Strategic Leadership Masterclass Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Directors and Executive Leaders, Business Unit Heads 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-116

Before you join: Participants should have substantial management experience and current responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme, portfolio or senior advisory remit.

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 leaders are expected to make choices under uncertainty while balancing growth, risk, public obligations, investor expectations, customer needs and workforce capacity. The difficulty is not producing a strategy document; it is identifying the few choices that matter, testing assumptions, securing commitment and turning priorities into decisions, investment and operating routines. This masterclass addresses the gap between strategic intent and sustained execution.

Participants examine how effective strategic leaders interpret external signals, define strategic position, allocate scarce resources and govern high-consequence decisions. They use PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, scenario planning, the Choice Cascade, Balanced Scorecard, RAPID and Hoshin Kanri to structure real leadership work. The course develops the judgement needed to challenge inherited assumptions, weigh competing stakeholder claims, communicate difficult choices and maintain direction when evidence changes.

Teaching combines focused briefings with cases drawn from banking, public services, infrastructure, multinational operations and mission-led organisations. Participants work through strategic choices, investment trade-offs, board-level decisions, stakeholder tensions and execution failures using their own organisational context where appropriate. They leave with a strategic leadership agenda, an evidence-led issue log, a strategy map, a decision-rights model, a stakeholder engagement plan and a 90-day action plan. The course is delivered over five days in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online, with a certificate of completion.

This course suits experienced leaders whose decisions affect multiple functions, business units, major programmes or external stakeholders. It is designed for people moving from senior functional leadership into enterprise, divisional or portfolio-level responsibility.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose strategic context using PESTLE, Five Forces, stakeholder analysis and scenario planning
  • Formulate strategic choices using the Choice Cascade and resource-based view
  • Construct strategy maps and Balanced Scorecards linking objectives, measures and initiatives
  • Evaluate strategic options using fit, feasibility, acceptability, risk and real-options logic
  • Design decision rights using RAPID, escalation thresholds and board governance principles
  • Allocate capital, talent and capacity using portfolio analysis and benefits cases
  • Lead stakeholder alignment through influence mapping, negotiation and strategic narratives
  • Produce a 90-day strategic leadership action plan with review mechanisms

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence framing ambiguous strategic issues for executive decision
  • A repeatable method for testing assumptions before major commitments
  • Stronger board and executive communication through concise strategic narratives
  • Practical tools for resolving competing stakeholder and resource demands
  • A personal agenda for shifting from operational oversight to strategic leadership

For your organisation

  • Clearer strategic choices supported by evidence, assumptions and explicit trade-offs
  • Better capital, talent and capacity allocation across competing priorities
  • Faster senior decisions through defined rights, escalation routes and governance forums
  • Improved alignment between strategic objectives, initiatives, measures and operating routines
  • Earlier identification of execution risks, stakeholder resistance and failing assumptions

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define their strategic leadership mandate and distinguish enterprise choices from operational management.

  • Strategic leadership responsibilities distinguished from operational management and functional expertise
  • Mintzberg's deliberate and emergent strategy forms tested against live conditions
  • Strategic intent translated into choices about arenas, advantage and resource allocation
  • Levels of strategy aligned: corporate, business-unit, functional and operating-model decisions
  • Enterprise value creation framed through economic, social and public value
  • Leadership mandate clarified using decision rights, accountabilities and authority boundaries

Participants can interpret external change and convert evidence into strategic implications.

  • PESTLE signals separated from weak signals, assumptions and predetermined trends
  • Porter's Five Forces used to test industry profit pools
  • Scenario axes constructed from critical uncertainties and plausible outcomes
  • Competitor hypotheses challenged through capabilities, incentives and likely moves
  • Stakeholder power-interest mapping reveals influence, legitimacy and potential resistance
  • Strategic implications recorded in an evidence-led issue log

Participants can formulate and test strategic choices using clear criteria and evidence.

  • Resource-based view identifies valuable, rare, inimitable and organised capabilities
  • Value chain analysis locates cost drivers, differentiation sources and bottlenecks
  • Strategy canvas compares buyer value factors against direct alternatives
  • Choice Cascade defines winning aspiration, where-to-play and how-to-win decisions
  • Strategic options screened against fit, feasibility, acceptability and risk
  • Real-options logic stages commitments under uncertainty and irreversible investment

Participants can translate strategic intent into measurable objectives and connected priorities.

  • Purpose, mission, vision and strategic ambition separated with precise definitions
  • Strategic themes converted into outcome statements and measurable strategic objectives
  • Balanced Scorecard links financial, customer, process and capability objectives
  • OKRs distinguish committed delivery measures from directional strategic outcomes
  • Strategy maps trace cause-and-effect assumptions between strategic objectives
  • North-star metrics tested for behavioural consequences and measurement integrity

Participants can prioritise strategic investments and make explicit resource trade-offs.

  • Portfolio matrices expose investment priorities, harvest candidates and exit decisions
  • Capital allocation criteria balance return, risk, liquidity and strategic fit
  • Resource reallocation identifies funding, talent and capacity trade-offs
  • Benefits cases state outcomes, costs, owners, dependencies and disbenefits
  • Strategic initiatives sequenced through dependency mapping and critical-path analysis
  • Zero-based resource reviews challenge inherited commitments and protected budgets

Participants can design governance arrangements that improve decision quality and accountability.

