Advanced Professional Communication Skills Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Women in Leadership Roles 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-CS-198

Before you join: Participants should have at least three years of professional experience and regular responsibility for meetings, written communication, presentations, stakeholder engagement or team coordination.

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 professionals are often judged not only on the quality of their work, but on how clearly they state a position, handle challenge, gain support and hold boundaries. This course addresses the communication situations where capable professionals can be overlooked: executive meetings, high-stakes presentations, difficult feedback, competing priorities, gendered interruptions and negotiations over scope, resources or authority. Participants learn to communicate with authority while remaining constructive, credible and responsive to different stakeholders.

The course develops advanced communication methods for influencing decisions, presenting recommendations, writing concise executive messages, leading meetings and managing difficult conversations. Participants practise message architecture, assertive language, stakeholder analysis, interest-based negotiation and structured feedback. Particular attention is given to professional situations commonly experienced by women, including credibility tests, idea appropriation, over-apologising, unequal speaking time and pressure to soften clear requests or boundaries.

Instructor-led sessions combine short technical briefings with realistic cases, group work, simulations and facilitated peer feedback. Cases can be adapted for public-sector policy teams, banking and financial services, NGOs, corporate functions, professional services and operational leadership roles. Participants leave with a practical communication toolkit: stakeholder maps, message structures, assertiveness scripts, meeting plans, difficult-conversation preparation sheets and a 90-day application plan.

The course is suited to experienced professionals who already communicate regularly with colleagues, clients, senior leaders or external partners and need greater influence in complex, visible or politically sensitive situations. It is particularly relevant for women preparing for broader management responsibility, senior stakeholder exposure or roles requiring confident representation of their function.

What you will be able to do

  • Construct audience-specific messages using purpose, evidence, requests and clear next actions
  • Project credible professional presence through voice, body language and concise language choices
  • Apply the DESC script to make requests, set boundaries and address recurring conduct issues
  • Influence senior stakeholders using stakeholder maps, Pyramid Principle messages and ethical persuasion
  • Conduct difficult conversations using SBI feedback, active listening and de-escalation techniques
  • Deliver executive presentations that state recommendations, explain implications and secure decisions
  • Facilitate meetings using decision protocols, participation controls and accountable action records
  • Produce a 90-day communication application plan for a current professional priority

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence when stating recommendations, disagreeing constructively and making direct requests
  • Stronger executive presence during presentations, interviews and senior stakeholder meetings
  • Practical language for refusing unreasonable requests without damaging important relationships
  • Better control of interruptions, credibility challenges and unequal speaking time
  • A repeatable preparation process for difficult conversations and high-consequence meetings

For your organisation

  • Clearer recommendations and faster decisions in management, project and client meetings
  • More consistent handling of performance concerns, service failures and cross-team friction
  • Reduced rework caused by unclear ownership, ambiguous messages and poorly recorded actions
  • Stronger representation of technical, operational and customer perspectives in senior forums
  • Improved retention of high-potential women through visible communication capability and confidence

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can design clear, audience-specific messages that lead to decisions and action.

  • Communication goals aligned with audience decisions, relationships and organisational priorities
  • Stakeholder mapping using influence, interest, information needs and communication preferences
  • Message architecture: purpose, headline, evidence, request and next action
  • Separating facts, interpretations and assumptions before high stakes discussions
  • Channel selection for email, meetings, presentations, calls and informal conversations
  • Audience analysis for senior leaders, peers, clients and technical specialists
  • Pre meeting intention statements that define desired decisions and boundaries

Participants can project calm, credible authority through verbal and non-verbal communication.

  • Breath, pace, pause and emphasis used to project calm authority
  • Vocal variety matched to message importance, room size and audience
  • Open posture, grounded stance and purposeful gesture during formal discussions
  • Eye contact patterns that include decision makers without excluding others
  • Removing hedging, disclaimers and apologetic language from professional statements
  • Concise self introductions that establish role, expertise and relevant credibility
  • Video meeting presence: camera framing, vocal energy and visual attention

Participants can communicate needs, limits and disagreements directly while preserving working relationships.

  • Assertive communication distinguished from passive, aggressive and passive aggressive responses
  • DESC script for requests, boundaries, objections and recurring conduct issues
  • Clear refusal language that protects priorities without unnecessary justification
  • Boundary statements for workload, availability, meeting behaviour and decision rights
  • Replacing qualifying phrases with direct, evidence based professional language
  • Broken record technique for repeated pressure and persistent interruptions
  • Calibrating directness to hierarchy, culture, risk and relationship history

Participants can build support for recommendations before and during formal decision processes.

  • Influence map identifying sponsors, blockers, allies and undecided stakeholders
  • SCARF model used to anticipate status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness
  • Pyramid Principle structure for recommendations, supporting arguments and evidence
  • Framing proposals around stakeholder interests, risks, outcomes and trade offs
  • Reciprocity, social proof and authority used ethically in stakeholder communication
  • Pre wiring decision makers before formal approvals and contentious meetings
  • Managing gendered credibility tests, interruptions and idea appropriation professionally

Participants can address sensitive performance, behaviour and relationship issues with clarity and control.

  • SBI feedback model for specific observations, impact and agreed next steps
  • Preparing difficult conversations with facts, purpose, questions and boundaries
  • Neutral language for performance concerns, service failures and conduct issues
  • Active listening moves: paraphrasing, summarising, probing and checking meaning
  • De escalation through pace, acknowledgement, options and procedural fairness
  • Responding to defensiveness without abandoning standards or required outcomes
  • Closing conversations with ownership, deadlines, records and review points

Participants can present recommendations concisely and respond credibly to executive challenge.

