Effective Team Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends New Team Leaders, First-Line Supervisors 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-SM-019

Before you join: Participants should have some workplace experience and either hold, or expect soon to hold, responsibility for coordinating colleagues, assigning tasks or monitoring team output.

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

Effective team leadership depends on more than allocating work and monitoring attendance. Supervisors must set clear expectations, maintain standards, address performance gaps, communicate decisions, and keep people engaged when priorities change. Without consistent leadership routines, teams can experience unclear accountability, uneven workloads, unresolved conflict, missed deadlines and repeated operational errors.

This course prepares supervisors and team leaders to manage day-to-day performance with structure and judgement. Participants learn to define roles through RACI, set SMART expectations, delegate using situational leadership, conduct effective briefings, give SBI feedback, manage difficult conversations, coach staff using GROW, and address conduct or capability concerns fairly. They also examine motivation, conflict, team development, decision-making and workload control.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic management cases, group discussion, role-play simulations and structured planning. Cases reflect common supervisory situations such as missed service-level targets, inconsistent quality, absenteeism, customer complaints, competing deadlines and tensions between experienced and newer staff. Participants leave with a practical Team Leadership Toolkit containing templates, checklists and action plans ready for use with their own team.

The course suits professionals moving into their first formal supervisory role, as well as existing team leaders seeking a more consistent approach to performance, communication and people management. It is relevant to operational, customer-facing, technical, administrative, project and service-delivery teams.

What you will be able to do

  • Define team roles, decision rights and hand-offs using a RACI matrix
  • Set SMART performance expectations linked to team priorities and service standards
  • Delegate work using situational leadership and agreed control points
  • Conduct structured team briefings using clear messages, actions and ownership
  • Deliver SBI feedback and hold constructive performance improvement conversations
  • Coach team members through GROW questioning and documented development actions
  • Resolve workplace conflict using interest-based negotiation and behavioural agreements
  • Produce a 90-day team leadership action plan with measurable priorities

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence leading former peers and setting professional boundaries
  • A repeatable structure for briefings, delegation and follow-up
  • Stronger ability to address poor performance before issues escalate
  • Practical coaching skills for developing capable and independent staff
  • A 90-day plan for improving leadership routines within their own team

For your organisation

  • Clearer accountability for tasks, decisions and service commitments
  • Earlier intervention on attendance, conduct and performance concerns
  • More consistent communication between managers and frontline teams
  • Improved delegation that reduces unnecessary escalation to senior managers
  • Better retention through regular feedback, development and fair treatment

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their supervisory responsibilities, authority boundaries and daily leadership routines.

  • Supervisor responsibilities translated into daily team leadership routines
  • Authority, accountability and responsibility distinguished using a RACI matrix
  • Management and leadership roles compared through operational examples
  • Professional boundaries when leading former peers and friends
  • Role-model behaviour linked to team standards and credibility
  • Daily leadership rhythm covering briefings, checks, support and follow-up

Participants can adapt their leadership approach to team maturity, individual needs and motivation.

  • Tuckman's team development stages identified through observable behaviours
  • Belbin team roles used to recognise contribution patterns
  • Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory applied to everyday supervisory decisions
  • Individual drivers explored through structured one-to-one conversations
  • Psychological safety established through respectful questioning and response
  • Inclusive leadership behaviours applied to diverse team members

Participants can convert operational priorities into clear, measurable expectations for their team.

  • SMART objectives written from operational targets and service requirements
  • Team priorities translated into weekly actions and ownership
  • Service standards defined using quality, time and behaviour measures
  • Expectation-setting conversations structured around outcomes, constraints and support
  • RACI matrix applied to recurring tasks and hand-offs
  • Escalation thresholds agreed for risk, delay and customer impact

Participants can allocate work fairly, delegate appropriately and monitor progress without micromanaging.

  • Workload planning balanced against capacity, competence and deadlines
  • Eisenhower Matrix used to distinguish urgent and important work
  • Situational Leadership matched to competence and commitment levels
  • Delegation briefings specify outcome, authority, deadline and controls
  • Checkpoints scheduled according to risk, complexity and experience
  • Task allocation reviewed for fairness, development and operational continuity

Participants can run focused team briefings that create shared understanding and action.

  • Briefing agendas organised around priorities, risks, actions and updates
  • Message mapping used to communicate decisions with clarity
  • Closed-loop communication confirms understanding, ownership and completion dates
  • Daily huddles distinguish information sharing from problem-solving discussions
  • Questions handled without losing control of meeting purpose
  • Action logs record commitments, owners, due dates and escalation points

Participants can give timely feedback, recognise contribution and address performance gaps constructively.

