Kouzes and Posner Leadership Challenge Practices Training Course

Course overview

Leadership roles often fail at the point where strategy must become everyday behaviour. Managers may be technically credible yet struggle to align teams around a shared direction, challenge unproductive routines, recognise contribution consistently, or sustain trust during change. This five-day course applies Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge framework to these practical leadership demands, helping participants translate the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership into observable actions for their own teams, projects and stakeholders.

Participants examine Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act and Encourage the Heart through leadership cases, self-assessment and structured practice. They learn to clarify values, convert values into behavioural commitments, conduct Personal-Best Leadership Experience interviews, frame a compelling future-state message, identify low-risk experiments, delegate with accountability, build collaboration agreements and design recognition practices linked to performance and contribution. The course also shows how to interpret Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) feedback and turn it into a focused development plan.

Delivery combines facilitated teaching, Leadership Challenge cases, peer coaching, role-played leadership conversations and application workshops. Participants work on a live leadership issue from their workplace throughout the week. They leave with a Leadership Challenge Action Plan containing a values-to-behaviours matrix, stakeholder vision message, experiment charter, team collaboration agreement, recognition plan and 90-day implementation schedule.

The course is best suited to experienced individual contributors moving into leadership, first-line and middle managers, project leaders and functional leaders who need a practical, evidence-based leadership method rather than a general discussion of leadership styles.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Assess current leadership behaviours against the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership using Leadership Practices Inventory evidence.
• Translate personal and organisational values into a values-to-behaviours matrix for a specific team.
• Conduct a Personal-Best Leadership Experience interview to identify repeatable leadership practices.
• Craft and deliver a shared-vision message using stakeholder needs, future-state language and concrete outcomes.
• Design a controlled experiment charter that challenges an ineffective process without creating unmanaged risk.
• Create a collaboration agreement covering decision rights, accountability, trust behaviours and escalation routes.
• Plan recognition actions that connect individual contribution to team values and measurable results.
• Produce a 90-day Leadership Challenge Action Plan with milestones, feedback measures and review points.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• First-Line Managers — who must build credibility and consistent leadership habits with operational teams.
• Middle Managers — who need to align departmental priorities while leading change across competing stakeholder groups.
• Project Managers — who lead through influence and need stronger commitment from cross-functional contributors.
• Newly Appointed Leaders — who need a structured method for establishing values, trust and direction early in role.
• Team Leaders and Supervisors — who must improve delegation, recognition and day-to-day team accountability.
• High-Potential Professionals — who are preparing for broader leadership responsibility and need evidence-based practice.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience leading people, projects, workstreams or cross-functional activity, with a current workplace challenge they can use during exercises. They should be comfortable discussing team performance, stakeholder expectations, delegation and feedback, and should understand their organisation’s goals and reporting lines. Familiarity with 360-degree feedback is helpful but not essential. No prior study of Kouzes and Posner, no formal leadership qualification and no psychometric accreditation are required. A laptop with Microsoft Office or equivalent access is recommended for completing the action-plan templates.

Training methodology

The instructor introduces each of the Five Practices through short teaching segments, then participants test the method against a live workplace leadership challenge. Activities include LPI-style feedback interpretation, Personal-Best Leadership Experience interviews, vision-message rehearsals, process-improvement case studies, delegation role plays and peer coaching. Small groups critique one another’s plans using structured rubrics. Each day adds a completed component to an individual Leadership Challenge Action Plan, and the final session includes a sponsor-ready implementation review with milestones, measures and anticipated barriers.

Course outline

Day 1: Foundations: Model the Way

• The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership framework
• Leadership Practices Inventory feedback and score interpretation
• Personal values clarification using values-card sorting
• Values-to-behaviours matrix design
• Personal-Best Leadership Experience interview method
• Credibility equation: words, actions and follow-through
• Behavioural commitments for visible leadership consistency

Workshop: Participants conduct paired Personal-Best Leadership Experience interviews and produce a values-to-behaviours matrix for their current role.

Day 2: Inspiring a Shared Vision

• Future-state vision versus operational target setting
• Stakeholder aspiration mapping
• Listening for hopes, interests and unspoken concerns
• Vision-message structure: future, benefit, evidence and invitation
• Strategic narrative techniques for leadership communication
• Connecting team work to organisational purpose
• Vision-message rehearsal and peer feedback rubric

Workshop: Participants create and deliver a three-minute shared-vision message for a live team or change initiative, then revise it from peer feedback.

Day 3: Challenging the Process

• Identifying leadership opportunities in broken workflows
• Assumption testing and root-cause questioning
• Learning from external practice and internal outliers
• Experiment charters: hypothesis, scope, owner and measure
• Risk boundaries for small-scale process experiments
• Constructive challenge conversations with senior stakeholders
• After-action review method for learning from outcomes

Workshop: Participants analyse a process-friction case and produce an experiment charter with success measures, risk controls and an after-action review plan.

Day 4: Enabling Others to Act

• Trust-building behaviours in interdependent teams
• Decision-rights mapping using RACI
• Delegation levels and accountability conversations
• Collaboration agreements for hybrid and cross-functional work
• Psychological safety in problem-solving meetings
• Coaching questions for capability development
• Conflict escalation routes and repair conversations

Workshop: Participants facilitate a team-contract workshop and produce a collaboration agreement with decision rights, trust behaviours and escalation rules.

Day 5: Encouraging the Heart and Sustaining Practice

• Recognition linked to values, effort and results
• Individual appreciation preferences and equitable recognition
• Celebrating team milestones without creating performative rewards
• Leadership Practices Inventory development priorities
• 90-day Leadership Challenge Action Plan design
• Milestones, leading indicators and feedback loops
• Manager sponsor conversations and implementation barriers

Workshop: Participants complete and present a sponsor-ready 90-day Leadership Challenge Action Plan, including recognition actions, measures and review dates.

Tools & standards covered

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Miro, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions