There is a specific and poorly supported transition in most organisations: the move from managing people who do the work to leading people who manage the people who do the work.
The skills that made someone an effective manager actively work against them at this level. Direct coaching becomes interference. Hands-on problem solving undermines the manager who owns the problem. Detailed knowledge of every deliverable becomes impossible, and the attempt to retain it becomes a bottleneck.
This programme is built for directors, heads of function and senior leaders across the UAE and KSA who carry a layer of management beneath them. It covers leading through others, building a succession bench, designing how work flows between teams, navigating cross-functional politics, and making decisions with incomplete information under real commercial pressure.
Key Course Outcomes
✓Lead through managers without bypassing them or absorbing their decisions.
✓Develop and assess the managers who report to you, including the difficult cases.
✓Build a succession bench rather than a dependency on a handful of individuals.
✓Design structure, ownership and handoffs so work flows between functions.
✓Influence peers and executives over whom you hold no authority.
✓Make and communicate decisions under genuine uncertainty.
Programme Structure
A senior-level curriculum for leaders responsible for other leaders. Select each day to explore the modules in detail.
Day 1: The Second-Line Transition
1
What Changes When You Lead Leaders
The three habits that make a strong manager a weak senior leader
Bypassing: why it feels helpful and what it costs your managers
Setting direction that a layer of managers can actually translate
2
Developing and Assessing Managers
Judging management capability rather than team output alone
Coaching a manager on how they manage, not on their deliverable
Handling the capable individual contributor who is a poor manager
3
Delegating Authority, Not Tasks
Defining decision rights explicitly across your layer
Setting the boundary between escalation and ownership
Building the confidence to let a manager make an expensive mistake
Day 2: Organisation and Influence
4
Designing How Work Flows
Structure, ownership and the handoffs between functions
Diagnosing whether a recurring failure is capability or design
Span of control, layers and when a restructure is genuinely warranted
5
Influence Without Authority
Building coalitions across peer functions in a matrixed organisation
Reading organisational politics without becoming political
Negotiating for resource, headcount and priority at the executive table
6
Communicating Up and Across
Framing a recommendation for an executive audience
Delivering uncomfortable news with a position attached
Managing a sponsor relationship over a multi-year horizon
Day 3: Judgement and Succession
7
Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
Reversible and irreversible decisions, and how to treat each
Deciding with incomplete information without defaulting to delay
Communicating a decision you are not fully certain about
8
Building the Bench
Mapping succession honestly, including for your own role
Identifying and stretching high-potential managers
Retention of senior talent in a competitive GCC market
9
Your Leadership Agenda
Defining the three things only you can do in the next twelve months
Auditing where your time currently goes against that agenda
Personal leadership plan with peer challenge and review commitments
What Participants Say
★★★★★
"Corporate Training Hub delivered a game-changing consultative selling programme for our sales team. The results were immediate — pipeline quality improved dramatically within weeks of the training."
Khalid Al Marzouqi
Sales Director, Major UAE Bank
★★★★★
"Outstanding delivery and deep regional understanding. Our management team left with practical tools they actually use. The facilitators' knowledge of the MENA environment set this apart from anything we have seen."
Sarah Thompson
HR Director, Global Manufacturing Co.
★★★★★
"The AI for Business programme opened our eyes to possibilities we hadn't considered. Excellent facilitation that made complex concepts accessible to every level of our leadership team."
Mohammed Al Rasheed
COO, Regional Real Estate Developer
Interested in This Programme?
Speak to our team about scheduling, group pricing, and delivery in UAE or KSA. All prices are per group of up to 12 delegates, excluding VAT.
