The HR Leadership Reset
The HR Leadership Reset creates space for leaders to step outside their role, routine and organisational hierarchy, and focus fully on how they shape and lead change. Through reflection, shared experience and purposeful challenge, they will recognise the patterns, strengths and limits shaping their leadership, opening up the possibility of different choices and growth in how they lead themselves and those around them.
Senior People leaders spend their working lives creating the conditions for other people to thrive.
They hold the expectations of the executive team, the needs of the workforce and the responsibility for helping the organisation navigate what comes next. With so much attention directed outwards and towards delivery, there is rarely space to consider the person carrying it all.
Leaders are operating at pace, making decisions faster, aligning teams quickly and leading through constant uncertainty. As AI takes on more of the work, distinctly human capabilities such as judgement, curiosity, connection and courage will become even more important.
Set within the landscape of Ballintean in the Scottish Highlands, this is a two day residential experience built around personal insight, immersive time outdoors and the collective wisdom of eight senior People leaders.
At the centre of the experience is The Drift Index™, a science based diagnostic that provides each leader with a personal map of their capacity and the conditions in which they are most likely to thrive. Combined with time in nature, it creates the space and distance needed to think differently, restore perspective and consider what needs to happen next.
Leaders will work alongside peers from different organisations and sectors, creating the conditions for honest conversation, fresh thinking and constructive challenge. They will bring together what they have learned about themselves, the insight gained from others and the needs of their organisation.
They return to their organisation with renewed capacity, a fresh perspective and a stronger sense of how they want to lead through what comes next.
Ballintean Mountain Lodge, The Scottish Highlands
Grounded in science, human behaviour and psychology this experience begins with the HR Leader as an individual, widens into how they lead and ends with a meaningful commitment to take back into their organisation.
Created and hosted by Jenny Black of Bohemian HR and Hayley Standen of Inspired Intentions, the HR Leadership Reset brings together deep experience of senior People leadership, human performance and the power of trusted professional communities.
Hayley is an EMCC accredited coach and CPO level HR leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organisations navigate growth and transformation. She has been Chief People Officer within two private equity backed businesses and held senior HR roles with some of the UK’s best known retailers. Through Inspired Intentions and The Drift Index™, Hayley now helps leaders understand their capacity, performance and the conditions they need to operate sustainably at their best.
Jenny has spent more than 25 years working alongside senior HR and People leaders through executive search, career coaching and the communities she has created through Bohemian HR. Her work is rooted in trusted relationships, honest conversations and helping people create meaningful change in their careers, leadership and organisations.
Their experiences are different and deeply complementary. Hayley brings insight into the internal reality of leading an HR function, alongside the science of sustainable human performance. Jenny brings a broad view across organisations, careers and the challenges senior HR leaders are carrying.
The residential experience is followed by a 2 further sessions online; a personal 1:1 and a group session, to ensure momentum is sustained and experiential learning in practice. That’s how change happens.
This experience is for senior HR and People leaders who spend much of their working lives supporting others, but rarely have protected space to focus on themselves.
They may be leading through growth, transformation or uncertainty. They may feel pulled towards the immediate demands of the organisation, with little time to step back and consider the bigger questions.
How are they leading? What is affecting their capacity? Where are they making the greatest difference? What might need to change?
This experience will feel particularly relevant to leaders who are:
It is for leaders who value honest conversation, are open to having their thinking challenged and want to return to their organisations with renewed energy and a stronger sense of how they want to lead.
An immersive experience that moves naturally between personal reflection, time outdoors, practical leadership conversations and connection with peers who understand the realities of senior People leadership.
Before arriving
Each leader completes The Drift Index™, giving them a personal view of their capacity, performance and the conditions that help them operate at their best. Hayley will help them explore what the results mean for their energy, judgement and leadership presence, creating a deeper understanding of themselves both as a person and as a leader.
The group will also meet online with Jenny before the residential experience. This first conversation begins to build trust within the cohort and creates space to explore what each leader is carrying, the challenges within their organisation and the questions that can be difficult to examine when they are expected to have the answers.
During the experience
The outdoors will be woven throughout the experience, with an expert guide leading the group through the Ballintean landscape.
These sessions use the power of walking and talking side by side, helping leaders explore the inner landscape of the challenges they face. Sustained time outdoors creates distance from everyday pressures, allowing attention to settle, conversations to deepen and new thinking to emerge.
