Purposeful Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Department Managers, Senior 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-LD-277

Before you join: Participants should have experience supervising staff, leading projects, influencing colleagues or contributing to operational and strategic decisions.

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

Purposeful leadership requires more than an inspiring statement. Managers must translate organisational purpose into priorities, decisions, behaviours and conversations that employees, customers, regulators and communities can observe. When purpose is disconnected from incentives, budgets, performance measures or leadership conduct, it can create cynicism, weaken trust and leave teams unclear about what matters when trade-offs arise.

This course develops the practical disciplines required to lead with purpose under commercial, public-service and operational pressure. Participants define their role-based leadership purpose, connect it to strategic priorities, use ethical decision protocols, build psychologically safe teams and communicate direction credibly. They examine stakeholder expectations, purpose-related trade-offs, change resistance, conflict and accountability. The course also addresses the personal side of leadership: values, triggers, feedback, habits and the consistency required when decisions are unpopular or uncertain.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-relevant cases, facilitated group analysis, leadership simulations, peer feedback and structured application planning. Cases can be adapted for banking, government, NGOs, regulated industries, professional services and large corporate settings. Participants leave with a personal leadership charter, a stakeholder and purpose alignment analysis, and a 90-day action plan tied to real responsibilities. The course is delivered over five days in the classroom or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

This programme is suited to managers and experienced professionals who influence people, projects, services or organisational decisions and need a disciplined way to make purpose visible in everyday leadership.

What you will be able to do

  • Articulate a role-based purpose statement linked to strategic priorities and stakeholder needs
  • Align team goals, measures and decision rights with stated organisational purpose
  • Apply ethical decision-making protocols to difficult commercial, operational and people choices
  • Use stakeholder analysis to identify competing expectations and manage purpose-related trade-offs
  • Build psychologically safe team conditions through inquiry, feedback and accountability practices
  • Lead purpose-led communication during change, uncertainty and contested decisions
  • Conduct conflict and performance conversations using structured dialogue techniques
  • Produce a personal leadership charter and 90-day purposeful leadership action plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A clear leadership purpose statement grounded in personal values and role responsibilities
  • Greater confidence handling ethical tensions, competing stakeholder demands and difficult decisions
  • Practical language for communicating direction without overstating certainty or ignoring concerns
  • Structured methods for building trust, inviting dissent and responding to poor news
  • A focused 90-day plan for changing observable leadership behaviours

For your organisation

  • Clearer links between stated purpose, team priorities, performance measures and resource decisions
  • More consistent management responses to ethical, conduct and reputational risks
  • Earlier identification of stakeholder concerns, resistance and delivery barriers
  • Improved team candour, upward feedback and escalation of operational problems
  • Stronger accountability for leadership behaviours during change and pressure

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a credible leadership purpose and connect it to their role, values and responsibilities.

  • Purpose statement tested against strategic choices, customer needs and public commitments
  • Golden Circle distinguishes cause, contribution and commercial or service priorities
  • Personal values inventory identifies non-negotiables, tensions and behavioural implications
  • Role purpose translated into decision rights, accountabilities and measurable outcomes
  • Purpose drift diagnosed through inconsistent incentives, metrics and leadership signals
  • Stakeholder expectations mapped using power, legitimacy and urgency criteria

Participants can connect organisational purpose to priorities, measures, resource choices and team delivery.

  • Materiality matrix connects stakeholder priorities with strategic objectives and trade-offs
  • Strategy-on-a-page links purpose, priorities, measures, owners and review cycles
  • OKRs distinguish outcomes, key results, initiatives and routine operational measures
  • Balanced Scorecard tests financial, customer, process and capability consequences
  • Decision filters assess purpose fit, feasibility, risk and opportunity cost
  • Resource choices expose conflicts between stated purpose and budget allocation

Participants can apply a structured ethical process to decisions with competing interests and consequences.

  • Ethical decision-making protocol separates facts, duties, consequences and virtues
  • Recognising moral muting, motivated reasoning and conflicts of interest
  • Speak-up channels assessed for confidentiality, response quality and non-retaliation
  • Escalation thresholds defined for safety, conduct, regulatory and reputational concerns
  • Case analysis weighs shareholder returns against customer, community and employee impacts
  • Documenting decision rationale creates an auditable record of principled judgement

Participants can identify leadership patterns, use feedback constructively and build sustainable behaviour changes.

  • Leadership identity narrative connects formative experiences, values and intended contribution
  • Johari Window identifies blind spots, disclosure choices and feedback needs
  • Emotional self-management uses trigger mapping, pause routines and response selection
  • 360-degree feedback converted into patterns, priorities and behavioural experiments
  • Immunity-to-change map surfaces competing commitments and hidden assumptions
  • Weekly reflection practice links intentions, observed behaviour and course correction

Participants can create team conditions that support candour, participation, accountability and trust repair.

  • Psychological safety established through fallibility, inquiry and productive response to bad news
  • SCARF model diagnoses status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness threats
  • Meeting norms protect dissent, clarify participation and close decision loops
  • Active listening separates paraphrasing, probing questions, acknowledgement and agreement
  • Feedback conversations use SBI to describe situation, behaviour and impact
  • Repairing trust addresses harm, accountability, restitution and future safeguards

Participants can communicate purpose, priorities and difficult decisions with clarity and credibility.

