The peer forum to support impact leaders through an age of disruption and transformation

A confidential circle where the inner work of leadership is given serious attention alongside the outer work. A space to bring your thorniest strategic challenges to peers leading global organisations who understand the stakes - and to receive the kind of honest perspective, collective wisdom, and sustained accountability that changes how you lead.

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Cohort Size

5 – 8 Leaders

Duration

12+ Months

Format

In-Person Retreat + Monthly Sessions

Selection

By Invitation & Application

Why Now

The field is at an inflection point. Its leaders need deep community to rise to the demands of the moment.

The global development sector is navigating a reckoning. Legacy institutions are under strain. The collapse of longstanding funding architectures has exposed structural fragilities that demand reimagination, not incrementalism.

Across dozens of conversations with leaders in this space, we heard a consistent message: there is no forum that allows them to be vulnerable enough to bring clear-eyed perspective to themselves, to grow through peer insight and accountability, and to do so alongside other distinctive leaders who understand the particular weight of this work.

The spaces that exist are often performative. Leaders arrive armoured. They leave with connections, but not with the kind of honest, sustained support that changes how they lead and live. What is missing is a place to bring your thorniest strategic decisions to peers who have navigated similar terrain - and whose collective perspective sharpens the quality of yours. Leaders who regularly vet their hardest challenges in a trusted peer group consistently outperform those who go it alone. What is needed is a container small enough for real trust, sustained enough for real growth, and courageous enough to hold the whole person.

“At a time when leaders most need to share and co-develop radical new solutions, we are all quiet. I hope this space helps us not only sustain ourselves, but become the best possible change agents for what lies ahead.”

CEO, Global Health Organisation

“I would hope to build a community that fostered more creative and imaginative thinking, in a moment dominated by fear, scarcity and regression. A community of thought partners that unlocked better strategic thinking, along with accountability to keep pushing new ways of working.”

Executive Director, Global Health NGO

The Experience

Two tracks. One commitment to depth.

Both tracks are professionally facilitated by coaches with deep sector experience. Sessions hold space across the full spectrum of leadership and life: self, family, and work. We have created a scholarship solution to ensure the right people can join regardless of financial access.

Flagship Programme

The Circle

An in-person anchored, twelve-month commitment with the option to continue. A carefully curated cohort of 5-8 leaders convened around shared commitment to honest reflection, mutual challenge, and deep support. The group is fixed by design. Trust compounds over time.

Approach3-day retreat (Continental USA) then monthly sessions
Commitment12+ months, firm attendance

Launching Late 2026

The Bridge

A lower-commitment pathway for leaders wanting to explore the benefits of peer circles before joining a full Circle. Monthly gatherings are highly curated and facilitated, with greater flexibility around scheduling. An evolving set of participants, with the same bar on who is in the room.

ApproachMonthly facilitated sessions, online
CommitmentFlexible, register each month as available

The Arc

How the year unfolds — The Circle

The programme follows a deliberate rhythm. We move at the speed of trust. An immersive opening to establish that trust. Monthly sessions to build capacity. A sustained container designed for the long arc of real integration and growth.

Intake & Selection

Before Day One

Most leaders find their way here through personal referral by peers who recognise them as a strong addition. A structured questionnaire and two conversations with founding coaches follow. We hear where you are, share the design, and assess mutual fit. Cohort composition is the most consequential design decision we make.

The Retreat

3 Days, In Person

We begin with trust. A highly facilitated immersive opening establishes the depth of connection that everything else rests on. The group arrives as individuals and leaves as a circle. This upfront investment in relationship is what allows subsequent sessions to go deep from the start.

Monthly Sessions

11 Months, Virtual

2.5-3 hour sessions each month. Structured but responsive to what is alive in the group. Off the record. A rhythm of reflection and honest exchange that compounds over time, building the kind of peer accountability that shifts how you lead.

Closing & Renewal

Month 12+

Integration. Reflection on what has shifted. A conscious closing or a decision to continue. Many circles, when built well, endure for years. The choice belongs to the group.

What Sets This Apart

Built for the specific demands of mission-driven leadership

Sector-native, not sector-adjacent

Founded by leaders with decades of combined experience inside CHAI, McKinsey, the Gates Foundation, and IKEA Foundation. We know the pressures, the politics, and the particular loneliness of leading in this space.

Readiness over credentials

We select for the willingness to do honest inner work, not for title or organisational scale. The result is a group of people who show up without their armour. Diversity of perspective, unity of commitment.

Intimate by design

5-8 people per cohort. The depth of trust required for transformative peer support demands a container small enough for every voice to be heard and every person to be held.

Sustained, not episodic

A three-day retreat creates energy. Twelve months of monthly sessions builds capacity. We structure for the long arc of integration, not the spike of inspiration that typically fades within weeks.

The whole person, not the org chart

Sessions hold space across the full spectrum of leadership and life: self, family, and work. Organisational evolution begins with individual deepening. The systemic shifts when the personal shifts.