Alongside the outdoor experience, there will be focused working sessions centred on each participant’s organisation. Leaders will bring together what they have discovered about themselves, what they have learned from the group and what their business needs from them now.
With support and constructive challenge from their peers, they will work through a live organisational or leadership priority and decide where their attention can create the greatest impact. Each leader will leave with one meaningful commitment, a practical next step and a date for taking it forward.
After the experience
The investment continues through a personal follow up conversation and an online group session. Leaders will have space to reflect on what has changed, work through any resistance and maintain momentum as they put their learning into practice.
The Highlands are undeniably beautiful, but they have been chosen for more than the view. The natural environment plays an active role in creating the space for leaders to think differently.
Attention Restoration Theory describes directed attention as the effort required to concentrate on one thing while filtering out everything else. It is a limited cognitive resource that can become depleted through sustained periods of focus, decision making and managing competing demands.
A 2025 systematic review and meta analysis found that exposure to natural environments produced modest but reliable benefits in working memory and attentional control when compared with non natural settings. It also found that the restorative effect was influenced by the length of exposure, with the greatest overall difference appearing after approximately 30 minutes in nature.
This is why the outdoors is not treated as a separate wellbeing activity within the programme. It is part of how the experience works.
Three of the five levers within The Drift Index™ are actively brought to life through time outdoors, movement and the surrounding environment. Walking and talking side by side creates distance from familiar pressures, allows attention to settle and gives difficult questions more room to surface.
The walk is part of the intervention. The thinking, conversation and new perspective it makes possible are the point.
Introspection
A deeper understanding of what affects their energy and performance, and the conditions they need to think, decide and lead at their best.
Understanding
Space to consider what matters to them, how they want to lead and the patterns, strengths and limits shaping how they currently operate. They will identify where their attention can create the greatest difference.
Growth
New insight creates the opportunity to make different choices. Each leader will identify one meaningful change in how they lead or where they focus, with a practical next step and a clear date for taking it forward.
Leadership and impact
Time to explore the leadership, organisational and workforce challenges ahead, with their thinking supported and challenged by seven experienced People leaders from different organisations and sectors.
Trusted community
Relationships that continue beyond the Scottish Highlands, offering encouragement, challenge and the reassurance that they do not have to carry everything alone.
Support to make the change last
A personal follow up conversation and online group session will help them maintain momentum, work through resistance and embed what they have learned.
The HR Leadership Reset supports the individual behind the role, while keeping a clear focus on the leadership and organisational impact they can create when they return.
The HR function takes its direction and confidence from the leader at its centre.
This experience gives the leader space to look beyond immediate operational pressures and consider whether the function is focused on the workforce and organisational priorities that matter most.
Through challenge and insight from seven experienced peers, they can test their thinking, explore different approaches and return better equipped to lead their team with purpose, confidence and stronger priorities.
The organisation benefits from an HR leader who has had protected time to think deeply about a live business or leadership priority.
During the final working session, each participant brings together what they have learned about themselves, the perspectives gained from the group and the needs of their organisation. They leave with one meaningful commitment, a practical next step and a date for taking it forward.
The personal conversation and online group session that follow provide continued support and accountability, helping the leader maintain momentum and translate the experience into sustained action.
The organisation is investing in more than two days away. It is creating the conditions for its People leader to return with fresh perspective, stronger judgement and focused thinking around an issue that matters to the business.
The total investment for the HR Leadership Reset is £1,350 per person.
A £350 deposit confirms your place, with the remaining balance of £1,000 due by 31 January 2027.
The investment Includes:
A deposit of £350 will secure your place, with the remaining balance of £1000 due by 31 January 2027. Travel to and from Ballintean is not included.
** Throughout the outdoor elements of the experience, we will be joined by Sam Cairns, a former Team GB biathlete and cross country skier, personal trainer and Everest summiteer. Sam will guide and support the group as we use the Scottish Highlands to create space for movement, conversation and reflection.
If you have any questions or would like to explore whether the experience is right for you or your HR leader, Jenny and Hayley would be delighted to speak with you. Follow either link below to arrange a conversation.
Contact Jenny Black
Contact Hayley Standen
Confirm your place with full payment
Confirm your place with a £350 deposit
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