Rise Above
Unlock the most underutilised asset in your business: the realised potential of women.
A 12-month leadership programme that turns suppressed capability into visible, decisive leadership – reducing hidden performance costs created by conditioning and bias.
Organisations do not lack female talent. They struggle to fully realise it.
Decades of research show that organisations with more women in leadership outperform their peers on performance, innovation and organisational health. Yet in many workplaces, women’s leadership is still constrained by invisible norms that shape how authority is expressed.
Conditioning and bias encourage women to self-monitor, over-prepare and avoid risk – behaviours that reduce visibility, slow decisions and limit impact.
Rise Above is a 12-month leadership programme that removes these constraints at the root – enabling women to lead with clarity and authority, and organisations to unlock value already present.
“This is a structural initiative that goes to the heart of the issue the insurance industry faces as a whole – a lack of women in senior leadership roles,
This isn’t mentorship over lunch. This is about rewiring leadership from the inside out.”
Pamela Avornyo, Head of People Development, AND-E
When women’s leadership is constrained, organisations pay in slower progression, narrower succession plans and unrealised capability. Rise Above addresses the root causes, not the symptoms.
Why Rise Above?
Reduce risk-aversion and permission-seeking leadership
When women stop over-monitoring themselves through people-pleasing and perfectionism, decisions speed up, ownership increases and leadership presence becomes visible.
Translate insight into sustained behaviour change
Expert coaching and peer learning turn awareness into action – embedding new leadership behaviours through accountability, reflection and shared language.
Increase challenge, clarity and contribution in the room
Women learn to speak up earlier, challenge constructively and influence decisions – leading to stronger debate, clearer thinking and fewer missed risks.
Create sustainable high performance without burnout patterns
Self-trust and values-led leadership reduce over-functioning, boundary erosion and quiet disengagement – protecting energy, performance and retention.
Strengthen strategic decision-making under pressure
Participants build assertiveness, resilience and decision confidence – particularly in high-stakes, ambiguous or politically complex environments.
Build peer networks that reinforce leadership, not self-doubt
Trusted peer relationships reduce isolation, normalise challenge and support women to hold their authority – strengthening leadership consistency across the organisation.
What You'll Gain
By the end of the programme, participants demonstrate leadership shifts that translate directly into organisational impact:
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Decisive leadership → Faster execution, clearer ownership and reduced decision paralysis.
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Participants develop confidence in decision-making and authority in high-stakes environments.
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Resilience under pressure → Greater stability through change and fewer burnout-driven performance dips.
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Women navigate setbacks with composure, reduce self-doubt cycles and maintain leadership presence during complexity.
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Strategic networks and influence → Stronger collaboration, cross-functional alignment and succession readiness.
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Participants build and leverage meaningful professional relationships that extend their impact across the organisation.
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Healthy boundaries and self-advocacy → Reduced attrition risk and more sustainable high performance.
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Women advocate for themselves, manage energy effectively and step out of over-functioning patterns that lead to burnout.
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Visible leadership that elevates others → Cultural ripple effects that strengthen engagement and leadership depth.
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Participants model confident, values-led leadership that encourages others to contribute, challenge and grow.
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The Cost Of Leaving Women’s Potential Locked Up:
1. A stronger, more diverse leadership pipeline
When women are supported to lead without self-editing, over-functioning or permission-seeking, organisations build a deeper, more sustainable pipeline of leaders ready to step into senior roles.
Without this:
Succession plans narrow, the same leadership profiles are recycled, and high-potential women stall or exit before reaching their full impact.
2. Higher engagement and retention of high-performing women
When women feel able to contribute fully – without carrying invisible load or burning out – engagement increases and retention improves.
Without this:
Organisations lose experienced, capable women to exhaustion, stagnation or workplaces where they don’t have to self-silence to succeed.
3. Resilient, emotionally intelligent leadership under pressure
Rise Above develops leaders who can navigate stress, complexity and challenge without collapsing into over-control or quiet compliance.
Without this:
Stress travels down the organisation, decision-making becomes fragile under pressure, and performance dips during periods of change or uncertainty.