  • Purpose narrative combines audience need, credible evidence, choice and call-to-action
  • Message house aligns core message, supporting proof and anticipated objections
  • Strategic listening gathers frontline intelligence before communicating direction or change
  • Town-hall questions handled with candour, boundaries and follow-through commitments
  • Story structure uses context, tension, choice, consequence and meaning
  • Communication channels selected by urgency, ambiguity, reach and feedback requirements

Participants can align teams around shared outcomes while clarifying roles, authority and standards.

  • Team charter specifies purpose, outcomes, roles, norms and decision authority
  • RACI clarifies responsible, accountable, consulted and informed contributions
  • Delegation levels match task risk, capability, authority and development need
  • Purpose-linked goals connect individual commitments to team and organisational priorities
  • Performance conversations address results, behaviours, barriers and support required
  • Recognition practices reinforce purpose-consistent choices rather than visible heroics

Participants can lead change by addressing stakeholder impact, resistance, communication and adoption measures.

  • ADKAR diagnoses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Change impact assessment identifies affected groups, workflow shifts and capability demands
  • Stakeholder segmentation prioritises sponsors, champions, resistors and affected users
  • Coalition building secures credible advocates across formal and informal networks
  • Resistance conversations explore loss, risk, identity and practical constraints
  • Change measures track adoption, sentiment, proficiency and operational outcomes

Participants can address disagreement, set boundaries and resolve trade-offs without abandoning relationships or standards.

  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions, interests, options and objective criteria
  • Conflict styles assessed using competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating
  • Crucial conversations prepare facts, stories, emotions and mutual purpose
  • Boundary-setting language states standards, consequences and constructive next steps
  • Cross-functional trade-offs resolved through shared criteria and transparent escalation
  • After-action reviews convert difficult decisions into learning and accountability

Participants can produce an evidence-based plan for applying purposeful leadership in their current role.

  • Purposeful leadership diagnostic prioritises strengths, risks and high-value behaviour changes
  • 90-day action plan specifies outcomes, milestones, stakeholders and evidence
  • Personal leadership charter records purpose, values, commitments and decision principles
  • Accountability partnerships schedule check-ins, evidence review and course correction
  • Leading indicators monitor behaviour adoption before lagging business results appear
  • Manager conversation frames support needed, constraints and success measures

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

What you take back to work

  1. Role-based purpose statement template
  2. Stakeholder salience analysis
  3. Ethical decision-making protocol
  4. Team purpose and accountability charter
  5. Personal leadership charter
  6. 90-day purposeful leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Department Managers — need to connect team delivery decisions with organisational purpose
  • Senior Managers — need credible methods for leading strategic trade-offs and change
  • Programme and Project Managers — need to align diverse stakeholders behind shared outcomes
  • Newly Appointed Leaders — need practical habits for establishing a clear leadership identity
  • Human Resources Managers — need to reinforce values, trust and accountability through management practice
  • Technical and Professional Specialists — need to influence decisions without relying on formal authority

Skills and tools covered

Purpose-led decision-makingEthical judgementStakeholder analysisTrust-building communicationTeam alignmentChange leadership

Tools and standards

Golden Circle, Balanced Scorecard, SCARF Model, ADKAR Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce leadership models, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, simulations and individual reflection. Participants assess realistic decisions involving competing stakeholder interests, conduct concerns, change resistance, team performance and communication under uncertainty. Peer discussion tests assumptions and compares approaches across roles and sectors. Structured templates support application to each participant's responsibilities. The final sessions focus on converting course methods into a personal leadership charter and a 90-day action plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience supervising staff, leading projects, influencing colleagues or contributing to operational and strategic decisions. They should be familiar with their organisation's stated purpose, values, strategic priorities and current business pressures. The course assumes willingness to examine personal leadership behaviours and discuss realistic workplace dilemmas. Prior formal leadership training is not required. Participants do not need coaching qualifications, psychology training, financial expertise or responsibility for a large team. Those without direct reports can apply the methods to project, matrix and stakeholder leadership roles.

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 leading people, projects, services or stakeholder relationships. No previous leadership qualification is required, but participants should be ready to use current workplace situations during analysis and planning.

Bring examples of current priorities, difficult decisions, stakeholder issues or team challenges that you can discuss without sharing confidential information. If available, bring your organisation's purpose statement, values and relevant performance objectives.

The course suits managers, project leaders, senior specialists and professionals who influence decisions across teams or functions. It is particularly useful for those managing change, competing stakeholder demands or questions of organisational trust.

General leadership courses often focus on supervision, delegation, motivation and performance management. This course concentrates on connecting purpose, values, ethical judgement, stakeholder expectations and day-to-day leadership choices.

Participants use their own role and organisational context throughout the course. They leave with a leadership charter, stakeholder analysis and 90-day plan that can be discussed with their manager or accountability partner.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, group analysis, simulations, peer 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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