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Emerging Leader
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Emerging Leader 

A hybrid programme for budding leaders. 

£1,995 Early Bird // £2,595 Full Price
Applications closed    Register your interest

Programme information

Commencing in October 2025, the Emerging Leader programme will bring together peers who are passionate about social change and keen to develop their leadership skills to have a greater impact.

Through a wealth of online and in-person leadership development interventions, participants will build the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to harness their passion, effectively lead projects and people, and contribute to positive social change.   

This programme is certified by The Institute of Leadership and on completion of the programme participants will have access to the award-winning MyLeadership e-learning programme from The Institute of Leadership to enable their continued development. To learn more about this certificate click  here

We are delighted to offer one bursary place on this programme for an individual who identifies as Black or racially minoritised. The bursary seeks to address the disparities and imbalances in social sector leadership. Thus, this bursary is for an individual from a Black or racially minoritised backgrounds from small-medium sized organisations (annual income of less than £1m). If you qualify for the bursary, simply complete the online application form. 

Watch the recording of the live Information and Q&A webinar here.

 

 

Programme Detail
  • Online and in-person learning
  • 15-20 day commitment
  • £1,995 Early Bird
Outcomes
  • Increased self-awareness and confidence
  • Fast-tracked growth and impact
  • Improved working with and through others
  • Ongoing support and learning through community of peers
 
 

Eligibility criteria

The budding leader

Participants of this programme are individuals who have gained at least three years of leadership experience, either paid or voluntary, leading projects, teams, volunteers and/or departments, from any sector. This programme commonly caters for  Managers, Project Managers, Team Leaders, Senior Managers and Heads of, who are ready to take their leadership skills to the next level by deepening their understanding of themselves and the kind of leader they want to be. If you feel your experience goes beyond the budding leader, why not check out our Experienced Leader programme.

Working for social purpose

This programme is open to individuals who work for or with organisations with a social purpose, including charities, social enterprises, CICs, CSR departments, etc.

Passionate about social change

Your interest in using your leadership skills and knowledge to help make the world a better place is key. 

Keen to develop

Your determination to develop yourself so you can lead social change effectively is a highly important criterion for your application.

Key dates

Early bird and application deadline

Applications are now closed.

Please register your interest and we will let you know as soon as new dates have been released.

 

Moderation decision

Applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis and there are limited places available - so be sure to submit your application as soon as possible. All applications will go through a moderation process to assess suitability, taking into the total number of applications received and programme capacity. Applicants will be informed about the outcome of their application in September.

Programme dates

The programme will begin in October 2025, with a welcome session. It will conclude in June 2026. The programme schedule containing key dates can be found in the programme schedule section below.

What our previous participants say

Outcomes

Throughout the programme you will be guided to develop the skills essential for any social leader, resulting in strengthening your capabilities as an inspirational communicator, empowering enabler, courageous changemaker, focused strategist, passionate advocate, and generous collaborator.

You will learn how and what these skills and behaviours look like in action, focus on utilising your existing strengths and developing your areas of improvement, and enhance your ability to work with and support others.

The Emerging Leader programme is designed to ensure you leave with an increased confidence in your ability to lead, clarity on your purpose and leadership style, and with the skills and knowledge to effectively work with others - ultimately fast-tracking your growth and impact as a social leader.


Click on the buttons below to learn more about the expected programme outcomes.

We will support you to get to know yourself and the impact you have on others, helping to clarify your unique purpose and aspirations, whilst improving your communication, professional relationships, and wellbeing.

You’ll gain skills and knowledge to support you to be effective in your current and future roles, learning to inspire and motivate others, make informed decisions, and lead meaningful change.

Through self-reflection, seeking feedback, and exposure to diverse leaders, you'll gain valuable insights into your style, strengths and areas for growth. By the end of the programme you will be more self-assured and authentic in your leadership.

The programme will boost your confidence in your leadership abilities, with you gaining the knowhow and resilience to navigate the pressures, complexity, uncertainty that social leaders face throughout their career.

You will become more effective in your role, learning how to enable high-performance within your projects and teams. This programme demonstrates how to inspire, resolve conflict, and set effective goals for truly outstanding work. You'll be able to position yourself as a trusted team leader, with a clear, concise vision.

Throughout the programme you will be supported to embrace and work on the challenges your organisation is currently facing, developing practical, long-lasting solutions that you can take back into the workplace.