  • SBI feedback structure separates situation, behaviour and impact
  • Positive recognition linked to specific actions and team standards
  • Performance gaps diagnosed through evidence, expectations and consequences
  • Difficult conversations prepared using facts, questions and desired outcomes
  • Active listening techniques reduce defensiveness during feedback discussions
  • Improvement agreements define actions, support, review dates and evidence

Participants can use coaching conversations to build capability and individual ownership.

  • GROW model guides structured coaching conversations and follow-up
  • Open questions encourage analysis, options and personal responsibility
  • Skills matrices identify current capability and development priorities
  • Development plans combine learning goals, practice opportunities and review
  • On-the-job instruction follows tell, show, do and review
  • Career conversations distinguish immediate performance needs from aspirations

Participants can manage common people issues consistently while working within organisational procedures.

  • Performance records distinguish facts, observations, dates and agreed actions
  • Capability concerns addressed through support, monitoring and documented reviews
  • Conduct issues separated from performance and competence concerns
  • Attendance patterns reviewed using policy requirements and factual evidence
  • Informal intervention chosen before formal procedures where appropriate
  • Human resources escalation triggered by risk, policy or legal concerns

Participants can identify conflict early and facilitate fair, solution-focused resolution discussions.

  • Thomas-Kilmann modes selected according to conflict stakes and relationships
  • Conflict facts separated from assumptions, emotions and interpretations
  • Interest-based negotiation identifies needs behind stated positions
  • Ground rules establish respectful dialogue during facilitated discussions
  • Mediation questions clarify impact, options and workable agreements
  • Behavioural agreements specify future conduct, review points and consequences

Participants can make sound supervisory decisions and create a practical 90-day leadership plan.

  • Decision rights clarified before acting on operational problems
  • Five Whys analysis identifies causes behind recurring team issues
  • PDCA cycle structures small-scale service and process improvements
  • Risk assessments consider people, quality, deadlines and customer impact
  • Management information selected for performance review and intervention
  • Ninety-day action plan prioritises leadership habits, measures and milestones

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

What you take back to work

  1. RACI responsibility matrix template
  2. Team briefing agenda and action log
  3. Delegation planning checklist
  4. SBI feedback conversation guide
  5. GROW coaching worksheet
  6. 90-day team leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • New Team Leaders — need practical methods for leading former peers
  • First-Line Supervisors — manage daily output, conduct and attendance
  • Operations Supervisors — coordinate people, priorities and service standards
  • Customer Service Team Leaders — improve consistency, quality and escalation handling
  • Technical Team Supervisors — assign specialist work and monitor delivery
  • Aspiring Managers — prepare for their first people-management responsibility

Skills and tools covered

Performance managementTeam communicationDelegation and accountabilityCoaching conversationsConflict resolutionWorkload planning

Tools and standards

RACI matrix, SMART objectives, GROW model, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce practical leadership methods, followed by case work drawn from supervisory settings. Participants analyse team scenarios, practise briefings and feedback conversations, and work through delegation, coaching and conflict situations in small groups. Simulations allow participants to test wording, questioning techniques and decision-making under realistic pressure. Individual reflection and application planning connect each method to participants' own teams, responsibilities and current management challenges.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have some workplace experience and either hold, or expect soon to hold, responsibility for coordinating colleagues, assigning tasks or monitoring team output. Familiarity with their organisation's basic policies on conduct, attendance, health and safety, and performance management is useful. No previous management qualification is required. Participants do not need formal human resources training, advanced leadership theory, financial expertise or prior experience of appraisals. The course is most valuable when participants can bring examples of current team responsibilities, recurring performance issues and operational priorities.

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 understand your workplace and have some experience coordinating work, supporting colleagues or monitoring tasks. Previous formal management training is not required.

Bring examples of team responsibilities, recurring operational problems and any current targets you manage. You may also bring relevant internal procedures, provided they can be shared appropriately.

It is designed for new and existing first-line supervisors, team leaders and aspiring managers. It is particularly useful for people responsible for daily delivery but without extensive people-management experience.

This course focuses on the practical responsibilities of leading a team every day: delegation, briefings, performance, attendance, coaching and conflict. General leadership courses often place greater emphasis on strategy, organisational change and senior-level influence.

Participants leave with reusable templates for team briefings, feedback, coaching and delegation. The final module produces a 90-day action plan based on their own team priorities.

The programme contains ten modules delivered in teaching order across five training days, each running from 08:30 to 16:30. Days combine instructor input, discussion, cases, simulations and application planning, with about 6.5 contact hours daily.

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

Related courses in Supervisory Management