Senior Leadership for Success – The Leading Authentically Programme

How we “show up at work” significantly impacts our organisations—both intentionally positive and unintentionally negative ways. Increasing our awareness of this enables us to enhance our leadership effectiveness, well-being, authenticity, and the impact of the teams we lead.

Leading Authentically is a groundbreaking senior leadership development programme designed specifically for senior leaders in the further education sector. Rooted in systems psychodynamics and drawing on the expertise of sector leaders, psychoanalysts, and organisational consultants, this programme equips participants to understand themselves better, their leadership, and their organisations.

Over the course of five in-person workshops, delegates engage in experiential learning and reflection, embarking on a transformative journey to elevate their leadership practice and foster healthier, more authentic teams.

This programme has been designed for senior leaders in the education sector, including CEOs, Principals, Deputies, and those responsible for service delivery in educational organisations.

• 1-to-1 Onboarding Session
  A personalised initial session to understand your leadership context, set learning goals, and prepare you for a transformational journey throughout the programme.

• Five In-Person Workshops
  Deep-dive, interactive face-to-face sessions exploring unconscious dynamics, leadership identity, organisational change, inclusion, and more—rooted in systems psychodynamics and practical leadership applications.

• Group Networking Opportunities
  Collaborative spaces throughout the programme to connect with fellow senior leaders across the education sector, fostering peer learning, shared insights, and lasting professional relationships.

Delegates will come together for five in-person workshops, which include:

• What Is Really Going On In Organisations: An introduction to the Unconscious.
• Why is change so difficult, and what can change evoke in us?
• Leadership, inclusion and Oedipus.
• Identity and bringing the competing parts of ourselves to work

• Location: Novotel Birmingham Centre
• Price: £2,353 (VAT included) per delegate
• Programme Dates:
•     Module One:
      Module Two:
      Module Three:
      Module Four:
•     Module Five:

Sarah Millar

Sarah is a highly experienced psychoanalyst, executive coach and organisational consultant who works with individuals and teams from various organisations. Through her work, she explores organisational dynamics and unconscious processes and seeks to support leaders with change-provoking interventions in pursuit of finding meaning. She is a British Psychoanalytic Association member and an EMCC Senior Practitioner.

Paul Wakeling

Paul has over twenty years of experience as a senior leader, including as Principal/CEO of a successful college. He now works across sectors supporting organisational improvement. Paul attended ‘Chaos, Conflict and Crisis at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and, in return, embedded ideas of adaptive leadership into his practice and his development of leaders. He has worked as an Associate for Warwick Business School, contributing to programmes for the Cabinet Office. He has published his ideas on leadership and learning in Wakeling, P. & Mackay, F. Leading & Learning in Challenging Circumstances in Challenging Professional Learning, ed. Crowley, S. Oxon. Routledge, 2014.