Leadership & Management
Strategic Leadership for Senior Managers
A five-day intensive for senior managers accountable for delivering a strategy they did not author, in conditions they do not fully control. The programme works on three things: converting strategy into a small number of executable priorities, deciding well with incomplete information, and holding people through the period in which a change is correct but not yet popular.
The business challenge
Why organisations commission this programme
Organisations commonly invest heavily in strategy formulation and very little in the layer that has to execute it. The result is a senior management population that can describe the strategy accurately but cannot say what it means for the allocation of their own attention, people and budget next quarter. Delivery then defaults to whatever is most urgent, and the strategy is quietly absorbed into business as usual.
Senior managers are accountable for strategy they did not write, in conditions they cannot fully control, with teams who need direction before the picture is complete.
Who it is for
Participants
- Audience
- Senior managers, heads of function, directors and succession candidates
- Recommended cohort
- 12 to 18 participants
- Prerequisites
- Current accountability for a function, department or substantial team.
Outcomes
What participants will be able to do
- Translate an organisational strategy into a small number of executable priorities for their own area.
- Allocate attention, resource and management capacity against those priorities rather than against demand.
- Make and defend decisions under incomplete information, stating assumptions and decision criteria explicitly.
- Lead people through ambiguity and resistance without either over-promising or withdrawing.
- Build and use a stakeholder map to secure support for a priority that crosses organisational boundaries.
Learning objectives
- Equip senior managers to translate strategy into a defensible set of priorities for their own area.
- Improve the quality and speed of decisions taken under uncertainty, and make the basis of those decisions explicit.
- Strengthen the capacity to lead people through resistance and ambiguity without over-promising or withdrawing.
- Build cross-boundary influence so that priorities requiring other functions actually move.
Indicative content
Programme structure
Content is confirmed during design and adapted to your context.
Day 1
Strategic context, the organisation's own strategy, the leadership role in execution, and baseline self-assessment.
- The execution gap
- Leadership role definition
- Strategic context and the client strategy
- Baseline self-assessment
Day 2
Translating strategy into priorities: frameworks, trade-offs, resource allocation and saying no credibly.
- Priority selection frameworks
- Resource and attention allocation
- Trade-offs and the discipline of stopping work
- Communicating a refusal credibly
Day 3
Decision-making under uncertainty, assumption testing, bias, and applied decision workshops using client scenarios.
- Decision frameworks under uncertainty
- Assumption and evidence testing
- Cognitive bias in management decisions
- Applied decision clinics on client dilemmas
Day 4
Leading people through change: stakeholders, influence without authority, resistance and difficult conversations.
- Stakeholder mapping and influence
- Leading through resistance
- Difficult conversations
- Cross-functional negotiation
Day 5
Integration simulation, individual leadership action plans, assessment and commitment to measurable follow-through.
- Integration simulation
- Peer challenge panels
- Individual leadership action plan
- Assessment and commitment
Delivery and customisation
Configured around your organisation
- Typical duration
- Five days (also available as three days or a two-day executive variant)
- Formats
- Classroom, virtual or blended; single or multi-cohort
- Language
- English by default. Other languages subject to facilitator availability and materials translation, agreed during design.
How it can be tailored
- The organisation's own strategy documents, operating plan and performance framework.
- Real dilemmas and decisions supplied confidentially by the sponsor as case material.
- The client competency framework, to which outcomes and assessment are mapped.
- Sector-specific scenarios, including regulatory or operating constraints.
- Inclusion of a 360-degree input or psychometric instrument where the client already licenses one.
Methods
- Facilitated case decisions using real organisational dilemmas supplied by the sponsor, anonymised where necessary.
- Peer challenge panels in which participants defend a priority decision to colleagues under structured questioning.
- A running integration simulation developed across the week and concluded on day five.
- Structured self-assessment at the start and a repeat measure at the end, with reflective practice between sessions.
Materials, assessment and completion
Materials
- Participant workbook containing session content, frameworks, exercises and space for applied work.
- Client-contextualised case material and scenario packs used during the programme.
- Job aids, checklists and templates designed for use in the role after the programme.
- Assessment instruments and the marking criteria applied to them.
- Individual action plan template and a manager briefing note.
- Decision framework cards and a priority conversion template.
Reinforcement
- Individual action plans agreed during the programme and shared with line managers where the client permits.
- Manager briefing material setting out what was taught and what should be reinforced in the role.
- Toolkits and templates issued in editable form for continued use.
- Follow-up session at 30, 60 or 90 days where commissioned, reviewing action-plan progress and obstacles.
- Optional individual coaching sessions for participants with a live organisational priority.
Completion
- Attendance at no less than 80 per cent of scheduled contact time, recorded daily and reconciled against the registered cohort.
- Participation in the assessed practical components of the programme.
- Submission of the assessed work product and the individual action plan.
- Achievement of the assessment threshold where the client sets one; where no threshold is set, results are reported without a pass or fail determination.
Participants who meet the completion criteria receive a Knull certificate of completion recording the programme, dates, duration, content covered and, where assessed, the assessment outcome. Knull does not award accredited or regulated qualifications and does not hold third-party training accreditation. Attendance and assessment records are retained under the engagement terms and provided to the client with the completion report.
| Component | Weighting | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline and post assessment | 25% | Knowledge and judgement instrument administered before day one and on day five; reported as learning gain. |
| Decision case performance | 30% | Quality of reasoning, explicit assumptions, criteria and evidence use in facilitated case decisions. |
| Observed practice conversation | 20% | Structured rubric covering preparation, clarity, listening, handling of resistance and close. |
| Leadership action plan | 25% | Specificity, realism, measurability and alignment to the organisational priority, reviewed against defined criteria. |
Next step
Make it fit your organisation
Dates, cohort, format and fees are agreed in a proposal once scope is defined. To register interest in a closed cohort, use a corporate booking request — Knull reviews every request; it is not a confirmed reservation.
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Discuss this programme for your organisation
Tell us about your priorities, capability gaps or business challenges. We'll help identify an appropriate next step.