71%
of leaders have experienced burnout at least once
60%
of founders say burnout directly impairs their ability to lead and decide
50%
of CEOs feel lonely in their role and say it hinders their performance
You are performing well. That is why it is harder to ignore.
You are not failing. You are not at your limit.
But your nervous system is running the show.
And it has been for longer than you realise.
- →Overthinking every decision
- →Avoiding difficult conversations
- →Carrying responsibility alone
- →Constant mental noise, even at rest
- →Clear decisions under pressure
- →Direct, confident conversations
- →A team you actually trust
- →Mental clarity at the end of the day
Understand how your thinking works under pressure
You identify what is driving the overthinking, the pressure and the self-doubt.
Apply new thinking to real situations
Decisions, conversations and leadership challenges handled differently in real time.
Build consistency
So this way of thinking holds when pressure is highest.
This is not surface-level leadership training.
You do not need more strategies.
You need a different way of thinking.
Why this matters now.
If nothing changes.
Your responsibility increases.
Your thinking stays the same.
The pressure grows.
Most leaders stay here for years.
Some decide to change it now.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Sarah
Senior Director, Global Tech Company
Highly capable, consistently delivering, and privately replaying every conversation. The confidence that had got her here had quietly disappeared.
"Nicola made me realise my work ethic came from an insecurity. It was a light bulb moment. I now feel good enough at work and as a mum."
- Making decisions with clarity, even under pressure
- Having the conversations she had been avoiding for months
- Took her first two-week holiday in years and actually switched off
- Stopped needing external validation to feel good enough
We found the belief underneath the anxiety. The conviction that slowing down meant falling behind. Once she understood where it came from, she stopped needing to prove herself and started leading from a completely different place.
Why you cannot do this alone.
Your partner does not see the full context of your decisions.
Your friends are not carrying the same level of responsibility.
Your team is not thinking at the level you are making decisions.
You need people who are.
Someone is ahead of you. They have already worked through the challenge you are facing now and they explain exactly how they got there.
Someone is in the same place. Thinking the same thoughts. And you realise your experience is not as unusual as you thought.
Someone has just made the call. A high-stakes decision, under real pressure, and they explain exactly how they arrived there.
Mark
COO, Engineering Recruitment
Promoted quickly, delivering results, and privately struggling with confidence ever since. His team had stopped coming to him and he could not work out why.
"I started to feel confident in my decisions. I stopped being defensive and started having conversations I had been avoiding for months."
- Making decisions with genuine confidence for the first time in years
- The defensiveness dropped and his team felt it immediately
- His team started coming to him again
- Rebuilt trust he thought he had permanently damaged
We traced the behaviour back to the confidence gap underneath. Once he understood what was actually driving it, he stopped needing to protect himself in every interaction. The relationship with his team changed almost immediately.
Meet Nicola
I work with founders and senior leaders who are brilliant at what they do but exhausted by how they are doing it.
After years of working with leaders 1:1, I noticed that the sessions were transformational, but so many of them just felt alone. Leadership is isolating. You are not always liked. You have to make difficult decisions with no one to think out loud with.
That is why I created Elevate: The Roundtable. The most powerful moments I have seen are not in the coaching sessions. They happen when a leader realises they are not the only one.
My background combines clinical psychology, psychotherapy training and executive coaching, alongside corporate experience with the NHS, Metropolitan Police, Deloitte, KPMG and the BBC.
I work at the level where things actually change. Not what you do, but how you think, decide and show up.
I go deep. That is the point.
- →MSc Psychology
- →Postgraduate Diploma in Psychotherapy
- →EMCC Accredited Executive Coach
- →Harvard Leadership Certification
- →NHS · Metropolitan Police · Deloitte · KPMG · BBC
The 3-Month Journey
Identify and Rewire
We start where most leadership programmes do not, your psychology. The 3am thoughts. The inner critic that gets louder the more successful you become. Before we change anything, we understand what is actually driving it and why.
- →Why high performance still feels exhausting
- →What drives overthinking and second-guessing
- →How the inner critic shapes decisions
- →The gap between responsibility and internal identity
Lead
Insight becomes action in real situations. Harvard-grounded leadership frameworks applied to your actual challenges, not hypothetical ones.
- →Conversations you have avoided
- →Decisions made under pressure instead of clarity
- →Team dynamics you have been managing around
- →Boundaries that have not held in reality
Elevate
This becomes how you lead, not something you remember. We pull everything together, lock in what has shifted and build the foundations for the next level.
- →Define your leadership going forward
- →Build consistency when pressure is high
- →Strengthen decision making under complexity
- →Your Resilient Leader Blueprint
Leah
Managing Director, Marketing Agency
Needed everyone to like her. Avoided every difficult conversation because of it. Her team had stopped taking initiative and she could feel the whole thing slowly getting heavier.
"I thought I was a dedicated leader but I was just scared of conflict. My team surprised me. They just needed me to trust them."
- Had the conversations she had been putting off for months
- Delegated with genuine trust and her team stepped up immediately
- Stopped carrying everything herself
- Discovered her team just needed her to believe in them
We worked on the need for approval underneath the micromanagement. What it would actually mean to her if her team did not like her. Once that shifted, she stopped needing to control everything and her team felt it straight away.
What Is Included
3 x 1:1 Sessions with Nicola
- →Kick-off session, 30 minutes, to clarify your starting point
- →Floating session, 60 minutes, available when pressure is highest
- →Closing session, 30 minutes, to consolidate change and next steps
6 x Group Sessions
- →Six 90-minute sessions, every two weeks
- →Real leadership situations, live reflection and coaching
- →Applied thinking under pressure so you stop defaulting into old patterns
Weekly Trainings
- →20 to 30 minutes of focused psychological insight each week
- →Directly applied to how you think, decide and lead under pressure
Peer Accountability Pods
- →Small peer groups, weekly check-ins between sessions
- →Focused on real decisions, real challenges, real shifts in thinking
Elevate Collective
- →Access to Nicola and your cohort between sessions
- →Space to think out loud with people at the same level of responsibility
Elevate HQ
- →All sessions recorded, all resources in one place
- →Full access throughout the programme
Is This For You
This is for you if:
- ✓You are a senior leader, executive, founder or expert operating in high-stakes environments.
- ✓You look composed on the outside but inside you feel stretched, reactive and exhausted.
- ✓You know the cost of staying here is too high on your performance, your clarity, your energy.
- ✓You have done coaching before but the changes never quite stuck. You know it is because nobody went deep enough.
- ✓You want to lead from confidence, not pressure, and you are ready to do the work to get there.
This is not for you if:
- ✗You are looking for tactics, templates or a quick fix.
- ✗You would rather consume content than do the real work.
- ✗You need full one-to-one support. This programme relies on the group dynamic.
- ✗You are not open to learning from and with a peer group.
Your Investment
You do not need more resilience.
You need a better way of thinking under pressure.
You already know if this is you. The question is timing, not whether this is what you are looking for.
Places are kept deliberately small to protect the depth and quality of the work.
Not sure if this is the right fit or the right time?
Book a 20-minute call and we will work that out together.
Book a call and let's talk.
Book a free 20-minute call to see if this is the right fit for you right now.
Common Questions
You have outgrown how you are leading.
This is where it changes.
May 2026. 12 weeks. Limited places.
Clinical psychology. Executive strategy. A room where you do not have to perform.
Promotional price. Ends 30th April. After that it returns to £1,350.
