WSLA 2026 | WSLA

The Women's Sport Leadership Academy (WSLA) provides unique development opportunities for women leaders from around the world to step up, take the lead and make an impact.

WSLA is strategically led by the University of Chichester and is developed and delivered by Leading Edge Performance. Since 2014, over 490 women based in over 80 countries spanning the world have become graduates of the Academy. They come from a range of sports organisations, including:

National Olympic and Paralympic Committees
International and National Sport Federations
Governmental departments and ministries
Sport-for-change charities and organisations
Professional sports clubs and teams
Regional networks, universities, media and commercial businesses

Bespoke WSLA programmes delivered under license have occurred in Botswana, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and Zimbabwe, ranging from two or three-day sessions to over 18 months, aimed at women leaders in sport, retired female Olympians, and high-performance coaches. All formats of the WSLA programmes are delivered by experienced facilitators with appropriate skills, knowledge and experience in both leadership in sport and business.

The basics

Introduction WSLA

Is WSLA right for me?

Our aim for WSLA 2026 is to bring together another 36 outstanding women leaders from around the world and support them to fulfil their leadership potential.

We are seeking applications from women who are:

Currently in middle management, or recently appointed senior managers or Board members, of sport or sport-for-change organisations
Responsible for key areas such as managing staff (or likely to be doing so soon) or heading up a specific department, area or project for their organisation
Passionate and driven to pursue their own professional development
Committed to influencing change in an organisation or sector of work
Identified as future leaders by their organisation
Committed to making a difference to as well as enhancing opportunities for women and girls in and through sport
Competent in written and spoken English (min IELTS 6.5). Please note that no translation service will be provided.

Is WSLA fo me?

About the 2026 programme

The 2026 programme is premised upon four objectives to support the further development of participants. We term these The four Cs: competencies, confidence, context, and commitment.

2026 programme

leadership Competencies

to support female leaders to enhance their leadership skills and behaviours to navigate the challenges that are part of leading an organisation

Confidence

to encourage female leaders to identify their strengths, goals and ambitions to support their desired career path; championing who they are and others around them

Contextual
awareness

to understand the organisational and cultural environment, recognising opportunities and challenges, and influencing fellow allies and champions to create positive change

Commitment of employers

to engage with the employers of female leaders and support their ongoing development and wider influence

What the programme will do for you

Specifically, WSLA 2026 will also support the participants to:

Become a more adaptable and impactful leader
Develop their own leadership style and identity, and appreciation of their impact upon others
Identify career ambitions and produce a Personal Development Plan and strategies to support these ambitions
Maximise their network by being intentional about who to approach and why, including connecting with global WSLA alumni
Improve intercultural understanding through engagement with a diverse cohort and conversations around leading and working in different environments
Gain a better knowledge and understanding of the challenges and opportunities for women in sport leadership
Strategically influence and advocate others to create a more inclusive workplace within their organisation
Connect with a leader in a senior role from a national, international or global organisation as part of our Mentorship programme after the residential week

The week-long programme consists of several elements, all of which are essential for the critical learning and development that will take place:

Workshops – These are an integral part of the learning process and are designed to meet the needs of participants. They have clear learning outcomes and are tailored to maximise learning; they will be challenging, constructive and highly interactive. Even though we are based at a university, there are no lectures at WSLA.
Personal Development Plan – Each participant will produce a Personal Development Plan setting goals on leadership behaviours, career strategies, future opportunities and to consolidate learning.
Reflection groups – These consist of small groups of participants who meet regularly throughout the residential week. Their aim is to help participants consider their learning, raise issues and concerns, discuss hot topics, and provide support and encouragement.
Peer support sessions – These provide opportunities for participants to define, frame and communicate their key challenges and receive support from colleagues. The sessions allow participants to have time to reflect on their experiences and to explore ways of doing things differently.
Physical activities – A range of physical activities have been designed to indulge our love of sport, to live our principle of an active lifestyle, to provide a physical challenge, to promote team building and... to have fun!
Facilitators and guest speakers – The programme content is led by Tina Dullaghan from Leading Edge Performance alongside a team of experienced facilitators, some of whom are WSLA graduates, to inspire participants as well as share their own experiences. Guest speakers will identify what leadership means to them and what motivates and challenges them, as well as providing top tips for participants.
Mentoring - After the week has finished, you will have the opportunity to be paired with a senior leader from industry thanks to Leading Edge Performance, meaning your valuable journey continues

There will be women from different backgrounds at WSLA 2026 and this is a deliberate design of the programme. Sometimes you will work with people earlier in their leadership journey, and sometimes with someone with much more experience.

