Lead — The virtual leadership development programme designed for women in transport
Our Lead programme is a 100% virtual leadership development programme tailored to the capability and progression needs of women leaders in the transport sector.
Lead is a paid programme to be funded by you or your organisation. It provides excellent value for money and will help you drive your career forward as a leader in transport.
90% of our Lead women have been retained by their organisation.
49% of our Lead women have been promoted since joining the programme.
Lead is designed to evolve and grow the leadership capability and confidence of women who are already in, or are aspiring to, significant leadership roles in the transport sector.
Women leaders join a supportive cohort from a diverse range of transport and infrastructure organisations to authentically expand their networks through stimulating shared learning experiences.
If you would like a one-to-one conversation to understand more about Lead and whether it is the right fit for you then please contact us at lead@womenintransport.com.
Women in Transport’s mission is advancing women working in transport.
Lead supports those on the programme to progress to senior positions; providing practical skills, an environment in which to practice them and the support of a high-quality alumni network.
Women supporting women is making a positive difference!
Sonya Byers, Chief Executive, Women in Transport
Our next Lead programme
Lead runs three times a year:
Winter starts in January
Spring starts in April
Autumn starts in September
We recommend that you look at the full programme schedule to see all the elements and time commitment.
Want to find out more?
Join us for one of our virtual Find Out More sessions to learn about the programme.
You will hear from the Programme Directors and a past participant about how the programme works. It’s an opportunity to ask questions.
Anyone interested in understanding more about the programme is welcome to join.
Details of our next Find Out More session can be found on our events page. Please register to receive joining instructions.
We look forward to meeting you!
Women who Lead — What our alumni say
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Our participants have found that the programme has far exceeded their expectations and is making a positive difference to their confidence and capability in their current roles and leading them to stretch further within their organisations.
Hear more of their stories below.
Alexander Dennis
Amaro Group
Applied Driving
Blackpool Transport Authority
British Transport Police
Constellation Cold Logistics
Deloitte
Department for Transport (DfT)
Eurovia
First Rail
HW Martin
Integrated Transport Planning
Ioki / Deutsche Bahn
Jacobs
JFG Communications
Kier
Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN)
Living Streets
Lothian Buses
Lothian Community Transport Services
Mott MacDonald
Movement Strategies
National Express
National Highways
Network Rail
Nexus
PA Consulting
Paul Basham Associates
Portsmouth Council
Rail Delivery Group
Ringway / Eurovia
Road Haulage Association (RHA)
SCS Railways
Strabag
Transport for Greater Manchester
Transport for London (TfL)
Transport for Wales (TfW)
Transport Scotland
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)
Urban Transport Group
Warrington’s Own Buses
West Midlands Trains
WSP
“The Lead programme has been completely transformative and has been the best therapy I didn’t know I needed. It has been so thought provoking and powerful and I look forward to every session, knowing I’m surrounded by a wonderful group of supportive and like minded women. It’ been a real game changer for me and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re in any doubt, just go for it, I promise you won’t look back!”
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my team on the LEAD programme; increasing my self awareness, understanding my strengths and optimising my focus. It has provided a sense of direction and purpose for me and I have and would recommend it to colleagues.
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“The LEAD Programme has given me the headspace to consider my career progression as a whole, thinking beyond immediate next steps and the context of the organisation I work for. My levels of confidence and self-assurance have soared. The peer network we have established has been a huge support and it’s always good to meet others facing similar challenges that we can resolve together.”
“I would also like to add that I have found the LEAD programme extremely stimulating and it has pushed me into asking myself the important questions I didn’t know needed answers. The speakers have been inspirational and Iain and Shireen are fantastic at opening up conversations, making the group feel they can be themselves in a safe environment which in turn is helping us to grow and realise just what wonderful inspiring women we already are. I feel we are now able to unlock our potential with the tools that the programme is helping us to develop.”
“Iain and Shireen are huge supports and great advocates of each member of the WIT cohort. It’s great to be in such a warm a supportive environment.”
“This course empowers women to be the best version of themselves, to show up for themselves and peers. The reflective segments have led me to realise success is about the journey you are on and not just the destination.”
What you’ll learn
Lead equips participants with the skills, models and behaviours required for successful leadership and career progression. It allows participants to embed their learning and gain feedback throughout the programme.
Participants work individually and collaboratively to:
Embrace a ‘leader as learner’ mindset to their leadership contribution
Develop confidence in their own unique, strengths based leadership style
Fine tune their interpersonal communication and authentic networking skills
Learn to respond differently to challenges in their teams and organisations
Develop a tangible plan for the achievement of their career ambition
Develop and deliver a project pitch regarding an area of innovation for the Women in Transport community
Lead programme modules
Lead is designed to engage participants in a detailed exploration of their leadership and management style, focusing on their individual drivers and enablers. Each module includes an inspirational guest speaker sharing their own leadership journey.
Foundation – getting to know each other, building trust and creating a learning platform
Self-awareness – your purpose, motivation and enabling beliefs
Personal Brand – a strengths based description of your offer
Confidence – reframing barriers and building a support network
Influence – communication skills for engaging your organisation and your team
Lead – identifying the areas in which to focus your leadership and benchmarking your leadership skills
Lead 2 - empathy, wellbeing and being a leader as a coach
Forward – reviewing your progress, celebrating success and planning to build further
Modules mostly follow a four-week cycle. Some of the modules are elongated to spread the time commitment. Our programme is 100% virtual. There are eight modules all together over a period of eight months with breaks to allow for school holidays. Designed to be achievable alongside undertaking a full time role, we recommend allowing 3 - 4 hours per week to complete the course elements.
