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Small Business Sunday Winner Creates Community for Women In Leadership

Wirral born Samantha Lancashire, 49, who last week was recognised by Theo Paphitis in his #SBS Small Business Sunday initiative for her CPD Accredited development company - Creating Lightbulb Moments (www.creatinglightbulbmoments.com), is excited to announce the launch of a new arm to her business, after being self employed for the past  2 years supporting global organisations and their teams. An award winning entrepreneur, and  #1 Best-Selling Author, Sam has worked with teams in tech throughout her career over the past 2 decades, and influenced by International Women’s Day and her desire to play her part in helping to drive equity, she has decided to create a new way to support fellow female leaders, who she feels are being overlooked.

The LeadHER Collective, a leadership accelerator designed to empower women to ascend in their careers without compromising their authenticity or well-being, is something she has created to combat the stats that show ‘57% of women say they’ve never had leadership training’ as Sam asks ‘Are we throwing them under the bus by expecting them to hit targets, lead teams, and make tough decisions - without it?’

At 23, Sam herself was thrust into management with no degree, little training  - leading a team of mostly older, mostly male counterparts, and she felt under a lot of pressure to ‘just figure it out’ as she had targets to meet, and fast. Over the years she has worked globally within teams at McAfee, Stripe and Apple and became a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute, qualified coach and Mental Health First Aider, and regularly commits to new training and development herself to master the science of leadership, communication, sales, and human behaviour. 

Having worked with hundreds of learning global organisations she’s seen first hand how underrepresented women still are at leadership level. As of September 2024, only 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women CEOs, highlighting a persistent leadership gap in major corporations. She has also seen the challenges faced by female leaders who are in these roles, and has often been told that success comes at a cost. Sam is determined to make a change to this culture, and she has seen that learning in isolation isn’t enough to make change happen. She plans to use strength based profiles and psychometric tools, award winning training methods, and expert guest presenters - combined with coaching and peer feedback that she’s used with successful teams and leaders for the last 18 years to help.

She said: “For women in leadership learning in isolation doesn’t cut it, and neither does tick box training -often it isn’t that they don’t know what to do, but that they don’t feel supported in doing it. In my experience they thrive better when they feel like they are surrounded by others who are working towards the same goals, and have a safe space to explore different ideas - this isn’t always the case within their own organisations or teams so I am creating a community that will be this for them. Female leaders need lifting up, so more can continue to climb the leadership ladders, developing other women as they go”.

Sam, who regularly volunteers as a mentor to women in business and is currently mentoring through Tangent to help young people (specifically women) to get into tech sales roles, shared her goals for LeadHER.

She said: “I am focused around equipping high-performing women with the clarity, confidence, and strategies to step into leadership on their own terms - without burnout, without self-doubt, and without feeling like they have to "fit in" to outdated corporate moulds.This could be around getting a promotion or stepping up to board level influence, or it could be helping women set more boundaries around what their work life looks like.”

Supporting them for 12 months she will help the female leaders she works with on both their career development and their own wellbeing. She said: “I’m here to help more women to own their worth, advance their career, without sacrificing their wellbeing or values, and to build influence and impact, so they can shape the future of leadership for other women too -all without feeling like they have to adopt masculine traits, or be constantly fighting for their place at the table”.

She added: “Time and time again I’ve seen brilliant women being overlooked, underestimated, or stuck in environments that don’t nurture their full potential. Struggling to be seen and heard.Despite their talent and effort, the path to career success and leadership still feels like an uphill battle. This is for women who are tired of waiting… to be seen, to be heard, for your company to invest in you - because I know exactly how that feels. That’s why I built The LeadHER Collective - to create the kind of space I wish I’d had: one where high-performing women don’t just survive in leadership but thrive.”

Sam recently pitched her idea to infamous entrepreneur Simon Squibb, as part of his HelpBank initiative, asking for support to fund 2 free places for female founders. She is waiting on his feedback as we go to print but is also planning on offering a number of sponsored places herself for women who are not in a financial position to invest. 

For more info on LeadHER visit Sam on LinkedIn.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chocolate PR .