High Impact Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Team Leaders, Operational 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-120

Before you join: Participants should have at least one year of experience supervising people, coordinating projects, or influencing colleagues across functions.

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

High-impact leadership depends on more than personal authority. Managers must turn strategy into clear priorities, maintain accountability across shared work, address performance gaps early, and retain trust when decisions affect people differently. Teams lose pace when responsibilities are blurred, feedback is delayed, difficult conversations are avoided, or change messages lack credible explanation. This course addresses the daily leadership work behind those failures: setting direction, communicating with precision, coaching people, making sound decisions, resolving conflict and sustaining adoption through change.

Participants build practical methods for defining decision rights, setting expectations, delegating work, conducting feedback and coaching conversations, and influencing stakeholders without relying on hierarchy alone. They learn to use SBI feedback, GROW coaching, RACI matrices and ADKAR change analysis alongside structured approaches to risk, conflict, stakeholder engagement and performance management. The course also examines the personal disciplines that make leadership credible: self-management under pressure, consistent follow-through, purposeful communication and visible fairness.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with realistic cases, group analysis, leadership simulations and structured application planning. Cases can reflect public services, banking, development programmes, corporate operations or regulated environments, depending on the cohort. Participants leave with a 90-day leadership application plan, reusable conversation guides, a decision-rights matrix and practical templates for leading current work. The five-day course is available in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online, runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course serves experienced supervisors, team leaders and managers who already lead people or cross-functional work and need more consistent methods for producing results through others.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose leadership challenges using stakeholder, performance and root-cause evidence
  • Set clear priorities, expectations and decision rights for team delivery
  • Conduct SBI feedback conversations that address behaviour and performance gaps
  • Coach employees using the GROW model and development-focused questioning
  • Delegate work through RACI roles, risk assessment and agreed check-ins
  • Resolve workplace conflict through structured dialogue, boundaries and repair conversations
  • Lead change using ADKAR analysis, stakeholder mapping and adoption measures
  • Create a 90-day leadership application plan for a live workplace challenge

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence conducting difficult performance and feedback conversations
  • A repeatable method for delegating without losing visibility or accountability
  • Clearer communication with senior leaders, peers and team members
  • Stronger judgement under pressure through structured decision-making methods
  • A focused 90-day plan for improving a current leadership challenge

For your organisation

  • Clearer accountability for cross-functional decisions, actions and handovers
  • Earlier resolution of performance issues before delivery or morale deteriorates
  • More consistent manager communication during operational or organisational change
  • Better retention through purposeful coaching, recognition and development conversations
  • Improved execution of priorities through disciplined delegation and follow-up

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their leadership mandate, establish expectations and build credibility through consistent behaviour.

  • Leadership mandate translated into team priorities, decision rights and service commitments
  • Personal leadership values tested against recurring pressure points and trade-offs
  • Authority, accountability and responsibility distinguished when leading cross-functional work
  • Leadership impact assessed through stakeholder expectations, behaviours and operational results
  • Trust-building behaviours: reliability, competence, care and transparent communication
  • Working agreements set for response times, escalation routes and meeting discipline

Participants can manage their reactions, attention and boundaries during demanding leadership situations.

  • Self-awareness patterns identified through triggers, assumptions, strengths and blind spots
  • Emotional self-management applied during scrutiny, ambiguity and competing demands
  • Pause-label-choose technique used before responding to provocative workplace incidents
  • Attention management protects preparation time, priorities and leadership visibility
  • Boundary-setting language maintains respect while declining nonessential requests
  • Weekly reflection routine converts feedback and setbacks into behavioural adjustments

Participants can communicate direction clearly and give feedback that produces specific behavioural change.

  • Message architecture links purpose, key point, evidence and requested action
  • SBI feedback separates situation, behaviour and impact without attributing intent
  • Briefing structure adapts detail, channel and tone to audience needs
  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, probing questions and accurate summarising
  • Difficult messages delivered directly while preserving dignity and working relationships
  • Meeting facilitation clarifies outcomes, contributions, decisions and follow-up ownership

Participants can coach employees towards ownership, capability growth and sustained performance.

  • GROW coaching frames goals, current reality, options and committed actions
  • Motivation conversations connect individual drivers with meaningful team contribution
  • Questioning techniques replace premature advice with employee-owned problem solving
  • Development goals translate skill gaps into observable workplace behaviours
  • Recognition practices reinforce specific effort, judgement and results promptly
  • Career conversations address aspiration, capability, exposure and next assignments

Participants can delegate work with clear ownership, proportionate oversight and fair performance management.

  • SMART expectations define standards, deadlines, constraints and measures of success
  • RACI matrices assign accountable owners and consulted contributors for shared work
  • Delegation matching considers task risk, employee readiness and available support
  • Performance conversations distinguish capability, capacity, conduct and commitment issues
  • Check-in cadence tracks progress without taking back delegated responsibility
  • Corrective feedback documents gaps, agreed actions and review dates

Participants can make and communicate decisions using evidence, risk criteria and clear escalation routes.

