Course overview
This Women in Leadership programme is designed for women who want to accelerate their career, strengthen their executive presence and build the confidence to lead at the highest level. The programme combines personal development with practical strategy, covering leadership identity, negotiation, stakeholder influence, navigating workplace dynamics and building professional networks. Drawing on research into gender and leadership, participants work through real-world challenges and leave with a clearer vision, stronger voice and a concrete development plan. Delivered online or in London with a cohort of ambitious peers.
Who it is for
Designed for women at management level and above who are seeking to accelerate their leadership progression, build executive presence and develop the skills to navigate senior organisational environments and advance to board-level roles.
Skills and outcomes
Examine the research on gender, leadership and organisational culture. Understand the structural, social and psychological barriers that affect women's career progression and build the evidence base that underpins the programme's practical development approach.
Apply the core leadership frameworks and tools from the programme to real situations you face in your own workplace. Work through specific scenarios, challenges and decisions with structured support and peer feedback.
Analyse the careers, decisions and strategies of women who have reached the highest levels of leadership. Extract the practical lessons, patterns and principles that are transferable to your own context and career stage.
Learn the decision-making and strategic thinking frameworks used by senior executives. Develop the ability to approach high-stakes decisions with clarity, structure and confidence, and to communicate those decisions effectively to boards and leadership teams.
Build a concrete, personalised leadership development plan that identifies your priorities, timelines and accountability structures. Leave the programme with a clear and actionable roadmap for the next stage of your leadership journey.
Develop tools for measuring your own leadership impact and the outcomes your actions produce. Learn how to track progress against your goals, adjust your approach based on feedback and demonstrate the value of your leadership in terms that matter to your organisation.
Develop a strategic approach to your own career advancement, including how to identify and pursue the right opportunities, how to build a compelling professional narrative and how to navigate the specific dynamics that affect women's progression to senior and board-level roles.
Examine the roots of confidence and executive presence and develop practical strategies for projecting authority, managing imposter syndrome and speaking up with conviction in high-stakes settings. Build the internal and external confidence that accelerates career progression.
Understand the strategic value of mentorship, sponsorship and professional networks for career progression. Learn how to build, cultivate and activate a network of senior advocates who know your work, champion your potential and open the right doors.
Develop the skills and strategies to drive change within your organisation, not just lead within it. Covers how to build coalitions, influence policy and culture, advocate for greater inclusion and position yourself as a force for positive organisational transformation.
Participants leave with a stronger leadership identity, sharper influence and negotiation skills, and a personal development strategy for advancing to senior and board-level leadership roles.
Practical activities
Teaching is designed to be interactive, applied and professionally relevant. Activities may include case discussion, guided exercises, workplace examples, short presentations, reflective planning and tutor-led feedback.
You apply the frameworks to real situations in your own workplace with peer feedback, analyse the careers and decisions of senior women leaders, and build a personalised leadership development plan with priorities, timelines and accountability.
Delivery and cohort format
You learn alongside a cohort of peers, live online or on campus in London. Corporate delivery for a group from one organisation is also available.
| Live Online | Campus (London) | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | £2,076 | £2,931 |
| Where you study | Live online, taught in UK time. Joining from India, the UAE or China? Admissions send the timetable converted to your timezone | Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 7HX |
| Duration | 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the format you choose | |
| Suits | Women at management level and above who want to progress into senior and board-level leadership | |
| For teams | Corporate delivery for a group from one organisation is available. Ask admissions about dates and format | |
The course gives you a plan, practice and a peer network. It cannot promise a promotion: progression also depends on your organisation, so the programme includes work on sponsorship, networks and influencing the decisions that affect your career.
Fees and dates
Fees are £2,076 for the Live Online route and £2,931 for the Campus route in London, charged in pounds sterling. The course runs over 2 to 6 weeks, depending on the format you choose; admissions confirm the next dates when you enquire. Ask admissions for the session times and the study expected between sessions, so you can plan the course around your work. For a group from one organisation, ask about corporate delivery.
A worked development and influence example
The development plan you build in the course is specific and testable. For example, a fictional leader turns "be more strategic" into one observable behaviour: proposing solutions with evidence in cross-team meetings. She maps the stakeholders who matter to a proposal, prepares a one-page case for the head of finance, asks a mentor to critique it, and agrees what her director, acting as a sponsor, would say if the trial works. Then she reviews what happened and chooses the next step.
The full example, with a stakeholder map, the difference between mentoring and sponsorship and a template you can copy, is in the development and influence practice pack. It is illustrative practice material, not a participant's story, and no plan guarantees a promotion.
Guides for women building their leadership career
Practical reading that pairs well with the course:
- Women in leadership in the UK: barriers and practical development steps
- Mentoring vs sponsorship: building support for leadership progression
- How to build a leadership development plan
- Stakeholder influence for women leaders: a planning exercise
For the whole decision in order, read the women in leadership subject guide: entry, workload, cost, the choices to compare and the questions to ask. When you are ready, ask admissions a question.
