A chance to work closely with me to develop confidence that oozes from the inside-out: an essential foundation for a leadership career that’s life-affirming (rather than soul-sucking)

• Step into your next role without it taking up so much of your bandwidth

• Feel a greater sense of freedom in your working life so you can go further in your career, have more choices available and enjoy the ride

• Switch off (guilt free) at the end of the day and have more time and energy for life beyond your work

• Feel greater contentment and an ease in your own skin

• Have ambitions that excite you, and a sense of acceptance about where you are right now

Dear Friend,

This is an invitation to join my group coaching programme, The Inside-Out Leader.

It’s not a short note, because there is much to say. You might want to grab a coffee or a hot chocolate, stretch out on the sofa and give yourself 15 minutes or so to drink it all in.

This programme is designed for six leaders looking to take their career to the next level in a way that feels joyful and authentic. It’s a chance to dive deep and create a solid foundation that will benefit you for the rest of your working-life.

This is probably a good place to share my definition of a leader:

I see that a leader is anybody who chooses to take responsibility for their own inner experience and their impact on the world around them (it’s not about role or title).

And with this in mind here’s something else I believe:

Long term, the most important thing we can do to grow our leadership, is to work on our inner world first.

But unfortunately, in most organisations, too few people are adequately supported to build this foundation as they move through their career. Of course, some may choose to go on their own journey of self-help, and their organisation may encourage and inspire them to do this -  I’m sure you’ve heard many inspiring speakers at your workplace over the years.

But when it comes to providing hands-on support with identifying their blind spots and examining and reshaping the inner-dialogue they are in with themselves – most leaders have to figure it out on their own. In-depth support is usually reserved for the most senior leaders, and in small numbers. 

As a result there are millions of good, hard-working people in corporate careers who are not only falling short of their true potential as leaders, but who are experiencing their careers in a way that is so much harder than it needs to be. 

Which brings me to you.

If you are reading this letter, you have likely achieved considerable success already in your career but are noticing an underlying feeling of unease. Each new challenge you step into requires more and more of your time and energy. You may put this down to it just being “the way it is” as you take on bigger roles. Perhaps you also wonder if you are hitting a ceiling. That maybe you don’t have what it takes to go too much further, despite being told you have great potential. Perhaps you believe you need to eradicate the self-doubt and negative mind talk you experience as you take on new challenges. You’re very aware that what people see on the outside when they look at you – capable and confident – is not how you feel on the inside.

One of the most common requests people have for me as we start our one-to-one coaching work is “Claire – help me get rid of the mind-talk.”

I have an answer that often surprises them:

Getting rid of it is not the answer.

It is part of you and will always be a part of you. It is part of being human. The problem is not that you have it – it is that you haven’t been taught to relate to it in a life-affirming way. 

There are many reasons for this that I won’t get into here, but there is one piece I do want to name: 

Many of the systems we are part of benefit from us believing that we are somehow not enough. 

Most adverts we see play on this belief. And when I think about the set up of the corporate world, from the mechanics in place (such as hierarchy) and other cultural quirks in meeting rooms across the world,  I cannot help thinking it works in shareholders’ favour for most of the workforce to have their self-doubt spur them on.

I remember my disappointment as a boss of mine, justified his decision to not give me the highest performance rating available (despite me exceeding every objective he had set). He explained that with so much to deliver next year, he couldn’t have me getting complacent. He needed me hungry for that top rating so I would deliver again. I had given so much to achieve those results, and made huge personal sacrifices to do so.

I talked him round, and in the end received the rating I deserved. But the experience was frustrating and draining, and whilst my boss’ approach was far from ideal, I was also colluding with him in many ways. It was mainly me that was having my working-life feel the way it did. I had far more control than I realised. I just wasn’t equipped or supported to change how it felt. I wasn’t taking responsibility for my own inner experience.

The part of my inner world I didn’t have clear visibility of was my need for approval from others. It drove me to approach my work in a way that was all-consuming. I was being driven by an unconscious need to prove myself most of the time. It led me to barely see my children and husband, and when I did, I was distracted and stressed.  I was hell-bent on showing the people I worked with that I deserved to be round that leadership table, because underneath I believed I didn’t deserve to be there and felt like a fraud. This worked out great for my organisation: They got a ridiculous amount of amazing work out of me,  and my boss being hard to please spurred that pleasing, proving part of me on. 

