IAM Certified Leadership Programme: Specification

1. Purpose and scope

This specification establishes the IAM Certified Leadership Programme: a professional certification for people who lead — team and project leads, supervisors, and specialists who lead without formal authority, managers, heads of services and functions, leaders of cooperatives, community organisations and schools — in public, private, and non-profit organisations of any size, in any country.

The programme has two designations, IAM Emerging Leader and IAM Organisational Leader. The title and the designations are generic so that they travel across countries, sectors, and languages. The programme treats leadership as a capability that anyone can develop, not a position. It covers leading yourself, leading others, leading teams and leading improvement, and — at the strategic level — setting direction, shaping culture and inclusion, leading change, and leading ethically while developing future leaders.

The programme is built for busy professionals. Courses are short and workplace-based, portfolios are assembled from work candidates have already done, and every step is completed in the candidate’s own account on the IAM Portal. Experienced leaders may go directly to assessment without taking a course.

2. Designations

The designations carry no post-nominal letters of their own. The designation is written after the holder’s membership post-nominal, which shows career stage, while the designation shows leadership capability. Senior executives therefore hold the same designation as other Organisational Leaders, and their seniority shows through the grade — for example, “SFInstAM, IAM Organisational Leader”.

An IAM Organisational Leader may show a specialism, set by the case studies submitted and adding no extra learning:

• People and Culture Leadership — culture, engagement, inclusion, wellbeing, and developing people

• Change and Transformation Leadership — organisational change, innovation, uncertainty, and improvement

• Community, Cooperative, and Non-profit Leadership — member-owned, voluntary, and community organisations, advocacy, networking, and campaigning

• Education and Learning Leadership — leading schools, colleges, training, and learning organisations

A sector tag may be added — for example, “IAM Organisational Leader (People and Culture Leadership, Health)”. A course from the IAM Role Mastery Series may be taken as a role option, leading to a second, independent certificate.

As with every IAM post-nominal, a designation may be used only while the holder’s membership is current and in Good Standing.

3. Entry routes and minimum criteria

Each designation has two routes to the same assessment. On the course route, the candidate takes the IAM course and then the assessment. On the direct route, an experienced candidate goes straight to the assessment. The standard, the assessment and the designation are identical on both routes.

Emerging Leaders progress to IAM Organisational Leader once they reach three years of leadership experience at that level, by taking the Certified assessment; the Associate assessment is not repeated. Holders of recognised leadership credentials — for example, a regulated qualification in leadership and management — will normally take the direct route. IAM Certified Managers may also take the IAM Organisational Leader assessment by the direct route.

The membership grade is assessed in the same application under Regulation 3 of the Membership Regulation (Section 8), so the candidate makes one application and pays one fee.

4. The courses

The two courses are IAM Certified Programmes delivered under the IAM Certified Programmes Handbook (IAM-CPH-2026-001) and the Blended Distance Learning Policy (IAM-BDL-2026-001). Each is available in three arrangements: distance learning online across the published weeks; face-to-face, as contact days followed by workplace application and a return session; or blended, combining the online units with one or two contact days that replace the matching live sessions. All three carry the same hours and outcomes, are assessed against the same rubric, and lead to the same certificate, which never states the arrangement.

Modules

Both courses have four modules that move outwards from the leader: self, others, teams, and the organisation. What changes between the courses is the scope: the Emerging course develops leadership of self, others, and a team, with, or without formal authority; the Organisational course develops leadership of a function, service, or organisation — its direction, culture, change, and ethics. Every module combines a live practice session, online units, reading, and a workplace activity that builds the learner’s assessment evidence, so no separate project is needed. The full syllabuses are IAM-CLP-2026-002 and IAM-CLP-2026-003.

IAM Executive Leadership Masterclass. For experienced IAM Organisational Leaders: board and executive leadership, governance, leading at scale and leaving a legacy. It joins the IAM Masterclass series, counts as Structured CPD and leads to no separate designation.

5. Delivery for busy professionals

• Monthly intakes, with a single registration valid for 12 months.

• Mobile-friendly online units of 60 to 90 minutes; live sessions in evening and weekend slots suited to the time zones of each intake, all recorded for catch-up.

• Three practice activities need live participation: the feedback conversation practice and the team meeting practice on the Emerging Leadership Course, and the portfolio clinic on the Organisational Leadership Course. A learner who cannot attend submits a recording, or draft work for the clinic, and receives tutor feedback.

• Progress is tracked under the Learner Progress Tracking Process (IAM-LPT-2026-001): a tutor contacts any learner who misses a fortnight’s activity and agrees a catch-up plan.

• Portfolios built from existing work on IAM templates. Each case study may be written or submitted as a recorded presentation.

• Stakeholder evidence the candidate already holds replaces reference letters, so no application waits on someone else to write something.

• Professional discussions held online and booked by the candidate through the IAM Portal.

