Board Leadership Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Board Chairs, Non-Executive Directors and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CG-040

Before you join: Participants should have substantial experience working with a board, governing body, executive committee, or major governance process.

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

Boards are expected to set direction, appoint and challenge the chief executive, protect stakeholders, and account for major decisions. Yet many boards face familiar weaknesses: management information that obscures material issues, meetings dominated by reporting, unclear delegation boundaries, weak challenge, and insufficient attention to succession, culture, conduct, or emerging risk. These weaknesses can impair strategic decisions, undermine confidence in oversight, and leave directors exposed when a crisis or control failure occurs.

This masterclass examines board leadership as a disciplined governance practice. Participants examine fiduciary duties, reserved matters, chairmanship, boardroom dynamics, strategy oversight, risk appetite, audit and assurance, executive succession, remuneration, stakeholder accountability, and board evaluation. They learn how to frame better questions, test management assumptions, interpret assurance evidence, handle dissent, and turn board priorities into agendas, decision protocols, and follow-through. The course uses recognised references including ISO 37000, the IIA Three Lines Model, COSO principles, and the OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance.

Teaching combines focused briefings with cases drawn from regulated firms, listed companies, public bodies, and complex group structures. Participants analyse board papers, rehearse difficult chair interventions, work through crisis and succession decisions, and assess a board governance scenario against practical evidence. Each participant leaves with a board governance diagnostic, a 90-day action plan, and reusable templates for board calendars, reserved matters, assurance reviews, and board evaluation. Delivery is instructor-led over five days, either in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online, with 08:30-16:30 training days and approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. A certificate of completion is issued.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess board effectiveness using governance diagnostics, evidence sources, and action tracking
  • Design board agendas, annual calendars, and reserved matters schedules for effective oversight
  • Apply chairing techniques that improve challenge, dissent handling, and decision quality
  • Interrogate management papers using assumption testing, variance analysis, and escalation criteria
  • Evaluate risk appetite, internal control assurance, and crisis governance arrangements
  • Review CEO succession, remuneration, culture, and human capital oversight practices
  • Conduct board and committee evaluations using skills matrices, interviews, and development plans
  • Produce a 90-day board improvement plan with priorities, owners, milestones, and evidence

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging management without crossing into executive responsibility
  • A practical method for chairing high-stakes meetings and handling dissent
  • Sharper judgement when reviewing strategy, risk, assurance, and succession evidence
  • Reusable tools for evaluating board, committee, and director effectiveness
  • A documented personal action plan for improving board contribution within 90 days

For your organisation

  • Clearer board-management boundaries and better use of board meeting time
  • Stronger scrutiny of strategy, capital allocation, risk, controls, and performance
  • Earlier identification of governance gaps, conduct concerns, and assurance weaknesses
  • More credible succession, remuneration, and culture oversight by the board
  • Documented board improvement actions that support accountability and stakeholder confidence

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define board authority, director duties, and governance boundaries for a complex organisation.

  • Fiduciary duties, duty of care, and duty of loyalty tests
  • Board-management boundaries defined through reserved matters and delegated authorities
  • Agency theory, stakeholder theory, and shareholder primacy compared
  • ISO 37000 governance principles translated into board accountabilities
  • Legal entity, group, and subsidiary oversight responsibilities mapped
  • Decision rights tested against articles, bylaws, and committee charters

Participants can structure board oversight of strategy, strategic choices, and long-term value creation.

  • Strategy agenda design using strategic questions, choices, and decision gates
  • Distinguishing board challenge from management ownership of strategic execution
  • Materiality assessment connecting enterprise value, stakeholders, and long-term resilience
  • Scenario planning with signposts, assumptions, trigger points, and contingencies
  • Capital allocation reviews linking strategy, returns, risk appetite, and liquidity
  • Dashboard architecture separating leading indicators from lagging performance measures

Participants can lead board discussions that produce constructive challenge, sound decisions, and accountability.

  • Meeting agendas sequenced for decisions, discussion, information, and consent items
  • Chair interventions that surface dissent without suppressing constructive challenge
  • Psychological safety balanced with confidentiality, candour, and collective responsibility
  • Decision protocols using consent agendas, pre-reads, and action registers
  • Boardroom power dynamics diagnosed through participation patterns and coalition behaviour
  • Conflict handled through interests, process rules, and documented resolutions

Participants can evaluate board information quality and challenge management evidence with precision.

  • Board papers structured around decision, recommendation, evidence, risk, and alternatives
  • Information asymmetry tested through triangulation, independent advice, and site visits
  • Management reporting challenged using variance analysis, trends, and exception thresholds
  • Red flags identified in liquidity, controls, culture, conduct, and cyber reporting
  • Questions framed with the Five Whys and assumption testing
  • Minutes drafted to evidence deliberation, challenge, decisions, and dissent
  • Confidentiality protocols applied to insider information and privileged advice

Participants can oversee risk appetite, assurance arrangements, internal controls, and crisis decision authority.

  • Risk appetite statements aligned with objectives, tolerances, limits, and escalation
  • IIA Three Lines Model assigned across board, management, risk, and audit
  • Risk registers challenged for velocity, interconnectedness, ownership, and residual exposure
  • Internal control assurance assessed using COSO principles and testing evidence
  • Cyber oversight framed through critical assets, threat scenarios, recovery, and reporting
  • Crisis governance clarified through authority matrices, communications, and decision logs

Participants can scrutinise financial integrity, audit quality, whistleblowing, and control remediation.