Every week my clients share examples they are grappling with, in cultures that aggravate their own limiting beliefs and assumptions.  This is the water they are swimming in. There are small and big ways their own limiting beliefs and assumptions get triggered on the daily. That is part of corporate life. But the problem with that, is it’s their survival instincts that are getting activated.  The fear-based parts of their brain, responsible for keeping them alive, are driving their decisions and responses. 

And this is when career progression can feel uninspiring, exhausting and all-consuming.

It can become a never-ending quest to prove yourself and feel like you’re enough. And when this is your experience, it is very difficult to bring your best leadership to the table. It’s like driving with the handbrake on. And not only are you losing out, but so is your organisation and everyone around you.

I see a need to help people break free of this cycle. Not only because I’ve had a front-row seat and know how soul-sucking it feels, but because it’s not good for anyone in the long term: It’s not sustainable for organisations and their shareholders, our families, communities or the planet.

So what is the answer?

There is no one simple answer, but there is a principle that sits at the heart of my work.  A principle I believe is foundational to fulfilling work-lives and the kind of powerful, authentic leadership our world most needs. It’s the lens we need to look through as we do the inner work on ourselves as leaders, and it is often missing from the conversation about leadership:

I’m talking about self-acceptance.

It’s missing because it goes against the grain of the prevailing culture – which is about achieving more, looking at our gaps first and always needing to improve. 

All of those things have their place – but I see that the long term fix to work feeling less like an uphill slog, is to first nurture greater compassion for ourselves as we are right now.

This involves learning to accept all parts of yourself (even the negative mind-talk) and developing a life-affirming relationship with them. With that grounding you can move into whatever challenges you choose with an inner sense of safety that nobody and nothing can take from you.

My own journey from constantly proving myself, to greater authenticity and ease in my own skin, started with this. And that is where I have started with the hundreds of leaders I have supported on their own journey.

So rather than making the mind talk go away, I see that it’s about changing your relationship with it,  so it is like spending time with a (slightly annoying) friend who is welcome in your home. As opposed to a gate-crasher who spills red wine on your carpet, treads it all round the house and then refuses to leave the party.

I didn’t start to do this inner work myself until I was more than a decade into my corporate leadership career. As a result, the external success I achieved came at great personal cost. Despite moving into roles that felt increasingly more purposeful, I continued to battle myself in various ways. I had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t quite bringing the best of myself to the table – and an underlying sense of unease remained. It took almost reaching burn-out and the breakdown of my marriage for me to realise that something inside of me needed to change (rather than the external circumstances of my work) if I was to create a career (and life) that truly nourished me.

By beginning the inner work I now guide people through, I started to see changes in how my life and work felt, and the results I was able to create. As I secured my first Director-level role, I experienced what I had previously thought impossible: doing a bigger role and it actually feeling good.  I started to have the impact on my organisation I had been longing to.  

I wish I hadn’t waited so long to start this inner work. It didn’t occur to me to look beyond the surface-level development my organisation offered its leaders, and go deeper. Because I didn’t understand the benefits of doing so.

There are so many upsides to deciding to actively nurture your inner world as a leader. Some of them are quantifiable, and whilst I do not make guarantees about what this will look like for anyone, there can be very tangible financial returns:

Examples from my clients’ careers include stepping into their next promotion six months sooner than planned, asking for and getting the 10% pay-rise they deserved, and gliding into a dream job in a new organisation (when facing redundancy) two days after their last gig finished (during the global pandemic).

These are all wonderful outcomes, but what my clients would tell you are worth more to them, are the less quantifiable results. The ones that they tell me about with a deep breath of contentment.

Outcomes like these:

• Enjoying a weekend with their partner and son and feeling present, light and joyful. Fully switching off from work, when last month ‘switching off’ had felt impossible amidst the leadership challenges of the pandemic and increasing complexity in role.

• Having an honest conversation with their boss for the first time about how it feels to work under extreme micro-management. Agreeing a different way of working and creating more headspace for themselves. Feeling good about finally stepping into this awkward conversation and it not blowing up as they feared.

• In the lead up to a big presentation to the Exec team, not over-preparing and fretting, but instead doing solid prep in a few hours and then trusting they would be able to handle whatever happened in the room. And then handling it – with ease and confidence. Taking the conversation to a new level and enjoying the whole experience.

• Booking themselves onto a long weekend reviving a hobby they loved decades ago, and feeling zero guilt. The decision to do this energising them as they headed off to work the next day.

But don’t just take my word for it…

Once you start to build a strong inner foundation as these leaders have done, your working life starts to feel different.

Rather than feeling like you’re struggling up a hill, on a bike with no gears, you will have more moments where you feel like you’re free-wheeling with the wind in your hair and the sun on your face. 

This is what I want more people’s experience of their leadership careers to be. 

And so for the fourth time I am offering access to the approach I take with my one-to-one coaching clients, as an in-depth group coaching programme, beginning in October 2022 and completing in February 2023.

 More specifically, this is for you if…

• You are at least five years into your career. You’ve been around the block a few times and have a few promotions under your belt. You likely lead a team, or this may be the next move for you. Your role matters less than your willingness and readiness to look within. 

• You are ready to dive deep. This kind of work isn’t easy. It requires courage and a kind of honesty with yourself that isn’t for everyone.  But you are ready to work in a supportive group led by an experienced guide to do so.

• You are able to block out time in your diary for the twice-monthly coaching calls. This is a live coaching programme as opposed to a self-directed online course. If you don’t show up to the calls it’s unlikely you will gain maximum value from the programme.

• You are excited about being part of a group. Learning from each others’ experiences and being on the journey together is an intentional element of the programme’s design. I want it to be filled with people who are excited about being on the journey with others.

• You are ready to participate on the calls - they are not a spectator sport. Our live coaching sessions will be highly interactive - designed to support you in looking within and relating the concepts I introduce to your lived experience as a leader. The focus of our live time together will not be on me downloading content.

• You like learning by doing. I will support you to put your learning into practice, in the real-world, from the very start of the programme. Alongside reflecting and exploring your inner world, you will be applying what you are learning about yourself outside the sessions as you go. I believe that transformation doesn’t happen until some kind of action is taken.

• You see room for growth in yourself and your career that could justify the investment in this programme and you feel excited about making it.  This programme requires a commitment of your time and money.  Whilst you may be new to investing in yourself, it should feel (in your gut) like an empowering and financially responsible decision. If you plan on asking your employer to fund your place in the programme, it should feel like a great use of that resource.

“I wish I had done this a decade ago”

“I’ve always known I was in the right profession, but despite the experience I’ve gained over the years and the progression I’ve made, I had a sense of feeling held back and knew I wasn’t fulfilling my full potential. In every role, I have driven myself hard, determined to deliver the best I can, but have also known for a while that how I was approaching my working-life wasn’t sustainable. I had tried ‘quick-fix’ solutions myself, guided by books and Ted Talks, but having the discipline to implement what I was learning, or even know how to, was hard. 

When I began Claire’s programme, I was considering what the right next career move was for me, but I also wanted to change my approach to work so that it felt more sustainable, as well as find a leadership role that would stretch and excite me. As a busy working Mum there’s always been so much going on, and I had never managed to step off the treadmill and properly invest time, money and energy in my own growth.

I wished I had done this programme a decade ago. Being part of a group, only enhanced the unique individual learning we were each able to take from the modules. Claire led us to create an environment where we were able to be ourselves, open up and take the most from the coaching, and one another’s experiences, right from the start. Even when a session felt confronting, the highly practical ‘homework’ assignments, and support available outside the sessions, meant that I was always able to keep going and take rich and valuable learning.

After spending most of my career in HR and Transformation roles in large corporate environments, I’ve recently stepped into a new tech scale-up with ambitious growth plans, as Chief People Officer. If I hadn't participated in The Inside-Out Leader, I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to take the leap, or even seen this role for the exciting opportunity that it is. That is one of many tangible outcomes of doing the programme, but more than anything I feel a greater sense of ease in my own skin. I feel calmer and more present as a leader, wife and mother. I have made the shift from being driven by fear of failure and the need to please others, to making day-to-day and bigger decisions based on what is most important to me and the impact I want to have, and it is liberating. I feel inspired about the future and the continuing journey I am on.

