Cultural Intelligence and Global Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Regional and Country Managers, Project and Programme Managers 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-LD-175

Before you join: Participants should have experience leading people, projects, partnerships or stakeholder relationships where colleagues, clients or counterparts have different national, linguistic or professional backgrounds.

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

Leaders working across countries, languages and professional cultures must make decisions, build trust and resolve disagreements without assuming that their own communication norms are universal. Misread silence, direct feedback, differing views of hierarchy and conflicting expectations about time can delay projects, weaken stakeholder relationships and create avoidable escalation. Cultural intelligence gives leaders a disciplined way to notice these differences, test assumptions and choose behaviours suited to the people and situation.

This course develops practical cultural intelligence for leading international teams, partners and stakeholders. Participants use the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) model to assess their cultural preferences and development priorities. They examine Hofstede, GLOBE and Erin Meyer’s Culture Map as structured lenses rather than fixed labels. The course addresses high- and low-context communication, trust formation, inclusive virtual meetings, feedback, influence, negotiation, conflict resolution and global change leadership. Participants learn to adapt their approach while maintaining clear standards, ethical boundaries and accountability.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-relevant cases, facilitated group analysis, communication simulations and peer feedback. Cases reflect common leadership situations such as coordinating a multinational project team, managing a regional office relationship, negotiating with an overseas supplier and introducing a global policy with local adaptations. Each participant builds a Cultural Intelligence Leadership Action Plan containing a self-profile, stakeholder analysis, communication adjustments and 90-day commitments. The five-day instructor-led course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, and awards a certificate of completion.

The course suits managers who already lead people, projects or stakeholder relationships and need more reliable methods for working across cultural boundaries. It is particularly relevant where decisions, service delivery or change programmes depend on cooperation between headquarters, country teams, clients, regulators, suppliers or community partners.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply the Cultural Intelligence model to diagnose leadership behaviours across cultural contexts
  • Interpret Hofstede, GLOBE and Culture Map dimensions without stereotyping individuals
  • Adapt communication, feedback and meeting practices for high- and low-context interactions
  • Build culturally appropriate trust through stakeholder mapping and explicit working agreements
  • Use RACI, decision records and team charters to coordinate dispersed teams
  • Conduct interest-based negotiations using BATNA, authority mapping and face-saving techniques
  • Resolve cross-cultural conflict through diagnosis, mediation and documented agreements
  • Produce a 90-day Cultural Intelligence Leadership Action Plan for a current workplace challenge

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Recognise when personal assumptions are distorting leadership judgments
  • Handle feedback and disagreement without causing avoidable loss of face
  • Run multilingual meetings with clearer participation and decision ownership
  • Prepare for cross-border negotiations with stronger authority and relationship awareness
  • Use a 90-day plan to improve recurring international leadership situations

For your organisation

  • Fewer misunderstandings in cross-border decisions, handovers and stakeholder communications
  • Stronger trust between headquarters, country teams and external partners
  • More inclusive meetings that capture local knowledge before decisions are finalised
  • Earlier resolution of cultural friction before it becomes formal escalation
  • More consistent global policy implementation with justified local adaptations

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the Cultural Intelligence model and identify cultural factors affecting their leadership judgments.

  • Cultural intelligence: cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and behavioural CQ capabilities
  • Distinguishing national culture, organisational culture, identity and individual difference
  • Self-assessment using Cultural Intelligence Scale reflection prompts and evidence
  • Attribution errors, stereotypes and in-group bias in leadership judgments
  • High-context and low-context communication patterns without cultural determinism
  • Psychological safety conditions for raising cultural misunderstandings early

Participants can use cultural dimension frameworks as informed hypotheses when adapting their leadership approach.

  • Mapping personal cultural preferences through critical incident analysis
  • Hofstede dimensions interpreted as hypotheses rather than individual labels
  • GLOBE leadership prototypes and culturally contingent expectations of authority
  • Power distance, status signals and leader accessibility expectations
  • Directness, face concerns and disagreement norms compared carefully
  • Creating a cultural self-profile from observed workplace patterns

Participants can communicate decisions, feedback and expectations clearly across differing communication norms.

  • Erin Meyer Culture Map scales for communicating and evaluating
  • Explicitness ladder matched to high-context and low-context audiences
  • Closed-loop communication for multilingual meetings and technical decisions
  • Paraphrasing, checking meaning and separating intent from impact
  • Writing decision records that survive translation and time zones
  • Feedback messages adjusted for directness, hierarchy and face

Participants can build trust and credibility with culturally diverse teams and stakeholders.

  • Task-based and relationship-based trust formation patterns in global teams
  • Psychological contracts and assumptions about reliability, care and competence
  • Trust repair conversations following missed commitments or unintended offence
  • Reciprocity norms, hospitality and boundary setting without favouritism
  • Stakeholder mapping for headquarters, country offices and external partners
  • Building credibility through consistent commitments, visibility and follow-through

Participants can establish practical working agreements for inclusive and accountable global teams.

  • Meeting architecture for rotating time zones and language inclusion
  • RACI decisions adapted for dispersed authority and local accountability
  • Async collaboration protocols covering channels, response times and escalation
  • Turn-taking techniques that reduce dominance by fluent speakers
  • Remote conflict signals detected through participation, silence and delay
  • Team charters specifying working language, holidays and availability

Participants can prepare and conduct cross-cultural negotiations while protecting relationships and standards.

