About the Unlock Your Leadership Program

Unlock Your Leadership is a one-of-a-kind, transformational leadership program developed over eight years of coaching, training, and championing more than 1,500 women change leaders across the globe. Designed to accelerate leadership capacity, it is the only program that is specifically created for high-potential and early-career women working in social and environmental change.

Women who are selected to join the Unlock Your Leadership program will become part of the Women’s Impact Alliance.

This special group of women impact leaders are selected based on the scope and scale of their impact, their potential to accelerate change, and their commitment to self-development.

Program Highlights

In the 1-Year Unlock Your Leadership program, participants:

• Are matched with a certified coach experienced in working with executive leaders in both profit and not-for-profit organizations
• Focus on both personal and leadership development over a 6-month period of one-on-one coaching
• Engage in leadership lab workshops
• Become members of trusted peer-to-peer forums that allow them to expand their network, build leadership skills, and provide peer support

Program Benefits and Outcomes

• Increase self-confidence and courage to show up as a leader
• Learn how to use core strengths that amplify impact
• Identify and shift crucial limiting beliefs
• Discover values and align with purpose to accelerate impact and potential
• Experience the transformational impact of receiving empowering support from coach and peers
• Create new connections and develop life-long allies and friends

“My coaching experience has been very inspiring, helping me uncover the infinite potential within. It’s amazing, how I was able to identify my next steps for my work and personal growth just after 5 sessions. This is a very safe space, every woman needs this.” — Christine Nabugonyi, Executive Director at Edu Child Foundation Uganda

Join a Community of 1,500+ Alumnae from 80+ Countries

Since 2014, over 1,500 women impact leaders from more than 80 countries have graduated from The Coaching Fellowship. Graduation from the Unlocking Your Leadership program is only the beginning of your leadership journey. We are committed to continuing to grow the leadership capacity of our community of women leaders and support them as they expand their impact.

As a graduate of Unlocking Your Leadership, you become part of our global alumnae community and are invited to participate in ways that are meaningful to you. You’ll have the opportunity to take advantage of offerings specifically tailored to our graduates, including:

• Access to a network of women leaders all over the world in a variety of impact sectors
• Monthly workshops, community-led sessions, and meet-ups (both virtual and in-person
• Opportunities to continue one-on-one coaching
• Private Alumnae Slack community and alumnae address book access
• Access our extensive online Leadership Resource Library

What Can You Expect from the Program?

We have developed a transformative leadership journey. This fully integrated one-year program will expand your leadership skills, deepen your learning, and accelerate your growth.

Experience Pillars

Four experience pillars make up the foundation of our signature Unlock Your Leadership program: One-on-one Coaching, Ally Pods, Leader Lab Workshops, and Community Learning Sessions.

One-on-One Coaching

Participants are paired with an experienced professional leadership coach to work toward their goals and overcome challenges. There are twelve virtual, one-on-one coaching sessions over a six-month period. The coaching journey is tailored to each participant’s specific needs and goals.

Common coaching topics include:

• Understanding your strengths and blind spots as a leader
• Clarifying values and deeper purpose for your work
• Identifying your authentic leadership presence and style
• Navigating conflict
• Enhancing your emotional intelligence

Coaching is a significant component of the Unlock Your Leadership program. It is important that potential participants understand this core part of the program. Click here to learn more about what coaching is and isn’t , how you will be matched with your coach , and other coach related FAQs.

Ally Pods

The power of community is a paramount experience of this program. Upon beginning your Unlock Your Leadership program, you will join a small group of other participants as part of an Ally Pod. This is one of the best ways to connect with others in the program and foster meaningful relationships through this shared experience.

Every Ally Pod is entirely self-directed, each pod member is an equal designer in creating your unique experience together.

To learn more about Ally Pods check out our FAQs

Leader Lab Workshops

‘Harnessing Your Inner Leader’ is a 3-part series of leadership development modules led by subject-matter experts and is tailored to women impact leaders. Each 90-minute virtual workshop introduces tools, models, and practices that cultivate authentic leadership, personal growth, and resilience. Sessions are supplemented with written materials, resources and videos.

• Module 1: Understanding Ourselves as Leaders

  Workshop 1 - Identify Your Unique Values, and How to Live Them Out in the World.

  Workshop 2 - Silencing Your Inner Saboteur and Designing Ways to Move Forward.

