Succession Planning and Leadership Development Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Talent Management Leaders, HR Business Partners 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-TPM-049

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in HR, people management, learning and development, sales management or workforce planning.

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

Leadership vacancies, unplanned departures and weak internal pipelines can disrupt strategy, customer relationships and operational control. Many organisations identify high performers but lack a disciplined method for determining who can succeed into critical roles, what evidence supports readiness and how development will close gaps. The risk is particularly acute in sales leadership, regulated financial services, public agencies and technical functions where relationships, market knowledge and decision authority are difficult to replace quickly.

This course provides a practical system for succession planning and leadership development. Participants define critical roles, create success profiles, assess performance and potential, run fair talent reviews and build successor slates with clear readiness categories. They use the Nine-Box Grid, critical-role risk analysis, calibration protocols and 70-20-10 development planning. The course also addresses leadership transitions, internal mobility, diversity and inclusion, sales leadership pipelines, governance, data privacy and reporting to executives or boards.

Instruction combines concise briefings with realistic cases, facilitated talent-review discussions, succession-risk analysis, leadership assessment interpretation and implementation planning. Participants work with templates that can be adapted to their own organisation, including role profiles, talent-review agendas, readiness plans and dashboard measures. They leave with a structured succession and leadership development action plan for a selected business area or function, supported by defined governance, milestones and measures.

The course suits HR and talent professionals, HR business partners, learning leaders, senior managers and sales leaders responsible for building leadership continuity. It is relevant for organisations developing formal succession processes as well as those seeking to strengthen an existing process that produces inconsistent ratings, limited diversity or unclear development accountability.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose critical roles and quantify succession risk using a critical-role risk matrix
  • Construct success profiles that define leadership outcomes, experiences, behaviours and technical requirements
  • Assess performance, potential and readiness using evidence-based talent criteria
  • Facilitate calibrated talent reviews that produce defensible succession decisions
  • Build successor slates with emergency cover, ready-now candidates and future pipeline talent
  • Create 70-20-10 development plans linked to specific readiness gaps
  • Manage leadership transitions through stakeholder mapping, knowledge transfer and first-90-day plans
  • Design succession dashboards and implementation roadmaps for executive review

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Apply a repeatable method for identifying and prioritising succession risks
  • Lead talent-review conversations with clearer evidence and stronger challenge
  • Create development plans that target specific successor readiness gaps
  • Improve credibility when advising executives on leadership pipeline decisions
  • Build practical transition plans for internal appointments and leadership handovers

For your organisation

  • Reduces exposure created by vacancies in critical leadership and commercial roles
  • Improves internal promotion decisions through consistent readiness criteria and calibration
  • Strengthens leadership bench depth for planned growth, restructuring and turnover
  • Creates clearer accountability for successor development, sponsorship and follow-through
  • Provides executive reporting on coverage, diversity, readiness and vacancy risk

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can connect business priorities to critical-role succession requirements and governance decisions.

  • Business strategy translated into leadership capabilities, roles and succession priorities
  • Critical-role criteria based on value creation, scarcity and disruption exposure
  • Workforce segmentation distinguishes pivotal roles from broad leadership populations
  • Strategic workforce plans reveal future leadership demand and talent supply
  • Succession governance assigns board, executive, HR and manager accountabilities
  • Decision rights documented through a RACI for talent review cycles

Participants can assess talent using distinct and evidence-based measures of performance, potential and readiness.

  • Performance-potential distinction avoids treating current results as promotability
  • Nine-Box Grid criteria calibrated using evidence, not manager reputation
  • Potential indicators assess learning agility, aspiration, engagement and leadership capacity
  • Structured talent profiles combine experience, results, behaviours and career preferences
  • Calibration meetings test ratings against comparable evidence and bias checks
  • Data privacy controls govern access, retention and sensitive assessment records

Participants can strengthen fairness and transparency within succession and leadership development decisions.

  • Promotion bias patterns identified through adverse-impact and representation analyses
  • Structured assessments reduce similarity bias, halo effects and informal sponsorship
  • Career pathways make development access visible for underrepresented talent
  • Intersectional talent data exposes barriers concealed by aggregate reporting
  • Reasonable adjustments support fair participation in assessment and development
  • Audit trails record rating changes, evidence and decision rationales

Participants can create successor slates that address immediate cover and longer-term leadership pipeline needs.

  • Succession slates distinguish emergency cover, ready-now successors and future candidates
  • Bench-strength measures compare ready talent against critical-role successor requirements
  • Successor readiness assessed by performance, potential, experience and developmental gaps
  • Risk heat maps combine vacancy probability, role impact and pipeline depth
  • Development assignments close specific gaps before planned transition dates
  • Contingency plans address sudden departures, failed appointments and external hiring delays

Participants can run structured talent reviews that generate clear decisions, actions and accountability.

  • Talent-review agendas sequence evidence, challenge, decisions and follow-through
  • Facilitated calibration separates advocacy from evidence-based succession judgments
  • Question protocols test readiness claims, mobility constraints and development ownership
  • Meeting outputs capture successors, actions, sponsors, dates and unresolved risks
  • Escalation routes resolve contested ratings and cross-business talent conflicts
  • Quarterly review cadence links succession actions to business planning milestones

Participants can design leadership development actions that address assessed readiness and capability gaps.

