Executive Leadership Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Executive Directors, Chief Officers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-101

Before you join: Participants should have at least seven years of management experience and current responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme, regional operation or senior specialist team.

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

Senior executives must make consequential decisions with incomplete information, align competing functions, maintain board and stakeholder confidence, and deliver results through others. The challenge is not simply setting strategy: it is converting strategic intent into clear priorities, investment choices, governance routines, operating measures and accountable action. This is particularly acute during transformation, regulatory scrutiny, cost pressure, crisis response, mergers, public-service reform and major technology programmes.

This masterclass examines executive management as an integrated discipline. Participants work with decision-rights design, strategic diagnosis, policy deployment, financial stewardship, enterprise risk, executive-team leadership, culture, talent, transformation and stakeholder influence. They learn to test assumptions, frame trade-offs, challenge investment cases, establish governance cadence, lead difficult conversations and communicate decisions to boards, employees, regulators, partners and customers. Attention is given to the practical tensions senior leaders face: pace versus control, performance versus trust, central direction versus local ownership, and short-term delivery versus long-term value.

Teaching combines short faculty briefings with senior-level cases, facilitated peer challenge, decision simulations, board-paper analysis and structured application planning. Cases can be adapted to banking, government, infrastructure, energy, healthcare, NGOs, technology and multinational operations. Participants leave with a 90-day executive leadership application plan, supported by reusable templates for strategic execution, risk oversight, stakeholder engagement and executive decision-making. The course is delivered over five days, either in classroom locations or live online, and participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course is best suited to experienced leaders who already manage significant budgets, teams, portfolios, functions or programmes and need greater authority, judgement and consistency at enterprise level.

What you will be able to do

  • Design decision-rights structures using delegated authority matrices and RACI mapping
  • Translate strategic intent into measurable priorities, initiatives, owners and operating reviews
  • Evaluate capital allocation proposals using NPV, IRR, sensitivity analysis and downside cases
  • Establish executive governance routines for performance, risk, escalation and accountability
  • Lead executive-team conflict through inquiry, advocacy, candour and disciplined challenge
  • Direct transformation programmes using change-impact assessment, sponsorship and benefits tracking
  • Prepare board-ready recommendations that frame choices, evidence, risks and decisions
  • Produce a 90-day executive leadership application plan with measurable commitments

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging strategic assumptions and investment proposals
  • Stronger board and executive-committee communication capability
  • Clearer personal approach to authority, delegation and decision accountability
  • Practical methods for leading contentious cross-functional decisions
  • A structured 90-day plan for improving executive effectiveness

For your organisation

  • Faster decisions through clearer authority, escalation and accountability arrangements
  • Improved strategy delivery through linked priorities, initiatives and operating measures
  • Better capital discipline through stronger business cases and downside analysis
  • Reduced transformation failure risk through active sponsorship and benefits tracking
  • More consistent executive communication with boards, regulators and critical stakeholders

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can establish decision rights, governance responsibilities and escalation paths for executive-level accountability.

  • Enterprise purpose translated into explicit executive accountabilities and decision rights
  • Board, committee and management responsibilities separated through delegated authority matrices
  • RACI mapping for cross-functional decisions, escalation thresholds and approval ownership
  • Decision logs distinguishing recommendation, consultation, consent and final accountability
  • Governance cadence linking board papers, executive forums and operational reviews
  • Ethical dilemmas tested against fiduciary duty, public interest and consequences

Participants can diagnose strategic conditions and make explicit choices about priorities, portfolios and resource allocation.

  • Strategic intent converted into choices about customers, capabilities and resource allocation
  • Assumptions registers expose demand, regulatory, technology and geopolitical uncertainties
  • Scenario planning uses drivers, critical uncertainties, signposts and contingent actions
  • Portfolio choices assessed through strategic fit, return, risk and capacity
  • Balanced Scorecard objectives linked through financial, customer, process and capability logic
  • Strategy narratives tested for coherence, trade-offs and executable priorities

Participants can convert strategy into governed initiatives, operating measures and corrective executive action.

  • Policy deployment through Hoshin Kanri catchball, annual objectives and breakthrough priorities
  • Strategic initiatives structured with charters, milestones, owners, dependencies and benefits
  • Operating reviews separate leading indicators, delivery risks and corrective decisions
  • Resource reallocation governed by zero-based challenge and opportunity cost
  • Escalation paths designed for blocked decisions, exceptions and unresolved trade-offs
  • Execution dashboards connect enterprise outcomes, initiative progress and operating metrics

Participants can assess financial trade-offs, challenge investment proposals and communicate value implications clearly.

  • Value drivers traced from operating decisions to cash, margin and returns
  • Capital allocation evaluated using NPV, IRR, payback and strategic option value
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts, payroll and supplier data
  • Investment cases challenged through sensitivity analysis, downside cases and assumptions
  • Management accounts interpreted for working capital, cost absorption and earnings quality
  • Financial trade-offs communicated without confusing profit, cash flow and value

Participants can govern enterprise risks, lead crisis decisions and strengthen organisational resilience.

  • ISO 31000 risk criteria aligned with appetite, tolerance and escalation
  • Risk registers converted into named owners, controls, indicators and treatment plans
  • Bow-tie analysis separates preventive controls, recovery controls and consequence pathways
  • Crisis leadership roles established through incident command, communications and decision logs
  • Red-team challenge exposes weak assumptions, single points of failure and blind spots
  • Post-incident reviews distinguish accountability, learning actions and control improvements

Participants can build executive-team conditions for constructive challenge, shared accountability and timely decisions.