Confidential and off the record

No performative networking. No institutional posturing. A space where leaders can set down the mask, speak to what is truly alive, and receive the quality of attention their role rarely affords.

A Different Kind of Space

Complementary to executive coaching and top-team work

A circle occupies a distinct space in a leader's development. It is not a replacement for coaching or team-level performance work. It is the peer dimension that sits alongside them, and that most senior leaders in this sector have never had access to.

Peer wisdom matters because the people in the room are navigating the same terrain you are. They work in the same sector, face the same political dynamics, carry the same weight. They know you well enough over time to offer perspectives that are genuinely insightful on the topics that are most live for you. The questions it can be hard to ask at the top of house: about your own leadership, your own patterns, the gap between where you are and where you sense you could be.

Research on peer learning consistently shows that group settings produce greater behaviour change than individual interventions alone, because leaders are required to be vulnerable, state their intentions aloud, and make visible commitments in the presence of peers who hold them to account.

Executive coaching

Coaching holds the mirror one-to-one. A circle holds it from multiple angles at once - surfacing a collective wisdom that no single perspective can reach, the clarity that comes when you let yourself be truly seen, and the lived accountability of commitments made alongside people who understand what those commitments cost.

The leaders who drive the deepest systemic change tend to be those who have done the most honest work on themselves. A circle accelerates that process through the sustained attention of people who understand what is at stake - in you, in your organisation, and in the sector.

Top-team performance

Top-team work strengthens how your team operates together. A circle strengthens how you show up as the leader of that team. The growth you do here cascades directly into how you hold your team, your board, and your mission.

It is the space behind the space - where the hardest leadership questions can surface, where you develop the clarity and groundedness that makes you a more effective beacon for the change your organisation exists to create.

Who This Is For

Leaders ready to do the work

Impact Leaders Circles is designed for senior leaders in global health, international development, and adjacent fields who sense that the quality of their leadership depends as much on what they bring inwardly as on the strategies they deploy.

You hold significant organisational responsibility and feel the weight of it
You are hungry for honest, off-the-record peer reflection with people who understand your world
You are willing to challenge your own patterns, not just optimise around them
You recognise that this moment in the sector calls for a different quality of leadership
You can commit to twelve months of showing up with intention
You bring a willingness to listen as generously as you speak

“The place in my life where there is the greatest honesty and candour is my circle. These are not my closest friendships. But it's the place where absolutely everything is brought into the light, where I am willing to reveal my deepest truth in ways I feel I need to even subtly mask elsewhere.” Executive Circle Participant, 10+ years

“I want to be around people who are willing to look at the hard things - about themselves, about the sector, about what it actually takes to lead well in this moment. Not a networking event. Something that matters.” Senior Leader, Global Development Organisation

The Founding Team

Deep roots in the field. Deep practice in holding space.

We combine decades of leadership experience inside the organisations you know with extensive training in coaching, facilitation, and human development. We come from the sector. We know what it asks of you.

Questions

What people ask us

How is this different from executive coaching?

Coaching is one-to-one. A circle is peer-to-peer, with facilitation. A coach gives you one perspective; a circle of peers who share your world gives you 5-8. The honest mirroring, collective intelligence, and visible commitments that come from sitting with peers produce a quality of accountability and insight that no single advisory relationship can replicate.
What is the time commitment for The Circle?

A 3-day in-person retreat to open the year, followed by monthly sessions of 2.5-3 hours for eleven months. Firm commitment is expected, with grace when life demands it. If a participant misses two sessions, we have a conversation about ongoing fit.
How are participants selected?

Most leaders find their way here through personal referral by peers who recognise them as a strong addition. This is followed by a structured questionnaire and conversations with two founding coaches. We select for readiness, diversity of perspective, and the capacity for honest self-reflection. Cohort composition is the most consequential design decision we make.
Are scholarships available?

Yes. We have created a scholarship solution for both The Circle and The Bridge to ensure financial constraints do not prevent the right people from joining. Let us know your situation during the intake process. The conversation is held in confidence.
Is this only for CEOs?

No. We look for senior leaders with real organisational responsibility, but title alone is not the criteria. Some of our strongest participants are deputies, portfolio leads, or founders of smaller organisations who operate at a systems level and bring depth, curiosity, and willingness.
What happens after the twelve months?

The group decides. The commitment is a minimum of twelve months, and many well-built circles continue for years under their own momentum. We support that transition. Future cohorts and The Bridge will offer additional ways to stay connected.
Where does the retreat take place?

Continental USA. We are finalising the location; California is the leading option. We are designing for an environment that supports depth. It will not be a hotel conference room. Travel is not included in the programme fee.
What is The Bridge?

The Bridge is a lower-commitment pathway launching later in 2026. Monthly facilitated online sessions you register for as available. It offers the same quality of facilitation and curation, with greater scheduling flexibility and an evolving group of participants. An onramp for leaders wanting to explore the peer circle experience before committing to a full Circle.