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Getting Ready for 
Your Next Grade

The leadership edition

 

A 10 month group coaching programme for aspiring Heads of Service, Deputy Directors and equivalent roles.

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This is for you if you’re a thoughtful mid-senior Professional Services manager in HE (Grade 8/9 equivalent/c.£45-60k salary range) and you want to progress in your career in the next year or so.

 By the end of the programme you will:

  • Clear some space in your mind and your calendar for more strategic thinking.
  • Sort out any drama in your team so you can signal your capacity for more strategic work.
  • Uplevel your communication so that senior colleagues start to see you as more than a really good manager.
  • Make progress on the big things you’ve been putting off so you have strong, current examples to use at interview.
  • Position yourself and your experience better for applications and interviews at this level.
  • Feel more sturdy and grounded in how you lead at this level so that you can step up without fear of burnout.
  • Be ready for your next grade.

The problem I see so many capable mid-senior managers struggling with is that they’re actually so good as a manager.

People rely on you to get sh*t done and answer all of their questions.

The issue is that it traps you in the really busy operator space instead of being able to show your leadership capabilities and progress into a role at the next level. 

Maybe you've talked to your boss about progression or applied for a couple of roles but you get told “you're not quite ready” or “you need to be more strategic” but you aren't really sure what that means or how you’re meant to find time for it.

Add to that, you probably don’t feel like a leader yet. When you look around you it seems like everyone else knows what they’re doing but you don’t really feel good enough yet…or maybe you do…? You keep flip flopping between “I’m not good enough” and “I can’t be as bad as them!” 

Plus you’re tired, like, really tired. You’re already feeling overwhelmed by how much you have to do so the idea of doing more or working harder feels completely untenable. 

And yet, you see less experienced, less high performing people progressing past you and you find yourself wondering what they know that you don't.

You wish you could just figure this all out so you could stop all the overs (overthinking, overworking, overgiving, overwhelm), find some peace of mind and move forward with self-assurance.

I get it. I've been there myself.

In 2021 I was a senior manager in HE and having all those same feelings.

I realised at that point that didn’t want to progress in the traditional sense. Instead, I started my coaching business.

Since then I've worked with around 300 HE professionals and helped many of them climb out of this exact situation and into a more satisfying, grounded leadership position.

I know HERA (the common grading analysis framework) inside out and a couple of years ago I did a meta-analysis of job descriptions across HE to see what is really being asked for at each grade. You can find the report for this level here. Plus, I've developed my own management development framework. It identifies the places that HE managers frequently get stuck around this career stage. 

You can find out more about it on my podcast: Management Matters

That’s where Getting Ready for Your Next Grade comes in.

What you’re experiencing isn’t a skills gap, and I think you know that already. 

It’s actually a capacity gap combined with a positioning issue and wavering self-belief... plus all the life stuff: kids, aging parents, perimenopause etc.

In the programme we start with getting clear on what’s really required at that more senior level and checking if it’s what you really want. 

Then we create capacity for you to claim your leadership bandwidth. If there’s drama in your team or if you’ve been getting feedback like “you need to delegate more and say no to some stuff” we’ll sort all of that out. This is about buying yourself time to attend to the big things you’ve been putting off and doing that “strategic thinking” you keep meaning to get round to but never quite have time for.

We’ll attend to your thinking models and communication style so you can build evidence of your readiness for progression. You'll be “working at the next level before you apply" but without having to take on a whole load of extra responsibilities. This is the positioning piece. 

We will, of course, do the procedural stuff too. I’ll support you with applications and interview prep for roles at this level. Or we can do the regrading paperwork together if it’s an internal promotion situation.

And once you land the job we’ll work on leaving the current role well so you keep your reputation intact. And then we'll prepare you to start in the new role knowing you can figure anything out. Even in the depths of the learning curve, you’ll know you can handle it.

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How it works

Getting Ready for Your Next Grade is a weekly coaching programme that takes place over 10 months. 

