Expand your impact without expanding your exhaustion
A free 90 minute masterclass on the three things that decide how far your leadership can grow, and how to tell which one is holding you back.
You want more. It's worth saying that out loud.
More influence. A bigger role. A piece of work that actually matters. Or the same job, done properly, with a life you recognise around it.
Wanting more is one of the harder things for a woman in senior leadership to say plainly, in my experience. There's often a quiet worry attached, that wanting more means becoming someone you don't much like, or losing the parts of your life you've worked hard to protect.
That worry is reasonable. It's usually based on watching how it's done.
I got my first Principal position by working incredibly hard. Twelve hour days, no proper time off, and guilt whenever I stopped, because a big salary meant I had to keep proving I deserved it. It worked, in the sense that I got there. It cost far more than it needed to, and I watch capable women take the same route all the time.
There's another way, and it asks three things of you rather than one.
Strategy. Identity. Vitality.
Knowing where you're taking people and being able to say it in a sentence. Building a team that can get there without depending on you. Having the conversation you've been putting off because it's holding everything up. Most of us invest here first, and it matters. It's also the part almost every leadership programme already covers.
Growing into the role rather than continually proving you belong in it. This is where the old patterns live. The overworking, the people pleasing, the self-doubt that makes you question decisions you are perfectly capable of making. Those patterns kept you safe once and some of them made you successful. At this level they start to cost more than they give.
The energy, health and headspace to sustain any of it. This is the part people skip past fastest, and the one that quietly decides whether the other two are available to you on a hard week. Sleep, recovery, cognitive load, and for many of us in our forties and fifties a body that's changing at precisely the point the role is asking for more.
Expansive leadership happens where the three meet. Strong strategy with no vitality is burnout with a good plan. Plenty of vitality with no identity work leaves you rested and still shrinking in the room that matters.
What you'll leave with
A clear view of which of the three is limiting you right now. We'll work this out together in the session, and most women are surprised by where they land.
An understanding of the patterns that show up in how you lead under pressure
One practical thing to do differently this week, chosen for your gap rather than for everyone
A one page summary of the three pillars, with reflection questions, in your inbox within the hour
I won't be able to fix a gap you've been carrying for years in 90 minutes, and I won't pretend otherwise. What I can do is help you see it clearly, in your own words, which is where every useful change I've ever made started.
Who this is for
Women in leadership who want their next chapter to be bigger than their last, and want to arrive there in one piece.
Wanting more doesn't have to mean climbing a ladder. It might be:
More influence and a stronger voice in the role you already have
A bigger, more visible piece of work you've been circling for a while
A promoted role you haven't yet said out loud that you want
The same job, led well, with genuine room in your life around it
You'll get most from this if you're already good at what you do, already carrying real responsibility, and quietly aware that the way you've been doing it isn't a way you can keep doing for another ten years.
About Jo
I spent twelve years as a CEO and Principal, in Scotland and internationally, and over twenty five years in senior leadership. I raised two boys alongside it. People used to tell me that nothing seemed to shake me. What they couldn't see was what it cost to hold that together.
I now work with women in leadership to expand their impact, trust their judgement and lead in a way they can sustain.
Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute · Masters in Leadership and Management · Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Leadership and Management · Certified Menopause Support Coach and Women's Health and Wellness Coach
“You know a course is truly worthwhile when you don't even question whether you can fit it in each Sunday. You simply plan your day around it because you know it's going to be insightful.”
Rhiannon Phillips-Bianco, Head of Wellbeing, Globeducate
“Johanna helped me to recognise my strengths, trust my judgement and grow my sense of agency. I am a more confident, self-assured and effective leader as a result of working with her.”
Beth Roberts Jones, Assistant Principal, one to one coaching client
140 women from Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East joined the first run of Lead with Inner Calm, the free programme this work grew out of.
A few practical things
Towards the end of the session I talk about the Resta Forte Leadership Academy, which starts on 20 September. Places for the founding cohort close on Friday 18 September. It's clearly signposted in the recording, so you can skip that part if you'd rather. The masterclass stands on its own either way.
Expand your impact without expanding your exhaustion
Free to watch, in your own time. The founding cohort of the Leadership Academy closes on Friday 18 September.
Watch the replayBring a colleague or a friend who'd get something from it. Most women I speak to know exactly who that is.