Creative Leadership and Business Relationships Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Functional Managers, Project 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-183

Before you join: Participants should have at least one to three years of professional experience and regular contact with colleagues, clients, suppliers, partners or stakeholders.

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

Creative leadership is the ability to produce useful options when relationships, priorities and constraints are competing. Managers often face stalled partnerships, low trust between functions, difficult clients, resistant stakeholders or teams that repeat familiar solutions. The cost is slow decisions, weakened commitment and agreements that fail during delivery. Strong business relationships require both sound judgement and the capacity to reframe problems, involve the right people and create workable value for all parties.

This course develops practical methods for leading relationships with imagination and discipline. Participants assess stakeholder interests, diagnose trust and conflict patterns, frame shared problems, generate and test options, conduct interest-based negotiations and influence without relying on formal authority. They use SCARF, the Ladder of Inference, stakeholder salience analysis, Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes and structured ideation techniques to handle internal and external relationships. Attention is given to culturally aware communication, ethical boundaries, relationship recovery and maintaining agreements after the initial conversation.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with sector-based cases, facilitated group analysis, relationship simulations and individual application planning. Cases can be adapted for public agencies, financial services, NGOs, infrastructure projects, procurement teams and corporate functions. Participants leave with a stakeholder relationship strategy, influence map, difficult-conversation plan, negotiation preparation sheet, relationship recovery checklist and 90-day application plan. The five-day format provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered in the classroom or live online, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course suits managers and professionals who must gain commitment from colleagues, partners, suppliers, clients, regulators or community representatives while managing competing interests and uncertain conditions.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose relationship dynamics using stakeholder salience and trust analysis
  • Frame complex business problems through divergent and convergent thinking methods
  • Apply the SCARF model to strengthen trust, motivation and communication
  • Conduct interest-based negotiations using principled negotiation preparation tools
  • Lead difficult conversations using the Ladder of Inference and SBI feedback
  • Build influence strategies for stakeholders without direct reporting authority
  • Resolve relationship conflict using Thomas-Kilmann mode selection and mediation steps
  • Produce a 90-day business relationship action plan with measurable commitments

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Handle resistant stakeholders with clearer diagnosis and better-prepared conversations
  • Generate credible options when established approaches fail to resolve relationship problems
  • Increase confidence in influencing senior peers and external partners
  • Prepare negotiations around interests, alternatives and objective criteria
  • Build a documented plan for improving one priority business relationship

For your organisation

  • Faster resolution of cross-functional issues that delay projects and service delivery
  • Stronger client, supplier and partner relationships through more disciplined engagement
  • Better quality decisions from constructive challenge and wider option generation
  • Reduced escalation of avoidable conflict through earlier, structured intervention
  • More consistent stakeholder management plans linked to operational priorities

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can diagnose how creative leadership improves relationship value and business outcomes.

  • Creative leadership balances idea generation, judgement and delivery discipline
  • Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical problems from adaptive relationship challenges
  • SCARF model identifies status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness triggers
  • Psychological safety conditions support candour, dissent and responsible experimentation
  • Leadership intent statements link relationship goals to business outcomes
  • Personal creative leadership baselines use feedback, strengths and risk patterns

Participants can create a stakeholder strategy based on influence, interests and relationship priorities.

  • Stakeholder salience analysis ranks power, legitimacy and urgency
  • Influence-interest matrices identify engagement priorities and communication intensity
  • Relationship mapping reveals formal authority, informal networks and decision routes
  • Stakeholder interviews uncover interests, concerns, assumptions and success measures
  • Trust assessments examine credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation
  • Engagement strategies match stakeholder needs, influence patterns and decision timing

Participants can reframe relationship problems and develop options that address underlying interests.

  • How Might We questions convert complaints into actionable opportunity statements
  • Ladder of Inference separates observable data from assumptions and conclusions
  • Five Whys identifies root causes beneath recurring relationship breakdowns
  • Divergent thinking generates multiple options before evaluation begins
  • SCAMPER prompts modify services, processes, agreements and communication approaches
  • Convergent selection uses feasibility, value, risk and stakeholder acceptance criteria

Participants can build trust through credible communication, expectation management and follow-through.

  • Trust equation diagnoses credibility, reliability, intimacy and self-orientation gaps
  • Communication contracts establish purpose, roles, timing and decision rights
  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, probing questions and emotion labelling
  • SBI feedback structures observations, effects and requested behavioural changes
  • Expectation resets clarify scope, constraints, dependencies and service standards
  • Commitment tracking converts verbal agreements into visible actions and owners

Participants can build influence strategies for peers, senior leaders and external stakeholders.

  • Cialdini influence principles applied ethically to business relationship decisions
  • Reciprocity creates credible exchanges without hidden obligations or pressure
  • Social proof uses relevant peer evidence to reduce decision uncertainty
  • Coalition mapping identifies sponsors, blockers, connectors and informed observers
  • Influence plans sequence messages, messengers, evidence and decision requests
  • Power bases distinguish expert, referent, legitimate, reward and coercive influence

Participants can conduct difficult conversations while preserving clarity, respect and accountability.

