Entrepreneurial Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Innovation Managers, Business Unit 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-185

Before you join: Participants should have experience leading a team, workstream, project, service improvement effort or business initiative.

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

Entrepreneurial leaders must turn uncertain opportunities into decisions that teams, sponsors and customers can support. They often work without full authority, reliable forecasts or settled requirements: a bank launching a new service, a government unit redesigning a citizen process, or a multinational testing a regional offer. The challenge is to act quickly while protecting resources, managing risk and retaining credibility with stakeholders who demand evidence.

This course develops the practical leadership methods needed to identify worthwhile opportunities, test assumptions, set strategic priorities and mobilise people around a clear proposition. Participants learn to frame customer problems, use the Business Model Canvas, make decisions under uncertainty, build stakeholder support and establish delivery disciplines. They also examine how entrepreneurial leadership differs from both conventional management and founder-led leadership.

Teaching combines instructor briefings, sector-based case work, group analysis, decision simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with examples involving public services, regulated markets, internal ventures and new product initiatives. They leave with a personal entrepreneurial leadership action plan, supported by reusable templates for opportunity assessment, stakeholder influence, experiments, risk decisions and 90-day execution. The five-day programme is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or through live online delivery. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The programme is particularly suited to managers leading change, innovation, service improvement or growth initiatives where the route to value is not yet fully defined. It is also relevant to leaders responsible for internal ventures, transformation portfolios and cross-functional initiatives.

What you will be able to do

  • Frame opportunity statements using customer pain, strategic intent and measurable value
  • Assess venture assumptions through desirability, feasibility and viability mapping
  • Construct a Business Model Canvas for an internal or market-facing initiative
  • Prioritise strategic options using scenario planning, trade-off analysis and scoring criteria
  • Make risk-aware decisions using pre-mortem analysis, expected value and escalation criteria
  • Build stakeholder influence plans using power, interests, evidence needs and commitment requests
  • Design testable experiments using Lean Startup Build-Measure-Learn cycles and learning metrics
  • Produce a 90-day entrepreneurial leadership action plan with milestones and accountability

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence making decisions before all facts are available
  • A repeatable method for turning ambiguous ideas into testable propositions
  • Stronger credibility when presenting options to senior sponsors
  • Clearer delegation and team-accountability practices for uncertain work
  • A focused 90-day plan for applying entrepreneurial leadership habits

For your organisation

  • Better-quality opportunity selection before significant funding is committed
  • Faster learning from controlled pilots, prototypes and customer evidence
  • Stronger sponsorship for cross-functional innovation and change initiatives
  • Earlier identification of delivery risks, dependencies and resource constraints
  • More accountable execution of strategic experiments and internal ventures

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish entrepreneurial leadership from related leadership roles and assess opportunities with disciplined judgement.

  • Entrepreneurial leadership compared with operational management, sponsorship and intrapreneurship
  • Personal risk appetite assessed through consequences, probabilities and controllable actions
  • Opportunity statements distinguish customer pain, strategic intent and measurable value
  • Effectuation principles separate available means from predictive planning assumptions
  • Founder, sponsor and team expectations mapped using explicit working agreements
  • Ethical boundaries tested against conflicts, incentives and stakeholder harm

Participants can define a customer problem and identify the assumptions requiring evidence before investment.

  • Problem interviews frame evidence-seeking questions without selling proposed solutions
  • Jobs-to-be-done identifies functional, social and emotional customer progress
  • Business Model Canvas connects segments, value propositions, channels and revenues
  • Assumption mapping ranks desirability, feasibility and viability uncertainties
  • Evidence thresholds define when hypotheses proceed, pivot or stop
  • Public-sector and regulated-market constraints incorporated before investment commitments

Participants can translate customer evidence into a focused value proposition and testable offer.

  • Customer journey mapping exposes friction, moments of truth and adoption barriers
  • Value proposition statements link target users, outcomes and differentiators
  • Minimum viable product scope protects learning speed and resource limits
  • Prototype fidelity selected according to uncertainty, cost and feedback quality
  • Pricing hypotheses test willingness-to-pay, procurement rules and budget cycles
  • Market messages translate features into quantified operational or citizen benefits

Participants can set direction, compare strategic options and make explicit trade-offs.

  • SWOT separates internal capabilities from external conditions and strategic choices
  • Strategic intent expresses the chosen problem, ambition and boundaries
  • Three-horizon portfolio balances immediate improvements, adjacent bets and future options
  • Priority scoring compares impact, confidence, effort and strategic fit
  • Scenario planning prepares contingent moves for funding, demand and policy shifts
  • Explicit trade-offs protect focus when stakeholders request competing initiatives

Participants can make timely, risk-aware decisions and identify when escalation is required.

  • Decision rights clarify who recommends, decides, executes and receives consultation
  • Pre-mortem analysis surfaces failure modes before committing scarce resources
  • Risk register records triggers, owners, mitigations and residual exposure
  • Reversible decisions receive fast tests; irreversible decisions receive escalation
  • Expected-value thinking compares uncertain options using probabilities and consequences
  • Escalation criteria distinguish tolerable variance from material strategic threats

Participants can gain support for an initiative through targeted stakeholder engagement and persuasive decision communication.

