DURATION8 Weeks
Creative Leadership
Accelerator
You're brilliant at your craft. Now it's time to be brilliant at leading others. An 8-week programme for creative practitioners stepping into their first management role, without the trial, error and sleepless nights.
FORMATHybrid:
In-person + Online
COMMITMENT0.5 days / week
LEVELLevel 3 (Team Leader)
COHORT SIZE15
START DATEJune 2026
LEVEL 3
Fully funded
Now enrolling
Made for people who became leaders before they were trained to lead.
In creative organisations, promotion usually follows talent, not management training. You were great at your job, so you got the job title. But being brilliant at design, content, development or production doesn't automatically make you brilliant at leading a team, managing priorities or having the difficult conversations that come with responsibility.
The Creative Leadership Accelerator is built specifically for this gap.
— WHO IT’S FOR
Project Manager
Managing up, down and across in client-led environments
Technical Lead
Balancing technical delivery with people leadership
Content Manager
Leading a team of writers and editors for the first time
Digital Manager
Newly responsible for people as well as product
The jump from practitioner to leader is bigger than it looks.
Most creative team leaders are expected to figure it out as they go. The result? Avoidance of difficult conversations. Overworking. Micromanaging. Or checking out and hoping the team sorts itself. None of these are leadership, they're coping strategies.
1 You don't know how to give feedback that lands well, so you avoid it, or overdo it.
— THE CHALLENGE
2 You're still doing the creative work yourself because it feels faster and safer than delegating.
3 Difficult conversations feel personal and awkward in tight-knit creative teams.
4 You're not sure if you're a manager who does creative, or a creative who manages.
— PROGRAMME MODULES
The jump from practitioner to leader is bigger than it looks.
Each module is delivered through a combination of in-person workshops, facilitated online peer sessions and independent applied learning in your own workplace.
#01 Leading Self — Know your impact before you lead others
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This module develops self-awareness as the foundation for effective first-line leadership. You'll explore your leadership style, communication approach and personal drivers, building a clear understanding of how you show up and the impact that has on the people around you.
→ Explore your leadership style and identify strengths and development areas
→ Understand how your communication approach affects your team's performance
→ Build a one-page personal leadership roadmap grounded in your actual role and context
YOU'LL LEAVE WITH - A personal leadership roadmap, a clear, one-page guide to how you want to lead and what you're committing to develop.
#02 Leading Others — Practical people skills for creative teams
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This module focuses on translating insight into action. You'll explore how to balance creativity with commercial delivery, manage priorities in client-led environments, and make clear commitments about how you'll lead going forward. This is where you embed the learning in your actual role.
→ Motivate and manage individuals within multidisciplinary creative teams
→ Have difficult conversations, feedback, performance, conflict, with clarity and care
→ Build trust and accountability in deadline-driven, client-facing environments
YOU'LL LEAVE WITH - A set of practical communication and feedback frameworks you can apply immediately in your team, tested in the room, not just discussed.
#03 Leading in Practice — Apply, embed, and commit
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This module develops self-awareness as the foundation for effective first-line leadership. You'll explore your leadership style, communication approach and personal drivers, building a clear understanding of how you show up and the impact that has on the people around you.
→ Take clear ownership of your leadership role and its commercial responsibilities
→ Sharpen communication to drive results under real-world pressures
→ Create a specific, actionable commitment plan for your ongoing development
YOU'LL LEAVE WITH - A completed Leadership Action Plan, with specific workplace commitments, evidence of application and a plan for continued development.
— HOW IT'S DELIVERED
Part-time. Applied. Built around your job.
Half a day per week for 8 weeks. Every session is designed so you can apply what you learn in your actual role before the next one.
📍
In-Person Workshops
Expert-led, interactive workshops in Liverpool City Region. Short taught inputs, peer discussion, facilitated exercises grounded in real creative sector scenarios.
INCLUDED IN GUIDED LEARNING HOURS
💬
Online Peer Learning
Two facilitated online sessions designed for peer-to-peer learning. Share challenges, test thinking and build your network of creative leaders.
INCLUDED IN GUIDED LEARNING HOURS
📚
Applied Learning Tasks
After each workshop, you'll receive applied tasks to complete in your own role. Real work on real challenges, reviewed in the next session.
8 HOURS INDEPENDENT LEARNING
— YOUR COACHES
Delivered by people who've been there.
Not theorists. Not academics. Executive coaches with deep, lived experience of leading and scaling teams within creative organisations.
Jo White
EXECUTIVE COACH & FACILITATOR
Business leader, trainer and qualified executive coach with a strong track record building high-performing teams across marketing and creative agencies. Previously held senior roles at high-profile agencies working with major B2C and B2B brands in tech, travel and FMCG.
Mark Harland
LEADERSHIP COACH & CONSULTANT
25+ years supporting founders and managers across the creative industries — from agencies to theatres, start-ups to cultural organisations. Specialist in helping people navigate the transition from practitioner to leader.
— WHAT CHANGES
By the end of the programme, you'll lead differently.
For participants, employers and teams. The outcomes are practical, measurable and immediate.
🎯
Confidence in your leadership identity
You'll have a clear sense of how you lead, what your team needs from you, and how to keep developing, without the imposter syndrome spiral.
👥
A peer network in the creative sector
Your cohort becomes a peer circle. People who get it, who'll challenge you, who you'll stay in contact with long after the 8 weeks.
💬
Feedback and difficult conversations
You'll have the frameworks and the practice to have conversations that improve performance, rather than avoiding them or getting them wrong.
📄
A Leadership Action Plan
Concrete. Specific. Signed off. A living document that captures what you've learned, how you've applied it and where you're taking it next.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP ACCELERATOR · LIVERPOOL CITY REGION
Secure your place on the next cohort.
Starting May 2026. Cohort of 15. Available through LCR Skills Bootcamps, may be fully funded for eligible employers.
DURATION8 Weeks
FORMATHybrid
COMMITMENT0.5 days / week
LEVELLevel 3 (Team Leader)
✓ This programme is available through the LCR Skills Bootcamps initiative. Check your employer's eligibility — places may be fully funded for businesses in the creative industries.
COHORT SIZE15 Participants
START DATEJune 2026
COSTFully funded for eligible employers