Leaders Make a Culture:

4 Day Leadership Programme for the Modern Hospitality Executive Leader

Delivered in Partnership with THE CULTURE BUILDERS

2026 APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN - Please read the Application Guidance Document before applying. LINK HERE

Course Dates & Locations

Level Dates Location Application Closing Date

Executive                                             24th & 25th June / 8th & 9th Sept '26                     TBC                                                               Monday 1st June ‘26                            - Applications will open April 2026

Many leadership programmes focus on “fixing” the perceived skills gaps of today. That approach doesn’t work. Our programmes deliver world-class leadership development that enables Scottish hospitality leaders to redefine excellence and lead with confidence into the future.

The culture we create as leaders influences everything around us. It’s the golden thread that connects our own experience, the experience of our people, and the experience we deliver to our customers. Because leaders have a disproportionate impact on culture, we must act with intention and clarity.

Our 4-Day ‘Leaders Make a Culture’ programme combines deep reflection, meaningful experiences, challenging exploration, and powerful interaction to equip you to lead your teams, organisations, and the wider industry forward. Drawing on our own expertise, the latest thinking, and best practice from a wide range of sectors, we will help you:

•  Shape and sustain a high-performance culture in your organisation

• Proactively develop your leadership identity and journey for maximum impact

• Apply practical approaches to emotional intelligence to lead people, change, and resilience

• Navigate challenging conversations in ways that motivate and support your people

• Understand and apply the principles of the Bank of Me™ to optimise performance for yourself and others

What the programme will cover;

Days 1 & 2

• High performance culture - defining what it looks like, how we create it, and our role as leaders to set expectations and lead by example

•  Leadership identity - understanding our journeys to this point, and intentionally choosing how we’ll shape ourselves in the future

•  Leader as engager - exploring and using different approaches to engage our people with our organisational vision, mission and purpose - shaping motivation and behaviour on the

•  Emotionally intelligent leadership - stepping into the world of EI but through a practical lens on how we notice, value and manage emotions in ourselves and others

• Shaping behaviour - using simple but powerful coaching and feedback techniques to shape our own impact, and the behaviours of teams and individuals across our organisations

• Creating lasting change - committing to clear leadership habits that we want to ‘test and learn’ before the second part of the programme, including how we support each other

Day 3 & 4

(delivered in partnership Steve Williams OBE, 2 x Olympic Rowing gold medallist)

• Consolidating learning - celebrating what worked, triaging what we did that didn’t work, and helping unpick and reset the things that never got started

• The Bank of Me for high performance - managing our Human Bank Accounts so we stay ‘in the black,’ are able to be our best in our whole lives, and can role model and support our people

• Setting the gold standard - learning from the Olympic world with Steve Williams OBE, bringing to life the mindsets, disciplines and techniques needed to succeed in the most demanding environments

• Putting it into practice - putting the learning that feels most powerful into practice in a rowing experience coached by Steve Williams, live on the water (weather permitting)

• Review, translate, embed - taking the best learning and practices into our own organisations - how we use them, where they are appropriate and can have the highest impact

• The programme legacy - agreeing how you’ll share learning with your people, how you’ll keep us updated on success and learning (so we can help) and your role with future leader

Executive Level

 Duration:                                  4-day programme, split over 2 x two day sessions 

 Target Participants:           Designed for those in the most senior executive decision-making roles

 Prerequisites / Expected Experience:

•  Minimum of 10 years in senior leadership or executive roles within hospitality or a related sector

• Experience of managing large multi-dispclined teams and/or multiple departments

• Responsibility for business decision-making and organisational performance

• Understanding of organisational culture and its impact on business outcomes

• Comfortable engaging in leadership challenges and reflective practice

Expected Knowledge / Skills:

• Strong understanding of business strategy, operational management, and financial accountability

• Prior exposure to leadership development or coaching programmes is advantageous

• Ability to reflect critically on personal leadership style and organisational impact