Senior Executive Leadership Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Chief Executive Officers, Executive Directors 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-278

Before you join: Participants should have substantial management experience, normally including responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme or senior professional team.

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

Senior executives must set direction while managing competing stakeholder demands, uncertain information, political dynamics, operational risk and the performance of other senior leaders. Decisions made at this level affect capital allocation, regulatory exposure, customer trust, workforce confidence and organisational culture. The central challenge is not simply leading a function well; it is exercising enterprise leadership when priorities conflict and consequences extend beyond one business unit.

This masterclass examines the practices senior leaders use to lead strategy, influence boards and stakeholders, make sound decisions under uncertainty, build accountable executive teams and direct transformation. Participants work with scenario planning, stakeholder salience analysis, decision-rights design, governance controls, culture diagnostics, change sponsorship and crisis leadership methods. The course also addresses executive presence, difficult conversations, ethical judgement, succession, performance accountability and organisational resilience.

Teaching combines focused faculty briefings with sector-based cases, facilitated group analysis, executive simulations, structured peer challenge and individual application planning. Cases reflect decisions commonly faced in government, banking, regulated industries, NGOs and large corporates, including transformation delays, regulatory scrutiny, public incidents, difficult board decisions and cross-functional conflict. Participants leave with a personal leadership agenda, stakeholder engagement plan, decision-quality checklist and 90-day action plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

The course is designed for experienced leaders moving from functional or business-unit responsibility to wider enterprise accountability, as well as established executives seeking a disciplined way to address current strategic leadership challenges.

What you will be able to do

  • Formulate an enterprise leadership agenda using strategic intent, scenario planning and measurable priorities
  • Apply stakeholder salience analysis to influence boards, regulators, sponsors and internal coalitions
  • Design decision rights and escalation protocols for complex, high-consequence executive decisions
  • Assess leadership behaviour using 360-degree feedback, adaptive leadership and reflective practice
  • Strengthen executive-team accountability through charters, RACI matrices and operating rhythms
  • Direct transformation sponsorship using change impact assessments and benefits realisation maps
  • Lead crisis communication using incident command principles, decision cadence and stakeholder messaging
  • Produce a 90-day leadership action plan with commitments, measures, owners and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • A clearer enterprise leadership agenda for current strategic responsibilities
  • Greater confidence handling board-level challenge and stakeholder conflict
  • A repeatable method for making and documenting high-consequence decisions
  • Practical approaches for leading senior peers through disagreement and accountability
  • A focused 90-day plan for visible leadership behaviour and strategic delivery

For your organisation

  • Better executive decisions with clearer rights, evidence thresholds and escalation routes
  • Stronger alignment between strategy, leadership behaviour and operational priorities
  • Reduced transformation delay through active sponsorship and benefits tracking
  • More effective management of regulatory, reputational and stakeholder risk
  • Greater accountability within senior teams for enterprise rather than silo outcomes

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can translate strategic intent into enterprise priorities, choices and leadership commitments.

  • Strategic intent translated into a small set of enterprise-level leadership choices
  • Mintzberg's deliberate and emergent strategy distinguished in volatile portfolio decisions
  • Scenario planning uses critical uncertainties, signposts, and contingent strategic commitments
  • Systems maps expose feedback loops, delays, and unintended executive decisions
  • Strategy-on-a-page links purpose, priorities, measures, owners, and resource trade-offs
  • Board papers frame options, recommendation, risks, dependencies, and decision rights

Participants can assess and adapt their leadership behaviour for senior-level influence and accountability.

  • 360-degree feedback converted into two observable leadership behaviour commitments
  • Adaptive leadership separates technical problems from values-based adaptive challenges
  • Immunity-to-change maps surface competing commitments and hidden assumptions
  • SCARF diagnoses status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness triggers
  • Executive presence aligns message architecture, voice, posture, and meeting conduct
  • Reflective practice uses after-action reviews to test leadership assumptions

Participants can build support, handle resistance and conduct difficult senior stakeholder conversations.

  • Stakeholder salience assesses power, legitimacy, urgency, and likely coalition behaviour
  • Power-interest grids prioritise engagement choices for ministers, regulators, and unions
  • Interest-based negotiation distinguishes positions, interests, BATNA, and objective criteria
  • Coalition maps identify sponsors, blockers, brokers, and critical relationship gaps
  • Difficult conversations apply the SBI model and inquiry-advocacy balance
  • Executive narratives connect strategic choices to stakeholder-specific concerns and evidence

Participants can structure complex decisions, test assumptions and establish appropriate decision controls.

  • Cynefin categorises clear, complicated, complex, and chaotic decision contexts
  • Decision rights specify recommend, decide, input, veto, and execution accountabilities
  • Pre-mortems identify failure modes before irreversible commitments are made
  • Red-team challenge tests assumptions, evidence quality, and alternative explanations
  • Decision logs record rationale, dissent, thresholds, and review dates
  • Escalation protocols distinguish operational exceptions from matters requiring board attention

Participants can apply governance and ethical judgement to decisions with material organisational consequences.

  • Three-lines model clarifies management, risk oversight, and internal audit accountabilities
  • Risk appetite statements translate board tolerance into executive decision boundaries
  • Ethical fading and motivated reasoning expose predictable leadership judgement failures
  • Speak-up systems protect escalation channels, retaliation controls, and investigation independence
  • Materiality assessments connect stakeholder impacts to strategic and reporting priorities
  • Governance calendars align committee decisions, assurance evidence, and disclosure deadlines

Participants can shape leadership conditions that support performance, challenge and enterprise accountability.

