Middle Management Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Middle Managers, Newly Appointed Managers 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-SM-038

Before you join: Participants should have at least six months of experience supervising staff, coordinating work, leading projects or acting as a deputy manager.

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

Middle managers are expected to turn strategic priorities into reliable delivery while sustaining performance, handling conflict and representing team realities to senior leaders. The difficulty is not simply supervising tasks. It is deciding when to direct, coach, delegate or escalate; establishing clear accountability across functions; and having candid conversations when quality, conduct or results fall short. Without consistent management routines, capable specialists can become overloaded bottlenecks, teams receive mixed messages, and operational risks reach sponsors too late.

This five-day Middle Management Leadership Training Course develops the practical management disciplines required between executive direction and frontline delivery. Participants examine their management role, leadership style and stakeholder responsibilities before building skills in communication, performance management, coaching, delegation, team leadership, decision-making, change implementation and conflict resolution. They use RACI, GROW, SBI, SMART objectives, ADKAR and interest-based negotiation to manage common situations such as missed delivery milestones, unclear ownership, resistant employees, cross-functional disputes and competing priorities.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic management cases, facilitated discussions, group exercises, role-play simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with situations drawn from service operations, projects, regulated functions, public bodies and corporate teams. They leave with a practical 90-day leadership plan, delegation brief, team charter, performance conversation structure, stakeholder map and personal management scorecard. The course is best suited to supervisors and managers who already lead people or are moving into a broader middle-management role.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply Situational Leadership to match management style to employee capability and commitment
  • Conduct SBI feedback and GROW coaching conversations for performance improvement
  • Set SMART objectives and document performance expectations using observable evidence
  • Delegate work through clear authority boundaries, RACI roles and review checkpoints
  • Use stakeholder maps, BLUF updates and meeting charters to improve management communication
  • Diagnose team conflict, resistance and delivery issues using structured management methods
  • Lead team-level change using ADKAR, impact assessment and adoption measures
  • Produce a 90-day leadership plan with priorities, measures, stakeholder actions and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Handle difficult performance conversations with a documented, fair structure
  • Reduce overload by delegating outcomes, authority and checkpoints clearly
  • Build credibility with senior leaders through concise evidence-based updates
  • Manage team conflict before it becomes a conduct or retention issue
  • Create a focused 90-day plan for improving management habits and results

For your organisation

  • Clearer accountability for delivery, decisions and cross-functional handoffs
  • Earlier identification and escalation of operational, people and customer risks
  • More consistent performance conversations across teams and departments
  • Reduced dependency on senior leaders for routine team decisions
  • Improved adoption of process, technology and organisational changes

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their management accountabilities and establish clear working relationships with teams, peers and senior leaders.

  • Managerial role transition: balancing delivery, people leadership, and upward accountability
  • Authority, responsibility, and accountability distinguished through a RACI decision map
  • Manager-of-managers expectations translated into team operating agreements
  • Span of control assessed against work complexity and team maturity
  • Stakeholder map identifies customers, peers, sponsors, and senior decision-makers
  • Personal leadership values converted into observable management commitments

Participants can assess their leadership approach and adapt it to team needs while building trust.

  • Emotional intelligence domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management
  • Johari Window reveals blind spots affecting trust and communication
  • Feedback from peers converted into two targeted behaviour changes
  • Leadership style matched to task competence and commitment using Situational Leadership
  • Triggers and assumptions recorded in a personal reflection log
  • Psychological safety behaviours: invite challenge, admit errors, respond productively

Participants can communicate priorities, decisions and feedback clearly across upward, downward and peer relationships.

  • Audience-message-channel planning for briefings, emails, meetings, and difficult conversations
  • BLUF structure produces concise upward updates with clear decisions required
  • Active listening uses paraphrasing, probing questions, and summarising
  • SBI feedback separates situation, behaviour, and impact without personal judgement
  • DESC script structures assertive requests, boundaries, and disagreement
  • Meeting charters define purpose, roles, agenda, decisions, and follow-up

Participants can set expectations, conduct purposeful one-to-ones and address performance gaps fairly.

  • Performance expectations translated into SMART outcomes, measures, and behavioural standards
  • Goal cascading links unit priorities to individual quarterly commitments
  • Weekly one-to-ones balance delivery review, coaching, and wellbeing
  • GROW coaching conversations develop options, ownership, and next actions
  • Performance evidence documented using facts, dates, outputs, and agreed expectations
  • Underperformance addressed through diagnosis, support, milestones, and formal escalation
  • Recognition matched to contribution, preference, and organisational policy

Participants can delegate work with suitable authority, controls and follow-up without taking tasks back.

  • Delegation analysis distinguishes tasks to retain, assign, coach, or automate
  • Delegation brief uses outcome, boundaries, authority, resources, and checkpoints
  • Task maturity assessed before selecting directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating
  • Control points set through risk, reversibility, capability, and customer impact
  • RACI matrix clarifies accountable owners and consulted decision contributors
  • Follow-up conversations prevent reverse delegation while preserving accountability

Participants can establish team norms, identify collaboration problems and build conditions for constructive challenge.