WSLA is hosted at a University, but there are no lectures, tests or exams. Our programme curates and cultivates a psychologically safe environment for women leaders in sport to recognise personal strengths and look to enact change beyond themselves. Content is uniquely bespoke, iterated to participant needs. It is agile in its development and delivery meaning no two programmes are the same. Learn more about the 'feel' of the week in the video below!

Programme structure and content

Our leadership vision

Leading Edge Performance unleashes human performance to change the game. We partner with elite sports teams and global businesses to deliver high-performance solutions with real-world impact. We specialise in developing high-performance teams, supporting organisational transformational change and developing high-performance leaders. Our unique approach unlocks potential by leveraging human intelligence insights to drive mindset, skill, and behaviour shifts that create sustainable change. We're known for our innovative but impactful approach- we create tailored solutions to overcome complex challenges in leadership, team dynamics, and organisational transformation.

We believe leadership is the root cause of most organisational successes – and failures. From the organisation’s results to the meeting format, the leadership ‘shadow’ is a long one. We’ve observed and listened, coached, and facilitated hundreds of leaders over the past 25 years, and our reflections have defined our point of view on leadership.

Authentic Self | Find Ways to Win | In Service of Others

At the heart of our leadership point of view is sustainability, while navigating ambiguity. We believe successful leaders manage the three inherent tensions of leadership

The difference is brilliant leaders have enhanced skills and behaviours in five aspects:

Clarity of identity – self awareness and self development
Embrace paradox – recognition of and ability to operate in ambiguous and often contradictory landscapes
Trust centred – creates trust-led relationships, environments and cultures
Encourages fail fast, learn quick – values innovation and creativity, encourages fresh thinking and removes fear of failure
Sense maker - has a strategic vision and can influence and engage others to join them

During WSLA we will explore some of these skills and behaviours in more detail. Importantly, we will ensure that what we deliver is relevant to the group. Therefore, ahead of the week we will be conducting an insight gathering phase. This will ensure that we prioritise and focus on the necessary areas that will be impactful to you in your role.

To ensure that participants get as much as possible from the WSLA experience, and also to ensure we make the content of WSLA as relevant as possible to the differing circumstances of each person, we will ask for some pre-work to be completed prior to attending WSLA. Detailed instructions as well as deadlines and templates will be provided following acceptance onto the programme.

We recognise the need to support participants and their organisations to continue to reflect and practice the skills that they have learnt over the WSLA week. Therefore, following the week, we will also be working with participant organisations to offer guidance about the role they can play in helping the participants to continue to grow and develop.

Graduate testimonies

We asked graduates of our most recent programmes “What message would you give to someone who was thinking about attending WSLA?”

"It's a brilliant opportunity for women of all ages and stages of their careers to engage, explore, learn new ways and approaches, and leave ready to inspire their colleagues and future generations of great women leaders"

"It's the best thing I did that I didn't know I needed"

WSLA has been subject to an independent evaluation as well as monitoring and feedback actioned internally. A survey administered to graduates in 2020 (99 responses) saw 90% state that WSLA had a life-changing or significant impact on them as a person and 83% state the same on them as a leader.

WSLA SURVEY FULL REPORT (2020)

We know that women encounter issues and barriers to advance within systems of sport leadership. Crucially however, we do not aim to “fix”, “upskill” or “teach” women. We know that women already have the skills and knowledge to excel. Instead, we challenge our participants to really think about what leadership means to them, what they want to achieve, how they can go about doing it, and provide insight into tackling problematic systems and cultures. WSLA facilitates a personal learning experience, cultivated within a safe, multicultural, diverse, trusting environment, that will impact you in ways you could never anticipate. And it’s not us saying this, as our graduate testimonies in the following videos attest:

Graduate testimonies