Creative Leadership
Accelerator
You're brilliant at your craft. Now it's time to be brilliant at leading others. A 6-week programme for creative and digital practitioners stepping into their first management role - without the trial, error and sleepless nights.
DURATION6 Weeks
COHORT SIZE15
FORMATIn-person + Online
COMMITMENT1 day / week
COURSE DATES17th September - 22nd October 2026
COST£4900 £490
90% funding available for most businesses with LCR Skills Bootcamps paying £4,410 of your programme costs.
Now enrolling
LEVEL 3
— WHO IT’S FOR
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 earned the promotion. 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 for exactly that.
Project Manager
Managing up, down and across in client-led environments
Producer
Managing timelines, teams and delivery
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 CHALLENGE
Most creative team leaders are expected to figure it out as they go. The result? Avoidance of difficult conversations. Overworking. Micromanaging. Or staying hands off and hoping the team sorts itself. None of these are leadership, they're coping strategies.
The jump from practitioner to leader is bigger than it looks.
1 You don't know how to give feedback that lands well, so you avoid it, or overdo it.
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
This isn’t generic leadership theory. Each module is grounded in the realities of creative teams, project pressure and the shift into leading people as well as the work.
#01 Leading Self — Know your impact before you lead others
This module helps you understand how you show up as a leader. You’ll explore your leadership style, communication habits and personal drivers, then identify what needs to shift as you move from creative practitioner to people manager.
→ 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
Learn how to support, motivate and challenge others without losing the trust and creative energy of the team. This module gives you practical ways to lead people, manage conversations and build accountability.
→ Motivate and manage individuals within multidisciplinary creative teams
→ Have difficult conversations with clarity and care
→ Build trust and accountability in deadline-driven, client-facing environments
YOU'LL LEAVE WITH - A set of practical tools and frameworks for clearer communication, feedback and team accountability.
#03 Leading in Practice — Apply, embed, and commit
Turn the learning into action in your real working context. This module helps you manage priorities, balance creative and commercial pressures, and make clear commitments about how you’ll lead from here.
→ 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 practical Leadership Action Plan you can immediately apply in your role to support your continued development.
— HOW YOU’LL LEARN
Part-time. Applied. Built around your job.
A mix of in-person and online practical sessions, one day per week for 6 weeks, with space between sessions to test the tools in your own role.
🗓️ Session dates
You’ll need to be able to commit to sessions every Tuesday for 6 weeks.
In person sessions: 17 Sep / 1 Oct / 15 Oct
Online sessions: 24 Sep / 8 Oct / 22 Oct
📍 Practical Workshops
Three expert-led, interactive workshops in Liverpool city centre. Short taught inputs, peer discussion, and facilitated exercises grounded in real creative sector scenarios.
💬 Online Peer Learning
Three facilitated online sessions designed for peer-to-peer learning. Share challenges, test thinking and build your network of creative leaders.
📚 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.
— 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.
Debs Chapman
LEADERSHIP COACH
& FACILITATOR
Former People Director at The Very Group, Debs brings extensive experience in people leadership, team culture and inclusive organisational development. She understands the pressures of leading fast-moving teams and the importance of equipping managers with the confidence, clarity and care to support others well.
Jon Minchin
LEADERSHIP COACH
& CONSULTANT
Jon is a Director at Form, with deep experience leading creative teams and global campaigns for brands including Magnum, Lipton and PG Tips. His work sits at the intersection of strategy, creativity and leadership — helping creative people find clarity, make better decisions and turn ambition into direction.
— WHAT CHANGES
By the end of the programme, you'll lead differently.
For participants, employers and teams. The outcomes are practical, measurable and immediate.
👥
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 6 weeks.
🎯
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.
💬
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.
Ready to invest in your leadership skills?
Starting 17th September 2026. Cohort of 15. Skills Bootcamps funding available.