  • Audit committee mandates aligned with independence, financial literacy, and authority
  • Financial statements interrogated through cash conversion, estimates, and going-concern assumptions
  • External auditor independence assessed through tenure, fees, non-audit services, and rotation
  • Whistleblowing arrangements reviewed for anonymity, investigation, retaliation, and closure
  • Related-party transactions examined using conflicts registers and approval thresholds
  • Control deficiencies tracked through remediation owners, dates, evidence, and closure criteria

Participants can oversee chief executive performance, succession, remuneration, culture, and workforce risks.

  • CEO succession plans built around emergency, planned, and development scenarios
  • Remuneration design linked to strategy, risk outcomes, conduct, and retention
  • Performance evaluation separates CEO results, leadership behaviours, and succession readiness
  • Culture oversight uses conduct indicators, speak-up data, turnover, and customer outcomes
  • Human capital reporting challenged for capability gaps, workforce risks, and productivity
  • Nomination committee criteria balance independence, diversity, expertise, and future needs

Participants can govern stakeholder relationships, material disclosures, and external accountability with discipline.

  • Stakeholder mapping ranks influence, dependency, legitimacy, urgency, and engagement methods
  • Sustainability oversight connects material impacts, strategy, targets, and accountability
  • OECD G20 Principles used to assess shareholder rights and equitable treatment
  • Disclosure committees coordinate financial, sustainability, market, and regulatory statements
  • Activist investor approaches prepared through ownership analysis, messaging, and response options
  • Government and regulator engagement governed through protocols, records, and spokesperson authority

Participants can evaluate board composition, committee performance, director contribution, and development priorities.

  • Board skills matrix compares required capabilities, current strengths, and succession gaps
  • Annual board evaluations combine questionnaires, interviews, observation, and action tracking
  • Director independence assessed against tenure, relationships, interests, and judgement
  • Committee effectiveness reviewed through mandates, workloads, memberships, and meeting evidence
  • Peer feedback structured around contribution, preparedness, challenge, and collaborative conduct
  • Development plans specify priorities, learning actions, sponsors, milestones, and review dates

Participants can prioritise governance improvements and establish an evidence-based implementation plan.

  • Governance diagnostic prioritises material gaps across mandate, composition, process, and assurance
  • 90-day board action plan assigns owners, milestones, dependencies, and evidence
  • Reserved matters schedule reconciled with delegation limits and committee authorities
  • Annual board calendar integrates strategy, risk, reporting, succession, and evaluation
  • Escalation pathways defined for crises, ethics concerns, controls, and reputational threats
  • Personal chair or director commitments translated into observable boardroom behaviours

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

What you take back to work

  1. Board governance diagnostic template
  2. Annual board and committee calendar
  3. Reserved matters and delegation schedule
  4. Board paper quality checklist
  5. Board and committee evaluation toolkit
  6. 90-day board improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Board Chairs — strengthen meeting leadership, decision discipline, and constructive challenge
  • Non-Executive Directors — sharpen oversight judgement and independent contribution
  • Executive Directors — clarify board responsibilities and improve management-board interactions
  • Company Secretaries — improve board processes, papers, calendars, and governance records
  • Chief Executives — prepare for effective board engagement, scrutiny, and succession oversight
  • Chief Risk, Audit, or Compliance Officers — provide assurance that supports informed board decisions

Skills and tools covered

Boardroom leadershipStrategic oversightRisk governanceChairing meetingsAssurance evaluationBoard evaluation

Tools and standards

ISO 37000 Governance of Organizations, IIA Three Lines Model, COSO Internal Control—Integrated Framework, OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance

How the course runs

Training methodology

The instructor uses short technical briefings to establish shared governance concepts, followed by facilitated case analysis and boardroom decision work. Participants assess realistic board papers, compare governance responses, and practise chairing interventions during difficult discussions. Group exercises examine strategic challenge, assurance evidence, crisis authority, succession choices, and evaluation findings. Simulations focus on the quality of questions, decisions, records, and follow-through rather than presentation alone. Individual application planning converts course learning into specific board, committee, or governance priorities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial experience working with a board, governing body, executive committee, or major governance process. This may include current or aspiring directors, senior executives, company secretaries, committee leads, or assurance leaders who prepare material for board review. Participants should understand basic organisational finance, strategy, risk, and reporting concepts. Prior board service is helpful but not essential. The course does not require legal qualifications, accounting certification, or prior study of a specific national corporate governance code. Legal duties are discussed as governance principles, not jurisdiction-specific legal advice.

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 senior leadership, board-facing, governance, or assurance experience. The course assumes familiarity with organisational strategy, financial reporting, and risk, but does not require prior board service or legal qualifications.

Bring a current governance challenge, such as a board calendar, committee terms of reference, recurring reporting issue, or succession concern. Participants should not bring confidential board papers unless their organisation has authorised their use.

It is designed for board chairs, directors, chief executives, company secretaries, and senior risk, audit, compliance, or governance leaders. It is particularly relevant to people who influence board decisions or prepare material for board scrutiny.

General courses commonly introduce governance structures, codes, and basic duties. This masterclass concentrates on senior-level judgement: chairing, strategic challenge, assurance, difficult decisions, board dynamics, and improvement planning.

Participants leave with templates and a prioritised 90-day plan that can be adapted for their board or committee. The course focuses on practical changes to agendas, papers, delegations, assurance reporting, evaluations, and follow-through.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from board authority and strategy through chairing, information, risk, people oversight, accountability, evaluation, and implementation 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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