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Leaders Toolkit

Henley Leader's Toolkit Programme

At a glance

  • Learn the skills to move from manager to leader
  • Develop a strong sense of personal leadership identity
  • Explore team dynamics and how best to construct and lead a dream team
  • Explore how to remain resilient at a personal and organisational level
  • Learn how to have difficult high stakes conversations
  • Understand fundamental influence techniques
Subject area(s)
Leadership
Attendance
Short course
Fee
£4,950 + VAT (includes residential costs).
Course length
3 days
Suitable for
Managers who are currently in a leadership role or are about to embark on one
Delivery
In-person

Start dates

24 Jun 2025

Delivery: In-person
Location: Greenlands campus,

Book now

2 Dec 2025

Delivery: In-person
Location: Greenlands campus,

Book now

NOTE

All programmes are subject to limited availability. We recommend booking a minimum of 6 weeks before the programme start date, to guarantee sufficient time for your enrolment and on-boarding.

Overview

When you’re starting a new leadership position – or even when you’re already in one – it’s not always clear what key skills and knowledge you’ll need in order to lead effectively.

This short programme is packed with those key skills which will get you off to a flying start or powerfully enhance your existing abilities. It focuses on three main areas:

  • The individual: How do leaders present themselves and communicate with peers, teams and stakeholders?
  • Team dynamics: How do you build and lead a dream team? And how do you tackle those difficult, high-stakes conversations?
  • The organisation: What are the characteristics of politically savvy leaders? How do you stay resilient at a personal and organisational level?

The programme comprises six half-day, high-impact sessions, each delivered by a different specialist tutor. Each tutor brings a unique style to the programme, making the learning highly dynamic, high-energy, thought-provoking, and always engaging! It delivers a range of inter-connected skills and develops leadership capacity and capability for any managers and leaders wanting to either build or consolidate their leadership style.

Key benefits

  • Develop a strong sense of personal leadership identity and ability to command respect

  • Develop the ability to communicate to teams and a wider audience with skill

  • Build greater confidence in dealing with stakeholders, peers and others

  • Develop a capacity to handle difficult conversations with resourcefulness

  • Grow your understanding of teams and how to construct, collaborate and lead them successfully

  • Gain a better appreciation of yourself as a leader and of personal resilience

  • Understand political savvy - how to gain and use it constructively.

The Henley Leader's Toolkit Programme is delivered by a range of faculty from different backgrounds and sectors. Through the programme, the emphasis is on building the skills that you can apply to your leadership role.

The programme runs for a total of three days:

Day 1

Did you know there is a secret Language of Leadership: a secret set of verbal, vocal and physical cues that has remained largely unchanged throughout history; a secret code that still determines who rises to the top in politics and business? The Language of Leadership combines ancient rhetorical devices with recent breakthroughs in neuroscience and behavioural economics to offer the definitive guide to leadership communication. The Language of Leadership sets out a simple three-step approach to winning minds.

Learning outcomes

  • A deep insight into the critical elements that determine how communication works and who wins arguments.
  • Develop the practical tools to make yourself more engaging, inspiring and influential.
  • Formulate a clearer idea of your unique leadership voice and style, which you can draw upon throughout your career.
Academic authors
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Simon Lancaster

What is the unique value you bring with you into each conversation? What are your areas of passion or expertise? What are the core values at the heart of your leadership? How would your colleagues, clients or stakeholders describe you?

You already have a personal brand; you are telling a story with every interaction. But are you telling your ideal story – one that will help your career journey or business growth?

Understanding and expressing your personal brand is vital to managing your success. In this interactive session, you will experience a wide range of tools to help you manage your personal brand and influence skilfully. We will explore how you can manage conversations with expertise and express your best self.

Learning outcomes

  • A deep understanding of your personal brand
  • Build an aspirational personal brand to guide your leadership and communication style
  • Understand how to express your personal brand while influencing with impact
  • A clear action plan for influencing skilfully using your personal brand
Academic authors
Sarah Perugia
Sarah Perugia

Day 2

The main challenges in organisations lie in the interfaces and relationships between people, teams, functions and different stakeholder needs. We explore what makes an effective team in today’s complex and ambiguous world, and what is the real role of the leader. Taking a systemic lens, we look at what we mean by ‘collective leadership’ and how that can create and unleash value for individuals and the whole team.

