Empowering women to lead. Fixing the system around them.
The Grace Papers Women in Leadership program is group and one-to-one coaching for women at the levels where your leadership pipeline narrows. It builds the confidence, visibility and sponsorship women need to step up, and shows you the systemic barriers holding progression back, so you can act on your WGEA gender equality targets with evidence.
Trusted by top-tier brands to empower their people and build an employer of choice culture
Why it matters
Why do women stall on the way to leadership?
The leadership pipeline loses women at two predictable points: the first promotion to manager, and the return from parental leave. McKinsey and LeanIn.Org's Women in the Workplace 2024 found 81 women were promoted to first-level manager for every 100 men. In Australia, Treasury research found women's earnings fall by an average of 55% in the five years after becoming parents.
Both gaps come from how roles, promotions and flexibility are designed. The Grace Papers Women in Leadership program targets the levels where your pipeline narrows and links that work to your WGEA targets on gender composition and the gender pay gap. For the return-to-work transition, see our Parental Leave Transition coaching.
The program
What’s in the Women in Leadership program?
The Grace Papers Women in Leadership program combines four elements: group coaching, one-to-one coaching, systemic insight and sponsorship. Together they build women’s agency and show your organisation which barriers to remove. It sits within our wider Leadership programs.
Pipeline
Executive group coaching
Boost your pipeline with promotion-ready women and improve retention through cohort sessions led by expert, independent coaches.
Progression
One-to-one coaching
Tailored 1:1 executive coaching using our proven model to build leadership, strategy and a Professional Vision for each person.
Systems
Transformative change insights
Insight into the structural and systemic barriers your women face, then solution design and implementation of meaningful change.
Connection
Sponsorship and networking
Expanding networks through sponsorship, community and learning from career stories. A network of women, for women.
Not sure where to start
Talk it through
Share your workforce data, your targets and your questions. We’ll tell you which actions will move your numbers first, and which can wait.
Our approach
Coaching that turns engagement into agency.
The Grace Way is Grace Papers’ empowerment model. It moves each woman through three steps, Anchoring Clarity, Finding Direction and Enabling Agency, so she can navigate the system while your organisation changes it.
Anchor in clarity
Confidence is built by surfacing the evidence of people’s strengths, achievements and impact. As belief grows, they reconnect with what matters most, clarify their values and reimagine their potential.
Create direction
The conversation shifts from “What is possible within my constraints?” to “What can I influence?” People translate their potential into a clear Professional Vision that guides future decisions and career growth.
Build agency
With the support of expert coaches, people turn insight into action. They take ownership of the decisions that shape their careers, communicate what they need with confidence and create meaningful change for themselves and their organisation.
What sets the program apart
Developed and facilitated by experts in human rights, gender equality, DEI, executive coaching and sociology, alongside your business leaders
Coaches independent of your organisation, so honest reflection is possible
Targeted to where your data says the pipeline leaks
Systemic insight alongside the coaching, so your organisation shares the work of change
Impact you can measure
From reflection to real action.
The experience your people rate highly is the same experience that changes what they do next.
10x Return on investment
Our empowerment model is proven to reduce discrimination and increase promotions.
4 in 5 Participants report real-world impact from the coaching experience
96% Participants recommend their coaching experience to others
Results from post experience check-ins and research conducted on participants
In their words
The 1:1 coaching was fantastic. It helped me to work through some of the exercises, challenges I was facing, and provide a unique perspective. The vision statement process was extremely helpful and beneficial for someone who is open to different opportunities – I found other career planning approaches restrictive whereas after my coach worked through the career vision with me, I developed a statement that provides me with a target on how ‘check-in’ on alignment of my role vs. my vision…
The burnout session really resonated, provided additional insight on signs to watch for in others (not just me), and reinforced the need to not skip any mitigations I have in place. I think this should be shared with the wider business.
Participation and coaching insight across each cohort, in one view.
Lead indicators you can track
Coaching signals show where confidence and agency are building, alongside your WGEA data.
Board-ready reporting
Confidence, engagement and sentiment tracked over time and ready for your board pack.
Success story - Worley
Increasing agency and confidence for women in a male-dominated industry
Worley, an engineering firm in the resources and energy sectors, identified that a lack of career agency and confidence among women was limiting their engagement with growth opportunities. Here’s how we helped.