  • Tuckman's stages guide interventions during formation, conflict, and stabilisation
  • Team charter sets purpose, membership, norms, decision rights, and measures
  • Belbin team roles identify contribution gaps and potential friction
  • Inclusive meeting practices distribute airtime and surface dissenting evidence
  • Psychological safety reinforced through inquiry, candour, and learning reviews
  • Team conflict separated into task, process, and relationship categories
  • Working agreements reviewed after delivery failures or changing priorities

Participants can prioritise management work, analyse recurring problems and make accountable decisions.

  • Eisenhower matrix distinguishes urgent work from strategically important commitments
  • Weekly planning protects leadership time, operational reviews, and staff development
  • Decision rights assigned using RAPID for cross-functional choices
  • Root-cause analysis applies Five Whys and fishbone diagrams to recurring issues
  • Decision log records options, evidence, owner, deadline, and rationale
  • Escalation criteria distinguish local resolution from sponsor-level intervention

Participants can translate organisational change into clear team actions, communications and adoption measures.

  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement gaps
  • Stakeholder impact assessment identifies changed processes, roles, concerns, and influence
  • Change messages connect business reasons, local consequences, and required actions
  • Resistance handled through listening, diagnosis, involvement, and practical support
  • Implementation milestones track adoption measures, risks, owners, and communications
  • Middle managers translate executive change decisions into workable team routines

Participants can prepare and lead difficult conversations that address issues while preserving working relationships.

  • Conflict preparation separates positions, interests, facts, assumptions, and emotions
  • Interest-based negotiation creates workable options before trading concessions
  • Crucial conversation planning identifies shared purpose, safety risks, and key facts
  • De-escalation techniques use neutral language, pauses, acknowledgement, and reframing
  • Grievances and conduct concerns routed through documented organisational procedures
  • Boundary-setting conversations specify unacceptable behaviour, consequences, and follow-up
  • Informal mediation agreements record actions, owners, review dates, and confidentiality

Participants can convert course methods into a measurable 90-day plan for their management role.

  • 90-day leadership plan prioritises team performance, stakeholder, and capability actions
  • Leadership priorities tested against organisational objectives and manager expectations
  • Personal scorecard tracks commitments, evidence, review dates, and support needed
  • Peer accountability arrangements establish challenge sessions and progress checkpoints
  • Stakeholder communication plan schedules updates, decisions, risks, and feedback channels
  • Learning transfer barriers anticipated through practical implementation-if-then planning
  • Manager discussion guide secures scope, feedback, and resources after training

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

What you take back to work

  1. 90-day leadership action plan
  2. Delegation brief template
  3. Team charter template
  4. SBI feedback conversation guide
  5. Stakeholder mapping worksheet
  6. Personal management scorecard

Who should attend

  • Middle Managers — need consistent methods for translating strategy into team delivery
  • Newly Appointed Managers — require practical routines for leading former peers
  • Team Leaders — need stronger delegation, coaching and performance management skills
  • Supervisors — manage frontline standards, workload, conduct and daily operational issues
  • Project Managers — coordinate contributors without direct authority across functions
  • Functional Specialists — are preparing for a first people-management or unit-management role

Skills and tools covered

Performance managementCoaching conversationsDelegation planningTeam leadershipStakeholder communicationChange implementation

Tools and standards

RACI matrix, GROW coaching model, SBI feedback model, ADKAR change model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce management models, followed by cases, facilitated group work, structured discussions and realistic simulations. Participants practise feedback, coaching, delegation, escalation and conflict conversations using workplace scenarios. Case material addresses service delivery, project execution, compliance requirements, customer commitments and organisational change. Trainers provide direct feedback against defined behavioural criteria. Each participant builds an application plan that connects the methods to current team priorities, stakeholder relationships and management challenges.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least six months of experience supervising staff, coordinating work, leading projects or acting as a deputy manager. They should understand their organisation's basic reporting lines, performance expectations and operational priorities. Experience of conducting meetings, assigning work or contributing to appraisals is helpful. No formal management qualification is required, and participants do not need prior knowledge of leadership theory, coaching models or change-management frameworks. The course is not intended for participants 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

Participants should already supervise people, coordinate work or hold responsibility for team delivery. No formal leadership qualification or previous study of management models is required.

Bring examples of current team priorities, a management challenge and any non-confidential performance or delivery measures you use. Participants can apply the course methods to their own work during planning sessions.

It is designed for middle managers, team leaders, supervisors, project managers and newly appointed people managers. It is particularly useful for managers balancing operational delivery with people leadership.

This course concentrates on the practical responsibilities of managing between senior leadership and frontline teams. It gives equal attention to performance management, delegation, stakeholder communication, team routines and change implementation.

Participants build reusable management documents, including a delegation brief, team charter and 90-day action plan. The methods can be used in one-to-ones, team meetings, project reviews and difficult conversations immediately after the course.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, providing approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. The programme is organised into ten teaching modules, with time for instruction, cases, simulations, discussion and 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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