Holding Space as the Art of Leadership

Join us for our 2025 programme

FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! REGISTER BY FRIDAY 10 JANUARY 2025 AND RECEIVE A FREE THIRTY MINUTE COACHING SESSION

Is this you?

• You are a senior leader in a university - Head of School/Asst/Deputy/Dean/PVC

• You are in the midst of waves of constant change, uncertainty and retrenchment

• You believe in authentic, deliberate leadership, and are looking for a community of like-minded female leaders

• You deeply care for the people around you, and want to hold them steady in these turbulent times

• You recognise that you need space and time to think, to replenish your resilience and regain sense of purpose

• You want to share experiences, ideas and strategies with women who share your values

• ·You are worried that you will lose yourself and your values in all that you are required to do

• You absolutely would welcome a warm, safe and nurturing space to share some of your challenges where you know you will be met with compassion, understanding and, importantly, insight."

We have a programme “Holding space as the Art of Leadership” that we piloted last year through the Women-Space Leadership Lab with an incredible group of women leaders. These women came with us on our journey as we explored the four worlds of mind, body, play and work. Women who want to lead in ways that feel purposeful, deliberate and expansive. Women who want to hold space for others, with others. And hold space for themselves, in order to stay true to their purpose, and not get distracted.

Thanks to their work with us as participant-consultants, we are confident that we now have a programme that - whilst we can’t promise we have all the answers - will provide the support you need just now.

The Heart of the Holding Space Programme

At the heart of this transformation lies the concept of "holding space"—a skill, and an art, which transcends mere management and taps into the very fabric of how we are with each other. How we are with ourselves. In a recent Forbes article, holding space was described as the most important leadership skill to learn. This is because, as Ana Reed the author of the article commented, true leadership doesn’t simply lie in navigating the chaos of the world. It lies in igniting hope in others. As Ana says:

"By embracing the practice of holding space, leaders can  become architects of a new paradigm—

one defined by compassion and hope" (Ana Reed, Forbes)

What our Participant-Consultants Said

Before you scroll down to the content of the programme, please take a moment to hear how our participant-consultants experienced the programme. They are the ones who really know its value.

“If you’re looking for a professional development course to help enhance this skill, I would gladly recommend Holding Space as the Art of Leadership. It was a privilege to be involved in this programme as a participant-consultant.”

”This holistic programme responds to the challenges created by ‘greedy’ institutions with principles of compassion and care. It includes themes such as the body, the mind, play and work and considers how they all fit together.” 

“This programme helped me to develop new strategies for holding space as a leader, focusing on both body and mind. The balance between theory and practice was great, pushing me to reflect on and enhance my leadership approaches.”

”A special thanks to Christina Hughes and Dr Maria Kukhareva for their insightful content, unwavering support, and challenges that helped me grow. Feeling valued and supported by everyone involved made this experience truly enriching.”

Programme Brief

The demands on leaders are evolving. Our expectations of what we want in life and career are also evolving. In today's world, it's only fair that women don't have to sacrifice all of themselves to get to the top.

It is time for us to rethink the way we see and do leadership - for us, for people we influence, for our society. For what the world needs right now. We want to empower our best women to do leadership on their terms. We want to challenge the 'everything, everywhere, all at once' mode that most talented, ambitious and caring women are experiencing today. We want to give our women the power and the tools to lead differently. Unhurried, grounded, expansive leadership. Leadership that creates and holds space - for others, but first of all, for ourselves.

This is where you come in.

What we see and what we feel

Higher education is changing: we are living and working in the age of information overload, rapid technological growth, and new sense of urgency.   Thirty universities reported financial losses for the last financial year with concerns that more are moving into this position.  Restructuring, strikes, the regulatory environment and student expectations add to the challenges those working in universities face.  People everywhere are rethinking what makes new leaders and universities fit and ready for the future challenges. There's a growing recognition of the pressure working women are under, and of the leadership roles not being attractive enough for most women, who will have other commitments outside work.

In these VUCA times, the space and time to think is a precious and absolutely essential resource - as well as for our mental and physical energy. Doing the same thing as we've always done, as individuals and as society no longer delivers what is required. In this attention-greedy world, and with universities sometimes described as 'greedy institutions', how do we preserve – or indeed create - the vital calm spaces in our working lives that are needed to step back, reflect and ensure we enter the world, and address it’s challenges, from a grounded, centred, connected place?

This programme is innovative and ground breaking.  It is based on the principals of slow and zen leadership, indigenous thinking and informed by the work of Carl Honore, the science of flow and peak performance and Nancy Kline’s Thinking Environment.   Our aim is to provide you with the grounding and skills that are absolutely necessary in the current environment for clear vision, effective action and lasting impact.