Claire’s approach and the programme she has created is refreshingly different. She brings a combination of depth, warmth, fun and compassion to what is without doubt a challenging process. Her way of being, and the elegant structure of the programme, makes it possible (and joyful) to keep going and make the changes within yourself that are very hard to make alone. If you are serious about unlocking what is holding you back and stepping more fully into your potential as a leader, I couldn’t recommend Claire and this programme more highly.” Caroline Macgregor, People and Change Leader

 What you will have access to when you join The Inside-Out Leader:

The coaching programme is structured around five learning modules based on a proven route to creating inside-out confidence as the foundation for your leadership. The steps I will guide you through are based on the principles, practices and insights I have used with hundreds of leaders to support their journey towards greater joy, meaning and impact in their careers (and lives beyond work).

There are three key components of the programme:

1) Ten fortnightly 90-minute Group Coaching calls held over Zoom

The intimate  live coaching calls are the heart of the programme, and are designed to support you in starting a life-affirming inner dialogue with yourself and  building confidence that radiates authentically from the inside-out. 

• I will facilitate group exercises designed to take you deeper into the concepts introduced through the pre-work, so that you can meaningfully relate them to your own experiences. The sessions will be interactive and immersive, and are designed to invite you into the water and have you splashing around, rather than sitting on the edge talking about going for a swim. By this, I mean I will be guiding you in exercises and discussions that will invite your full participation, rather than listening to me and others talk about concepts at an intellectual level.

• There will be opportunities to be coached by me individually, in the presence of the group, and I will invite the whole group to consider their own learning as part of this. You will also be coaching one another. My experience of facilitating groups in many different organisations is that getting coached and hearing the coaching of the fellow participants, is often just what makes the shift from, “I think I get it,” to “Ah, that totally makes sense! Oh wow, that changes everything!”

• There will be a strong focus on taking action outside the sessions: Each call you will be supported to get clear on the next steps you are taking, specific to your own journey, which will further deepen your learning and start to create tangible changes in your working life and leadership impact. You will have the support and encouragement of the other participants, as you celebrate your wins and reflect on your learning along the way.

• We will spend time at the start of the programme agreeing how we’ll create a learning experience that feels good for all of us. I am experienced in creating safe, enjoyable and thought-provoking spaces for learning and am always inspired by the magic that can happen when a group works together in this way over time. 

• In order to create a safe, confidential space the calls will not be recorded. This programme is designed to be a live coaching programme, not a self-directed online course. If the situation arises where you need to miss a call, I will provide guidance to support you catch up on what you have missed, but it won’t be the same as experiencing the call live.  If you sign up for the programme, I strongly recommend you put all the call times in your diary up-front and make whatever arrangements you need to for them to take priority.

• You will be provided with resources directly after each call. These will support you to apply your take-outs from the coaching in your day-to-day work, and prepare for the following coaching session. I recommend allowing 60-90 minutes for this per call. The resources will vary in format and include resource sheets and audios as well as guided reflections and questions. 

2) Access to a private online community space

You will have access to an online space for just the 6 programme participants, plus me. 

• This is a confidential online space where you can share your breakthroughs and insights, and support each other in deepening into the principles and teachings of the programme.

• There is something powerful about doing transformational work in community. My intention is that this adds another level of richness to the programme that you would not get in a one-to-one coaching programme. The previous cohort found this to be a valuable feature of the programme, and have inspired one other to take action as they have put into practice their learnings.

• We will use the app, Telegram. It is free for you to download and use (and very easy to install on your phone), and is a bit like WhatsApp. I’m choosing to use this rather than WhatsApp or Facebook because I see that it’s important to draw a boundary around technology when we’re not working. I’m sure you wouldn’t want a WhatsApp message popping up from me on a Thursday night when you’re watching a box set with your loved ones. And I feel the same.

3) Access to me one-to-one, via a quick response coaching hotline 

This is a valuable part of the programme, and something that could really support you bring your learning to life.

• Using Telegram, you can privately text me or send me voice messages (sometimes talking is easier than typing).  You can essentially use this as a one-to-one coaching space between us. You might have a situation coming up that you want to apply some of the learning in, and want to bounce around an idea. Or if you feel stuck as you put things into practice I can support you navigate that. Or you may just want to share a breakthrough. 