• A published maximum: the decision is issued within 10 working days of the final assessment component.

• In-house delivery for employer cohorts of 10 or more, as contact days at the employer’s premises or as a closed online cohort.

• Delivery by the Institute or by IAM Recognised Centres holding a Programme Approval.

6. Assessment

Assessment rules

• Every component has three assessment opportunities at no charge, in line with the published fees policy. A resubmission addresses only the criteria not yet met.

• Evidence is judged against the Leadership Competence Overlay (Appendix A) and the Professional Standards. Criteria are judged Met or Not yet met; online checks are passed at the stated pass mark.

• Organisational material may be anonymised; the Institute may verify stakeholder evidence directly with the organisation.

• Identity is verified when the candidate opens their IAM Portal account and confirmed on camera against photo identification at the start of every professional discussion.

• One in ten Associate applied tasks, chosen at random, and any where there is cause for concern, are followed by a 10-minute online call in which the candidate talks through their work.

• The work must be the candidate’s own, under the integrity provisions of the Code of Ethics. Candidates declare any use of AI tools.

• No assessor assesses a candidate they have tutored, employed, managed, or worked with.

• Awards are decided by the Leadership Assessment Panel, never by the tutor or a single assessor.

7. Fees

7.1 Country tiers

Fees follow the Institute’s published country tiers, based on the World Bank income classification: country of residence for individual candidates, country of delivery for per-learner fees, and principal office for organisations. Candidate fees use the individual scale; organisational fees use the corporate scale. The standard, the assessment and the designation are identical in every tier.

7.2 Fee schedule

All amounts are in pounds sterling and exclusive of VAT and equivalent taxes.

Included in every package and assessment fee: all assessment components with three opportunities each; the eCertificate and verifiable digital badge; listing in the IAM Directory and Verify a Member; and 12 months’ membership at the grade the evidence supports. No application and administration fee is charged.

Recognised Centres set their own tuition and pay the Institute the assessment-and-award fee per learner, at the tier of the country of delivery, plus the standard Programme Approval fee under the Centre Recognition Scheme.

7.3 Worked examples

• A team leader resident in a Tier 2 country takes the Organisational Leadership Course package for £650, covering the course, assessment, award, and a year’s membership at the grade the evidence supports. If that grade is MInstAM, the subscription from the second year is £62.

• A head of service in a Tier 1 country with 12 years’ experience applies directly for IAM Organisational Leader and pays £700, including a year’s membership. If admitted as FInstAM, the subscription is £160 a year thereafter.

• A government ministry in a Tier 2 country enrols 20 staff on an in-house Emerging Leadership cohort: 20 × £300, less 15%, is £5,100.

• A company in a Tier 1 country enrols 12 senior leaders on a closed Organisational Leadership Course cohort: 12 × £1,300, less 15%, is £13,260.

7.4 Payment terms

• Individuals pay through the IAM Portal before the course or assessment starts. Organisations are invoiced in pounds sterling, payable within 30 days.

• Instalments are available by agreement, as for other Institute fees. Bank charges and currency conversion costs are borne by the payer.

• Refunds follow the Refund Policy (IAM-REF-2026-001); the 14-day cooling-off period applies to the membership element.

• No fee secures or influences an assessment or award decision, and these fees are added to the published Fees schedule before they are charged.

8. Membership, Good Standing and CPD

The designation and the membership grade are assessed in the same application: the designation under this specification, and the grade under Regulation 3 of the Membership Regulation. Each package or assessment fee includes 12 months’ membership at the grade the evidence supports — typically AInstAM for Associates, and MInstAM, FInstAM, or SFInstAM for Organisational Leaders. Existing members receive a 12-month subscription credit instead.

The designation may be used only while membership is current and in Good Standing; use is suspended on lapse and restored on renewal.

From 1 January 2027, every designation holder meets the CPD Regulation, whatever their grade: 30 hours in each CPD Year, at least 15 of them Structured, including 3 hours of ethics and 2 of sustainability, with one reflective practice record. At least 10 of the 30 hours must relate to leadership practice. Role Mastery courses and the Executive Leadership Masterclass count as Structured CPD. The Institute audits a sample of records each year.

IAM Leadership Faculty. Designation holders join the Faculty at no extra charge. It provides a listing in the IAM Directory, mentoring through the IAM Mentoring and Professional Supervision Framework, peer leadership circles, practice resources and an annual leadership forum.

IAM Recognised Employer. Organisations that develop their leaders through the programme may apply for Recognised Employer status if they have at least five designation holders, one of them an IAM Organisational Leader, and adopt the Leadership Practice Addendum to the Code of Ethics for their leaders. Recognised Employers are listed in the IAM Directory and may use the Recognised Employer mark.

9. Names, recognition, and regulated qualifications

The programme title and the designations were chosen to be generic, globally applicable and free of conflict with regulated qualifications and with other bodies’ marks.

