Leadership works when it starts with you.
For 50 years, Leadership Trust has delivered immersive leadership programmes that develop confident, trusted, high-impact leaders ready to face today’s challenges and drive performance.
In a world of constant change, leadership failure isn’t often about lack of skill – it’s about lack of self-awareness. Misalignment. Mistrust. Missed decisions. The cost of poor leadership compounds fast. We help leaders interrupt that cycle, starting with themselves.
Our programmes fuse special forces ethos with psychological and behavioural insight, helping leaders find their unique strengths so they can build impactful, sustainable leadership practices.
CHRO and Senior VP Mergers & Acquisitions
Goodpack
From C-suite to frontline, from NGOs to tech, our work scales because it starts with the individual.
- Lead under pressure, not just on paper
- Want to align teams around shared purpose – not just KPIs and KRAs
- Are ready to do the inner work of leadership, not just learn theory
- Want real-world behavioural development, not passive learning
Leadership today is often loud, reactive, and performative. But the most effective leaders don’t rely on titles or techniques. They rely on something more enduring: personal power – the ability to lead from within and unite people behind a shared purpose.
This belief shaped Leadership Trust from the beginning. Our founder, David Gilbert-Smith MC of the SAS, called it ‘winning hearts and minds’. It remains at the centre of everything we do.
Discovering personal power takes courage, because it requires leaders to look inward. Leadership Trust guides delegates on that journey, helping them to discover what drives them, how they respond under pressure, and how this knowledge can help them lead with clarity, conviction and authenticity.
Online Sales Supervisor
The National Family Centre – Multibank
Leadership Trust was founded in the 1970s to meet a national need. The UK was navigating economic crisis, industrial unrest, and political tension. Stability and progress required more than authority – they required adaptable, resilient leadership across every level of business and public life.
David Gilbert-Smith MC, then Head of the SAS Training Wing, understood what that took. He envisioned a way to bring the leadership principles of elite military performance into civilian life – built on discipline, clarity, and conviction.
To bring this vision to life, he partnered with pioneering industrial psychologist, Janet Richardson. Together, they developed an immersive development method that fused behavioural science with experiential challenge, helping leaders draw on their strengths, uncover blind spots, and lead with purpose under pressure.
That philosophy still guides us. It’s why our programmes remain rooted in what’s human and proven, yet responsive to the evolving demands of today’s world of work.
50 years later, when we look again at the context in which leaders are needed to perform with high impact under pressure, we see even greater uncertainty and anxiety than ever. We aim to serve our clients, and the wider society in which we are all embedded, at the same extraordinary level achieved by our founders. That is our mission.
When we look forwards to the results of the passionately dedicated efforts we make on behalf of our clients, we see effective leaders creating fulfilling, innovative and productive workplaces where people want to work.
This why we do what we do.
Our programmes simulate high-pressure decision-making. They surface blind spots, rewire habits, and deliver deep insight through structured feedback and expert facilitation.
Built to evolve, proven to endure. We’ve adapted across decades and sectors to guide delegates through evolving contexts. Though the core principles remain, expert facilitation and coaching shows leaders how to apply them to current challenges.
- 80,000+ leaders supported
- 100% Net Promoter Score on our flagship programme*
- 80% of our clients return
- Delivered in 30+ countries
- Trusted by scale-ups, global corporations, governments, and NGOs
- Part of the Chelsea Group, operating in high-risk, high-performance environments worldwide
- CEOs navigate transformation
- NGO leaders rebuild post-crisis
- Frontline managers unlock their confidence
- Future leaders accelerate their growth
Our residential estate is built for transformation. At Chelsea Parkfields – near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, UK – leaders disconnect from the noise and reconnect to their core purpose.
When travel isn’t possible, we deliver virtually or in-person – adapting our method to boardrooms, remote teams, and even clients on the move!
Make it count.
*Limited consultations available each week