• My intention in offering this level of support is that it feels as though I am walking by your side when you are out there, putting what you’re learning into practice. It’s not a means for me to check up on you. I will not be following up on actions you have decided you are taking after a call. Rather it is an open line from you into me, as you need or desire it.

• I will be available to respond Monday - Friday (except for UK Bank Holidays) and will get back to you within two business days (often sooner). There will certainly be one week, possibly two, during the programme when I will be on holiday and so won’t be contactable during this time.

What we cover in The Inside-Out Leader: 

Through the live coaching calls, supported by the pre-work and follow up actions you will take, you will be guided through the following five modules of learning:  

1) Orientation: Introduction to The Inside-Out Leader

I’ll share insights gleaned from coaching many leaders though this journey and you will discover the key shifts you can make to prepare yourself to get the most from the programme.

I’ll offer an overview of the steps involved in unleashing your inside-out leadership including the nuts and bolts of the programme so that you are ready to dive in.

You’ll have the opportunity to meet the rest of the group and together we will agree how we will make our time in the group calls a safe, enjoyable and transformational experience.

You will be supported in getting clear on what you personally want to gain from the programme and we will dive straight into some foundational principles that you can put into practice right away.

2) Getting To Know Your Inner World 

In this module we will be uncovering and exploring your inner world with the aim of increasing your awareness of ways you are subconsciously limiting your leadership impact and enjoyment of work.

A useful metaphor for the beliefs and assumptions that create these limits is an over- zealous inner-CEO. He wants the best for you but relies on specific strategies designed to protect you from threats that he sees. Whilst these strategies are occasionally relevant, much of the time they are not and they are a large part of what is causing the feeling of uphill struggle you are experiencing in your working life.  

I will guide you to relate to this part of you in a life-affirming way – a foundational concept running through the whole programme. 

3) Setting Your Own Direction: Your Leadership Compass 

In this module I will invite you to dive into some big and important questions about how you want your life and work to feel and what is most important to you. 

The previous module is a crucial pre-cursor to this one,  so that these questions can be explored expansively. A bit like a strategy awayday – you want the right members of your inner leadership team round the table, and your over-zealous inner CEO is not invited to this party.

This module is designed to equip you with clarity on what you stand for, what you care most deeply about and the impact you want to have through your working-life. The practices you will learn and integrate through this module will be reference points throughout the programme, and will start to infuse your experience of work with greater meaning and purpose.

4) A New Team at the Table: Your Empowering Inner Team 

This module focuses on giving you access to inner resources that will have your experience of work feel more joyful and authentic. 

In module one we started to calm down your fear-led incumbent inner-CEO, and in module two we got clear on what is most important to you. It’s now time to recruit a metaphorical inner leadership team who will help you flourish.

You will gain insight on and learn to access compelling natural leadership qualities you already possess, and learn how to magnify these to enhance your enjoyment of and impact at work. This will help you feel more confident and bring more of your personality into your working relationships. You will be more able to express your opinions and respond calmly to challenging situations, without them taking up so much of your energy. 

5) Bringing It All Together: Integration and Next Steps

The final module will focus on cementing the foundations you have built for yourself, as you continue your journey as an inside-out leader beyond the programme.

It will enable you to continue to expand your leadership, joyfully and authentically, and to create meaning from even the most challenging situations. 

You will learn about my four-part framework for conscious, authentic leadership that can be applied to any situation. It will enable you to integrate and practice everything you have learned, and continue to grow your confidence, courage and impact well beyond the programme.

Schedule for group coaching calls:

The schedule for the October 2022 cohort will be published by the end of June.

All calls will fall at 3.30-5.00pm UK time, on a Thursday, and there will be two calls scheduled each month for 5 months.

“I feel calmer and more confident ”

“In the past, I felt interested by the content of online courses but that is not the same as really ‘living it.’ It was time to dedicate effort and energy to building a solid foundation for myself. I wanted to feel more confident, and more inspired by my working-life

Claire invited us to dive deep, and that isn’t always easy. I felt strong resistance at times, but with Claire’s support, both within the group sessions, and one-to-one beyond them, I was able to move through the places where I felt stuck which led to a number of meaningful breakthroughs.