The session will be highly interactive and participants will apply the thinking to their own teams, and explore some different ways of leading and collaborating to optimise the contributions of every member of their team.

Learning outcomes:

  • Learn how collaboration can bring out the best in individuals for the benefit of the team
  • Recognise how teams can add real value to the organisation
  • Discover what it means as a leader to be systemically aware and why it matters
  • Understand what is meant by collective team and systemic leadership and what gets in the way of operating in this way.
Academic authors
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Jude Fairweather

Do you sometimes encounter situations at work where you need to have a difficult conversation? Sometimes managers don’t know what to say and avoid dealing with the issue, hoping that it will eventually disappear. However, often the problem persists or becomes more serious, making it even more challenging to address.

In this practical and interactive online masterclass, we will share some frameworks which will enable you to confront tough situations with compassion and skill. You will also learn how to deal with team members who play the role of victim.

Learning outcomes

  • Explore the kinds of situations where you find it difficult to have conversations
  • Practise applying a model for having a ‘fierce conversation’ with other participants and receive feedback
  • Learn how to address victim mentality and avoid the ‘drama triangle’.
Academic authors
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Sabehia Mohamed

Day 3

In the challenging times we face, we often hear about the need for good leadership. At the same time, the pressure and expectations that leaders are facing are greater than ever. Leaders need to be able to respond and react to a myriad of complex situations and be able to remain resourceful to both themselves and their teams. They need to have high levels of self-awareness around how they thrive and what trips them up.

To deal with these challenges and to be able to serve their organisations, teams and societies, leaders need to be in good shape.

The critical element of staying in shape is resilience – the capacity to navigate and thrive in times of complexity and disruption.

Learning outcomes

  • Deepening your understanding of resilience and what it means for you.
  • Building range – finding different ways to deal with pressure.
  • Self-awareness of your strengths and vulnerabilities.
  • Building the capacity to respond rather than to react.
  • Identifying good habits to build your resilience.
Academic authors
Aboodi Shabi Photo 75j492m7v
Aboodi Shabi

We will explore the territory of office politics – what is it? why does it happen? and why are some people savvy operators and some not? Why is it even important to be politically savvy? These are learnable skills which will increase your influence and ability to make things happen.

We will examine the dimensions of political savvy, how to measure them, and – most importantly – how to acquire them! The six secret skills of politically savvy individuals are fundamental to operating in the complex map of office politics with confidence, aplomb and success.

Learning outcomes

• Understand why some organisations are more political than others.

• Being aware of the concept and dimensions of political skills.

• Understand fundamental influence techniques.

• Seeing political skill as an asset.

Academic authors
Adrian furnham
Professor Adrian Furnham

Modules or course content marked as optional are indicative and may be subject to change. Please note, constraints in timetable scheduling may mean you are unable to take some optional modules at the same time as others.

Simon Lancaster

Executive Fellow

Jude Fairweather

Programme Director | Tutor, Professional Certificate in Team and Systemic Coaching

Sabehia Mohamed

Executive Fellow

Aboodi Shabi

Lecturer in Coaching and Behavioural Change

Set in sweeping parkland on the banks of the River Thames, Henley Business School's Greenlands campus provides an inspiring and reflective environment for focused work and study.

Find out more about our facilities and how to find us.

Why choose Henley?

No.3 in the UK
of Executive Education providers for open programmes - Financial Times 2024
(Financial Times Executive Education open enrolment programmes rankings 2024)
No. 20 in the world
for Executive Education (combined open and custom programmes) - Financial Times 2023
(Executive Education 2023: Top 50 combined ranking and school profiles)

For 75 years, Henley Business School has developed confident and resilient business leaders. Executive Education at Henley is:

  • Practical: we combine academic rigour with a strong practical focus, so you can immediately apply what you have learned back in your organisation.
  • Relevant: Henley faculty are experienced practitioners who can support you in exploring solutions to your organisation’s challenges.
  • Collaborative: Open programmes enable you to expand your network, gain new perspectives and share ideas with peers from a range of backgrounds and sectors.
  • Personal: deliberately small learning groups allow you to benefit from individual attention and a confidential environment. We encourage you to understand your unique strengths, leadership style, and areas for development.

Contact us

Open Programmes

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the programme, please contact our programme advisors.

Email: exec@henley.ac.uk
Telephone: 01491 418767

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