Self-Aware Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior 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 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-122

Before you join: Participants should have experience leading people, projects, meetings or stakeholder relationships, and should be willing to reflect honestly on their own behaviour.

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

Self-aware leaders recognise how their values, habits, emotional triggers and need for status shape decisions and relationships. Without this awareness, capable managers can dismiss challenge, react defensively to feedback, over-control teams or make choices that protect personal standing rather than organisational purpose. These patterns can reduce trust, silence useful dissent and make difficult conversations harder than they need to be.

This course develops the discipline of leading with greater humility, emotional control and accountability. Participants examine their leadership identity, identify blind spots, distinguish confidence from ego defence and use feedback without becoming reactive. They practise methods for handling pressure, repairing trust, sharing power, encouraging dissent and making principled decisions. The course also addresses how authority, privilege and informal influence affect who speaks, who is heard and whose work receives recognition.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with realistic cases, facilitated peer discussion, feedback practice, conflict simulations and individual reflection. Participants work with situations such as a bank manager receiving poor staff feedback, a public-sector director facing challenge from technical specialists, and an NGO leader handling tension between programme delivery and donor expectations. Each participant leaves with a personal leadership charter, a feedback plan, trigger-management protocols and a 30-day behaviour change plan. Successful participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits managers and senior professionals who already lead people, projects or stakeholder relationships and want to examine the personal habits affecting their leadership impact. It is particularly relevant where decisions carry reputational, regulatory, financial or public-service consequences.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess personal leadership patterns using values, trigger and feedback analyses
  • Interpret ego-defence behaviours through the Ladder of Inference and SCARF model
  • Regulate emotional reactions using STOP, reappraisal and implementation intentions
  • Solicit and use candid feedback through SBI, feedforward and feedback contracts
  • Conduct difficult conversations using interest-based negotiation and boundary statements
  • Apply psychological safety practices that invite challenge and productive dissent
  • Make principled decisions using ethical screens, pre-mortems and decision journals
  • Construct a 30-day self-aware leadership action plan with accountability measures

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Clearer understanding of personal triggers, blind spots and defensive habits
  • Greater confidence receiving criticism without becoming dismissive or reactive
  • Practical language for setting boundaries and repairing damaged working relationships
  • A repeatable method for testing assumptions before consequential decisions
  • A documented leadership development plan with observable behaviour commitments

For your organisation

  • Managers who seek challenge before risks become costly decisions
  • More candid feedback and earlier escalation of operational concerns
  • Reduced avoidable conflict caused by defensive communication and status disputes
  • Improved psychological safety in teams handling complex or regulated work
  • Stronger accountability for leadership behaviour, trust and decision quality

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify the values, assumptions and habitual responses shaping their leadership impact.

  • Leadership identity examined through values, motives, assumptions and habitual responses
  • Johari Window used to compare self-perception with colleagues' observations
  • Distinguishing intention, impact, behaviour and reputation in leadership interactions
  • Personal triggers mapped using situation, thought, emotion, action and consequence
  • Adult-development stages explain shifts from self-protection to self-authorship
  • Values conflicts identified before they distort priorities and decisions

Participants can recognise ego-defence patterns and respond with curiosity, accountability and appropriate boundaries.

  • Ego-defence patterns distinguished from legitimate confidence and professional boundaries
  • Status sensitivity assessed through SCARF domains and observable reactions
  • Defensive routines traced using Chris Argyris' Ladder of Inference
  • Shame, blame and denial recognised during pressure conversations
  • Separating personal worth from role authority and performance outcomes
  • Humility practices replace image management with curiosity and accountability

Participants can seek, receive and act on feedback without avoiding or dismissing difficult messages.

  • SBI feedback separates situation, behaviour and impact without character judgments
  • Feedforward requests target recurring leadership behaviours and stakeholder needs
  • 360-degree feedback themes sorted into strengths, risks and blind spots
  • Contradictory feedback investigated through examples, patterns and source credibility
  • Receiving difficult feedback uses pause, paraphrase, inquiry and commitment
  • Personal feedback contract specifies respondents, questions, cadence and follow-through

Participants can manage emotional reactions and choose constructive responses during high-stakes interactions.

  • Trigger sequence analysed from physiological cue to chosen response
  • Name-it-to-tame-it labelling reduces emotional escalation during conflict
  • STOP technique creates space before consequential emails, meetings and decisions
  • Reappraisal reframes threat interpretations without denying legitimate concerns
  • Window of tolerance guides recovery after criticism, ambiguity and overload
  • Implementation intentions link trigger cues to alternative leadership behaviours

Participants can use formal and informal power responsibly while widening access to voice and influence.

  • Formal and informal power sources mapped across stakeholder relationships
  • Privilege audit examines whose views, risks and labour receive attention
  • Microaggressions identified through impact, pattern, context and repair
  • Speaking time and interruption patterns measured during team meetings
  • Allyship actions move from private agreement to public intervention
  • Authority used to distribute voice, information and decision access

Participants can create conditions in which colleagues raise concerns, challenge assumptions and report mistakes.

