Advanced Leadership Development Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Functional Heads and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-292

Before you join: Participants should have substantial management experience, normally at least five years leading people, projects, functions or major workstreams.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Senior leaders are expected to deliver results through uncertainty, competing stakeholder demands and interdependent teams. Technical authority alone is insufficient when priorities conflict, strategy changes, performance weakens or trust deteriorates. Leaders need disciplined ways to diagnose organisational conditions, set direction, make sound decisions, influence across boundaries and develop managers who can carry responsibility without constant escalation.

This advanced course examines leadership as a practical management discipline. Participants assess their leadership impact, connect strategy to execution, shape accountable team cultures and lead difficult conversations. The programme covers adaptive leadership, systems thinking, stakeholder analysis, decision quality, strategic communication, coaching, conflict resolution, change leadership and organisational influence. Participants learn to use methods including the Stakeholder Salience Model, RACI, Kotter's 8-Step Process, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument and action learning principles.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings, sector-relevant cases, leadership simulations, peer consultation and structured reflection. Cases may involve public-sector reform, bank transformation, operational recovery, NGO programme delivery and multinational matrix management. Participants work with real leadership challenges from their roles and receive feedback on their judgement, communication and approach to influence. They leave with a personal leadership development plan, stakeholder engagement map, decision protocol, team accountability charter and change communication plan.

The course is suited to experienced managers moving into enterprise-level leadership, functional heads, programme directors and senior specialists leading through influence. It is especially relevant where success depends on coordinating multiple teams, balancing delivery with people leadership and sustaining change beyond an initial project launch.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose leadership challenges using adaptive leadership and systems-thinking methods
  • Translate strategic priorities into measurable team outcomes, accountabilities and operating rhythms
  • Map stakeholders using the Stakeholder Salience Model and targeted influence strategies
  • Apply structured decision methods to resolve ambiguity, risk and competing priorities
  • Conduct high-stakes conversations using inquiry, advocacy and behavioural feedback techniques
  • Coach managers using the GROW model, delegation levels and development contracts
  • Lead change using Kotter's 8-Step Process and a practical communication plan
  • Produce a 90-day leadership application plan with measurable commitments

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence handling ambiguous, politically sensitive leadership decisions
  • A clearer leadership approach for influencing peers, sponsors and senior stakeholders
  • Practical language for addressing underperformance, conflict and resistance directly
  • Stronger delegation habits that build manager capability without reducing accountability
  • A focused 90-day plan for applying learning to a current leadership challenge

For your organisation

  • Better alignment between strategic priorities, team objectives and decision rights
  • Faster resolution of cross-functional issues through clearer stakeholder management
  • More consistent leadership conversations on performance, behaviour and accountability
  • Improved change adoption through credible sponsorship and structured communication
  • Stronger internal leadership pipeline for succession and expanded management responsibility

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish leadership work from management activity and diagnose the demands of senior roles.

  • Senior leadership accountabilities across strategy, people, governance and external relationships
  • Technical, adaptive and political dimensions of complex leadership challenges
  • Heifetz adaptive leadership framework for problems without known technical solutions
  • Authority, influence and legitimacy in formal and informal power structures
  • Leadership shadow assessed through decisions, priorities, language and visible behaviour
  • Personal leadership assumptions examined using the Ladder of Inference

Participants can connect strategic intent to coordinated priorities, operating choices and measurable outcomes.

  • Strategy maps linking mission, customer outcomes, capabilities and financial results
  • Systems thinking identifies feedback loops, delays and unintended consequences
  • Convert strategic priorities into outcome statements and leading indicators
  • Critical success factors distinguish essential conditions from routine operational activity
  • Scenario planning tests strategic choices against plausible external uncertainties
  • OKRs align ambitious outcomes with measurable quarterly key results

Participants can make and communicate defensible decisions where evidence, risks and interests conflict.

  • Decision framing separates the decision question from background debate
  • Issue trees structure complex problems into testable decision components
  • Cynefin framework matches decision approaches to problem complexity
  • Pre-mortem analysis exposes assumptions, failure modes and mitigation actions
  • Decision rights clarified through RACI and escalation thresholds
  • Red-team challenge tests evidence, alternatives and confirmation bias

Participants can build support for priorities by analysing stakeholders, interests and sources of influence.

  • Stakeholder Salience Model assesses power, legitimacy and urgency
  • Map sponsors, blockers, connectors and affected groups around priority decisions
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions from underlying needs and concerns
  • Coalition building sequences conversations before formal approval forums
  • Influence currencies identify valued exchanges between interdependent colleagues
  • Political risk assessed through informal networks, incentives and competing agendas

Participants can establish team conditions that support clarity, accountability, trust and delivery.

  • Team charters define purpose, boundaries, roles, norms and decision rules
  • Psychological safety balanced with challenge, candour and performance standards
  • Wageman team effectiveness conditions applied to leadership team design
  • Operating rhythms combine priorities, dashboards, meetings and escalation routes
  • Accountability conversations link commitments, evidence, consequences and support
  • Team health reviewed through trust, conflict, commitment and results

Participants can develop managers through purposeful coaching, delegation and targeted development planning.