  • Stakeholder mapping segments sponsors, blockers, beneficiaries and implementation partners
  • Influence plans match stakeholder interests, power, concerns and preferred evidence
  • Strategic narratives connect proposed change to priorities, risks and outcomes
  • Objection handling tests concerns, acknowledges constraints and requests specific commitments
  • Coalition building secures cross-functional contributors before formal approval gates
  • Executive briefings use decision asks, options, implications and recommendation

Participants can create team conditions that support initiative, challenge, accountability and learning.

  • Psychological safety encourages dissent, early warning and constructive challenge
  • Team charters establish purpose, roles, norms and decision routines
  • Situational leadership adjusts direction and support to capability and commitment
  • Constructive conflict separates ideas, interests, data and personal identity
  • Feedback conversations use SBI: situation, behaviour, impact and agreed action
  • Recognition practices reinforce experimentation, accountability and customer-centred behaviours

Participants can design experiments that convert uncertainty into evidence for investment and delivery decisions.

  • Lean Startup Build-Measure-Learn cycles convert uncertainty into testable learning
  • Experiment cards specify hypothesis, method, metric, threshold and owner
  • Pilot design controls scope, participant selection, duration and stop conditions
  • Leading indicators reveal adoption signals before revenue or outcome lagging measures
  • Pivot decisions distinguish evidence-based redirection from avoidable impatience
  • Learning reviews capture results, implications, decisions and next test

Participants can establish delivery governance, measures and resource controls for entrepreneurial initiatives.

  • RACI matrices assign accountable owners for cross-functional delivery decisions
  • 90-day roadmaps sequence milestones, dependencies, resources and decision gates
  • OKRs connect ambitious outcomes with measurable key results and initiatives
  • Operating cadences set review meetings, escalation paths and information flows
  • Cash runway estimates expose funding needs, commitments and contingency triggers
  • Benefit tracking compares intended value, realised results and corrective actions

Participants can establish a practical personal plan for applying entrepreneurial leadership to a current priority.

  • Leadership identity statements define principles, boundaries and distinctive contribution
  • Personal stakeholder maps identify relationships requiring trust, access or repair
  • Development goals combine behavioural measures, practice opportunities and feedback sources
  • Delegation plans transfer outcomes, authority limits and review points
  • First-90-day commitments specify actions, evidence, dates and accountability partners
  • Peer accountability routines maintain momentum after classroom delivery concludes

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

What you take back to work

  1. Opportunity assessment template
  2. Business Model Canvas
  3. Stakeholder influence plan
  4. Experiment card template
  5. Risk and decision register
  6. 90-day entrepreneurial leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Innovation Managers — to move ideas from sponsorship to tested delivery
  • Business Unit Managers — to pursue growth or service improvement amid uncertainty
  • Transformation Leaders — to lead cross-functional change with limited formal authority
  • Product and Service Managers — to test customer value before major investment
  • Public Sector Programme Managers — to develop evidence-led initiatives under policy constraints
  • Emerging Senior Leaders — to build judgement, influence and delivery discipline

Skills and tools covered

Opportunity framingStrategic prioritisationStakeholder influenceExperiment designRisk-based decisionsExecution governance

Tools and standards

Business Model Canvas, Lean Startup Build-Measure-Learn, SWOT analysis, RACI matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case work drawn from internal ventures, regulated services and growth initiatives. Group exercises apply the tools to realistic decisions involving uncertain demand, limited resources and competing stakeholder priorities. Simulations practise sponsor conversations, risk decisions and pivot choices. Participants use structured reflection and application planning to connect each method to a current initiative. Trainers adapt cases and discussion emphasis to the cohort's sector and leadership responsibilities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience leading a team, workstream, project, service improvement effort or business initiative. They should understand their organisation's basic objectives, customers or service users, and decision-making structure. Familiarity with budgets, project plans or performance measures is useful but not essential. Participants do not need to be founders, hold a formal innovation role, write business cases professionally or possess finance qualifications. The course assumes willingness to examine a current leadership challenge and discuss decisions with peers.

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 a team, project, workstream or improvement initiative. You do not need to be a founder, innovation specialist or finance professional.

Bring a current initiative, opportunity or leadership challenge that involves uncertainty, change or cross-functional working. You may also bring relevant background material, such as a project brief, service data or stakeholder list.

It is designed for managers and leaders responsible for innovation, growth, transformation, service improvement or internal ventures. It is especially useful where participants must influence others without complete authority or certainty.

General leadership courses usually focus on people management, communication and team performance. This course concentrates on leading opportunity-driven work: testing assumptions, making risk decisions, gaining sponsorship and converting learning into execution.

Participants leave with templates and a 90-day action plan linked to a real initiative. The methods can be used to assess opportunities, prepare sponsor conversations, run experiments and improve delivery governance.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The programme progresses from opportunity framing and customer value through strategy, influence, experimentation, execution and personal 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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