  • Psychological safety distinguished from comfort, consensus and lowered standards
  • Edmondson's framing, invitation and response practices structure candid dialogue
  • Leader fallibility statements invite challenge without performing vulnerability
  • After-action reviews examine outcomes, assumptions, surprises and learning
  • Productive dissent protocols protect minority views before final decisions
  • Repair conversations address broken trust through acknowledgement, ownership and restitution

Participants can address conflict directly while protecting dignity, accountability and working relationships.

  • Conflict modes diagnosed using the Thomas-Kilmann instrument and current stakes
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions, needs, options and agreements
  • Ladder of Inference surfaces data selection and untested assumptions
  • Crucial conversations prepare facts, stories, requests and mutual purpose
  • Boundary statements combine observable behaviour, impact, request and consequence
  • Apology framework distinguishes regret, responsibility, repair and changed conduct

Participants can test consequential decisions for bias, ethical risk and excessive attachment to preferred outcomes.

  • Ethical decision screen tests stakeholders, duties, consequences and reversibility
  • Pre-mortem analysis identifies ego-driven risks before major commitments
  • Red-team challenge tests preferred options against disconfirming evidence
  • Decision journals record assumptions, confidence, alternatives and review dates
  • Escalation of commitment recognised through sunk-cost and status pressures
  • Stewardship lens balances personal ambition, team welfare and public trust

Participants can delegate, coach and recognise others in ways that build ownership and capability.

  • Situational Leadership matches direction and support to demonstrated readiness
  • Coaching questions replace advice-giving when ownership should remain delegated
  • Delegation contracts define outcomes, authority, constraints, checkpoints and learning
  • Recognition practices credit contributors without centring the leader
  • Succession conversations identify stretch assignments and sponsor responsibilities
  • Meeting leadership rotates facilitation, challenge and decision-recording roles

Participants can convert self-awareness into a measurable leadership practice and accountability routine.

  • Personal leadership narrative revised around values, service and accountable authority
  • Stakeholder map identifies relationships requiring repair, feedback or clearer boundaries
  • Thirty-day experiments translate awareness into observable behavioural commitments
  • Weekly reflection protocol reviews triggers, choices, impact and learning
  • Accountability partner agreement sets check-ins, evidence and challenge permissions
  • Personal leadership charter consolidates commitments, measures and review dates

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

What you take back to work

  1. Personal leadership identity analysis
  2. Trigger-response management plan
  3. Feedback request and follow-through template
  4. Difficult conversation preparation checklist
  5. Ethical decision journal template
  6. Thirty-day leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — to recognise how personal habits affect authority, trust and decisions
  • Team Leaders — to respond constructively to feedback, conflict and staff challenge
  • Programme Directors — to lead across competing stakeholder interests and delivery pressures
  • HR Business Partners — to support managers with behaviour change and feedback processes
  • Project Managers — to handle influence, disagreement and accountability without formal authority
  • Technical Specialists — to strengthen leadership presence while retaining curiosity and openness

Skills and tools covered

Self-awarenessEmotional regulationFeedback practiceEthical judgementConflict managementPsychological safety

Tools and standards

Johari Window, SCARF Model, Ladder of Inference, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce behavioural models, followed by case analysis, paired practice, small-group discussion and facilitated reflection. Participants apply tools to realistic leadership situations involving feedback, authority, conflict, ethical choices and team challenge. Simulations focus on observable language and responses rather than abstract personality labels. Structured peer input helps participants test assumptions about their leadership impact. Individual application planning converts course insights into specific workplace commitments, measures and review points.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience leading people, projects, meetings or stakeholder relationships, and should be willing to reflect honestly on their own behaviour. Familiarity with performance feedback, team meetings and workplace conflict will help participants connect the material to current responsibilities. The course assumes professional maturity rather than a particular management title. No psychology qualification, coaching certification, personality assessment or prior leadership-development course is required. Participants do not need to disclose personal information beyond what they choose to share during facilitated discussion.

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, meetings or stakeholder relationships. No formal leadership qualification, coaching credential or psychology background is required.

Bring examples of current leadership situations involving feedback, conflict, difficult decisions or team dynamics. You may also bring anonymised feedback themes or development objectives if these are available.

It is designed for managers, senior specialists, project leaders and directors with responsibility for people or influential stakeholder relationships. It is most useful for professionals who want direct insight into how their own behaviour affects others.

General leadership courses often focus on delegation, performance management and strategy execution. This course concentrates on the inner habits that affect how leaders use authority, respond to challenge, handle feedback and make decisions.

You will leave with a personal leadership charter, feedback plan and 30-day behaviour change plan. These documents identify specific relationships, trigger situations, observable commitments and review dates for workplace use.

The course provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided between instructor input, cases, group work, simulations, reflection 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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