Past cohorts have found the support they receive from their peers during and after the programme essential in their journey to becoming a more impactful social leader. We encourage the development of strong relations with your peers for long lasting advice, guidance, and friendship. You’ll also have the option to join our online community of changemakers, helping to form strong peer bonds and networks to increase organisational and sector resilience, and encouraging innovation and collaboration.

Our fellowship comprises a growing and diverse group of individuals who lead change in the social sector at varying levels. You join the Clore Social Fellowship upon completion of the programme, providing you with opportunities for further growth and development, as well as space to expand your network, exchange ideas, and collaborate on impactful initiatives.

Programme elements

Over the course of the programme you will engage in a range of formal, social and experiential learning interventions. All elements are delivered by leadership development experts and practitioners who will tailor the content and approach to meet the needs and experience of you and the cohort.


Click on the buttons below to learn more about each element.

The four-week online learning module uses a self-reflective model to guide you through the core components of social leadership development. You will finish the programme with a long-term Leadership Development Plan, ready to make the most of the other elements of the programme.

Through a series of self-paced online learning modules, paired with virtual learning days, you will learn about key social leadership skills and behaviours and what these look like in action, supporting you to develop them in yourself and others.

The programme will provide optional learning modules based on your needs and interests, as well a number essential modules based on our Leadership Development Model and Capabilities Framework, including: Focused Strategist; Empowering Enabler; Generous Collaborator; Passionate Advocate; Inspiring Communicator; Wellbeing and Leader As Coach.

Over two days, you will be guided through a series of workshops and activities that strengthen cohort connections, explore some of the key challenges faced by the sector and learn more about yourself through Lumina Spark psychometric self portrait.

You will have the opportunity to hear directly from experienced social leaders, including their key lessons, failures and tips they learnt along the way. Through these stories you will be vicariously learning key leadership lessons whilst also growing your network.

Through three one-to-one sessions you will work with a professional coach to tap into your talent and overcome barriers that might be holding you back, helping to increase your resilience, efficiency, and performance - and get one step closer to achieving your professional and personal goals.

With a small group of peers, you will regularly come together in an inclusive and confidential space to aid reflective learning. You will present on challenges you face and, with the support of the Set, deepen your understanding of the situation and possible solutions, finding the answers within yourself and through learning from one another. As well as providing practical solutions to real-world issues, Action Learning promotes a culture of coaching; supporting you to refine your coaching skills, which can then be applied within your organisation.

Taking place during the residential, this individualised psychometric profile tool inspires people to develop skills most needed in the workplace - adaptability, agility, a growth mind-set, partnering, authenticity and the ability to lead self and others. By completing the profile and participating in an interactive guided session, you will discover your underlying motivators and hidden potential, understand your everyday behaviours and how you respond to pressure, and learn how to improve working with others.

During this optional module you will be encouraged to seek feedback from your colleagues and wider networks to help you to gain a holistic understanding of your current working style, strengths and areas for development. You will be provided the tools and guidance for this self-led activity, helping you to utilise the feedback so that it supports your professional development during this programme and beyond.

Peer Learning Circles will offer an opportunity to explore each social leadership capability in more detail and you will be invited to use this space to share your own learning, reflections and insights around how you apply these capabilities to your own work and leadership with your cohort peers.

The peer learning circle space is designed to embody the idea that ‘Leaders Grow Leaders’.

Our methods

Our programmes are tailored to meet the needs of participants, whilst based on the foundational principles that we have developed over more than a decade of working with 4,000+ social leaders.

The programme learning will be guided by Clore Social Leadership’s Social Capabilities Framework and Leadership Development Model. Using our Leadership Development Model , you will learn how and what social leadership skills and behaviours look like in action, where your strengths and areas of improvement lie, and how you can develop and encourage them in yourselves and others. Using our Social Capabilities Framework, you will be guided to develop inspirational, empowering, courageous, focused, passionate and generous leadership capabilities - qualities essential to any effective leader. Find out more about them here

Programme schedule

We know that professional development can have a transformational impact for you and your organisation, but making time for it can be a challenge. Please see below for an overview of the programme schedule to help you plan ahead - with the exception of confirmed dates for Action Learning Sets and individual coaching sessions.

Once the programme begins, participants will be grouped, according to their level of experience, into Action Learning Sets, and all dates will be confirmed. Coaching is organised between the participant and the coach, to fit within existing commitments.