There was a real sense of camaraderie in the group, and an ease and openness as we each navigated the programme in our own unique way. We had lots of fun and I learned so much from listening to others’ experiences. I came away from each session feeling more buoyant. And always with a deeper, more profound sense of belonging.

I thought I knew what my values were before joining the programme, but I have walked away with a much deeper and clearer understanding of what is truly most important to me. But more significantly, I am now equipped to integrate that awareness in how I approach my work and life beyond it. To actually ‘live it.’ What I have learned is helping me make decisions about my career, how I approach my relationships (inside and outside of work) and day-to-day how I consider my role.

I feel less of a need to please others and more confident. feel calmer and more in control, and less inclined to strive to meet unrealistic expectations. I now have the confidence to say “Let’s pause a second. What’s the right thing to do here, that gets the same, or better results.” As a result, I’m creating a better balance across all parts of my life and have more energy to focus on the most important aspects of my work and my personal relationships.

Joining this programme has made a huge difference to how I feel both inside and outside of work. I’m excited about the outcomes I’m already seeing, and everything to come as I continue to put into practice the life-changing revelations I have learned. Thank you, Claire!” Kerryn Harding-Jones, Leading Business Transformations

Why sign up now? 

If this feels like a fit, there are a handful of reasons to consider signing up sooner rather than later:

Reason #1: There is no shortcut to building this foundation for yourself. Doing this kind of inner work is unavoidable if you want a leadership career that is life-affirming for you and impactful for others. For all the reasons I have already laid out (and many more) – the corporate world is not an easy place to navigate, and the sooner you strengthen your own foundation the sooner it will start feeling different.

Reason #2: This is not a journey I recommend making on your own. This kind of programme isn’t the only way to do this kind of inner work, self-help can be useful, but you will have a better chance of success in the company of an experienced guide. It is exceedingly difficult to see your own blind spots. If you go it alone you risk missing ways that you are sabotaging yourself. And the company of the group makes it even more enriching. You will have the benefit of 6 different perspectives in total – that is powerful. 

Reason #3: Without a structure you are more likely to lose focus and possibly give up. This programme provides a proven pathway you can follow which of course is easier than trying to implement something yourself. It also provides an accountability structure: you will be showing up for yourself at the calls twice a month, and that in itself could be very impactful.

Reason #4: This programme is completely untethered from your organisation’s objectives. I have designed this programme based purely on what is best for the 6 people who sign up. There are no other agendas. No other boxes that need to be ticked. No three-way meeting with your line manager to agree what you’ll be working on. It is designed with the lens 100% focused on you, your career and the impact you want to have.

Reason #5: I will not be offering this programme again until February 2023. After this fourth run, I will be taking stock, reflecting and refreshing it once again. I will then re-open it in early 2023. If you want to build the foundation this programme offers, by signing up now you will be able to benefit at a time in our world when having a solid foundation in place for your leadership is more important than ever.

“I have a new level of optimism about my career”

“I’ve worked in big corporates for most of my career in business change and transformation, but more recently moved to a smaller tech start up in a client-facing commercial role. I joined The Inside-Out Leader because I wanted to continue to make progress in my career, but I wanted it to feel different. Claire’s philosophy of the inside-out approach to growing your leadership resonated with me, and I wanted to get under the skin of my own ‘inner dialogue’ and learn how I could evolve that.

As someone who enjoys meeting new people and working in-person, I was a little apprehensive about the level of connectedness we’d be able to achieve as a group over Zoom, but I was amazed at what happened!  It was like we had known each other for years. The environment felt safe, and everyone came with the desire to share openly with one another. I was also struck by the ability of others to see qualities in me that I hadn’t quite recognised in myself, and this added to the individual coaching we received from Claire.  It was very powerful.

Before the programme, the thought of another twenty years of work ahead of me was exhausting. Now, I have a new level of optimism about my career. I know there are many opportunities that lie ahead, and that those could take many different forms, and that feels exciting. As a result of the programme, I am now able to navigate the challenges and decisions I am facing in all parts of my life with greater ease, and less angst. 

If you’re drawn to the outline of the programme on Claire’s website, and recognise yourself in the description she shares, I highly recommend signing up. I followed the pull I felt as I read the page six months ago and I’m so glad I followed my intuition!” Abbie, Leader, Partner Programmes