• Standard notice. Certificates, the website, the IAM Portal and all marketing carry this statement: “IAM Certified Programmes and designations are professional recognitions awarded and internally regulated by the Institute of Administrative Management. They are not regulated qualifications in any jurisdiction — in England, for example, they are not Ofqual-regulated and carry no RQF level — and they confer no licence to practise.”

• Presentation. Both designations are always written in full and presented as professional designations awarded by the Institute — for example, “IAM Emerging Leader, a professional designation of the Institute of Administrative Management” — on certificates, in the IAM Directory and in marketing.

• Title words. No programme, course, or designation title uses: qualification, Award, Certificate, Diploma, Level, Master, Degree, Chartered, Registered, Licensed, or Accredited, or their equivalents in other languages and jurisdictions. No level equivalence is claimed.

• Regulated qualifications kept separate. Qualifications regulated by Ofqual or any other national regulator that IAM delivers as an approved centre never share a title, certificate, or marketing material with these designations.

• Other bodies’ marks. The designations always carry the IAM prefix and no post-nominal letters, to avoid confusion with other bodies’ leadership credentials and programmes.

• No new letters. The InstAM post-nominals are unique to the Institute and verifiable through Verify a Member. Letters prefixed “IAM” would be ambiguous: the Institute of Asset Management also trades as IAM and awards an IAM Certificate and IAM Diploma, and IAM is a common abbreviation for identity and access management in IT.

• Translation. In every language edition, “leader” and “leadership” are rendered with the organisational sense of the words, never with a word that carries political or military meaning or a historical association — in German, for example, “Führungskraft” and “Führung”, never “Führer”. In Arabic the designations are rendered IAM Emerging Leader — قائد ناشئ, and IAM Organisational Leader — قائد مؤسسي; in Arabic the word قائد is always used in its organisational sense, and زعيم and آمر are never used. Each translation is checked against this rule before publication.

• No licence to practise. The designations confer no licence to practise in any regulated profession and do not imply any political, military, or statutory authority.

10. Governance and quality assurance

• Regulation. The programme is internally regulated by IAM. Its courses are delivered under the IAM Certified Programmes Handbook (IAM-CPH-2026-001) and the Blended Distance Learning Policy (IAM-BDL-2026-001). It has no external accreditation and makes no claim to any.

• Leadership Assessment Panel. Three members drawn from IAM Organisational Leaders at Fellow or Senior Fellow grade and from Senior Fellows, at least one not employed by the Institute. The Panel decides every award, meeting online monthly or deciding by e-vote to keep to the published maximum.

• Assessors. IAM Organisational Leaders at Fellow or Senior Fellow grade and Senior Fellows appointed to Institute assessment panels, trained, and standardised twice a year, and required to declare any conflict of interest. During the founding period, senior leaders and academics admitted by peer review may serve as assessors.

• Moderation. Internal quality assurance samples one in five assessed portfolios and recorded professional discussions each quarter and reports findings to the Board annually. Pass marks for both online checks are confirmed by a standard-setting review after the first two intakes.

• Ethics. The Code of Ethics (IAM-COC-2026-001) applies with a Leadership Practice Addendum covering responsible use of power, fairness, and inclusion, honesty and accountability, care for wellbeing, confidentiality, and data protection, responsible use of AI, speaking up and protecting those who do, conflicts of interest and a prohibition on inducements.

• Appeals and complaints. Handled under the Complaints, Disputes, and Appeals Policy (IAM-CDA-2026-001).

• Records. Course completions are entered in the Register of Programme Completers; awards appear in the IAM Directory and Verify a Member; digital badges are issued through the IAM Badge Platform.

• Protection. Trade mark clearance and registration for “IAM Organisational Leader” and “IAM Emerging Leader” in the United Kingdom and the Institute’s principal markets before launch.

Appendix A — Leadership Competence Overlay

The overlay applies the IAM Professional Standards to leadership practice. It is read with the domain descriptors for the candidate’s Career Stage. The syllabuses map every learning outcome to these six competences (L1 to L6).

Appendix B — Case study template

Each case study for IAM Organisational Leader follows the same seven headings, written within the stated word count or presented as a recorded presentation covering the same ground. The organisation and people may be anonymised.

• Organisation and context — the organisation, its situation and why leadership was needed.

• Your role — your position, authority, and who you led and worked with.

• Vision and direction — the purpose you set, how you built shared commitment, and the measures of success.

• Analysis and evidence — how you understood the situation, the people and the options.

• Leading people and culture — how you engaged, included, and supported people, and handled resistance and conflict.

• Change and results — how change was led and delivered, and the results, with the stakeholder evidence that supports them.

• Reflection and ethics — the ethical issues you faced, what you learned about your leadership, and your development priorities.

  Institute of Administrative Management · Internally regulated by IAM · For Board approval Page of

  Institute of Administrative Management · Internally regulated by IAM · For Board approval Page of