Emotional Intelligence in Governance: A Masterclass for Directors and Senior Executives | Sanela Osmic GAICD
Sanela Osmic GAICD · Ethical Governance Pty Ltd
A Six-Week Live Online Masterclass for Directors and Senior Executives
Emotional Intelligence in Governance
A six-week live online programme for chairs, non-executive directors and senior executives exploring how emotional intelligence shapes leadership judgement, boardroom dynamics and governance decision-making in complex, high-stakes environments.
Governance CapabilityLeadership JudgementDecision-Making Under PressureBoardroom EffectivenessBehavioural Leadership
The Emotional Intelligence in Governance examines how emotional intelligence shapes decision-making, boardroom dynamics, stakeholder engagement and leadership under pressure — with a practical focus on governance, accountability and organisational effectiveness.
6
Weeks
Live
Online
$297
AUD
Who this masterclass is for
Designed for those who govern, lead and are held to account
This is not a general leadership programme. It is designed for people operating in governance and senior leadership roles — where the quality of judgement, the courage to challenge, and the integrity of decision-making carry institutional, legal and reputational consequence. The quality of governance is not determined by structure alone. It is determined by the character, emotional intelligence and behavioural discipline of the people operating within it.
The masterclass explores emotional intelligence not as a “soft skill,” but as a critical governance capability influencing leadership effectiveness, boardroom dynamics, ethical judgement and decision integrity under pressure. Each week builds on the last — developing a practical, integrated understanding of how emotional intelligence operates at the level of governance.
Participants who complete the masterclass receive a Certificate of Completion and may claim 5 CPD points.
Board Chairs
The chair’s capacity to lead the board’s culture, sustain productive challenge, and maintain clarity of purpose under pressure is fundamentally a behavioural governance capability. This masterclass addresses it directly.
Non-Executive Directors
Structural independence does not guarantee independent judgement. This programme develops the self-awareness, courage and relational intelligence that independent judgement actually requires in practice.
Senior Leaders
Chief executives, senior executives and those approaching board roles who want to understand the behavioural foundations of governance quality — and develop them before they need them.
Company Secretaries
Those who observe the gap between documented governance and lived practice — and want a framework for understanding and addressing the behavioural dynamics that produce it.
Governance Professionals
Consultants, advisers and governance practitioners who want to deepen their understanding of the behavioural determinants of governance quality and board effectiveness.
Aspiring Directors
Those building toward board roles who want to develop the character-based governance capabilities that nominations committees increasingly look for — and that governance quality actually demands.
What makes this different
Not another leadership awareness programme
Most governance development is structural: board evaluation processes, regulatory compliance, best practice checklists. This masterclass goes to the level that determines whether those structures actually work — the behavioural and emotional capabilities of the people operating them.
It is grounded in the Behavioural Governance Research Programme — a developing body of evidence-based research examining how character, judgement and emotional intelligence determine governance quality. The content is informed by direct experience working with boards and governance bodies, and by the evidence of what actually causes governance failure across sectors and jurisdictions.
01
Governance-specific, not generic
Scenarios, examples and frameworks are drawn from board-level governance contexts — not adapted from general leadership programmes.
02
Research-grounded
Directly informed by evidence-based research examining the behavioural determinants of governance failure and board effectiveness.
03
Applied under pressure
Each session focuses on how these capabilities operate — or fail — under conditions of real governance pressure, not in ideal circumstances.
04
Developed by a practitioner-researcher
The facilitator is both a governance practitioner and an academic researcher in Behavioural Governance — bringing both research rigour and direct board-level experience.
05
Small cohort
Designed for a small group of senior participants, enabling substantive discussion and group discussion rather than broadcast delivery.
Programme
Six weeks. Six capabilities. One integrated governance practice.
Each session is 60–90 minutes, delivered live online. Sessions build progressively — from self-awareness as the foundation through to decision integrity as the applied outcome. Each week focuses on one core capability, developed through governance-specific frameworks, case evidence and facilitated discussion.
Week 1
Self-Awareness in Governance
Recognising the cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns shaping judgement, influence and decision-making under pressure. Self-awareness is the prerequisite for every other governance capability — without it, other dispositions cannot be reliably deployed.
Week 2
Emotional Regulation Under Pressure
Maintaining clarity, accountability and values-consistent leadership when commercial, political and reputational pressures intensify. The governance failure literature documents this as the most common failure mode — decisions made under pressure that deviate from the organisation’s stated purpose and values.
Week 3
Empathy and Governance Quality
Why empathy is not softness in leadership — but a critical capability for stakeholder judgement, trust and institutional effectiveness. Documented governance failures across sectors have explicitly identified the absence of empathy as a primary governance deficit — one that structural governance frameworks are not designed to detect or address.
Week 4
Integrity, Motivation and Purpose
The internal drivers of courageous accountability — and how purpose becomes distorted when integrity weakens. This session examines what happens to governance quality when the internal drivers that sustain values-consistent conduct are absent, misaligned or eroded by institutional pressure.
Week 5
Boardroom Dynamics and Social Intelligence
Power, influence, challenge culture and the behavioural dynamics that shape collective governance outcomes. Structural independence does not produce independent judgement. This session examines the relational and social intelligence capacities that determine whether a board governs collectively or defers individually.
Week 6 — Synthesis
Decision Integrity: Bringing It All Together
Bringing emotional intelligence into practice: how judgement, character and conduct align when leadership is tested. The final session integrates all five preceding capabilities into a single governance outcome — Decision Integrity — and examines how to sustain it across the conditions of pressure, ambiguity and competing incentives that governance actually involves.
Schedule
Commencing Wednesday, 10 June 2026 Weekly at the same time
Sessions are delivered live once per week. Check your local time below.
Sydney
18:30
Wednesday
AEST (UTC+10)
Sarajevo
10:30
Wednesday
CEST (UTC+2)
London
09:30
Wednesday
BST (UTC+1)
Dubai
12:30
Wednesday
GST (UTC+4)
Investment
Six weeks of governance-focused capability development
Places are limited to maintain the quality of discussion and group discussion that a small governance cohort enables. Each session is live, interactive and designed for practitioners who want to engage with the material — not observe it.
Participants receive a certificate of attendance and may claim 5 CPD points upon completion.
Your Facilitator
Sanela Osmic GAICD
Founder & CEO, Ethical Governance Pty Ltd
Sanela Osmic is the Founder and CEO of Ethical Governance Pty Ltd, a governance consultancy based in Sydney, and the developer of Behavioural Governance — an emerging governance discipline examining how character, emotional intelligence and behavioural dynamics shape governance quality and institutional decision-making.
As an experienced non-executive director with board-level governance experience across sectors, Sanela brings direct insight into the conditions that this masterclass addresses — having observed firsthand how the behavioural and emotional dimensions of governance determine outcomes that structural frameworks alone cannot produce.
This masterclass brings that research and board-level experience directly into governance practice — developed for an audience that has seen the gap between structural governance and governance quality, and wants the frameworks to understand and address it.
The Emotional Intelligence in Governance — six weeks built for those who govern.
Places are limited. Commencing Wednesday, 10 June 2026.
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