  • GROW coaching model structures goal-focused development conversations
  • Situational delegation matches autonomy, support and control to capability
  • Delegation levels clarify authority from recommendation through independent action
  • Development contracts specify behavioural goals, practice opportunities and review dates
  • Succession slates assess readiness, risk, potential and development needs
  • Feedback SBI model describes situation, behaviour and observable impact

Participants can address conflict, poor performance and sensitive issues while preserving working relationships.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes selected according to stakes, relationships and time pressure
  • Crucial conversations separate facts, interpretations, emotions and requests
  • Advocacy-inquiry balances clear views with genuine curiosity about alternatives
  • Performance conversations address expectations, evidence, barriers and next actions
  • De-escalation techniques regulate tone, pace, language and meeting structure
  • Mediation steps establish issues, interests, options and agreed commitments

Participants can mobilise people through planned change while responding credibly to resistance and uncertainty.

  • Kotter's 8-Step Process sequences urgency, coalition, vision and implementation
  • Change impact assessments identify role, process, system and capability effects
  • Sponsor roadmaps define visible leadership actions at critical change milestones
  • Resistance diagnostics distinguish loss, distrust, misunderstanding and capacity constraints
  • Communication plans match messages, messengers, channels and audience concerns
  • Reinforcement mechanisms embed new behaviours through measures, recognition and governance

Participants can lead effectively across functions, geographies and professional cultures without relying on hierarchy.

  • Matrix leadership clarifies shared priorities, dual accountability and conflict resolution
  • Boundary spanning connects expertise, resources and decisions across organisational silos
  • Cultural Intelligence framework examines motivational, cognitive and behavioural adaptation
  • Virtual leadership agreements establish availability, communication norms and decision protocols
  • Inclusive leadership practices invite dissent, distribute voice and reduce exclusion
  • Cross-functional governance defines forums, mandates, inputs and decision ownership

Participants can convert course methods into a measurable leadership plan for an immediate organisational priority.

  • Leadership challenge statement defines outcomes, constraints, stakeholders and decision horizon
  • Stakeholder engagement map prioritises conversations, commitments and resistance responses
  • Ninety-day action plan sequences leadership actions, milestones and evidence
  • Personal leadership development goals link behaviours to observable workplace outcomes
  • Peer accountability arrangements establish review questions, dates and support
  • Progress measures track delivery, relationships, capability and leadership behaviour

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Personal leadership impact assessment
  2. Strategic team accountability charter
  3. Stakeholder Salience Model analysis
  4. Decision-quality protocol
  5. Change communication plan
  6. 90-day leadership application plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — requiring stronger cross-functional influence and strategic execution
  • Functional Heads — aligning specialist teams with enterprise priorities
  • Programme Directors — coordinating complex delivery across sponsors, partners and teams
  • Regional Managers — leading dispersed managers through performance and change demands
  • Senior Project Leaders — gaining authority without direct line-management control
  • High-Potential Leaders — preparing for broader leadership and succession roles

Skills and tools covered

Strategic leadershipStakeholder influenceDecision qualityTeam accountabilityCoaching conversationsChange leadership

Tools and standards

Stakeholder Salience Model, RACI, Kotter's 8-Step Process, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce leadership models, followed by case analysis, group exercises, simulations and peer consultation. Participants examine realistic leadership decisions involving competing priorities, resistant stakeholders, difficult performance issues and organisational change. Facilitators use observation guides and structured feedback to test judgement, communication and influence choices. Individual application planning connects each module to a live workplace challenge. Classroom delivery and live online delivery use the same core cases, tools and participant materials.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial management experience, normally at least five years leading people, projects, functions or major workstreams. They should be familiar with setting objectives, managing performance, conducting meetings and making operational decisions. The course assumes participants can discuss live organisational issues with appropriate discretion and receive candid peer feedback. Prior formal leadership training is useful but not required. No psychological assessment certification, coaching qualification, finance qualification or academic management degree is required. This course is not designed for first-time supervisors seeking basic people-management skills.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should already lead people, projects, functions or significant workstreams. The course builds on practical management experience and is not an introductory supervisor programme.

Bring a current leadership challenge that involves stakeholders, team performance, change or a difficult decision. Participants should also bring any non-confidential plans, performance measures or organisational context that will help them apply the tools.

It is designed for senior managers, functional heads, programme directors and experienced project leaders. It also suits high-potential leaders preparing for wider enterprise responsibility.

Basic courses focus on core delegation, meetings, motivation and first-line performance management. This programme addresses enterprise priorities, cross-functional influence, strategic judgement, organisational politics and leading complex change.

Participants develop practical materials around a live workplace issue, including stakeholder, decision and change-planning tools. The final module produces a 90-day application plan with actions, milestones and measures.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided among instructor input, case work, simulations, group analysis, peer feedback and individual application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

More courses in Leadership Development

Leadership Development 21st Century Leadership Development Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development AI Leadership and Innovation Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Adaptive Leadership Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Adaptive Leadership and Organisational Resilience Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Agile Leadership and Management Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Agile Team Leadership Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Agile and Resilient Leadership Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov Leadership Development Workplace Ethics and Productivity Training Course 5 days · from USD 1,100 · next 16 Nov