Our leadership coaching for women is designed to support senior female leaders navigating complexity, visibility, confidence, and influence in demanding roles.
For those who also require in-person or location-based support, our executive coaching London service offers confidential, face-to-face coaching for senior leaders across the capital.
According to the 2024 FTSE Women Leaders Review, women now hold 43% of FTSE 100 board positions, but only 11 of those companies have a female CEO. Beneath the board-level progress, the executive pipeline tells a harder story: women remain significantly under-represented in P&L leadership and operational roles, the very positions from which most CEO appointments are made.
I’m Julia Carden, and I understand these challenges firsthand as a former Royal Naval Officer. Now, through my coaching practice and PhD research into self-awareness, I support women leaders across the UK, from BMW and the British Army to universities and NHS charities, to develop leadership grounded in authenticity, not performance.
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Women often feel compelled to adopt stereotypically masculine traits, such as assertiveness and directness, to be viewed as competent, yet they are frequently penalised or labelled as “aggressive” for doing so.
Conversely, prioritising warmth and approachability can lead to being perceived as less capable. This constant negotiation between being authentic and achieving professional advancement is a major source of burnout and a tough spot female leaders need help navigating.
Through my PhD research into self-awareness, I’ve discovered what traditional leadership development misses: you cannot lead others authentically until you’ve established a deep connection with yourself. This isn’t therapy; it’s understanding your patterns, recognising what triggers you under pressure, and developing the capacity to choose your response rather than simply react.
Self-awareness enables self-connection, staying grounded in your values and strengths even when external pressures push you to perform a version of leadership that doesn’t fit. Only from this foundation can you genuinely connect with others.
My work with women focuses on the real, lived challenges women face at senior and emerging-senior levels. It goes beyond general confidence work and targets practical capability, decision-making, and strategic career positioning:
At its core, the process is developmental rather than corrective. The aim is not to “fix” women. It’s to strengthen awareness, authority, and choice, so leading becomes more deliberate, sustainable, and self-directed.
My approach is developmental in nature, working with the whole person, not just the professional persona, while holding awareness of the systems you’re navigating. This means addressing real complexity: caring responsibilities, energy management, personal values, and how work integrates with everything else that matters to you.
Whether we work one-to-one or in a group setting, the foundation remains the same: building self-awareness, establishing authentic presence, and making conscious choices.
“I can highly recommend Julia as a supervisor for your coaching practice. I came out of our first session with an overwhelming sense of being in safe, skilled, knowledgeable and supportive hands, and I find every session with her immensely valuable. She calmly supports you to think deeply, consider dilemmas from new perspectives, and raise your self-awareness, always with the best interests of your client in mind. I would not hesitate to recommend her.- Annabelle White
I have used Julia to deliver management training for key managers. Working with Julia is a breath of fresh air. She quickly understands the needs of the business and recommends practical and effective solutions. This means from day one, you feel like progress is being made.- Samantha Cheeseman
See more feedback from leaders we’ve worked with.
Leadership coaching for women isn’t about learning to fit in better. It’s about developing self-awareness to lead authentically, strategic thinking to navigate systemic barriers, and resilience to sustain your leadership without exhausting yourself.
If you’re ready to explore coaching that honours both your competence and authenticity, that addresses real challenges whilst developing your capacity to lead as yourself, I’d welcome a conversation.
Let’s start a confidential conversation
Email: julia@carden-consulting.co.uk Phone: +447855459658
Women can develop leadership skills through leadership coaching, mentoring, stretch roles, and structured feedback. Key actions include building executive presence, improving strategic communication, increasing decision-making responsibility, strengthening influence skills, and gaining visibility with senior sponsors and stakeholders.
Successful female leaders commonly demonstrate self-awareness, confidence with humility, clear communication, emotional intelligence, resilience under pressure, strategic thinking, and strong boundary-setting.
The five leadership essentials for women are grounded presence, decision confidence, influence and stakeholder management, visibility and sponsorship, and self-belief.
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This isn’t about learning to fit in better. It’s about developing self-awareness to lead authentically, strategic thinking to navigate systemic barriers, and resilience to sustain how you work without exhausting yourself.
If you’re ready to explore coaching that honours both your competence and authenticity and that addresses real challenges while developing your capacity to lead as yourself, I’d welcome a conversation.
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