Chairing With Confidence

A leadership development course for chairs ready to step up and lead from the front.

Confident leadership unlocks potential, both in your board and your organisation

Chairing with Confidence is an effective leadership development course designed to help you develop your role with clarity and purpose. Through impactful small group sessions and one-to-one coaching, you’ll build a practical toolkit to lead with confidence and success.

The Chairing with Confidence Experience

Grounded Governance has worked with hundreds of boards and leaders across sectors and time zones. We know what makes great Chairs… well, great. And more importantly, we know how to help you become one.

This course isn’t new, it’s an evolution.

Chairing with Confidence builds on the success of our popular Chairing Pathways programme, which supports Chairs over 3-6 months with deep, practical learning and mentoring. We’ve distilled the best of that experience into a focused, energising format – adding small-group collaboration to create a larger impact and community.

Whether you’re a new Chair or looking to elevate your leadership style, this course offers the clarity, confidence, and support to step forward with purpose.

Over six weeks you’ll experience a carefully curated blend of:

- - 1:1 coaching tailored to your board, your role, and your style
  - Collaborative small-group sessions grounded in real-world, internationally relevant learnings
  - Proven tools you can apply immediately

This isn’t governance theory or a passive webinar to watch later. It’s real, human, leadership development, delivered with heart, humour, and world-class expertise.

February Intake - Registration Open

Important Dates:

Registrations close – 30 January, 2026

Initial 1:1 sessions – 09 February, 2026

3x Group sessions – 13, 18 and 23 February, 2026

Final 1:1 sessions – 25 and 27 February, 2026

Your Coach and Confidant

Giselle McLachlan brings a grounded, practical approach to governance. A successful Chair and Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors, she’s known for helping people grow into confident, effective leaders.

Giselle’s background includes decades of experience as a lawyer, insurance executive, CEO and General Manager. She’s passionate about sustainable business and healthy leadership—and brings real-life insight to every session she runs.

Is Chairing with Confidence right for you?

This course is designed for:

What You'll Walk Away With

You’ll leave with:

A toolkit of proven Chairing practices
New confidence in your ability to lead with influence
Clarity around your Chairing style, strengths and blind spots
Language and tools to manage behaviour and guide constructive board meetings
A small network of peers you've learned alongside
Over 9 hours of professional development (eligible for most PD budgets)

Course Inclusions

Pre-and-Post Survey

Before your first one-to-one session with Giselle, we’ll invite you to complete a short survey. It’s a chance to reflect on your current role, aspirations, challenges and confidence as a Chair.

This helps us tailor your learning experience and gives you a benchmark to look back on at the end of the course.

Then, after your final session, we’ll ask you to complete a follow-up survey. This is an opportunity to capture what’s changed, what’s landed, and what you’re still curious about. It’s also a space to share feedback so we can keep improving.

1:1 Coaching Sessions

Our confidential one-to-one coaching is what sets this course apart. You’ll meet with Giselle – an experienced Chair, CEO, and governance expert – for two personalised 90-minute sessions: one before the course begins, and one after your final group session.

These coaching sessions are more than just check-ins. They’re your space to reflect, challenge, plan and grow with support from a trusted expert.

In the first session, you’ll cover:

Where you're starting from - based on your survey and lived experience
Goals, pressures, or challenges unique to your board or Chair role
Gaps in your toolkit and how to fill them
Your personal path toward becoming a more confident, influential Chair
Where your governance knowledge is strong, and where it can grow

In the final session, you’ll:

After this final session, we will ask for you to complete the post-course survey.

Online group training

Over three live, small-group sessions, you’ll explore what it really means to lead a board, beyond just chairing the meeting. These sessions are interactive, energising and designed to help you learn alongside others walking a similar path.

Led by Giselle, each session runs for two hours and blends practical tools with shared reflection, real-world examples and courageous conversations.
You’ll have space to ask questions, learn from peers, and build clarity in a safe and collaborative environment.

“Great course, Giselle is an excellent presenter who made the course very inclusive with an engaging, relaxed, informal presentation style, participants were encouraged to speak and share views, conversations were open. ”

Chairing Course Participant

Course Resources

In addition to live coaching and learning, you’ll receive access to our digital Education Hub and course toolkit with “all the good stuff”. Which are designed to keep supporting you well beyond the final session.

Ongoing support

We’re confident you’ll leave this course feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to lead with confidence. But leadership doesn’t stop when the sessions do.

If you’d like extra support as you roll out your tools and strategies, we offer ongoing 1:1 Chair Coaching sessions – tailored, confidential, and available to Chairs anywhere in the world.

Reflect on your boards dynamics as you apply your skills from our course
Evaluate how your presence influences tone, participation and productivity
Measure your impact on board performance
Maximise the talent and perspectives of your board members
Ensure your board is working cohesively toward its goals

All of these inclusions for

$3,500NZD + gst

"Not only does the coaching cover the technical aspects of the job, which has improved my competency greatly, but also the time with the Giselle has notably improved my confidence in the role."

The quality of the topics presented, the insights provided and the discussion that followed all contributed to a great learning experience

"With Giselle's support and additional motivation, I found other doors opening during the course and secured a new position. I don’t see this as a coincidence. I now look forward to putting my learnings into practice for the benefit of any board I sit on."

I enjoyed the session. Giselle was great - relatable and strong communicator. I liked how she brought her own ideas over and above the more standard governance views.