  • Executive team charters specify shared purpose, norms, roles and meeting cadence
  • Constructive conflict managed through inquiry, advocacy and issue-based challenge
  • Psychological safety balanced with candour, dissent and performance accountability
  • Stakeholder maps identify power, interests, coalitions and engagement priorities
  • Senior conversations prepared with interests, alternatives, concessions and commitments
  • Feedback agreements address observable behaviour, impact, request and follow-through

Participants can align culture, talent decisions and accountability systems with enterprise priorities.

  • Culture diagnosed through artefacts, stated values, routines and consequence systems
  • Leadership shadow identified where incentives contradict declared organisational values
  • Succession slates assessed for readiness, critical roles and development actions
  • Talent reviews differentiate performance, potential, retention risk and mobility
  • Accountability systems connect role clarity, consequences, recognition and performance conversations
  • Inclusion decisions tested for voice, access, fairness and psychological safety

Participants can sponsor transformation with clear change governance, adoption measures and benefits ownership.

  • Change case defines strategic rationale, affected groups and measurable benefits
  • Change impact assessment maps process, role, technology and capability shifts
  • Transformation governance integrates sponsor decisions, workstreams, dependencies and benefits tracking
  • Resistance diagnosed through loss, uncertainty, credibility and workload concerns
  • Communication architecture aligns executive messages, manager briefings and feedback channels
  • Adoption measures distinguish awareness, capability, behaviour change and realised benefits

Participants can shape executive communications and stakeholder strategies around evidence, risk and difficult choices.

  • Stakeholder segmentation distinguishes decision-makers, influencers, opponents and affected communities
  • Board papers frame choices, evidence, risk exposure and recommended decisions
  • Executive narratives adapt financial, operational and public-value cases for audiences
  • Media and regulator engagement prepared through message discipline and holding statements
  • Negotiation mandates define interests, walk-away points, concessions and approval limits
  • Coalition-building sequences sponsors, early adopters, credible messengers and critical challengers

Participants can convert course methods into a focused personal plan for sustained executive performance.

  • Personal leadership audit identifies decision habits, triggers, strengths and derailers
  • Executive presence calibrated through message structure, voice, pacing and inquiry
  • Delegation design matches authority, capability, risk exposure and review cadence
  • Energy management protects focus through calendar design, boundaries and recovery routines
  • Peer advisory protocols convert difficult cases into tested leadership commitments
  • 90-day leadership application plan specifies outcomes, stakeholders, actions and measures

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

What you take back to work

  1. Executive decision-rights and RACI template
  2. Strategic execution dashboard model
  3. Capital allocation challenge checklist
  4. Enterprise risk and escalation template
  5. Board-paper recommendation structure
  6. 90-day executive leadership application plan

Who should attend

  • Executive Directors — need stronger enterprise-wide judgement, governance and execution discipline
  • Chief Officers — must align strategy, resources, risk and cross-functional delivery
  • General Managers — are moving from business-unit leadership to enterprise accountability
  • Regional Directors — need to reconcile central priorities with local market realities
  • Programme Sponsors — require executive control over transformation decisions and benefits
  • Senior Public-Sector Leaders — must deliver policy outcomes under scrutiny and constrained resources

Skills and tools covered

Strategic executionExecutive decision-makingFinancial stewardshipRisk governanceStakeholder influenceTransformation leadership

Tools and standards

Balanced Scorecard, Hoshin Kanri, RACI, ISO 31000

How the course runs

Training methodology

Faculty-led briefings introduce each method before participants apply it to realistic executive decisions. Cases examine strategic trade-offs, capital proposals, crisis situations, board communication, culture issues and transformation programmes. Small-group work tests competing recommendations, while simulations develop decision discipline under time pressure and stakeholder challenge. Peer discussion draws on participants’ current management situations without requiring disclosure of confidential information. Each participant develops an application plan that converts course methods into specific actions, measures, stakeholders and review points for the next 90 days.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least seven years of management experience and current responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme, regional operation or senior specialist team. They should be familiar with budgets, performance reporting, stakeholder management and organisational decision-making. Experience presenting to senior leaders, boards or governance committees is useful. This course assumes professional maturity and willingness to discuss current leadership challenges. No MBA, formal leadership qualification, finance degree or prior knowledge of Hoshin Kanri, ISO 31000 or the Balanced Scorecard 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

The course is designed for experienced managers with responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme or senior team. Participants should already understand budgeting, performance reporting and organisational decision-making; no formal leadership qualification is required.

Participants should bring a current executive challenge, such as a strategic initiative, investment decision, organisational change or stakeholder issue. Confidential details can be anonymised, and no pre-course financial model or formal presentation is required.

It suits executive directors, chief officers, general managers, regional directors, programme sponsors and senior public-sector leaders. It is intended for people making enterprise-level decisions rather than first-line or newly appointed managers.

General leadership courses often focus on people management, communication and personal leadership style. This masterclass concentrates on executive governance, strategic choices, capital allocation, risk oversight, transformation sponsorship and board-level communication.

Participants leave with reusable templates and a 90-day application plan tied to a real leadership priority. Methods can be applied immediately to executive meetings, investment reviews, transformation governance, board papers and stakeholder discussions.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from executive mandate and strategic choices through execution, financial stewardship, risk, teams, transformation, stakeholder influence 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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