WB Directors have worked with various organisations for over a decade to support their talent’s individual professional development, underpinning their wider ED&I strategy.

Via our Corporate Partnerships, we offer career, board, and leadership development skills-based input to support your employees with their professional development requirements. They also gain access to our powerful career and boards platform if you wish.

Our approach is truly different as:

• We motivate employees to drive their own development
• Our support is welcomed by all demographic groups
• Our ongoing support builds resilience.
• We are real, honest and open.

“Clear-cut leadership content of the highest quality delivered at pace and with a convenient schedule.” Anjali Subburaj, Mars

Our Corporate Partnerships include:

Leadership Programmes ~ Career Development ~ Boards Programme ~ Mentoring

Our Leadership Programmes are designed to give ambitious C-Suite potential individuals and professionals the skills and knowledge they need to get on, including giving them the techniques required to clinch stretch promotions.

Getting to the C-Suite

Our C-Suite Programme is different because it is practical, results-orientated and values peer support from other senior leaders. It focuses on equipping you with the skills research shows are required to operate inclusively at the most senior levels. It will also build your ability and confidence to secure your next role – whether it is a step-up into the C-Suite, a stretch promotion or a move into the boardroom.

This programme comprises five individual modules delivered over five months in a cohort of just 20 senior professionals from various backgrounds. It provides you with the language and frameworks to demonstrate at interview that you are competent and confident as a senior leader.

Additionally, the whole programme includes a sixth module to bring all the learnings together through a business case study simulation with constructive feedback from experienced C-level leaders. 

Modules include:

• Leading Strategically
• Leading Change
• Leading Effectively

And it works! Over 70% of our alumnae secure challenging new roles and/or NED positions.

Steps to Success

Steps to Success is a series of 9 powerful modules designed to make participants think deeply about where they are in their careers and empower them to take control, deliver greater impact and influence and ultimately drive the career they want.

Drawing on the latest research to provoke thinking, the masterclasses encourage participants to share experiences to drive learning. We then introduce a range of practical tools and skills proven to help them thrive in today’s fast-moving, dynamic and turbulent workplaces.

Example topics include:

• Influence Up
• Build Your Network
• Speak Up and Get Heard in Meetings
• Set and Achieve Your Goals

Each masterclass runs for 90 minutes online, enabling sessions to fit seamlessly into the working day without displacing other business activities. The masterclass modules all interconnect and can be run as a programme, but each is designed to stand alone. Participants may select the ones they want, or they can be run as a full programme.

We illuminate the boardroom, and the potential for serving as a non-executive at any career stage, in parallel to your ‘day job’.

Our career development support is particularly relevant to under-represented groups, who may need to do ‘more’ to get ahead. We share career development insights and options. Our workshops put forward meaningful, research-based approaches to career planning and development, including appropriate non-executive opportunities. 

We tailor our content to employees by career stage, from early career professionals in their 20s, mid-career managers stepping up to leadership and late-career support around moving out of executive roles.

“I have been supported by the WB Directors team who visited Linklaters – their guidance over the last few years has been much appreciated, as well as their encouragement to apply for my first board role.” Amy Whitney, Linklaters

Reaching the boardroom requires new leadership skills and a strategic outlook.

Our depth of experience is unparalleled in supporting senior professionals to take this step, with over a decade working to support our network members to secure board roles.

Our tailored programmes, run by experienced and qualified board-level leaders, ensure they reach this next level of professional development. Our programme focuses not only on the strategic level skills to operate as a board director, but on positioning yourself as a credible candidate in the NED market.

Board Development Masterclasses include:

• Risk & Finance
• Shadow Boards
• Boardroom Dynamics
• Obtaining NED roles & NED CVs
• Boardroom Essentials on ESG

Our Mentoring support is entirely flexible and high-quality.

We know that individual support at the right points in a career can make all the difference. Our bespoke programme will match your employees with high-quality, experienced mentors within our network for a defined period. All our mentors are experienced senior leaders adept at using their lived experience to guide others in realising their ambitions.

WB Directors can also develop a wider in-house structured mentoring programme for the career development of a group of individuals. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you would like to talk about an in-house mentoring programme.