Core outcomes 

• create and protect space for reflection, as a group and individually

• take part in innovative cross-disciplinary practices that are gaining momentum in the world of leadership development and peak performance

• grounded approaches to success, impact and fulfilment

• create and maintain a sustainable practice which will enable participants to achieve results without the overwhelm

• form new habits, which help to sustain a mindful, resourceful approach to life and work

• benefit from peer coaching, group support, and coaching from our faciltiators

• explore unhurried expansive leadership practices

Format and Time Commitments 

• You will be engaging in: whole group discussions; peer coaching; three-way sharing sessions; individual reflections. You will also have a chance to attend a Q&A session.

• The programme draws on the rich range of theory and practice, which includes elements of indigenous, embodied and zen leadership; emerging leadership models; resilience, and the 'holistic health' approach.

• 6 online webinars (February to May 2025): 1 introductory; four sessions; 1 wrap-up (9 hours)

• Independent: Reflective journal/ peer support / online resources/practice (ca. 5 hours)

• Drop-in sessions - Q&A, meditation, peer support (up to 2 hours) 

Schedule and themes

Friday 14 February 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Launch and Introduction.

How would you describe the interplay between leadership and 'holistic health' in your life? What do the words 'muscle', 'discipline', 'space' and 'time' mean to you? We come together as a group and share our hopes and ambitions. We get grounded in some of the practices and elements of the programme, to prepare for Day 1.

Friday 28 February 2025 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Body. 

How does your body resonate with the pace of your life? What does unhurried living feel like to you? To be unhurried is to move at the right pace for the task at hand. It is also to understand our place in relation to others and have clarity on what is essential and what is 'noise'. We will be exploring Carl Honore's Slow movement and Zen Leadership practices that help create more mental space, at a different pace! 

Friday 14 March 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Mind.

Do you have time to think?  Nancy Kline argues that “The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of thinking we do first”.  So, how do we help each other think well for ourselves?  This session encourages deep listening and turn-taking to facilitate our best thinking.   

Friday 4 April 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Play.

When are you focused?  Have you rested well enough to do your best work? How do you feel after certain activities/ people?  How do you replenish - intuitively or purposefully? Have you considered how play, and playfulness fuels your best work self? Play and curiosity are necessary not only for our mental health, but also for our visionary energy at work. Like everything, play requires practice, and even.. discipline! We will focus on: energy management, resourcefulness and harnessing our energy, as well as flow states and JOMO (joy of missing out) as a discipline!

Friday 2 May 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Work.

How do body, mind and even play help us stay in our genius zone at work? Are your days stop/start?  Re-writing long to-do lists? Having to switch your brain from one issue to the next? Constantly switching between tasks is highly taxing for our brain. We also know now that multitasking doesn't work. What practices do you have, to maintain mental clarity and focus, maintain good energy levels, and protect your boundaries, all calm and collected? We will return to some of the mind-body-play techniques, and focus on work application. We will identify what isn’t yours and why you make it yours; monotasking; and Greg McKeown's discipline of Essentialism. 

Friday 9 May 09.30-11.00 (GMT): Graduation. Taking stock and planning next steps

In this final session we share the practice that was most helpful and how we will be keeping it.   We also explore the blockages to supportive practice and identify next steps. We consider how we can make this programme even more powerful for the next cohort of brilliant women.

We explore opportunities for publication of our experiences and the value of Zen Leadership and the Slow Professor approaches to the challenges that women experience in higher education.

Fee

The fee for this programme is £300 plus VAT.

Please contact us if your employer is paying for you and you need further details.

If you wish to pay in three instalments, please contact us.

Questions?

Please contact us if you want to chat to Christina or Maria about the programme.

YOUR PROGRAMME LEADS

LEADERSHIP LAB:

DESIGNING SOLUTIONS THAT REALLY WORK

At Women-Space we are committed to creating leadership development approaches that really make a difference, to you. And your organisations. Today.

This is why we set up the Women-Space Leadership Lab. Our purpose is to promote innovative, radical and pioneering leadership development designed to change the dial on equity progress and workplace cultures. 

We do this by bringing together leading trainers, consultants and researchers in the design and delivery of new professional programmes and initiatives. 

Some programmes are pilots and we work with participant-consultants to finesse their effectiveness. Some programmes draw on tried and tested models that deliver results every time.

All are designed to support women as much as possible, enabling you to progress and thrive in your career and to live your values within your approach to leadership.

Why? Because without you, we cannot transform the world.