  • Interest-based negotiation separating positions, interests, options and criteria
  • BATNA assessment before cross-border supplier, regulator and partner negotiations
  • Authority mapping identifies formal sponsors, gatekeepers and informal influencers
  • Persuasion appeals calibrated to evidence, relationships, status and risk
  • Saving face while testing assumptions and challenging decisions
  • Ethical boundaries for gifts, facilitation payments and reciprocal obligations

Participants can diagnose cross-cultural conflict and lead constructive resolution conversations.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes interpreted through cultural expectations and power
  • Conflict diagnosis separating task, process, relationship and values disputes
  • Interest-based mediation sequence for bilateral workplace disagreements
  • Restorative questions address impact, accountability and future commitments
  • Escalation thresholds, documentation and neutral third-party involvement
  • Reaching agreements with explicit owners, dates and review points

Participants can reduce cultural bias and increase equitable participation in leadership decisions.

  • Meeting inclusion audit examines airtime, interruption, silence and decision access
  • Identity-safe leadership avoids essentialising nationality, ethnicity or religion
  • Equity checks distinguish equal treatment from equitable participation
  • Microaffirmations build recognition across language, status and location
  • Bias interruption techniques applied to talent, promotion and assignment decisions
  • Speaking-up channels protect dissent where hierarchy inhibits challenge

Participants can lead change initiatives that balance global consistency with local requirements.

  • ADKAR conversations adapted to local readiness, authority and communication norms
  • Stakeholder impact analysis separates global design from local implementation choices
  • Change sponsor coalitions connect executive intent with local credibility
  • Readiness interviews surface practical constraints, rumours and resistance sources
  • Global policy rollout messages distinguish non-negotiables from local adaptations
  • Feedback loops track adoption barriers across sites and functions

Participants can create a measurable action plan for a priority cross-cultural leadership challenge.

  • Cross-cultural leadership diagnostic integrates CQ, communication, trust and conflict evidence
  • Priority stakeholder map identifies high-stakes relationships and cultural risks
  • 90-day action plan sets behaviours, milestones, owners and review dates
  • Personal CQ development goals linked to recurring leadership situations
  • Peer accountability arrangements support observation, feedback and course correction
  • Measures track meeting inclusion, trust, decision speed and escalation

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

What you take back to work

  1. Cultural Intelligence self-profile
  2. Cross-cultural stakeholder map
  3. Global team working agreement template
  4. Inclusive meeting audit checklist
  5. Cross-cultural negotiation preparation sheet
  6. 90-day Cultural Intelligence Leadership Action Plan

Who should attend

  • Regional and Country Managers — align headquarters expectations with local team realities
  • Project and Programme Managers — coordinate decisions and delivery across dispersed teams
  • Senior Managers — build trust and accountability with international stakeholders
  • Human Resources Leaders — lead inclusive talent, feedback and mobility decisions
  • Procurement and Partnership Managers — negotiate effectively with overseas suppliers and partners
  • Public Sector and NGO Leaders — work credibly with diverse communities, agencies and funders

Skills and tools covered

Cultural intelligence assessmentCross-cultural communicationGlobal team leadershipStakeholder influenceConflict mediationInclusive decision-making

Tools and standards

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) model, Hofstede cultural dimensions, GLOBE framework, Erin Meyer Culture Map

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce CQ, cultural dimensions and leadership methods, followed by facilitated case analysis drawn from multinational, public-sector, banking, NGO and corporate settings. Participants analyse critical incidents, compare interpretations, practise communication and negotiation approaches through simulations, and receive structured peer feedback. Group work focuses on practical leadership choices rather than cultural stereotypes. Throughout the course, participants apply the methods to a current work relationship, team or change initiative and develop a written 90-day action plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience leading people, projects, partnerships or stakeholder relationships where colleagues, clients or counterparts have different national, linguistic or professional backgrounds. They should be able to reflect candidly on their own leadership habits and bring one current cross-cultural situation to consider during the course. No prior study of cultural theory, psychology, international business or anthropology is required. This is not a language course, and fluency in a second language is not expected. Participants do not need direct reports, although managers will gain the most immediate application value.

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 experience leading people, projects, partnerships or stakeholder relationships involving different working styles or cultural backgrounds. No prior study of cultural frameworks or international business is required.

Bring a current leadership situation involving an international team, partner, client, supplier or country office. You will use it to build your stakeholder map and 90-day action plan.

The course is designed for managers, project leaders, HR leaders, procurement professionals and senior specialists with cross-border responsibilities. It is also suitable for leaders working with culturally diverse teams within one country.

Diversity and inclusion training often focuses on organisational equity, bias and belonging. This course focuses specifically on adapting leadership communication, trust-building, influence, conflict management and decision-making across cultural differences.

Participants leave with practical methods for meetings, feedback, stakeholder relationships and negotiations. The final action plan identifies behaviours, owners, milestones and measures for one current leadership challenge.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours, excluding breaks. Time is divided across ten teaching modules using briefings, cases, simulations, group analysis, feedback 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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