By Leyya Sattar
What if leadership development wasn't about becoming someone else, but recognising the leader you already are?
At Other Box, we believe leadership shouldn't require people to abandon their identities, personalities or ways of working to fit a predetermined mould. Yet traditional ideas of leadership can still favour particular behaviours, communication styles and expressions of confidence, leaving talented people questioning whether they have what it takes to lead.
That's why we're excited to be partnering with SoundCloud on Time to Thrive, an inclusive leadership development programme supporting women and non-binary employees as they navigate the next stages of their careers.
Investing in the next generation of leaders
Time to Thrive is SoundCloud's six-month leadership development journey, designed to strengthen leadership readiness, develop core professional skills and build a supportive network of emerging talent.
As part of the programme, Other Box is delivering a bespoke three-part workshop series for a small, cross-functional cohort of women and non-binary employees.
Our approach brings together identity, self-awareness, inclusive leadership and practical workplace skills, creating opportunities for participants to recognise their strengths and develop greater confidence, clarity and influence.
Crucially, this isn't about asking people to adopt a particular leadership persona. It's about helping people understand how they lead best, what they already contribute and how they can navigate the workplace without losing themselves in the process.
Session 1: Lead Like You
We recently kicked off our first session, Lead Like You, exploring the relationship between identity, bias, leadership and self-perception. One of the questions underpinning our work is: Who gets recognised as a leader, and who gets overlooked?
Our understanding of leadership doesn't develop in isolation. It's influenced by our lived experiences, the environments we've worked in, the people we've learned from and the behaviours we've seen rewarded.
These influences can shape how we interpret other people's potential, as well as our own.
Throughout the session, we explored four interconnected themes:
Leadership beyond job titles
Recognising the many ways leadership can show up in everyday work, whether through decision-making, collaboration, taking initiative or supporting others.
Identity, bias and workplace expectations
Examining how our experiences and assumptions can influence what we associate with credibility, confidence and leadership potential.
Recognising strengths and contributions
Building greater awareness of the skills, qualities and experiences participants already bring to their roles, and the importance of making those contributions visible.
Sustainable leadership
Exploring our relationship with pressure, productivity and expectations, and why leading effectively shouldn't come at the expense of our wellbeing.
Rather than focusing solely on theory, the session created opportunities for reflection, discussion and practical application to participants' own workplace experiences.
Beyond confidence: Building leadership capability
One of the limitations of traditional leadership development is the tendency to frame progression primarily as an individual confidence problem. But confidence doesn't exist in a vacuum.
Workplace culture, access to opportunities, feedback, recognition and assumptions about what makes someone leadership material can all influence how people experience career progression.
For women and non-binary employees, inclusive leadership development needs to consider both the individual and the environment in which they're expected to thrive.
We shouldn't only be asking how people can become more confident. We should also be examining the conditions that allow different people to lead, contribute and succeed.
It's this relationship between personal development and workplace inclusion that informs our approach at Other Box.
A three-part journey: From self-awareness to influence
Lead Like You is the first of three interconnected sessions, each building on the last.
The programme continues with:
Session 2: Influence in the Wild
Developing the skills to navigate professional relationships, influence decisions and communicate effectively across different workplace situations.
Session 3: Get Seen + Get Heard
Build confidence in communicating ideas, articulating contributions, and increasing visibility and impact at work.
Together, the sessions move from understanding how we lead, to influencing what happens around us, to communicating our ideas and contributions with greater clarity. By working with a smaller cohort, we're also able to create space for more impactful conversations, individual reflection and practical learning.
Leadership development should work for you
At Other Box, our philosophy is simple: Make work work for you. We believe organisations benefit from recognising and developing different approaches to leadership, rather than expecting everyone to succeed through the same behaviours and expectations.
We're looking forward to continuing our work with SoundCloud and supporting this cohort as they develop their skills, explore their leadership identities and navigate the opportunities ahead.
Looking to develop the next generation of leaders in your organisation?
Other Box designs and delivers bespoke leadership development programmes, inclusive leadership training and workplace learning experiences for organisations committed to helping their people thrive.
Whether you're developing emerging leaders, supporting underrepresented talent or looking to build more inclusive approaches to leadership, we can design a programme around your people, culture and organisational goals.
Let's make work work for more people.
Get in touch with Other Box to explore a bespoke leadership development programme for your organisation.
