Strategic Leadership and Organisational Influence Training Course

Course overview

Senior leaders are often judged not only on the quality of their decisions, but on their ability to secure commitment from people they do not directly manage. Matrix structures, competing priorities, executive scrutiny and cross-functional dependencies can stall critical initiatives even when the business case is sound. This course equips experienced professionals to build influence deliberately, diagnose political and organisational dynamics, and move stakeholders from passive agreement to visible action.

Participants examine how authority, credibility, relationships, information and networks shape organisational influence. They practise stakeholder mapping, power-interest analysis, influence-style diagnosis, executive message design, coalition building, difficult-conversation planning and resistance management. The course also develops practical methods for framing strategic choices, gaining sponsorship, handling conflicting agendas and communicating recommendations to senior decision-makers with clarity and commercial relevance.

Delivery combines instructor-led models with leadership case studies, facilitated simulations, peer challenge sessions and workshops based on participants' current organisational priorities. Each participant develops an Organisational Influence Action Plan for a live initiative, including a stakeholder map, influence strategy, communication sequence, risk assessment and 90-day implementation plan. The plan is tested through structured peer and instructor feedback before participants leave the programme.

The course is designed for managers, senior specialists and emerging executives whose results depend on influencing across functions, leading change, securing resources or gaining executive support without relying solely on formal authority.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct a stakeholder influence map using power, interest, stance and network-position analysis
• Diagnose organisational politics using the political landscape and informal-network mapping method
• Develop an influence strategy that matches stakeholder motivations, decision rights and resistance risks
• Frame strategic recommendations using executive-level narrative, evidence and commercial-value messages
• Apply the RACI model to clarify decision ownership, consultation routes and escalation points
• Plan high-stakes conversations using interest-based negotiation and objection-handling techniques
• Build a cross-functional coalition through sponsor identification, ally mobilisation and commitment tracking
• Produce a 90-day Organisational Influence Action Plan for a live business priority

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Senior Managers — who must align teams and functions around strategic priorities
• Functional Heads — who need executive backing and cross-departmental commitment for major initiatives
• Programme and Transformation Leaders — who depend on influence rather than direct authority to deliver change
• Business Partners — who must shape decisions with senior stakeholders across the organisation
• Senior Project Managers — who need to resolve competing stakeholder demands and resource conflicts
• High-Potential Leaders — who are preparing for broader enterprise leadership responsibilities

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least three years of management, project leadership, business partnering or senior specialist experience and should be working with stakeholders beyond their direct team. Familiarity with basic organisational structures, business planning, meeting facilitation and presenting recommendations is assumed. Participants should bring a current or forthcoming initiative that requires support from multiple stakeholders, ideally with competing interests or limited formal authority. No prior qualification in leadership theory, coaching, psychology, Power BI or formal negotiation is required. A laptop is useful for workshop materials but not essential for classroom attendance.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led briefings to introduce influence frameworks, followed by application to realistic leadership scenarios such as a transformation programme facing functional resistance or a funding request requiring executive approval. Participants work in small groups to map stakeholders, analyse informal power networks, rehearse high-stakes conversations and challenge each other's messaging. Microsoft Excel and Miro templates support structured analysis, while PowerPoint is used to refine executive communications. The final day is dedicated to testing each participant's influence plan and converting feedback into a practical 90-day action sequence.

Course outline

Day 1: Influence in complex organisations

• Formal authority versus informal influence
• Sources of organisational power and credibility
• The influence currency model
• Stakeholder segmentation by power, interest and stance
• Decision-rights analysis using RACI
• Organisational culture and unwritten rules
• Personal influence-style diagnostic

Workshop: Participants map the stakeholder landscape for a live initiative and identify the three relationships most critical to progress.

Day 2: Political awareness and stakeholder strategy

• Political landscape mapping
• Informal network analysis and gatekeeper identification
• Sponsor, ally, neutral and blocker classification
• Stakeholder motivation and value-exchange analysis
• Resistance diagnosis using the commitment curve
• Ethical boundaries in organisational politics
• Stakeholder engagement strategy design

Workshop: Participants build a Miro-based political landscape map and produce a stakeholder engagement strategy for a contested business decision.

Day 3: Executive communication and strategic framing

• Executive audience analysis
• Strategic narrative structure using context, choice and consequence
• Commercial framing of benefits, risks and trade-offs
• Evidence selection and data-storytelling principles
• Message tailoring for finance, operations and people leaders
• PowerPoint decision-paper structure
• Handling challenge, interruption and sceptical questions

Workshop: Participants create and deliver a five-minute executive recommendation, receiving feedback on clarity, evidence and influence impact.

Day 4: Influencing conversations and coalition building

• Interest-based negotiation for internal stakeholders
• Conversation planning using the SCARF model
• Questioning techniques for uncovering hidden objections
• Reframing conflict around shared outcomes
• Commitment requests and accountability language
• Coalition-building sequence and sponsor mobilisation
• Escalation choices and relationship-risk management

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated stakeholder meeting and produce a coalition plan with sponsor actions, commitments and escalation triggers.

Day 5: Applying influence to strategic priorities

• Integrating stakeholder, political and communication analysis
• Influence risk register development
• Microsoft Excel commitment-tracking dashboard
• Sequencing communications and stakeholder interventions
• Measuring commitment and behavioural adoption
• Ninety-day influence action planning
• Peer review against strategic leadership criteria

Workshop: Participants present their completed Organisational Influence Action Plan and leave with a reviewed 90-day implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Miro, Microsoft PowerPoint, RACI matrix

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions