Growth puts pressure on how people communicate, make decisions and work together. Yet the skills they need to do it well are too often overlooked.

We create practical learning experiences that build essential human skills across your organisation—so your people are equipped to handle the next phase of your business development.

Find the right support for your team.

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The Skills Your Business Depends on are Too Often Overlooked

You hire people for their expertise. But doing great work together also takes honest feedback, sound judgement and the confidence to challenge an idea—even when it comes from the most senior person in the room.

Too often, people are expected to figure that part out for themselves.

When people don’t have the skills or confidence to speak openly, feedback stays vague and difficult conversations get postponed.

Problems that could have been resolved early become harder and more expensive to fix, putting pressure on relationships, slowing decisions and getting in the way of brilliant work. As the business grows, those gaps grow with it.

Your business depends on human skills. We give your people the opportunity to develop them.

People Development is Business Development

For over a decade, we’ve brought learning to people who have too often missed out on it—and seen first-hand how investing in their development helps businesses grow.

We design practical learning experiences around your business priorities, helping your people build the capabilities to deliver them.

Through leadership, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, communication, empathy and critical thinking, we help people turn individual expertise into collective performance.

Learning is grounded in their day-to-day work, so they can put it into practice where it matters most.

What makes us different?

We’re still in it.

We lead our own teams, have our own difficult conversations, and put everything we teach into practice every single day.

We know what poor communication costs a team. We know what it feels like when trust breaks down.

And we know what changes when people finally get the tools to do the people stuff well.

As AI reshapes how we work, we believe the most valuable thing any organisation can invest in is its people’s ability to think, connect, and lead with humanity.

A lot of the people we work with are what we call accidental leaders.

Technically brilliant people in engineering, manufacturing, and technology who got promoted because they were exceptional at the job. Not because anyone ever taught them how to lead people.

We work with those people, and the organisations that want to set them up to actually succeed.

Hear From Our Learners

Lucy Gardiner
Management Essentials Programme
My resilience and confidence have grown. My self-belief is higher, I am more able to deal with challenges and I am more self-aware.
Rafael Rodriguez
Management Essentials Programme
Definitely improvements on the way I communicate with my colleagues and how I feedback to them.
Kate Ogle
Management Essentials Programme
It has really helped build my confidence, helped me develop as an individual and giving me the motivation to continue to develop internally but my wider team as well.
Ray Potts
Management Essentials Programme
The training was brilliant and I have learnt lots of new tools and techniques to make me better in the work place and as a person in society.
Russell Rafferty
Management Essentials Programme
I am more open to other approaches to solving a problem. That ideas are malleable and can be moved to best fit with the people that are engaging in the programme at hand.
Michael Errington
Management Essentials Programme
I have a newfound confidence, it has brought forward a lot of things I knew I had but never had the tools to use.
Jo Davies
Lean In, Power Up retreat Attendee
I experienced a life changing retreat with some of the most incredible females - it was up there with one the most transformative decisions I have made in my professional career. Thank you so much to Michaela Reaney Claire Preston for their guidance, coaching and hosting skills par excellence.
Sarah Monk
Lean In, Power Up retreat Attendee
To meet such an incredible group of people, be inspired, howl with laughter, be nurtured, reflect, learn and be gifted a life reset all in the space of 36 hours. The thought, planning, energy and enthusiasm that went into the weekend was not only awe inspiring but delivered such incredible results.
Charlotte Fuller
Lean In, Power Up retreat Attendee
This group of incredible women was a breath of fresh air. filled with openness. kindness, positivity, collaboration and a lot of laughs! Thank you Michaela Reaney and Claire Preston for cuitivating such a wonderful community and experience! Sign me up for all the great things community in the future.

What’s next for your business, and your people?

You know what your people are capable of. Let’s talk about what would help them get there.

We specialise in helping our clients figure out the best route forward. Bring us what you’re noticing, what you want to change and where you want to go. Together, we’ll explore what support would create the biggest impact for your organisation.

Explore More About Us

Our Community

Leadership shouldn’t feel like you’re figuring it out alone.

Starts With Us is an ongoing leadership membership community for people who want practical support, honest conversations and the confidence to lead well.

Case Studies

Starting with real conversations, ending with people leading differently, teams communicating better, and organisations that felt the change.

No tick-box training.

No off-the-shelf programmes.

Free Resources

The most in-demand skills for 2025 aren’t technical – they’re human.

And everyone deserves access to these skills, which is why we’re sharing a few of our top resources for FREE below.