Weekly online
Join interactive online teaching, with guided reading, practical activities and assessment work around the live sessions. Your written course plan confirms the timetable, learning hours and masterclass arrangements for this module.
Professional learning · Executive Leadership
Strategic Leadership.
Lead with a clearer understanding of your influence, choices and responsibilities.
Leadership at a strategic level requires more than setting direction. You need to understand how your behaviour influences people, how teams interpret priorities and how decisions affect the wider organisation. This module develops a critical approach to leadership through theory, organisational cases and reflection. You will compare different perspectives, investigate a leadership challenge and consider the relationship between influence, effectiveness and ethical judgement. KBC’s proposed activities encourage you to explain why an approach fits a particular situation and where it may fall short. The aim is more deliberate leadership grounded in evidence, context and a clear sense of responsibility.
Weekly route3 months
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
A strategic priority is clear on paper, yet teams interpret it differently and informal concerns are slowing progress. A forceful response might secure compliance while damaging trust. You must understand the situation, select a credible leadership approach and explain how you will judge its effect on people and organisational performance.
Who will benefit
For current and aspiring managers, team leaders and experienced professionals preparing for broader responsibility. The module suits people who want to examine their leadership assumptions and improve how they influence across teams. You should be comfortable discussing organisational situations, reflecting on practice and comparing competing explanations of leadership effectiveness.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Critically compare leadership approaches and their relevance to organisational context.
- Analyse how leadership influences individuals, formal teams and informal groups.
- Evaluate leadership’s contribution to organisational effectiveness and strategic priorities.
- Explain and defend an ethical leadership response to a difficult decision.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
KBC’s published route is a three-month module within the 18-month diploma programme. These learning blocks connect the unit outcomes with reading, discussion and practical application. A full OTHM unit includes 100 guided learning hours and 200 total qualification hours; your learning plan explains the allocation across teaching, directed activities, study and assessment.
01Develop a critical view of leadership
Compare trait, situational, transformational and leader–member exchange approaches. Examine the contribution each perspective can make and the questions it leaves unanswered. Learners use a common case to see how different theories produce different interpretations, then practise making a reasoned choice of approach rather than treating a model as a universal prescription.
Apply it at work: Write a comparative leadership analysis of one organisational situation.
02Understand influence in teams and groups
Investigate how leadership affects individual contributions, group relationships and shared priorities. Consider the role of formal authority alongside informal influence. Learners examine how different team members may experience the same behaviour, identify whose voice is missing and propose practical ways to improve communication and coordination without assuming that agreement is evidence of understanding.
Apply it at work: Map influence and participation around a strategic team challenge.
03Connect leadership with organisational effectiveness
Explore what effective performance means in a particular organisation and how leadership may contribute to it. Look beyond a single short-term result to capability, cooperation and sustained delivery. Learners examine evidence of outcomes, consider alternative explanations and assess whether the chosen leadership approach supports strategic goals across organisational boundaries rather than only within one team.
Apply it at work: Develop an evidence-based evaluation of leadership contribution.
04Exercise judgement when priorities conflict
Work through a situation in which performance pressure, employee interests and organisational values pull in different directions. Identify who is affected, what information is missing and which responsibilities cannot be delegated. Learners compare possible responses, challenge convenient assumptions and articulate a decision they can explain openly, including the consequences and limitations they have considered.
Apply it at work: Prepare an ethical decision memo and defend it in discussion.
05Turn reflection into a development commitment
Use the preceding analysis to identify a specific change in leadership practice. Define what you will do differently, how you will gather feedback and what evidence would suggest progress. Learners develop a realistic commitment linked to an organisational need, then examine how context, colleagues and the limits of their authority may affect implementation.
Apply it at work: Produce a leadership development plan with feedback and review points.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
The OTHM route uses coursework, with approximately 4,500 words given as guidance in the current unit specification. KBC’s proposed preparation tasks combine comparative theory, analysis of leadership influence, organisational effectiveness and an ethical decision case. A reflective development activity supports application but does not replace the required criteria. Your final work follows the issued assignment brief, is assessed by the centre and is externally verified by OTHM. Use organisational examples carefully and explain the evidence supporting your conclusions.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership — qualification specification ↗OTHM · Current linked file: July 2025; document retains May 2020 footers
Official qualification structure and Strategic Leadership learning outcomes, assessment criteria and coursework guidance. Full specification read.
- Leadership: Theory and Practice — Peter G. Northouse ↗Sage · 10th edition; January 2025
Recommended reading: comparing leadership approaches, leader–member relationships, transformational leadership and ethics.
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Standalone professional development is self-funded or employer-funded. The agreed course offer explains any available support and the costs included.
Your questions, answered.
Is this a personality test course?
No. Reflection may help, but the focus is critical analysis of leadership approaches, influence, organisational context and decisions.
Do I need to be a senior manager?
You need a suitable basis for discussing leadership. Experience of leading work, projects or teams can provide relevant examples.
Will one leadership style be recommended?
You will compare approaches and justify what fits a specific situation, including its limitations and possible consequences.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.