Services›Workshop Series›Stepping Confidently into High-Stakes Conversations
A strategic communication programme to navigate power dynamics and senior stakeholder engagement
Stepping Confidently Into High-Stakes Conversations
High-stakes conversations are career-defining, but they often bring unexpected discomfort. This workshop series equips women, middle managers, with the insight and tools to anticipate tough dialogues and lead through tension with poise. From addressing casual sexism to delivering benevolent feedback that clears the air, we focus on the moment before the conversation happens—so you can walk into it differently.
The core insight
“The women in your organisation are already capable of leading at the highest level. This workshop gives that capability a clear path forward and makes sure nothing stands between that potential and the impact it can create.”
The idea behind this workshop
Next open cohort
October 2026
4 sessions, every Friday
2 hours per session · Limited spots available
What the research shows
More times women are interrupted than men in professional settings
Harvard Business Review
women says her organisation does enough to address the communication barriers women face in leadership
Catalyst, 2022
Higher innovation revenue in organisations that actively develop women into senior roles
BCG, 2018
What the workshop covers
Understanding power dynamics
Participants map the types of power at play in their organisations, examine how power operates differently for women, and identify where their own influence sits and where it is being suppressed.
Participants leave with
A personal power audit they can use before any high-stakes meeting
Self-awareness and self-limiting beliefs
Structured exercises help participants surface the internal patterns that hold them back, the beliefs that feel like facts, and the habits that formed as strategies before they became constraints.
Participants leave with
A belief-mapping framework and reframing tools to use in the moment
Exploring your executive presence
Not a template for how to look or sound, but a grounded exploration of what executive presence actually means now, and what an authentic version of it looks like for each participant specifically.
Participants leave with
Clarity on their own presence signature and how to develop it deliberately
Strategic influence and lateral leadership
The practical module. Participants rehearse the specific situations they find hardest — being spoken over, having ideas credited to someone else, navigating rooms where the power dynamic is unclear.
Participants leave with
A stakeholder communication map and a language toolkit for the moments that matter
Communication patterns and authority
Who interrupts, who defers, who is asked to explain themselves, while others are believed. Participants learn to read these patterns in the rooms they sit in, and to respond to them intentionally rather than instinctively.
Participants leave with
Specific language for navigating uncomfortable moments without losing composure or credibility
The distribution of opportunity over time
Single moments of inclusion are not culture. This thread explores how opportunity compounds or concentrates, and how leaders can audit and rebalance visibility and meaningful contribution in their teams.
Participants leave with
A practical audit tool to track and rebalance how opportunity is being distributed across their team
Best suited for
Mid-managersWomen leadersLeaders from under-represented groups Minority leadersSenior leadersHR and People leadsTeams with high attrition
About the trainer
Claudia Vaccarone
Keynote Speaker and Inclusion Strategy Advisor
Claudia Vaccarone is an inclusion strategist and keynote speaker who helps organisations build leadership cultures where women can operate at full capacity. Her work combines rigorous research on power and gender with practical communication tools that participants use from day one. She brings the academic grounding and the room presence in equal measure.
Before her advisory practice, she served on Netflix’s EMEA Inclusion Strategy Team and was Head of Diversity Programmes at the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva. Her client work spans the World Meteorological Organization, Pfizer, Kearney, and SkyTeam. A methodology she developed for SWI Swissinfo led to a newsroom-wide policy change and earned the 2023 IBC Social Impact Award.
She holds an MSc in Public Relations from Golden Gate University and a certification in AI and Ethics from the London School of Economics (2024), and is a contributing author to the LSE Inclusion Initiative blog.
Ready to invest in your female leadership pipeline?
Book a 30-minute discovery call to explore whether this workshop is the right fit for your team.