  • Decision quality assessed through framing, alternatives, information, values and commitment
  • RAPID assigns recommend, agree, perform, input and decide roles
  • Premortems surface failure modes before irreversible commitments are approved
  • Red teams test strategic assumptions, evidence quality and adversarial responses
  • Board papers distinguish decisions required, recommendations, risks and management actions
  • Escalation thresholds define when strategic decisions require executive or board review

Participants can build commitment for difficult strategic choices among influential stakeholders.

  • Stakeholder salience assesses power, legitimacy and urgency of competing claims
  • Influence maps identify sponsors, blockers, bridges and informal opinion leaders
  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions, interests, options and objective criteria
  • Strategic narratives connect evidence, choices, consequences and stakeholder commitments
  • Communication architecture matches messages, channels, cadence and accountable leaders
  • Trust repair plans address competence, integrity, reliability and openness

Participants can connect strategic priorities to operating mechanisms, initiatives and performance reviews.

  • Hoshin Kanri aligns breakthrough objectives, annual priorities and frontline measures
  • Strategy deployment matrices connect objectives, initiatives, owners, metrics and targets
  • Operating-model choices specify processes, structure, governance, people and technology
  • Execution reviews use leading indicators, lagging indicators and exception thresholds
  • Initiative charters define scope, benefits, milestones, dependencies and decision points
  • After-action reviews convert delivery evidence into strategic course corrections

Participants can lead strategic change by addressing behavioural, cultural and adaptive barriers.

  • Culture web diagnosis identifies paradigms, routines, rituals, symbols and controls
  • Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical problems from adaptive challenges
  • Kotter's change model applied without treating change as a communications campaign
  • Psychological safety practices support challenge, learning and candid risk reporting
  • Leadership shadow analysis tests consistency between stated priorities and observed behaviour
  • Resistance patterns classified as loss, uncertainty, disagreement or distrust

Participants can establish a focused personal agenda for leading strategic work after the course.

  • Strategic leadership agenda prioritises decisions, relationships, forums and time commitments
  • Stakeholder engagement plan assigns outcomes, messages, owners and review dates
  • 90-day action plan sequences strategic conversations, decisions and evidence gathering
  • Personal decision journal records assumptions, confidence levels and outcome reviews
  • Peer challenge protocol strengthens commitments through questions, evidence and alternatives
  • Learning loops schedule reflection, feedback and adjustment against strategic intent

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic leadership mandate template
  2. Evidence-led strategic issue log
  3. Choice Cascade decision model
  4. Balanced Scorecard strategy map
  5. RAPID decision-rights matrix
  6. 90-day strategic leadership action plan

Who should attend

  • Directors and Executive Leaders — need to set direction and govern enterprise-level choices
  • Business Unit Heads — need to translate corporate priorities into competitive advantage and execution
  • Senior Public Sector Leaders — need to balance policy aims, accountability and service outcomes
  • Strategy and Transformation Directors — need to turn strategic plans into funded, governed initiatives
  • Programme and Portfolio Directors — need to prioritise investment and manage strategic dependencies
  • Senior Functional Leaders — need to contribute credibly to cross-functional strategic decisions

Skills and tools covered

Strategic analysisEnterprise decision-makingPortfolio prioritisationStakeholder influenceStrategy executionLeadership judgement

Tools and standards

PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, Balanced Scorecard, Hoshin Kanri

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short faculty briefings to establish each method, followed by facilitated case analysis, group exercises, decision simulations and structured peer challenge. Cases address strategic choices such as entering a regulated market, redirecting a public-service portfolio, funding transformation or responding to disruption. Participants apply selected tools to a live organisational issue and receive feedback on their assumptions, decision framing and communication. Each module builds material for an individual strategic leadership action plan.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial management experience and current responsibility for a function, business unit, major programme, portfolio or senior advisory remit. They should be familiar with annual planning, performance measures, budgets and senior stakeholder discussions. Experience presenting recommendations to executives, boards or governance forums is helpful. Participants should bring awareness of one live strategic issue from their organisation. No MBA, finance qualification, formal strategy role or prior knowledge of the named frameworks is required.

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

This is an advanced course for experienced managers, directors and senior specialists with responsibility beyond a single team. Participants should understand planning, budgets and performance management, but no formal strategy qualification is required.

Bring a live strategic issue, decision, programme, portfolio challenge or stakeholder problem that can be examined during the course. Sensitive material can be anonymised, and participants are not required to share confidential documents.

It is best suited to leaders whose decisions affect multiple functions, business units, major programmes or external stakeholders. It also suits senior advisers preparing to move into a strategy, transformation or enterprise leadership role.

General leadership courses often focus on people management, communication and team performance. This masterclass concentrates on enterprise choices, strategic analysis, resource allocation, governance, stakeholder alignment and execution.

Participants can use the issue log, Choice Cascade, strategy map, RAPID matrix and stakeholder plan on current decisions. The final application plan identifies specific conversations, decisions and review points for the next 90 days.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between faculty input, cases, group analysis, decision simulations, peer challenge 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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