Banking Leadership and Team Performance Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Branch Managers, Operations Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-011

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising staff, managing a workstream or contributing to team performance in a bank, financial institution or regulated financial-services function.

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

Bank managers must turn commercial objectives into customer outcomes without weakening conduct, credit, operational or information-security controls. They must also keep teams focused when targets, system changes, complaint volumes, lending decisions and regulatory findings compete for attention. Weak leadership routines can produce inconsistent decisions, concealed errors, unmanaged handoffs and performance discussions based on opinion rather than evidence. Effective leaders set clear boundaries, challenge constructively, surface issues early and make accountability visible.

This course develops practical leadership disciplines for managers in retail, corporate, commercial, operations, risk and service functions. Participants examine how banking value chains, risk appetite and customer outcomes affect team priorities. They use OKRs, Balanced Scorecard measures, RACI matrices, SBI feedback, GROW coaching and ADKAR change planning to manage performance and implementation. The course also addresses difficult conversations, cross-functional conflict, decision bias, incident learning, conduct expectations and speak-up responsibilities.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings, banking cases, facilitated group analysis, leadership simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect issues such as deteriorating service levels, missed controls, lending turnaround times, conduct concerns and system-change adoption. Participants leave with a 90-day leadership plan, a team performance scorecard, a coaching plan and practical templates for team meetings, decision records and escalation. The course suits experienced supervisors and managers who need stronger methods for leading teams in a controlled banking environment.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess team performance using customer, risk, process and people indicators
  • Set team priorities using OKRs, Balanced Scorecard measures and risk appetite boundaries
  • Apply Situational Leadership II to match leadership behaviour with team member readiness
  • Conduct evidence-based performance conversations using SBI feedback and GROW coaching
  • Resolve cross-functional conflict using interest-based negotiation and escalation protocols
  • Make defensible management decisions using RACI, decision logs and bias controls
  • Lead operational change using ADKAR assessments and adoption measures
  • Produce a 90-day banking leadership action plan with measurable commitments

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Run performance discussions using observable evidence rather than general impressions
  • Handle conduct, service and underperformance concerns with clearer managerial language
  • Set priorities that connect commercial targets with risk and customer obligations
  • Make decisions with documented rationale, ownership and escalation triggers
  • Present a credible 90-day plan for improving team performance

For your organisation

  • More consistent management of customer, conduct and operational performance
  • Earlier escalation of control failures, service risks and team concerns
  • Clearer ownership across lending, operations, risk and customer-service handoffs
  • Better quality performance reviews supported by evidence and agreed standards
  • Stronger adoption of process, policy and system changes by frontline teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can align team leadership priorities with banking customer outcomes, risk boundaries and escalation duties.

  • Banking value chains, balance-sheet economics and customer promises linked to team priorities
  • Conduct risk, operational risk and credit risk translated into leadership accountabilities
  • Three-lines model clarifies ownership, oversight and assurance for front-line managers
  • Risk appetite statements converted into daily escalation and decision boundaries
  • Customer outcomes assessed through complaints, vulnerability indicators and service recovery
  • Psychological safety balanced with challenge, speak-up duties and documented escalation

Participants can select leadership behaviours that fit team readiness, task risk and business conditions.

  • SCARF model identifies status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness triggers
  • Situational Leadership II matches directing, coaching, supporting and delegating to readiness
  • Motivational drivers distinguished from hygiene factors using Herzberg's two-factor theory
  • Leadership presence practised through concise briefings, questions and visible follow-through
  • Decision rights assigned using RAPID for lending, operations and change work
  • Personal leadership principles translated into observable team commitments and routines

Participants can establish performance measures, review routines and accountability mechanisms for banking teams.

  • OKRs connect branch, operations and relationship-management targets to customer outcomes
  • Balanced Scorecard separates financial, customer, process and people performance measures
  • Leading indicators distinguish controllable activity from lagging financial and risk results
  • Performance contracts specify standards, evidence sources, review dates and accountabilities
  • Weekly management cadence combines huddles, dashboards, exceptions and escalation decisions
  • Metric gaming prevented through countermeasures, quality checks and conduct indicators

Participants can conduct fair, evidence-based coaching and performance conversations.

  • SBI feedback structures observations, behaviour descriptions and business impact precisely
  • GROW coaching converts performance gaps into owned goals and actions
  • Feedforward requests focus future behaviour, support needed and review dates
  • Calibration discussions test ratings against evidence, standards and comparable cases
  • Documenting underperformance protects fairness, consistency and appropriate HR escalation
  • Recognition messages reinforce risk-aware behaviours, customer care and peer support

Participants can communicate priorities, decisions and expectations clearly across team and stakeholder groups.