  • Decision rights clarify who recommends, decides, executes and receives notification
  • Weighted decision matrices compare options against agreed criteria and evidence
  • Assumption testing exposes weak evidence before consequential commitments are made
  • Risk registers record likelihood, impact, mitigations, owners and review dates
  • Escalation thresholds distinguish local decisions from matters requiring senior approval
  • Decision logs preserve rationale, dissent, commitments and subsequent learning

Participants can address conflict directly, establish boundaries and restore productive working relationships.

  • Conflict diagnosis separates task, process, relationship and values disagreements
  • Preparation identifies interests, facts, non-negotiables and acceptable concessions
  • Neutral language addresses observable conduct rather than motives or personality
  • Structured dialogue establishes shared facts, options and mutually acceptable commitments
  • Boundary statements address repeated harmful behaviour and escalation consequences
  • Repair conversations rebuild trust after missed commitments or damaging interactions

Participants can plan communication, support and reinforcement for behaviour change during organisational initiatives.

  • ADKAR analysis identifies awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Change case connects operational evidence, stakeholder concerns and desired outcomes
  • Stakeholder mapping prioritises influence, impact, likely resistance and engagement actions
  • Communication plans sequence messages, channels, messengers and feedback loops
  • Resistance conversations surface concerns, test assumptions and agree practical support
  • Adoption measures track behaviour change, service performance and unresolved barriers

Participants can build support for priorities through credible briefings, agreements and influence strategies.

  • Stakeholder maps classify influence, interest, expectations and relationship priorities
  • Upward briefings present decisions needed, evidence, risks and recommended actions
  • Cross-functional agreements define shared outcomes, dependencies and handover standards
  • Influence strategies combine credibility, reciprocity, consultation and coalition building
  • Executive updates distinguish strategic implications from operational detail and noise
  • Negotiation preparation establishes objectives, alternatives, concessions and walk-away points

Participants can convert course methods into a measurable plan for a current leadership priority.

  • Leadership challenge diagnosis links a live issue to root causes
  • 90-day leadership plan sets outcomes, behaviours, milestones and review evidence
  • Personal stakeholder plan schedules critical conversations, commitments and follow-ups
  • Team operating rhythm integrates priorities, meetings, decisions and performance check-ins
  • Peer accountability arrangements define observation requests, feedback dates and adjustments
  • Application review identifies early indicators, risks and contingency actions

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

What you take back to work

  1. 90-day leadership application plan
  2. Leadership mandate and team-priorities template
  3. SBI feedback and difficult-conversation scripts
  4. GROW coaching conversation guide
  5. RACI decision-rights matrix
  6. ADKAR change communication and stakeholder plan

Who should attend

  • Team Leaders — need consistent methods for setting direction and accountability
  • Operational Managers — manage delivery pressures, performance issues and competing priorities
  • Newly Appointed Managers — require practical routines for leading former peers
  • Programme Managers — coordinate stakeholders, dependencies and decisions across workstreams
  • Department Heads — need stronger delegation, influence and change communication methods
  • Technical Specialists — lead people or projects without relying solely on subject expertise

Skills and tools covered

Leadership communicationPerformance coachingDecision governanceConflict resolutionChange leadershipStakeholder influence

Tools and standards

SBI Feedback Model, GROW Model, RACI Matrix, ADKAR Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce leadership methods, followed by case work, group exercises, simulations and individual application planning. Participants analyse realistic management situations involving performance, competing priorities, stakeholder resistance, conflict and change. They practise structured conversations using feedback, coaching and conflict-resolution models, then adapt the methods to a live workplace issue. Facilitators provide targeted feedback on choices, language, decision logic and action plans. Live online delivery uses facilitated breakout groups and shared working templates.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least one year of experience supervising people, coordinating projects, or influencing colleagues across functions. They should be familiar with normal workplace goals, meetings, performance discussions and reporting lines, and should bring a current leadership challenge to use during application planning. No formal leadership qualification, management degree, psychometric assessment or prior training in coaching, change management or conflict resolution is required. The course is not designed for people with no workplace leadership responsibility at all.

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 supervising people, managing projects or influencing colleagues across functions. You do not need a management qualification or prior formal training in coaching, feedback or change management.

Bring a current leadership challenge, such as a performance issue, change initiative, team conflict or delivery problem. You do not need to bring confidential documents; anonymised details are sufficient for application planning.

The course is designed for team leaders, operational managers, programme managers, department heads and technical specialists with leadership responsibility. It is particularly relevant for managers seeking more consistent ways to produce results through others.

This course concentrates on the day-to-day leadership behaviours that shape team delivery: feedback, coaching, delegation, decisions, conflict and change communication. Strategic leadership courses usually place more emphasis on organisational direction, enterprise strategy and senior executive governance.

Participants use a live workplace issue throughout the course and build a 90-day application plan around it. The templates for feedback, coaching, decision rights, stakeholder engagement and change communication can be used immediately after the course.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group exercises, leadership simulations, feedback and structured 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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