Project, Change & Transformation Leadership Development

Practical training and development for people leading projects, change and transformation.

The programme builds both the knowledge and the leadership capability needed to move complex initiatives forward – from creating direction and structure to engaging stakeholders, working through resistance and turning plans into action.

Rather than relying on theory alone, participants work wherever possible on real projects, real stakeholders and real organisational challenges, so the learning is immediately relevant and useful.

What We May Work On

Purpose, direction & strategy: Understanding the need, expected benefits and context; defining scope and success; and creating a clear direction for the work ahead.
Project leadership & execution: Building the right team and governance, clarifying roles, planning resources and milestones, managing risk and uncertainty, and adapting as the project develops.
Stakeholders, sponsorship & alignment: Understanding influence and impact, strengthening sponsorship, building stakeholder commitment and creating the coalition needed to support progress.
Change, engagement & adoption: Understanding how different people experience the same change, working with resistance, enabling middle managers and helping people move from awareness towards real adoption.
Learning & leadership capability: Using the project or transformation itself as a development opportunity – strengthening judgement, collaboration, communication and confidence in leading future initiatives.

How The Programme Works

The training is highly practical.

Rather than learning a framework and only applying it afterwards, participants work with the concepts during the programme itself.

That might mean shaping a real project brief, mapping stakeholders, clarifying the case for change, identifying risks, working through resistance or creating practical next steps for an initiative they are already leading.

The aim is for the learning to become useful immediately.

When several participants are working on the same project or transformation, the programme can also help build:

a common language
shared understanding
stronger alignment
greater collective ownership

In transformation programmes, that can help the group move from being participants in a training to becoming a stronger guiding coalition around the change.

Practical, not theoretical

I use frameworks and tools to create structure, not as an end in themselves.

Depending on the programme, participants may work with project framing, stakeholder mapping, governance, business cases, risk assessment, planning, ADKAR, sponsor plans, change-impact tools or resistance strategies.

The focus remains on one question:

How can we use this in our own context?

More Than Training

A programme can combine training, workshop facilitation and coaching depending on what is most useful.

Participants may first build common knowledge together, then use workshop time to apply it to their own project or transformation, followed by coaching to work through implementation challenges.

The combination helps bridge the gap between:

understanding what good project or change leadership looks like
and being able to make it happen in a real organisation.

Where This Can Help

Organisations may use the programme to:

strengthen the capability of people leading projects or transformation
prepare sponsors or middle managers for their role in change
create more consistent project and change practices
strengthen stakeholder engagement and ownership
develop a project or transformation team while moving the work itself forward

Who This Can Support

The programme can be adapted for:

project and programme leaders
transformation and change teams
sponsors and senior leaders
middle managers
cross-functional project teams

Format

The programme is tailored to the organisation and can range from a focused workshop to a multi-day training programme.

Before the training, I normally align with the sponsor or project lead on the context, objectives and real situations that can be used during the sessions.

For larger programmes, I may also use a short participant questionnaire to understand existing experience and adapt the depth, pace and emphasis of the training.

Delivery can combine:

Training + practical application + facilitated workshops + coaching follow-up

depending on what the organisation needs.

Start A Conversation

If you would like to strengthen project, change or transformation leadership capability in your organisation, we can start with an introductory conversation about the context, the people involved and what you want the programme to help them achieve.

Book an intro call

Reflections on Transformation & Change Management

Exploring how people lead, adapt and grow in complex organisations.

Explore all articles

Transformation Happens One Person at a Time

Why understanding the individual side of change may be the most important part of transformation When organisations talk about transformation, the conversation often revolves around strategies, operating models, systems, structures and project plans. Yet organisations themselves do not change. People do. One decision, one behaviour, one conversation and one habit at a time. Over the years, I have noticed that many transformation initiatives struggle not because the strategy i

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Why Alignment Is Not Enough — The Role of a Guiding Coalition in Change

In many transformation efforts, a familiar pattern appears. A leader — often responsible for driving the change — invests time aligning key stakeholders one by one. Conversations happen, views are exchanged, concerns are addressed and gradually, a sense of alignment seems to emerge. On the surface, this feels like progress. But when the transformation starts to move, something often becomes visible: alignment is there — but collective ownership is not. Why one-to-one alignmen

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Why Middle Managers Matter Most in Times of Change

When change arrives in an organization, the visible shifts tend to take centre stage: new processes, new structures, new systems. What is less visible — and often far more decisive — is what happens to people. Change destabilises. Even when it is necessary, well-intended, or exciting on paper, it disrupts routines, identities, and informal certainties. And when that happens, people do not turn first to strategy decks, project plans, or leadership statements. They turn to thos

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Should Transformations Be Delivered For Organisations — or Built With Them?

In almost every large transformation I have been close to, a familiar question appears sooner or later: “Should we bring in a consulting firm to run this — or should we build the capability inside?” The question is usually framed as a binary choice. Either we outsource the thinking and delivery to experts, or we struggle internally and hope people learn along the way. In practice, this framing is too simple — and often unhelpful. What matters more is how external support is u

4 min read

What I Do

Executive and Leadership
Coaching

One-to-one coaching for leaders or executives who want to strengthen their impact, navigate complexity and develop greater awareness of how they lead and drive strategic initiatives.

Coaching Through
Change & Transformation

Support for leaders, sponsors and transformation leads or contributors navigating stakeholder alignment, resistance, uncertainty and organisational change.

Team Coaching &
Development

Helping leadership and project teams strengthen alignment, trust, decision-making and accountability, while improving how they collaborate, communicate and work through challenges together.

Project & Change Leadership Development

Practical learning for project and change leaders, sponsors and middle managers to strengthen project leadership, stakeholder engagement, change adoption and their ability to turn plans into action.

Strategic & Innovation Workshops

Facilitated workshops for leadership and cross-functional teams around strategy, priorities, innovation, consumer focus, team purpose, ways of working and complex business challenges.

Targeted Consulting-Coaching

Hands-on support for leaders, project or change leads working through a specific challenge – combining coaching with consulting input, practical frameworks and experience, while keeping the thinking and ownership with you.

Contact Me

If you have a question, would like to explore working together, or want to discuss support for your team or organisation, feel free to get in touch.

I will get back to you the soonest possible.

Or you can contact me direclty at:

Laszlo Szabo

laszlo@yourleadershipjourney.co.uk