4. Greater innovation through real diversity of thought
When women can challenge, influence and take up space, teams benefit from broader perspectives, healthier debate and better problem-solving.
Without this:
Organisations default to safe thinking, avoid productive conflict, and miss insights that drive innovation and long-term performance.
When women rise, organisations rise with them.
Leaders who can fully lead don’t just break barriers – they reshape culture, build capability, and create pathways for others to follow.
How It Works
Rise Above is a 12-month leadership journey designed to create lasting behavioural and cultural change – not a short-lived confidence boost.
The structure deliberately combines shared learning, small-group accountability, individual coaching and in-person leadership intensives to address both the internal patterns women carry and the organisational contexts they’re navigating. This is what allows insight to translate into visible leadership shift.
The programme includes:
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Three in-person leadership intensives (1 day each)
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Programme launch – establishing trust, shared language and psychological safety across the cohort
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Mid-point integration – consolidating learning, recalibrating leadership direction and strengthening peer bonds
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Programme close – integration, reflection and celebration of leadership growth
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These in-person days accelerate connection, deepen learning and support identity-level leadership shifts that are difficult to achieve online alone.
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Monthly 2-hour leadership workshops (virtual or in-person)
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Shared learning creates a common language around conditioning, power and leadership – making previously invisible patterns visible and discussable at work.
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Monthly 90-minute peer masterminds (Power Circles)
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Small groups of 3–4 women work with live, real issues from their roles. These sessions turn insight into action, supporting women to practise new behaviours in context and build leadership confidence through application.
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1:1 coaching with an Organisational Psychologist
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Individual coaching focuses on removing internal blockers, navigating complexity and embedding leadership behaviours that align with both role demands and organisational realities.
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1:1 CliftonStrengths coaching
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Strengths-based coaching enables women to lead with clarity and authority, reducing over-compensation and supporting sustainable performance.
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Weekly micro-coaching check-ins
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Light-touch, consistent accountability supports momentum between sessions – helping women interrupt old patterns and practise new responses in real time.
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Online resource portal and private peer community
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A shared space for tools, reflection and connection that reinforces learning and reduces isolation across the programme.
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Ongoing access beyond the programme
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Corporate participants are invited to continue their learning within the wider public Rise Above programmes and community after completing the programme, at no additional cost.
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This ongoing access supports long-term behaviour change, reinforces leadership language and protects organisational investment beyond the formal 12-month journey.
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A Strategic Leadership Journey Over 12 Months
Rise Above is designed as a sequenced journey. Each phase builds the conditions for the next – moving participants from internal constraint to visible leadership impact and cultural ripple.
Phase 1 (Months 1–4)
From self-monitoring to self-leadership
Outcome: clearer ownership, faster decisions, reduced perfection paralysis
1. Foundations – Goals, direction and leadership intent
Participants clarify their leadership goals, strengths and aspirations, creating a grounded roadmap aligned with organisational context and role expectations.
2. Recognising Good Girl Conditioning
Women develop awareness of the conditioned patterns shaping their leadership behaviour – particularly over-functioning, self-silencing and risk aversion.
3. Involving Others and Building Support
Participants learn to stop carrying leadership alone, building intentional networks of support, influence and accountability.
4. Self-Compassion and Emotional Regulation
Focus shifts from coping to regulation – supporting women to manage stress, maintain presence and lead effectively under pressure.
Phase 2 (Months 5–8)
From self-silencing to influence
Outcome: stronger voice, healthier challenge, increased visibility and impact
5. Empowering Your Voice
Participants practise speaking up earlier, advocating for themselves and contributing with clarity and confidence in professional settings.
6. Authenticity and Accepting Imperfection
Women step out of performance-based leadership and into authentic presence – reducing energy drain and increasing trust and credibility.
7. Building Resistance to Criticism and Pushback
Participants develop resilience to scrutiny, feedback and societal backlash that often follows visible leadership – particularly for women.
8. Owning Your Power
Women consolidate authority, decision-making confidence and leadership presence – leading without hesitation or self-betrayal.
Phase 3 (Months 9–12)
From individual change to cultural ripple
Outcome: stronger teams, healthier norms, leadership capability embedded beyond the cohort
9. Valuing Yourself
Participants strengthen boundaries, self-worth and self-advocacy – protecting energy and enabling sustainable performance.
