Leadership skills that build real influence
Getting promoted past first-line management brings a different challenge: leading people you don’t manage directly, building trust across departments, and driving engagement without relying on authority alone. The Influential Leader is Level 2 of our Leadership & Management Program series, focuses on the core operational skills and the human-centered mindset that turn a capable individual contributor into a manager
We recommend:
In-person or online
14 weeks
12-20 people
What you’ll learn & do
This program empowers your leaders to:
- Role model self-awareness, self-care, and sustainable productivity as a leader, or apply the same principles to hybrid working specifically
- Build growth through trust and resilience, creating an environment where your team can actually thrive
- Communicate and collaborate powerfully as a team, without adding to the overwhelm
- Discover the power of coaching to engage and develop the people you lead
- Uncover the formula for engaging and retaining your top talent
- Maximize your personal and positional power to influence and manage upwards effectively
94%
of participants would recommend our workshops
Who is this program for?
- Middle managers looking to build strategic, cross-functional influence
- Operational and departmental managers responsible for engagement and retention
- Senior managers ready to deepen their coaching and communication skills
What this program offers
- Learning that lasts. Every participant gets access to the Productivity Ninja® Academy, extending the ideas well beyond the program itself.
- A full 14-week program, not a single session, so new habits and mindsets actually have room to take hold.
- Six live masterclasses plus six small group coaching sessions, alongside weekly self-led implementation and assignments.
- A cohort kick-off session and a program finale, giving the experience a real beginning and end.
What you’ll do
Over 14 weeks, your leaders move through six live masterclasses covering self-awareness and sustainable productivity, trust and resilience, team communication, coaching, engagement, and managing upwards, paired with six small group coaching sessions to work through what’s actually coming up in their day-to-day. Weekly self-led implementation and assignments keep the learning active between sessions, bookended by a cohort kick-off and a program finale.
What happens when leaders influence this way
When leaders learn to influence with impact, everything changes:
- Leaders build trust and engagement across teams they don’t directly manage
- Coaching conversations replace command-and-control by default
- Communication happens without adding to team overwhelm
- Top talent stays, because engagement is actively managed, not assumed
- Leaders manage upward with confidence instead of frustration
Program Participant
“The program was engaging, useful, relevant, clear and supportive. It opened my mind to new ideas, tools and effective methods, which in turn has refreshed my approach to work.” Helen Rouse
Benefits & Results
Immediate benefits
- A stronger, more self-aware leadership style, adaptable to hybrid or in-person teams
- Real coaching skills to develop and engage your team, not just direct it
- Team communication that builds connection instead of adding to overwhelm
- A clear approach to retaining top talent instead of losing it
- Confidence to manage upward and maximize your own influence
What your organization gets
- Higher levels of psychological safety, kindness, resilience, engagement, and performance across teams
- Lower levels of stress, overwhelm, frustration, and staff turnover
- Middle and senior managers equipped to lead through influence, not just authority
- A stronger, more connected leadership layer ready to progress toward Level 3
Frequently Asked Questions
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Level 1 builds core operational management skills for first-line managers. The Influential Leader is for those already managing managers, or leading across departments, and focuses on strategic influence, coaching, and engagement rather than day-to-day operational basics.
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No. It’s designed for middle, operational, departmental, or senior managers, so if you’re already operating at that level, you can start here.
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Leaders ready to go further can move on to The Visionary Leader (Level 3), the final stage in the Leadership & Management Program series.