The calls are every week during term time on Fridays at 11:30 - 12:30 via my programme platform, Kajabi. Calls are recorded and replays are available.

Your group will be no more than 12 people. 

Most weeks the calls are a coaching format and then roughly once per month there’s a masterclass where all groups come together to take a deep dive into one particular topic. 

If you’d like to add in some 1:1 coaching time with me, sessions can be booked on an ad-hoc basis at a preferential rate.

Agreements of Getting Ready

Getting Ready is a bit different than other professional development programmes so I want to be really clear about what it is and what it isn’t. These shared agreements are here to help you decide whether this way of working is right for you.

This is reflective, practice-led work (it's not training per se)

Getting Ready isn’t a course to complete or a body of knowledge to master. It’s a reflective, practice-led space focused on your lived experience, real decisions, and experimenting with how you show up in your working life.

You won’t be taught “the right answers”. Instead, you’ll be supported to think, notice, and choose what's right for you more intentionally. We're building self-trust here.

Commitment matters, and it’s revisited consciously

This work is best when it’s chosen deliberately. We begin with an initial commitment, and around the 12-week mark we pause to check whether continuing still feels like firm “yes”.

If it does, we continue. 

If it doesn’t, we complete the work cleanly, end the agreement and part ways with no hard feelings.

Reflection and experimentation are part of the process

Progress here doesn’t come from doing more or trying harder. It comes from reflection, experimentation, and learning from what actually happens.

Some weeks will feel active. Others quieter. Both are expected and valuable. It only works if you’re open to trying new things and stretching the edges of your comfort zone.

You bring the context, I hold the space

You are the expert in your role, your institution, and your lived experience. My role is to hold a steady, thoughtful space where you can explore your thinking, test new approaches, and reconnect with your own judgement and authority.

This is a collaborative process, not a directive one.

Honesty over performance

There’s no requirement to be polished, confident, or “doing it right”. You are strongly encouraged to arrive mid-thought, uncertain, or messy. That’s often where the most meaningful work begins.

But will it help me?

Across the 3 current and past cohorts of the Getting Ready for Your Next Grade programmes:

  • 40% of participants have already landed new jobs, 
  • 20% have reconnected with what they really want and happily decided not to pursue promotions after all, 
  • the remaining 40% now know how to position themselves for the type of roles they want and are just waiting for the ideal opportunity to arise.

You don’t have to join the programme. Of course you don’t. Plenty of people have figured this stuff out on their own but when you’re tired and confused, it really helps to have a sector expert on your side to support and guide you. 

And I really want that guy to be me.

(If you got that Off-Campus reference then you’re definitely one of my people).

The Investment

You pay ÂŁ175/month or ÂŁ1,750 total

You can pay by monthly instalments or I can send you a quotation if your institution is paying by Purchase Order. The pricing is the same regardless - there's no penalty for paying monthly.

The kick off call is on Friday 25th September 2026.

How to Join

If this is a 'hell yes' for you, just hit the Join Now button.

There’s no need for a call - remember we’re building your self-trust here. You can sign up now and get immediate access to the Getting Ready community. 

Once you sign up you’ll get a juicy enrolment questionnaire to start your thinking about what you want and how I can support you best. 

Then you’ll join the kick off call at 11:30 on 25th September 2026 to meet the rest of your group and get started.

If anything unexpected happens or you’re not sure about something drop me an email at [email protected].

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If you’re not sure then let’s jump on a call.

You can tell me a bit more about what you’re experiencing and I’ll help you come to a clear “hell yes” or a “not right now”. Either is fine but let’s not leave you sitting on the fence.

Book a call

Ready?

If you want to progress in your career and feel like a really sturdy, grounded leader then you don’t have to do more or turn into someone you're not. You just need to make some simple changes to how you’re doing things. But if those changes feel hard, there’s probably a really good reason for that. When you join the programme we’ll figure out what feels hard and why so that you can get unstuck and move forward in a way that feels good for you. 

I can’t wait to support you

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