Management Skills Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends New Managers, Team Leaders 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-SM-023

Before you join: Participants should have experience working within a team and a basic understanding of how their department delivers services, projects or operational outputs.

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

New and experienced supervisors are expected to turn organisational goals into reliable team performance while managing competing priorities, varied capabilities and day-to-day operational pressure. Many have technical expertise but have not received structured preparation for setting expectations, delegating work, giving feedback, resolving conflict or dealing with poor performance. Inconsistent management can create missed deadlines, unclear ownership, avoidable escalation and disengaged staff.

This course develops the practical management skills associated with a competent first-line or middle manager. Participants learn to define roles and accountabilities, plan and prioritise work, communicate with clarity, build effective teams and delegate with appropriate control. They practise structured approaches to performance conversations, coaching, conflict resolution, decision-making and change implementation. The course also addresses the manager's responsibility for fair treatment, accurate documentation, sound judgement and appropriate escalation.

Instructor-led sessions combine concise briefings with realistic management cases, peer discussion, group tasks, role-play simulations and individual application planning. Cases can be adapted for public services, banking, NGOs, corporate operations, technical functions and customer-facing teams. Participants leave with a practical management toolkit, including templates for objectives, delegation, performance reviews, team meetings and a 30-60-90 day action plan. Successful participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course is suited to supervisors, team leaders and managers who already lead people or will shortly assume formal management responsibility. It is particularly valuable where managers must improve delivery while maintaining service standards, staff engagement and accountable decision-making.

What you will be able to do

  • Set SMART objectives and translate departmental targets into team work plans
  • Apply RACI responsibility assignments to clarify ownership, authority and escalation routes
  • Conduct structured briefings, one-to-ones and SBI feedback conversations
  • Delegate tasks using clear outcomes, boundaries, review points and support levels
  • Use GROW coaching questions to develop staff capability and commitment
  • Address performance gaps through evidence-based improvement plans and documented follow-up
  • Resolve workplace conflict using interest-based negotiation and appropriate escalation
  • Produce a 30-60-90 day management action plan with measurable commitments

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence conducting difficult performance and feedback conversations
  • Clearer methods for prioritising competing work and protecting team delivery
  • Practical delegation habits that reduce unnecessary manager workload
  • Stronger evidence for promotion into supervisory or management roles
  • A structured plan for improving personal management practice after the course

For your organisation

  • More consistent objective-setting, work allocation and accountability across teams
  • Earlier identification and correction of performance problems
  • Reduced delays caused by unclear ownership and unnecessary escalation
  • Better staff retention through fair feedback, coaching and recognition
  • Improved implementation of operational changes through clearer manager communication

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their management accountabilities and establish clear working relationships with their team and stakeholders.

  • Manager accountabilities translated into team outputs, standards and decision rights
  • Role boundaries clarified using RACI responsibility assignments and escalation routes
  • Management style diagnosed through directive, coaching, supporting and delegating behaviours
  • Authority, accountability and responsibility distinguished when allocating operational work
  • Stakeholder expectations mapped between senior managers, peers, customers and staff
  • Weekly management routines structured around priorities, people and performance data

Participants can convert objectives into controlled team work plans with clear ownership and priorities.

  • SMART objectives written with measurable outcomes, milestones and acceptance criteria
  • Team goals cascaded from departmental targets without conflicting priorities
  • Work plans built using deliverables, dependencies, owners and due dates
  • RACI matrix assigned for cross-functional tasks and approval decisions
  • Risk register maintained with likelihood, impact, controls and owners
  • Daily and weekly priorities sorted using urgency and importance

Participants can communicate expectations clearly and provide feedback that supports accountable action.

  • Communication channels selected by message sensitivity, urgency and audience needs
  • Briefings structured with purpose, key facts, actions and confirmation
  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, probing questions and accurate summaries
  • SBI feedback frames specific situation, behaviour and observed impact
  • Difficult messages delivered directly while preserving dignity and clarity
  • Meeting agendas, decisions and actions recorded with accountable owners

Participants can establish team conditions that support cooperation, reliability and shared standards.

  • Tuckman's stages used to diagnose team development and leadership needs
  • Team charters define purpose, roles, norms and service standards
  • Psychological safety built through respectful challenge, inquiry and follow-through
  • Individual strengths matched to task requirements and development opportunities
  • Remote and hybrid routines set expectations for availability and handovers
  • Recognition linked to specific contributions, behaviours and agreed results

Participants can delegate work with appropriate authority, support and performance control.