• Module 2: Resilient Leadership

  Workshop 1 - Self-Compassion, Self-Advocacy and Resilient Leadership

  Workshop 2 - Leading with Courage and Vulnerability

• Module 3: Multi-Dimensional Leadership

  Workshop 1 - Multidimensional Leadership (to Thrive in Complexity)

  Workshop 2 - Leadership Agility

Community Learning Sessions

Every month, participants are encouraged to engage in optional group sessions designed to support each other in being more courageous, inspired, and connected, including:

• Open Learning Sessions where participants and alumnae come together to discuss leadership topics
• Expert Special Sessions where the entire TCFS community comes together for inspirational and/or practical workshops
• Additional leadership development sessions offered throughout the year.

Resources

Participants will receive access to a private Slack community, The Coaching Fellowship Resource Library, The Coaching Fellowship Directory, and books supporting the program.

Why Should I Apply?

The Unlock Your Leadership Program has been designed specifically to accelerate the leadership potential of early stage women in social and environmental change. An entire year of development is a significant investment of time and energy, and yet participating in this program creates a foundation on which to increase your leadership capacity, and significantly deepen your impact in the world.

By participating in the Unlock Your Leadership program you will:

• Clarify your core values and how to lead with power and authenticity
• Identify your core limiting beliefs and learn to access the wisdom of your inner leader.
• Gain practical strategies and tools for personal and leadership resiliency, and well being
• Explore what it means to lead with courage and vulnerability
• Build resilience and capacity to think clearly under pressure
• Strategize approaches to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity
• Cultivate mindful self-compassion practices that allow you to do your work with more ease
• Learn practices for radical self-care and wellbeing
• Expand the concept of leadership agility and learn to lead in different ways to meet the needs of different situations.
• Practice strengthening your leadership multi-dimensionality
• Deepen confidence in your leadership

What Do We Look For in Participants?

The Unlock Your Leadership Program is open to any early stage career woman leader and women-identifying individuals based anywhere in the world, who are today transforming our world for the better.

We are looking for a candidate who is:

• A high potential early career woman leader
• Strongly committed to changing the planet and can demonstrate existing change
• Doing something extraordinary
• Dedicated to her self-discovery and development
• Willing to speak freely about both her difficulties and triumphs
• Realistic about her goals for coaching (feasible for completion within a six-month period)
• Clear on what she can expect from coaching (see: “What Is a Coach?” for further clarification)
• Open to being challenged by a coach to explore outside her comfort zone
• Willing to give her coach feedback on their coaching conversation and relationship
• A strong commitment to the value of fellowship and community
• Program places are prioritized for non-profit and social impact leaders. We do consider applicants from for-profits who clearly demonstrate their organizations' social impact and mission. For more information check out our FAQ.

Are You A Nightingale?

Nightingales are women leading in roles that directly support their communities in fields such as education, healthcare, mental & behavioral health, housing, food security, and social services. These fields historically experience high rates of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma — compounded by the shared trauma of a global pandemic.

These women are essential to the welfare and continued well-being of our global community, yet there are limited opportunities for them to focus on themselves and their long-term growth. We have dedicated up to 40 spaces each program to supporting these courageous women.

NOTE: You will be given the opportunity to indicate that you are a Nightingale in your application.

Unlock Your Leadership 2022-2023 Calendar

NOTE: Please take note of the dates above and plan ahead carefully. If you are selected to join our Unlock Your Leadership program, you are expected to follow and honor the program timeline.

Have more questions about our program? Check out our FAQ page for more information.

Program Costs

The Coaching Fellowship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and because of the generosity of our coaches and volunteers who work completely pro-bono, we are able to offer this program at a massively subsidized rate, but not for free.

In our efforts to support as many women leaders as possible, we are offering a volunteer tiered pricing system for our program fee that allows you to select the price that best works for you. Furthermore, the cost of the program will be spread over the course of 6 months. For full information on our pricing options, please click here.

All participant contributions go to The Coaching Fellowship’s direct operational costs, so we may continue to support many more incredible young women social impact leaders in the future.

How To Ask Your Employer for Funding Assistance

Many organizations allocate funds for leadership development or are willing to pay some or all of a participant's program fee. We strongly encourage organizations to invest the growth of their leaders, and we are able to provide you with documentation for reimbursement or leadership development funding to support your case. To help you get started, we've drafted a template to help you request the cost of the program.

Download Template