  • Executive presentation openings that state decision, recommendation and business consequence
  • Three part message structures for briefings, updates and recommendation meetings
  • Data commentary that explains implication, risk, decision and required action
  • Slide discipline: one message, relevant evidence and readable visual hierarchy
  • Handling hostile questions using acknowledgement, answer, bridge and close
  • Speaking without slides when time, technology or audience attention is limited
  • Closing statements that secure commitments, owners and immediate next steps

Participants can write concise messages that clarify decisions, accountability and required action.

  • Subject lines and openings that state purpose, action and deadline
  • BLUF writing for executive emails, briefings and approval requests
  • Editing for brevity, active voice, plain language and precise ownership
  • Written recommendations structured with context, options, analysis and decision
  • Managing tone when correcting errors, declining requests or escalating risk
  • Meeting notes that capture decisions, actions, owners and due dates
  • Documenting sensitive conversations accurately without inflammatory or ambiguous language

Participants can lead focused meetings that produce inclusive discussion and accountable decisions.

  • Meeting design using purpose, attendees, agenda, decisions and pre reads
  • Opening meetings with roles, outcomes, timing and participation expectations
  • Facilitation techniques for drawing out quiet contributors and technical experts
  • Interrupting constructively when discussion becomes repetitive, personal or off topic
  • Managing interruptions, speaking time and credit in gendered group dynamics
  • Decision protocols: consent, consultation, recommendation and accountable decision owner
  • Closing meetings with confirmed decisions, actions, dependencies and communication

Participants can negotiate resources, scope and commitments using principled communication methods.

  • Interest based negotiation separating positions, interests, options and objective criteria
  • Preparation sheet covering BATNA, reservation point, targets and concessions
  • Anchoring proposals with evidence, ranges and commercially defensible rationale
  • Trading concessions conditionally rather than conceding value without return
  • Responding to pressure tactics, ultimatums and last minute demands
  • Negotiating resources, scope, deadlines and authority across internal stakeholders
  • Recording agreements, unresolved items and escalation paths after negotiation

Participants can apply course methods through a focused plan for recurring professional communication demands.

  • Communication audit identifying recurring situations, risks, strengths and development priorities
  • Personal credibility statement grounded in expertise, outcomes and professional values
  • Stakeholder communication plan for one current high consequence initiative
  • Preparation routines for executive meetings, difficult conversations and presentations
  • Feedback request protocol using specific behaviours, observers and review dates
  • Peer accountability arrangements supporting consistent application after the course
  • Ninety day action plan with milestones, measures and support needs

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

What you take back to work

  1. Stakeholder influence map template
  2. Executive message architecture model
  3. DESC assertiveness script library
  4. Difficult conversation preparation sheet
  5. Executive meeting and action-record template
  6. Ninety-day communication action plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — need stronger influence with executives, peers and cross-functional stakeholders
  • Women in Leadership Roles — require credible authority in visible and politically sensitive situations
  • Programme and Project Managers — need decisions, commitments and action from diverse contributors
  • Client Relationship Managers — must handle expectations, objections and commercially important conversations
  • Technical Specialists — need to translate expert analysis into clear recommendations for non-specialists
  • Emerging Executives — are preparing for wider responsibility and senior-level communication demands

Skills and tools covered

Executive communicationAssertive communicationStakeholder influenceDifficult conversationsMeeting facilitationInterest-based negotiation

Tools and standards

DESC script, SBI feedback model, SCARF model, Pyramid Principle

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce communication models, followed by case analysis, group exercises, simulations and structured feedback. Participants work with realistic scenarios such as presenting a recommendation to an executive committee, responding to interruption, declining an unreasonable request, addressing poor performance and negotiating project resources. Facilitators adapt cases to participant sectors and roles. Individual application planning links course methods to a current meeting, presentation, stakeholder issue or difficult conversation participants need to handle after the programme.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least three years of professional experience and regular responsibility for meetings, written communication, presentations, stakeholder engagement or team coordination. They should be comfortable discussing real workplace situations and receiving constructive feedback. Familiarity with basic business writing and routine meeting participation is assumed. No formal qualification in communication, public speaking, psychology or management is required. Participants do not need to be extroverted, hold a management title or have previous negotiation training. The course builds from actual professional communication demands rather than theory alone.

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

You should have several years of professional experience and regular exposure to meetings, written communication, stakeholder discussions or presentations. No previous communication, public speaking or negotiation qualification is required.

Bring details of one current communication situation, such as an upcoming presentation, difficult conversation, stakeholder issue or meeting you need to lead. You will use this situation when developing your application plan.

The course suits experienced professionals, managers, technical specialists and client-facing staff whose work depends on influencing others. It is especially relevant for women seeking stronger authority and visibility in senior or mixed-group settings.

Presentation delivery is one element, but the course also covers assertiveness, boundaries, executive writing, stakeholder influence, difficult conversations, meetings and negotiation. The focus is professional communication across recurring workplace situations.

Participants create communication tools for current work priorities, including stakeholder maps, message structures and conversation preparation sheets. The final module produces a 90-day plan with practical actions and review points.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. The programme contains ten teaching modules delivered through briefings, cases, simulations, feedback and structured 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

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