  • Delegation decisions separate retained authority from transferable responsibility
  • Delegation brief specifies outcome, boundaries, resources, authority and review points
  • Skill-will assessment matches support levels to individual readiness
  • Control levels adjusted through check-ins, milestones and evidence requirements
  • Reverse delegation identified and returned with clear ownership questions
  • Delegation conversations address confidence, risk and consequences of inaction

Participants can manage individual performance through clear standards, coaching and documented improvement actions.

  • Performance expectations converted into observable standards and measurable indicators
  • One-to-one meetings balance delivery review, wellbeing and development
  • GROW coaching questions structure goal setting, options and commitments
  • Performance gaps diagnosed through skill, resource, process and motivation evidence
  • Improvement plans specify required change, support, measures and review dates
  • Fair documentation records facts, agreements, evidence and follow-up actions

Participants can address conflict and conduct concerns early, fairly and constructively.

  • Conflict sources distinguished between task, process, relationship and values
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions from underlying needs and constraints
  • Thomas-Kilmann modes selected according to stakes, relationships and time
  • De-escalation language acknowledges concerns without accepting inaccurate claims
  • Informal resolution steps documented before formal escalation procedures begin
  • Conduct concerns addressed promptly using facts, standards and consequences

Participants can make and document sound management decisions using evidence, criteria and escalation thresholds.

  • Decision criteria weighted against safety, cost, quality and service
  • Root causes tested using Five Whys and fishbone diagrams
  • Evidence separated from assumptions, opinions and incomplete information
  • Escalation thresholds defined for decisions exceeding managerial authority
  • Decision logs capture rationale, risks, owners and review triggers
  • Ethical choices tested against policy, fairness, confidentiality and public interest

Participants can communicate and support operational change while maintaining team performance.

  • Change impacts assessed across roles, processes, systems and customer commitments
  • Stakeholder mapping identifies influence, concerns, messages and involvement needs
  • ADKAR stages guide awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement
  • Implementation communications explain rationale, local effects and required actions
  • Resistance treated as data requiring listening, clarification and practical support
  • Short-cycle reviews adjust plans using feedback, measures and emerging risks

Participants can create an evidence-based plan for improving their management practice after the course.

  • Personal management strengths assessed against role demands and feedback
  • Priority development needs selected using impact, urgency and feasibility
  • 30-60-90 day action plan sets behaviours, measures and review dates
  • Manager conversations scheduled to agree support, authority and expectations
  • Learning transfer barriers anticipated with practical countermeasures and checkpoints
  • Peer accountability arrangements establish follow-up dates and evidence of progress

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

What you take back to work

  1. SMART objective-setting template
  2. RACI responsibility matrix
  3. Delegation briefing checklist
  4. SBI feedback conversation guide
  5. Performance improvement plan template
  6. 30-60-90 day management action plan

Who should attend

  • New Managers — need a practical foundation for leading former peers and direct reports
  • Team Leaders — need clearer methods for assigning work and monitoring delivery
  • Supervisors — need to manage performance, conduct and daily operational priorities
  • Middle Managers — need consistent people-management methods across several teams
  • Technical Specialists — need management skills after promotion into a people-lead role
  • Aspiring Managers — need preparation before taking formal supervisory responsibility

Skills and tools covered

Team performance managementWork planningDelegation controlCoaching conversationsConflict resolutionManagement decision-making

Tools and standards

SMART objectives, RACI matrix, SBI feedback model, GROW coaching model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce management methods, followed by case work, group exercises, management simulations and structured reflection. Participants work with realistic situations such as missed deadlines, underperformance, conflicting priorities, resistant staff and cross-team handovers. Role-play is used for feedback, coaching, delegation and conflict conversations. Facilitators give practical feedback against defined criteria. Individual application planning connects course methods to each participant's role, team priorities and immediate management challenges.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working within a team and a basic understanding of how their department delivers services, projects or operational outputs. The course is most useful for people who currently supervise others, coordinate work informally or expect to take on management responsibility within the next year. Participants should be prepared to consider a current management challenge and reflect on their own leadership behaviour. No previous management qualification, formal HR training, coaching certification or specialist business degree 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

You should understand your team's work and have experience contributing to workplace goals or operations. Previous formal management training is not required, but the course is most valuable if you supervise others or expect to do so soon.

Bring details of one current management challenge, such as workload pressure, a performance issue or a change affecting your team. You will use this situation when preparing your personal action plan.

It is designed for new managers, supervisors, team leaders and technical specialists moving into people management. Experienced managers can also use it to establish more consistent management routines.

This course focuses on the daily management disciplines required to organise work, set expectations, monitor performance and address issues. Leadership courses usually place greater emphasis on strategic direction, influence and organisational vision.

Participants leave with templates and a 30-60-90 day action plan linked to their own team. The methods can be used immediately in one-to-ones, team meetings, delegation conversations and performance reviews.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group work, simulations, feedback and individual 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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