Succession planning – how P4L prepares leaders to step up to the top
- Telos Partners
- Aug 12
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
‘Thought-provoking’, ‘Insightful’, ‘Simply brilliant’.
This is how participants describe Partners for Leadership’s two-year strategic leadership development experience (P4L).
Partners for Leadership is one of our partners. Its immersive strategic leadership development experience is designed to help organisations prepare their next generation of leaders for the significant challenges they will face.
Drawing on its 25-plus years’ track record, P4L enables organisations to feel confident that the person they’ve lined up to take the place of their current leader is ready for the pressure of the very top job.
The experience recognises that the transition from operational to strategic leadership is a major step up that requires a different mindset – a mindset that encompasses self-confidence, self-awareness and the emotional intelligence to develop a leadership style and corporate culture that inspires others to give their best.
Three new senior leader cohorts join P4L's strategic leadership development experiences each year in September, February and June. Applications are open now for the 2026 intakes – find out more and register your interest here.
But strategic leadership development is a crowded market and company budgets are tight. So why is P4L’s experience particularly relevant for organisations who are succession planning now?
Here, our Consultant Coralie Hooper – who coordinates Telos Partners' involvement with Project Manager Emma Jordan – explains.
Deepening leaders' personal and professional development
‘Firstly, P4L is a strategic leadership development experience rather than a leadership programme,’ Coralie says.
That ‘experience’ spans two years because it puts an emphasis on each leader’s personal development as well as providing experienced professional development.
Both of these evolve and deepen over time, supported by P4L’s thoughtful blend of face-to-face events (three overnights per year), cross-sector interaction and learning, webinars and one-to-one access to a ‘critical friend’.
The six in-person gatherings are one of the experience's key strengths.
As Coralie explains: ‘P4L enables senior leaders to take 24 hours out of their day-to-day three times each year at a secluded venue in Windsor Great Park.
‘This provides a safe and quiet space with minimal distractions – a luxury to most senior leaders. Here, they can stop, reflect and think about what’s going on around them that they need to respond to, both in and for their business.
‘In a busy and complex world, having 24 hours to reflect on your own leadership and what’s going on (geopolitically/economically) – and having non-judgmental peers to discuss it with, to offer challenge, insight and support – is so important.
‘Twenty-four hours may not seem long but it’s amazing how much good it does the brain and soul to have that time to reset.’
Providing an independent sounding board
'The critical friend is an independent sounding board who isn’t there to judge, but is there to listen and offer the right amount of challenge and support'
There’s also no ‘teaching element’ to P4L, Coralie says. Instead, participants hear from speakers with relevant expertise and strategic leadership experience.
‘The speakers offer insight, provocation and personal experience to which the group then responds – through discussion, sharing, challenge and support,' she explains. 'The experience is set up to ensure participants are drawn from all sectors and industries so their experiences are varied.'
In addition, each participant on P4L’s strategic leadership experience benefits from working with a ‘critical friend’.
‘The critical friend isn’t a coach or a mentor,’ Coralie says. ‘They are an independent sounding board who isn’t there to judge, but is there to listen and offer the right amount of challenge and support.
‘The critical friend is someone the senior leader can call on, as and when things come up.’
Connecting senior leaders as they learn
No surprise that the words Coralie chooses to describe P4L’s impact on participants are ‘reflection’ ‘reenergising’ and ‘connection’.
At a personal level, she finds it fulfilling to see leaders from all walks of life with different experiences come together to engage in ‘real dialogue’ through P4L.
She also highlights the way in which participants ‘look for points of connection’, the ‘honesty in the room’ and the way in which they share challenges, learn from the past and ‘the energy with which they look to make differences in the future’.
‘I also enjoy hearing our speakers when they share really interesting insights and their personal story of what it has meant to them – its impact and their own learning,’ she says.
Effective strategic leadership succession – what you should do next
Partners for Leadership’s strategic leadership development experience for senior leaders is run in association with Telos Partners and UWE Bristol’s Leadership and Change Centre.
To find out more about P4L visit the Partners for Leadership website.
Interested in joining P4L?
To register to join the P4L strategic leadership development experiences starting on 24-25 February, 2-3 June or 22-23 September 2026, please email Coralie Hooper at chooper@telospartners.com, Emma Jordan at ejordan@telospartners.com or Peter Ward at pward@telospartners.com now.
Alternatively, to find out how Telos Partners can support you and your business get in touch with us here.