  • Leadership competency models connect strategy, culture and role-specific accountabilities
  • Success profiles define outcomes, experiences, behaviours and technical credibility
  • Leadership assessments combine 360 feedback, simulations and structured interviews
  • 70-20-10 development plans balance experience, relationships and formal learning
  • Individual development plans translate assessment evidence into measurable growth goals
  • Coaching contracts specify goals, confidentiality, feedback and review arrangements

Participants can apply succession methods to sales leadership roles and commercial continuity risks.

  • Sales leadership success profiles address revenue, coaching, forecasting and customer strategy
  • Territory succession maps protect account continuity during leadership transitions
  • Pipeline inspection distinguishes deal control from forecast optimism
  • Sales coaching observations assess call planning, questioning, feedback and follow-up
  • Commercial leadership assignments build pricing, channel and key-account experience
  • Commission-plan awareness prevents incentive distortions during successor appointments

Participants can support internal leadership appointments through planned transition and integration processes.

  • Role-entry plans define stakeholder mapping, priorities, decisions and first-90-day outcomes
  • Transition risk reviews identify authority gaps, relationship losses and knowledge dependencies
  • Knowledge-transfer protocols capture client history, operating decisions and informal networks
  • Sponsor and mentor roles accelerate integration without bypassing line accountability
  • Stakeholder communications protect confidence while respecting candidate confidentiality
  • Early-warning indicators trigger support before performance problems become entrenched

Participants can measure succession pipeline health and report decision-relevant insights to senior leaders.

  • Succession dashboards track coverage, readiness, diversity, movement and vacancy risk
  • Internal-fill rate distinguishes pipeline contribution from external recruitment dependence
  • Time-to-readiness measures development progress against anticipated role demand
  • Quality-of-move reviews test appointment outcomes after six and twelve months
  • Leading indicators connect development activity to bench-strength improvement
  • Executive reporting frames talent risks, decisions and investment trade-offs

Participants can prepare a phased succession implementation plan with accountable owners and measurable milestones.

  • Current-state diagnosis identifies priority roles, data gaps, governance and capability constraints
  • Phased roadmaps sequence design, pilot, calibration, rollout and evaluation decisions
  • Change-stakeholder maps anticipate manager concerns, sponsor influence and adoption barriers
  • Manager enablement plans specify briefing, tools, practice and accountability routines
  • Implementation scorecards assign milestones, owners, resources and outcome measures
  • Personal application plans schedule first actions, sponsors and review dates

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

What you take back to work

  1. Critical-role risk matrix template
  2. Leadership success profile template
  3. Talent-review agenda and calibration guide
  4. Successor slate and readiness assessment model
  5. 70-20-10 individual development plan
  6. Succession dashboard and implementation roadmap

Who should attend

  • Talent Management Leaders — responsible for succession policy, governance and enterprise talent reviews
  • HR Business Partners — advise leaders on critical roles, successor readiness and development actions
  • Learning and Development Managers — design leadership pathways tied to assessed business needs
  • Senior Managers — make talent decisions and sponsor future leaders within their functions
  • Sales Directors — protect leadership continuity, customer coverage and commercial capability
  • People Analytics Specialists — produce talent data, dashboards and evidence for succession decisions

Skills and tools covered

Succession risk analysisTalent calibrationLeadership assessmentSuccessor developmentTransition managementTalent analytics

Tools and standards

Nine-Box Grid, Critical Role Risk Matrix, 70-20-10 Development Model, RACI Matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce succession frameworks, followed by case work based on leadership vacancies, business growth and sales-management transitions. Participants interpret talent evidence, test ratings through calibration discussions, construct successor slates and develop targeted development actions. Group work focuses on realistic decision trade-offs, including confidentiality, fairness, mobility and scarce specialist talent. Facilitated simulations build confidence in talent-review conversations. Each participant develops an application plan for a priority function, business unit or leadership population.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in HR, people management, learning and development, sales management or workforce planning. Familiarity with performance appraisal processes, organisational structures and basic HR reporting is helpful. Participants should be able to discuss roles, team capability and development needs within their own organisation. Prior experience running succession reviews, using psychometric assessments or building talent dashboards is not required. No advanced statistics, legal qualification, software certification or prior leadership assessment accreditation is assumed.

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

Participants should understand basic HR or people-management processes and have some exposure to performance discussions, workforce planning or leadership development. Prior responsibility for succession planning is not required.

Participants should bring a non-confidential example of a leadership role, talent challenge or succession concern from their organisation. Existing role profiles, development frameworks or talent-review materials can also help, but are optional.

The course is designed for talent, HR, learning and development professionals, HR business partners, senior managers and sales leaders. It is particularly useful for people who contribute to talent reviews or need to build a reliable leadership pipeline.

General leadership courses focus on a participant's own leadership behaviour and management skills. This course focuses on the organisational methods used to identify, assess, develop and appoint future leaders.

Participants leave with templates and an application plan for a selected role group, function or business unit. They can use these materials to improve an upcoming talent review, define successor readiness or establish a development process.

The five days provide approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally delivered from 08:30 to 16:30. Time is divided between framework briefings, case analysis, talent-review simulations, group discussions and individual implementation 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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