Closing the gap between who you are and who you want to be

The shift everyone's navigating

The dominant theme was the transition from functional expert to enterprise leader. From being known for what you know, to being known for how you lead. 

Most of you have already made real progress on this path. But there's a ceiling and you can feel it. The next level is asking something different of you - and it isn't a skills gap. It's an adaptive challenge. 

A skills gap closes with practice and knowledge. An adaptive challenge is different - it can’t be solved with the right process or the right expert. The problem itself is often hard to define, resistant to resolution, and likely to resurface even after you think you’ve addressed it. Progress requires loss: unlearning what once worked, letting go of the identity and habits that got you here, and sitting with real discomfort rather than reaching for the nearest fix. 

The most common leadership mistake is treating adaptive challenges as if they were technical ones. We reach for structure, process and expertise because they’re actionable and they make us look decisive. But a technical solution applied to an adaptive challenge doesn’t just fail. It masks the real work. Each attempted fix deepens cynicism while the underlying issue stays untouched. 

What your cohort wants to build

A few key themes came through across all applications. Most of you will recognise yourself in more than one. 

Executive presence and upward communication: You know your stuff, and you're respected for it. But presenting to the Board still feels high-stakes, influencing the ELT is harder than it should be, and you're not always sure your voice is landing the way you intend. This is about shifting from someone who informs to someone who influences. 

Stakeholder management and cross-functional influence: You're operating in functions where authority doesn't come with the title. Getting things done means building trust across teams, functions and agendas that don't always align. The challenge isn't knowing what needs to happen — it's bringing the right people with you. 

Leadership identity and self-awareness: You're becoming more aware of the patterns that hold you back. You want to understand how you're really perceived, build stronger coaching capability in your teams, and make the shift from being the person who gets things done to the leader others grow around. The problem is, most people don’t give the constructive feedback that will support your growth. And many people struggle to hear it. 

Career navigation toward Chief and Board roles: The destination is clear but the question is how to get there deliberately — which experiences to seek, which relationships to build, and what needs to shift about how you show up to make the next move credible. 

And running through all of it is the Inner Game. How you manage yourself under pressure. How your sense of identity — who you believe yourself to be — either supports or quietly works against your ambitions. 

What's getting in the way

Most people don't quite know what they need to do differently. And even when they do, the harder question is why they don't do it. 

The answer isn't willpower. What's actually happening is your brain is running a protection program - a hidden system of competing commitments working against the very goals you're trying to achieve. You're not failing to change. You're succeeding at staying safe. Behavioural psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey spent decades mapping this phenomenon and named it the Immunity to Change. 

Beneath every genuine intention sits a behaviour that quietly works against it. You hold back in meetings. You talk too much in meetings. You do the work that should be delegated. You focus on your patch when the business needs you to see enterprise issues.  

These aren't failures of character - they're self-protection strategies, and they come with a payoff. Beneath the payoff is a big assumption that feels true and probably isn’t. If I speak up and get it wrong, I'll lose credibility. If I let go, things will fall apart. If I give them feedback, it might not go well.  

These are ego hooks - the narratives your mind generates to keep you safe, making reactive behaviour feel not just reasonable but necessary. They show up most visibly in the moments when executive presence matters most: in the Board presentation, the difficult conversation, the room where you need to influence without authority. 

Presence isn't a performance skill. It's what becomes visible when someone has done the inner work - when they can manage themselves under pressure, say less more precisely, and stay consistent between what they know, how they communicate, and what they stand for. Executive presence is the outer expression of that inner work, and ego hooks are the gap between who you intend to be as a leader and who you actually are when the pressure is on. 

The real work is learning to catch yourself when these hooks are triggered - not to eliminate the reaction, but to create enough space to make a conscious choice. That's what self-leadership means. Not having it all together, but noticing when you go below the line and asking: what's the story I'm telling myself right now, and is it true? 

How the program is designed to develop all of this

The program is designed from the inside out, and every element builds on the last. But at the centre of it all is the mentoring relationship itself. Adaptive challenges can't be solved alone - you need someone who will ask the questions you haven't thought to ask yourself, hold up a mirror when you can't see clearly, and hold you accountable when the pull to stay safe kicks in. The rest of the program exists to make those conversations richer. 

We start with the Enneagram - one of the most sophisticated tools available for understanding your personality, your patterns, and the ego hooks that quietly drive your behaviour. It's not background reading. It's the lens you'll bring to every mentoring conversation and masterclass that follows.  

The virtual induction orients the year ahead, and the kick-off session brings the cohort together in person for the first time where you'll meet your mentor or mentee, share your profiles, and hear from a senior leader panel about what the path to the top looks like from the inside. 

The eight masterclasses build in sequence: career strategy and purpose first, then adaptive challenge, self-leadership, and personal branding - connecting the inner work to the outer story. A mid-point event brings the cohort back together to take stock and recommit. Then the final four masterclasses go deeper into the capabilities the next level of leadership demands: feelings and self-belief, candour and feedback, strategic networking, and energy management. 

Our in-person wrap event marks the end of the formal program, but the relationships, tools and self-knowledge you've built won't stop there. The work you do over the year is designed to last. 

And everything connects back to one central question: 

What's the one big thing you could do differently that would have the biggest impact on your leadership? 

This year, you're going to find out.