The modules comprise a number of learning interventions including, pre-work, a group training workshop (delivered on Zoom using all of its facilities of group sessions, breakout rooms and chat), peer learning and a themed insight session (also on Zoom). Additionally, there is a 360-degree feedback exercise and three one to one coaching sessions with one of the Women in Transport team of highly experienced and expert coaches.
Two Programme Directors oversee the whole programme and are present at the workshops and themed insight sessions to ensure participants benefit from high levels of personal engagement and diverse perspective.
Contact us at lead@womenintransport.com to pay for and secure your place.
Participant experience
From self-paced, individual learning to interactive large and small group development, Lead immerses participants in a vibrant, multifaceted experience. Interacting with peers from across a range of organisations, participants gain diverse insights and build powerful new connections.
The developmental journey has multiple learning loops to maximise individual learning and positively impact career ambition comprising:
An initial introductory call with you and your manager
Initial group engagement event
Preparation materials and activities for each workshop
Whole group learning workshops
Industry guest speakers
Peer learning groups
Themed insight sessions
A 360-degree feedback activity
Three 1:1 executive coaching sessions with one of our panel of coaches
Final moving forward workshop
Post programme support to continue your career progression
Secure your place today by contacting us at lead@womenintransport.com.
Post-programme support
We continually evolve the Lead programme to deliver the best experience for our participants and support their career progression. Experience has shown us that participants welcome additional support to continue the momentum created by the programme. We offer this in two ways:
Joining the Lead alumni: A growing network within the Women in Transport community of women leaders who have graduated from Lead, shaped by the participants.
Two coaching sessions: These sessions are with one of the Programme Directors and will help participants create a "greatest hits" from all of the concepts covered during the programme; the ones that most resonated with them and that they want to make part of how they lead.
This is in addition to the benefits of remaining Women in Transport members and accessing the networking, professional development and visibility opportunities that the wider network provides.
“Lead is a fantastic investment for those who want to become pivotal transport leaders.”
Marny Moruzzi, We are the City Rising Star Award Winner 2022, Vice President of Women in Transport and Associate Project Manager at Mott MacDonald
Is the Lead programme for you?
Are you mid-level in your career and organisation, and already responsible for a project, a budget, delivery of a service and/or team of people?
Do you feel that you are capable of more, and maybe not progressing at the rate you would like?
Would you like to be a senior manager or director in one to three years time?
Do you have more to give and your career ambitions are not being met?
Are you passionate about the transport sector and love the idea of an alumnae of like minded professionals available to you for the rest of your career?
If the answer is yes to any of the questions above then Lead is the leadership programme for you!
Contact us at lead@womenintransport.com.
Organisation sponsorship
Each participant will be encouraged to identify an organisation workplace sponsor to work with them during the programme.
The primary role of the sponsor will be to act as a sounding board for thoughts and ideas to help ensure the participant feels supported and energised.
In many cases the role of workplace sponsor falls naturally to the participant’s manager, however this also presents an opportunity to connect and gain mentor support from a different or additional executive or senior colleague.
The benefits of Lead
What will you gain?
Lead will increase your:
Confidence, focus and clarity on your career direction
Self assurance and positive belief in yourself on how to achieve your career goals
Influence, communication skill and networking
Leadership capability and ability to engage with others
Career aspiration, ambition and progression
These outcomes will benefit you and the progression of your career. By stepping up and using your talents to the full, your progression will help increase the representation of senior women leaders in transport and provide a positive role model to those entering the sector.
Contact us at lead@womenintransport.com if you would like to discuss how Lead can help you reach your potential.
Organisational benefits
Many organisations have goals to increase their gender representation at senior levels and are failing to make the progress they have targeted. Lead allows you to invest in key people, adding to both their capability and effectiveness, encouraging their confidence to reach higher, thus making progress both with individual career and organisational targets.
How does it benefit your organisation for your women leaders to attend our Lead programme?
Each organisation is unique, however here are some frequent reasons other organisations have told us why they invest in this way:
Succession planning: It is more cost effective and more motivating messaging to promote from within where possible.
Broadening perspective: Learning from peers from a wide cross section of the transport and transport infrastructure sector can help specialists and experts widen their view. This knowledge is valuable to you as these women add to your top talent.
Visible action: Investing in your women leaders increases your corporate image. It promotes your company positively as you invest in something tangible to close the representation gap at senior levels in your organisation.
Positive role modelling: Your women leaders will emerge from this programme with more career motivation, clarity and skills to add value to your organisation. Their progression will inspire others to aim higher too.
Additional value: This programme complements your own in-house leadership development programmes for all genders, and particularly supports the confidence in your women leaders as they take their place more explicitly in your organisation.
Contact us at lead@womenintransport.com to discuss who should attend, and how to set and manage expectations with your key people.
Pricing and enrolment
Lead is a sector-specific programme open to Women in Transport members. It offers superb value for money for the individual participant and their sponsoring organisation, providing both tailored learning and access to a transport specific alumni group.
The group size for each cohort is 16 to 18.
Programme fee per participant: £4,495 plus VAT plus £60 for Women in Transport membership.
Places may be purchased on an individual or block basis. Sponsoring organisations may wish to consider purchasing a place for a third sector or charitable sector organisation. All places are subject to terms and conditions which can be read here.
Get in touch at lead@womenintransport.com to secure your place.
FAQs
We’ve created a dedicated FAQs page that covers the Lead programme in more detail.
Contact us
If you have any questions about the Lead programme, please complete the form below.
Alternatively, you can email us at lead@womenintransport.com