10. Empowering Others
Leadership focus expands outward as participants learn to mentor, support and elevate others without over-giving or rescuing.
11. Evolving and Continuing the Leadership Journey
Women develop a long-term leadership strategy that supports progression, adaptability and continued impact beyond the programme.
12. Reflection and Integration
The programme concludes with structured reflection and celebration – consolidating learning, recognising growth and anchoring change.
Who Rise Above Is Designed For
Rise Above is most effective for organisations at a specific moment – when women are capable, committed, and present, but not fully progressing or being fully heard.
For women in your organisation who are:
For organisations where:
Why Your Organisation Needs Rise Above
Many organisations believe they have a women-in-leadership problem.
In reality, they have a conditions problem.
Women are present, capable and committed – but they are often operating under invisible pressures that shape how leadership is expressed. Over time, this creates predictable outcomes.
The problem
Women adapt to organisational norms by:
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over-functioning and carrying invisible load
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self-editing to avoid backlash or reputational risk
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staying silent, safe or “reliable” rather than visible and influential
These are not confidence gaps.
They are conditioned responses to context.
The cost of doing nothing
When these patterns remain unaddressed, organisations pay through:
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stalled or narrowing leadership pipelines
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loss of high-performing women to burnout, disengagement or exit
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slower decisions and reduced challenge at senior levels
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innovation constrained by risk-aversion and unspoken rules
Left untouched, the system stays the same – and women are asked to keep adapting to survive within it.
Why Rise Above
Rise Above addresses these patterns at the root.
By changing the conditions that shape behaviour – not just the behaviour itself – the programme supports women to lead with clarity, authority and resilience, while organisations benefit from:
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stronger, more diverse leadership pipelines
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higher engagement and retention of experienced women
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leaders who can navigate challenge without collapse or compliance
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healthier cultures where contribution matters more than conformity
This is not a confidence programme.
It is a systemic leadership intervention designed to unlock the capability already present in your organisation.
Beyond The Cohort: Changing The Conditions
Rise Above is most powerful when it sits within a wider cultural shift.
Women cannot sustainably change if the system around them remains untouched. That’s why, alongside the 12-month leadership journey, organisations can choose to extend the work across the wider system.
This can include:
Executive sponsorship and visible ownership
This work is most effective when it is visibly owned at the top. Executive leaders are supported in sponsoring the programme, protecting psychological safety, and ensuring that women are not asked to change in isolation.
Gender Experience diagnostics and insight gathering
Making invisible workload, voice and progression patterns visible and discussable.
Manager enablement and shared language
Supporting leaders to respond to behavioural shifts constructively – preventing regression.
Whole-organisation Gendered Conditioning training
Creating shared understanding of how patterns are reinforced and how to interrupt them.
Executive-sponsored action projects
Turning insight into practical changes in policy, process and decision-making norms.
Rise Above is not designed to 'fix' women.
It is designed to support women while organisations take shared responsibility for the conditions that shape leadership.
ProgrammeInvestment
Rise Above is a 12-month leadership and cultural intervention.
Investment starts from £9,000 per participant.
Programmes are tailored to cohort size, delivery format and organisational context.
Additional cultural and executive sponsorship work is scoped separately.
Next Steps
Book a scoping conversation
The first step is a short, focused conversation to understand whether Rise Above is the right intervention for your organisation.
In this call, we will:
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explore where women’s leadership potential is currently getting constrained
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identify the organisational patterns contributing to burnout, self-silencing or stalled progression
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assess whether Rise Above is the right fit for your goals this year
There is no obligation – and no expectation to proceed unless the programme is genuinely aligned with your context.
Email Michelle Minnikin at michelle@deprogramming.company to request the programme brochure.
Rise Above can be tailored to reflect your organisation’s size, sector, leadership challenges and strategic priorities.
A Final Note...
This is not about fixing women.
It’s about changing the conditions that shape leadership – so capability already present can fully emerge.
When women can lead without self-editing or self-betrayal, organisations don’t just become more inclusive.
They perform better.