  • Stakeholder maps identify influence, information needs, resistance and communication channels
  • Message maps organise purpose, key points, evidence and required action
  • Structured briefings use context, decision, rationale and next-step sequencing
  • Active listening applies paraphrasing, probing questions and emotion labelling
  • Difficult conversations prepared with facts, boundaries, options and consequences
  • Meeting disciplines establish agendas, decision logs, owners and deadlines

Participants can diagnose conflict and restore productive working relationships across banking functions.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes selected according to stakes, relationships and time pressure
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions, interests, options and objective criteria
  • Conflict diagnosis distinguishes task, process, relationship and values disputes
  • De-escalation language acknowledges concerns, sets boundaries and restores problem-solving
  • Cross-functional handoffs clarified through service-level agreements and escalation routes
  • Repair conversations address trust breaches, accountability and future working agreements

Participants can make and document management decisions using structured analysis and clear ownership.

  • Decision-quality checklist tests facts, assumptions, alternatives, risks and reversibility
  • Bias controls address anchoring, confirmation bias, groupthink and escalation commitment
  • RACI matrices allocate responsible, accountable, consulted and informed roles
  • Root-cause analysis uses five whys, fishbone diagrams and evidence validation
  • Incident reviews separate human error, process weakness and control failure
  • Decision logs record rationale, risk acceptance, owners and review triggers

Participants can lead team adoption of process, policy, technology and control changes.

  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement requirements
  • Change impact assessments map role, process, system and control effects
  • Implementation milestones link adoption measures, communications and manager actions
  • Resistance handled through listening sessions, local sponsors and specific commitments
  • Training transfer supported by job aids, observation and reinforcement conversations
  • Benefits tracking compares intended outcomes, adoption evidence and unintended consequences

Participants can reinforce ethical conduct, control ownership and resilience within their teams.

  • Risk culture indicators combine challenge, escalation, learning and accountability evidence
  • Conduct scenarios test fair treatment, confidentiality and conflicts-of-interest judgement
  • Speak-up responses protect reporters, preserve facts and prevent retaliation
  • Control self-assessments identify process failures, owners, actions and due dates
  • Operational resilience priorities distinguish critical services, dependencies and recovery decisions
  • Ethical dilemmas resolved using stakeholders, duties, consequences and documented rationale

Participants can produce a practical leadership plan with measurable team improvement commitments.

  • Team diagnostic consolidates performance, engagement, risk and customer outcome evidence
  • 90-day leadership plan prioritises behaviours, routines, measures and sponsor support
  • Individual commitments specify trigger situations, actions, evidence and review partners
  • Peer accountability arrangements schedule check-ins, challenge questions and progress evidence
  • Manager briefings communicate team priorities, expected standards and escalation routes
  • Learning transfer measures track behaviour change, team metrics and follow-up actions

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

What you take back to work

  1. 90-day banking leadership action plan
  2. Team performance scorecard template
  3. SBI and GROW coaching conversation guide
  4. Risk and customer outcome team diagnostic
  5. RACI decision-rights matrix
  6. Team meeting and escalation checklist

Who should attend

  • Branch Managers — need consistent performance, service and conduct routines
  • Operations Managers — manage control-sensitive teams, handoffs and service levels
  • Relationship Management Leaders — balance revenue goals, customer outcomes and risk discipline
  • Credit and Lending Managers — lead sound decisions, escalation and turnaround performance
  • Risk and Compliance Team Leaders — strengthen challenge, speak-up and accountability behaviours
  • Newly Appointed Banking Managers — require practical methods for leading established teams

Skills and tools covered

Banking team leadershipPerformance managementCoaching conversationsRisk cultureChange leadershipDecision governance

Tools and standards

GROW coaching model, SBI feedback model, RACI matrix, ADKAR change model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to establish methods, followed by banking cases, group analysis, simulations and individual planning. Participants work with realistic situations involving missed controls, deteriorating service, lending delays, conduct concerns and change resistance. Facilitated discussions test management judgement against customer outcomes, risk boundaries and documented evidence. Coaching, feedback and conflict simulations build practical communication habits. Each participant converts course methods into a 90-day leadership plan for a current team or business challenge.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising staff, managing a workstream or contributing to team performance in a bank, financial institution or regulated financial-services function. They should understand their organisation's basic products, customer segments, operating procedures and reporting lines. Familiarity with performance targets, risk controls or service metrics is useful. No formal leadership qualification, accounting certification, regulatory licence or prior study of management theory is required. The course does not assume responsibility for a large team; aspiring managers with direct leadership exposure can participate.

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 have supervisory, team-lead or management exposure in banking, financial services or a related regulated function. No formal leadership qualification or prior study of management theory is required.

Bring details of a current team challenge, such as missed service targets, a control issue, a change initiative or an underperformance concern. Participants may use this situation when developing their 90-day leadership plan.

The course is designed for branch, operations, lending, relationship-management, risk, compliance and service leaders. It is also suitable for newly appointed managers responsible for leading established banking teams.

The course applies leadership methods to banking decisions, customer outcomes, conduct, risk appetite, escalation and control ownership. General leadership concepts are linked to situations managers face in regulated financial-services teams.

Participants receive templates for performance reviews, coaching, decision records, team meetings and escalation. The final module converts these methods into actions, measures and review points for the next 90 days.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided among instructor input, banking cases, group work, simulations, discussion and 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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