  • Culture web analysis identifies routines, symbols, stories, controls, and power structures
  • Psychological safety distinguishes productive challenge from interpersonal comfort
  • Performance contracts connect enterprise outcomes, team commitments, and individual accountabilities
  • RACI matrices clarify ownership where matrix structures create execution friction
  • Recognition systems reinforce behaviours required by strategy rather than activity volume
  • Pulse data combines engagement signals, attrition patterns, and operational indicators

Participants can sponsor transformation through clear rationale, governance, adoption and benefits measures.

  • Case for change quantifies strategic rationale, consequences, and non-negotiable outcomes
  • Kotter's eight-step process is adapted for executive sponsorship responsibilities
  • Change impact assessments map role, process, technology, and capability consequences
  • Transition curves anticipate productivity dips, resistance patterns, and communication needs
  • Benefits realisation maps link initiatives, outputs, adoption, and measurable outcomes
  • Transformation governance sets cadence, workstream dependencies, decisions, and escalation routes

Participants can establish senior-team norms, resolve conflict and strengthen collective accountability.

  • Senior-team charters define purpose, membership, norms, and collective accountabilities
  • Team effectiveness diagnostic examines trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results
  • Productive conflict uses advocacy, inquiry, and explicit disagreement protocols
  • Succession slates assess readiness, development actions, and role-critical risks
  • Talent reviews distinguish performance, potential, retention risk, and mobility
  • Cross-functional operating rhythms coordinate priorities, handoffs, and resource conflicts

Participants can lead senior responses to incidents, uncertainty and intense stakeholder scrutiny.

  • Crisis leadership establishes facts, decision cadence, spokesperson roles, and stakeholder updates
  • Incident command principles clarify authority, span of control, and escalation
  • Reputation risk scenarios test messages against media, regulator, and customer scrutiny
  • Situational communication balances candour, uncertainty, empathy, and legal constraints
  • After-action reviews convert crisis evidence into control and leadership improvements
  • Business continuity priorities protect people, critical services, liquidity, and data

Participants can convert course insights into a focused leadership agenda and accountable action plan.

  • Personal leadership agenda prioritises three enterprise challenges and measurable commitments
  • Stakeholder engagement plan sequences conversations, sponsorship requests, and resistance responses
  • Decision-quality checklist tests rights, evidence, dissent, risk, and reversibility
  • 90-day action plan assigns milestones, owners, measures, and review dates
  • Peer accountability contracts establish challenge partners and follow-through checkpoints
  • Executive reflection identifies habits to stop, sustain, and deliberately practise

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

What you take back to work

  1. Enterprise leadership agenda template
  2. Stakeholder salience and coalition map
  3. Executive decision-quality checklist
  4. Senior-team charter template
  5. Transformation benefits realisation map
  6. 90-day leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Chief Executive Officers — need disciplined methods for enterprise direction, stakeholder confidence and executive alignment
  • Executive Directors — require stronger decision, governance and transformation leadership across portfolios
  • Business Unit Heads — are preparing for enterprise roles beyond functional performance accountability
  • Senior Public Sector Leaders — must balance ministerial priorities, public value, delivery and scrutiny
  • Country Managers — coordinate regional strategy, regulatory relationships and cross-functional execution
  • Senior NGO Leaders — manage donor expectations, programme impact, governance and organisational resilience

Skills and tools covered

Enterprise strategic leadershipStakeholder influenceExecutive decision-makingTransformation sponsorshipGovernance judgementCrisis leadership

Tools and standards

Cynefin Framework, SCARF Model, RACI Matrix, Kotter's 8-Step Process

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short faculty briefings to introduce executive leadership methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises, structured peer challenge and senior-level simulations. Participants assess realistic decisions involving strategy, governance, culture, transformation, stakeholder pressure and crisis response. Facilitators connect each framework to choices participants face in their own organisations, including board reporting, senior-team conflict and cross-functional delivery. Individual reflection and application planning convert course material into a practical leadership agenda and 90-day action plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial management experience, normally including responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme or senior professional team. They should be comfortable discussing strategic priorities, organisational performance, stakeholder relationships and decisions with material operational or reputational consequences. Experience presenting to executive committees, boards, regulators or major clients is useful but not essential. No formal leadership qualification, personality assessment, finance qualification or prior knowledge of the named frameworks is required. Participants should bring a current leadership challenge they can use during application planning.

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

The course assumes substantial management experience and current responsibility for a team, function, business unit or major programme. It is intended for leaders who already make consequential decisions and need stronger enterprise-level leadership methods.

Bring a current leadership challenge, such as a transformation, stakeholder conflict, strategic decision, senior-team issue or governance concern. Participants use this challenge during reflection and application planning, but confidential details need not be shared.

It is best suited to executives, directors, business-unit leaders, country managers and senior public-sector or NGO leaders. Participants should be operating across functions, managing significant stakeholders or preparing for broader enterprise responsibility.

This masterclass concentrates on enterprise choices, executive influence, governance, strategic change and senior-team accountability. It does not focus on introductory supervision, delegation basics or routine people-management processes.

Participants use their own leadership context to test stakeholder analysis, decision-rights design, change sponsorship and crisis communication approaches. The final module produces a practical agenda and 90-day action plan for use after the course.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from strategic leadership and executive influence through governance, transformation, senior teams, crisis leadership 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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