotions in the workplace, the basic concept of the course is very simple and deceptively powerful. Over the three months of the course, I can see the change in myself and feel a stronger connection to my team as a result.

I've invested some time in developing myself and my leadership skills which is an ongoing journey. I found the focus on emotions an interesting angle. I'm keen to use the tools in helping engage with the team on some change management.

The course provided useful tools to help set and maintain an effective emotional temperature for a team

A great tool for any aspiring Leader

such a simple concept but incredibly powerful and empowering.

It is a simple, logical, practical and easy to apply approach to enhancing the capability of leaders

I enjoyed the listening to the perspectives of others

The ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course was insightful and transformative. It provided valuable tools to understand and manage emotions, both personally and within a team. The practical exercises helped build self-awareness and strengthen communication, which are essential for effective leadership. Overall, it was a well-structured course that fostered growth and connection.

My experience of undertaking the ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course has been extremely positive. The content and delivery have been thought provoking and engaging, with the concepts and ideas being interspersed with practical activities to embed learnings and encourage the participants to explore ideas and practice implementing the tools. I am grateful to my employer for embracing and valuing this training and making it available to leaders - it has increased my confidence in the organisation as a place I want to stay working in. I wish everyone in my organisation could participate!

I was mildly sceptical at first but chose to have a positive mindset about it and was surprised at the outcome

I found the ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course to be extremely thought-provoking, which ultimately led me to develop competency in applying an emotional leadership approach in my team. After just the very first session with my team, there was a noticeable lift in team spirit and connectedness. I look forward to promoting enduring practice of emotional leadership.

I feel that this course is highly beneficial as a leader and also as an individual as it gives some great insights into how we can be better leaders through emotional culture in an uncomplicated way.

Lots of practical tools to apply to a whole range of leadership situations, challenges and strategy.

This has been a fantastic course; it's taken me gently by the hand and walked me through how to make the best use of the ECD and enabled me to discover aspects about myself as a person and as a leader that have been incredibly valuable. As a leader in a modern, evolving work environment ECD should be an essential tool in a leadership practice to enable leading with empathy and developing a genuine understanding of a team, which can only lead to better outcomes for the leader and the team.

I've enjoyed the course, it's been insightful for me in a new leadership role. It gives some structure where otherwise these thoughts are just musings, which has helped me to frame up the options to move forward from tricky spaces.

When leading a team is how deeply emotions influence team dynamics and performance. Recognising and addressing emotions, both individually and collectively, can significantly improve communication, collaboration, and overall effectiveness.

The ECD Emotional Leadership Development Course was insightful, thought provoking and provided pragmatic tools that can be used and scaled for many leadership scenarios.