  • Difficult Conversations framework separates facts, feelings and identity concerns
  • Neutral opening statements describe issues without blame or loaded language
  • Inquiry-advocacy balances clear views with genuine curiosity about others
  • Emotional regulation techniques prevent defensiveness during high-stakes conversations
  • Boundary statements define acceptable conduct, consequences and escalation routes
  • Conversation plans specify purpose, evidence, questions, requests and follow-up

Participants can prepare and conduct negotiations that create value while protecting essential interests.

  • Principled negotiation separates people, interests, options and objective criteria
  • BATNA analysis establishes alternatives before entering significant negotiations
  • ZOPA assessment identifies realistic bargaining ranges and deal boundaries
  • Package offers trade across issues rather than concede item by item
  • Objective criteria strengthen proposals through standards, data and precedents
  • Agreement design records actions, owners, milestones, measures and review points

Participants can select appropriate conflict responses and rebuild damaged business relationships.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes match conflict responses to stakes and relationships
  • Conflict mapping distinguishes positions, interests, emotions and unmet needs
  • Mediation stages establish safety, hear perspectives and identify agreements
  • Apology frameworks acknowledge impact, responsibility, repair and changed conduct
  • Relationship recovery plans address trust breaches, service failures and missed commitments
  • Escalation protocols define thresholds, decision authority and documentation requirements

Participants can adapt relationship leadership approaches across cultures while maintaining ethical standards.

  • Cultural Intelligence framework examines motivation, knowledge, strategy and action
  • High-context and low-context communication differences shape message design
  • Power-distance expectations affect challenge, hierarchy and meeting participation
  • Ethical influence distinguishes informed consent from manipulation and coercion
  • Conflict-of-interest checks protect impartiality in supplier and partner relationships
  • Inclusive meeting practices invite diverse perspectives before major decisions

Participants can convert course methods into a measurable plan for a priority business relationship.

  • Priority relationship selection considers business value, risk and urgency
  • Stakeholder strategy consolidates interests, influence, trust gaps and engagement actions
  • Conversation preparation identifies purpose, questions, evidence and desired commitments
  • Negotiation preparation defines interests, BATNA, ZOPA and concession limits
  • Ninety-day action plans schedule milestones, owners, measures and review dates
  • After-action reviews capture outcomes, lessons, adjustments and relationship indicators

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

What you take back to work

  1. Stakeholder salience and influence map
  2. Relationship trust diagnostic
  3. Creative problem-framing worksheet
  4. Difficult-conversation preparation template
  5. Interest-based negotiation planning sheet
  6. Ninety-day relationship action plan

Who should attend

  • Functional Managers — need commitment from teams, peers and senior stakeholders
  • Project Managers — coordinate delivery through competing priorities and shared resources
  • Account Managers — build trusted client relationships while resolving service concerns
  • Procurement and Contract Managers — manage supplier relationships beyond transactional negotiations
  • Public Sector and NGO Leaders — align partners, communities and agencies around shared outcomes
  • Emerging Leaders — develop practical relationship leadership before assuming broader responsibility

Skills and tools covered

Creative problem framingStakeholder relationship strategyInfluence without authorityDifficult conversationsInterest-based negotiationConflict resolution

Tools and standards

SCARF model, Ladder of Inference, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, Principled Negotiation

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce each framework, followed by case work drawn from relationship-intensive settings. Participants analyse stakeholder situations, test communication choices in simulations, practise negotiation preparation and compare approaches in facilitated group exercises. Instructor feedback focuses on diagnosis, language, sequencing and decision points. Individual application planning connects the methods to a live business relationship, allowing participants to leave with practical documents they can use immediately.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least one to three years of professional experience and regular contact with colleagues, clients, suppliers, partners or stakeholders. They should be familiar with routine meetings, project work, reporting lines and workplace decision-making. Experience of a current relationship challenge, such as a cross-functional dependency, client issue or team conflict, is useful because it can inform application planning. No previous leadership qualification, psychology training, formal negotiation course or specialist innovation background is required.

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 need routine workplace experience and regular interaction with internal or external stakeholders. No prior leadership, negotiation or innovation qualification is required.

Bring details of one current relationship challenge, such as a client concern, supplier issue, project dependency or cross-functional disagreement. Sensitive information can be anonymised during discussion.

It is designed for managers, project leaders, account managers, procurement professionals and emerging leaders. It is especially relevant where results depend on cooperation beyond direct reporting lines.

The course concentrates on creative leadership methods used to build, repair and sustain business relationships. Negotiation is included as one relationship skill alongside stakeholder strategy, trust, influence and conflict resolution.

Participants develop practical documents around a live relationship challenge throughout the course. These include a stakeholder strategy, conversation plan, negotiation sheet and 90-day action plan.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations, feedback and application planning across ten modules.

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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