The majority of these sessions are delivered virtually, with a few in-person opportunities including the residential and celebration event. You can also find the schedule for all of the components of the programme in an info leaflet once registration opens.

Session Date & Time
Online: Welcome session Wednesday 1 October 2025: 12:00-13:00
Online: Learning Day 1 Wednesday 8 October 2025: 09:30-13:00
Online: Discover Live Classroom #1 Wednesday 22 October 2025: 13:00-14:30
Online: Discover Live Classroom #2 Wednesday 12 November 2025: 13:00-14:30
In-Person: Residential
Ashorne Hill, Leamington Spa, Ashorne, CV33 9QW
Thursday 27 & Friday 28 November 2025
Peer Learning Circle: Focused Strategist Wednesday 14 January 2026: 12:00-13:30
Peer Learning Circle: Passionate Advocate
Wednesday 25 February 2026: 12:00-13:30
Peer Learning Circle: Inspirational Communicator
Wednesday 18 March 2026: 12:00-13:30
Peer Learning Circle: Empowering Enabler
Wednesday 21 April 2026: 12:00-13:30
Peer Learning Circle: Generous Collaborator
Wednesday 13 May 2026: 12:00-13:30
In-Person: Celebration Event and Programme Close
The Rank Foundation, 21 Garden Walk, London, EC2A 3EQ
Wednesday 3 June 2026: 11:00-15:00

Case studies

Seek to understand, think, and then respond

The Emerging Leader programme gave me so much more than I expected. When I plucked up the confidence to submit my application in the hope of expanding my narrow network in the military charity sector, I had no idea how transformative it would be, not only professionally but also personally.

Learn More

The power of learning how to observe yourself and others

At the start of the programme, I was unsure how to take the next steps in my career. I wanted to explore where I could make a true impact in a sector that I am very passionate about. The content of the programme really helped me to discover my leadership strengths, preferences and identify where these would be best placed in the sector to create sustainable change.

 

Learn More

A safe space to get to know others and better understand yourself

I’ve been asked to write a blog about my experience on the Clore Social Emerging Leader: Women and Girls Sector Programme – my limit is 700 words, but I’m not sure I can write the word “AMAZING!” 700 times over, so I’ll try and break down my experience a little more for you.

 
Learn More

#CloreSocialFellowFriday with Kylie Havelock

The first thing that comes to mind is the ongoing support and sense of community that I get from my cohort. We’re still in touch regularly, and it's been such a joy to get to know that group of people who I admire greatly. Even if it’s just having a phone call to have a chat about something, it can be so useful to speak to someone who’s outside of your organisation and has a new perspective.

Learn More

Frequently Asked Questions

Your passion for and experience in the social sector are all you need to apply. You don’t need to have any particular academic or professional qualifications to take part in the programme. We know that leadership development training can be very difficult to access in the social sector, so try to make it accessible to those with minimal prior training.

We classify the leadership experience required to meet the programme eligibility as professional, in-sector experience. This may have been accrued at different points throughout your career, at different organisations and can be paid or voluntary. Emerging leader applicants should be able to display at least three years of such experience, If your experience falls outside of these criteria, but you feel you are otherwise well suited for the programme, let us know why your experience is relevant and transferable in your application.

We are delighted to offer one bursary place on this programme for an individual who identifies as Black or racially minoritised. The bursary seeks to address the disparities and imbalances in social sector leadership. Thus, this bursary is for an individual from a Black or racially minoritised backgrounds from small-medium sized organisations (annual income of less than £1m). If you qualify for the bursary, simply complete the online application  form. 

Should we offer further bursaries for any of our programmes, they will be announced via our monthly newsletter.

As a Clore Social Fellow, you will join a large network of social sector leaders from across the UK. Opportunities to connect with local fellows and continue learning will be supported, encouraged and facilitated wherever possible. We are always developing new programme offerings, and may have something of interest to you in the future, so keep in touch, and let us know if you have any ideas, or want to develop something with us for your organisation.

Please read the Application Guidance word document before you apply for the programme. Many of the questions on the online application form require tick-box/dropdown box answers. However, there are several questions that require you to provide a written answer. We therefore recommend that you use this document to plan your answers in advance before completing the online application form, as the form will not save your answers, so you must complete it in one go!

If you need any reasonable adjustments for the application process contact us at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk .

We want to remove as many barriers as possible to support you to engage with this development opportunity. If you, or a colleague, need any reasonable adjustments please email us at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk.

Previous participant organisations

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