The Purpose of The Leadership Capacity Lab™
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is a structured leadership capacity–building engagement designed to support emerging and mid-level leaders who are carrying real responsibility in complex, high-pressure environments.
Its purpose is to strengthen leaders’ agency, energy, and capacity—so leadership effectiveness, culture, and retention hold under real conditions.
The Lab exists to solve a common challenge senior leaders face: being accountable for leadership outcomes without sufficient time, capacity, or coaching infrastructure to personally support every leader.
By providing confidential, applied support outside the chain of command, The Leadership Capacity Lab™ builds the internal capacity leaders need to think clearly, make sound decisions, and address issues early—without increasing senior leaders’ time or involvement.
This is not additional training.
It is a leadership capacity–building system designed to make leadership more reliable, sustainable, and scalable.
How The Leadership Capacity Lab™ Works
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is a cohort-based engagement delivered through a shared online space, paired with individual 1:1 coaching sessions.
Leaders participate alongside a cohort through a private online environment that provides structure, shared language, and resources—while receiving personalized coaching focused on their specific leadership context.
Through this combination, leaders strengthen:
- Agency — ownership, judgment, and decision confidence
- Energy — mental, emotional, physical, relational, and values-based
- Leadership capacity — the ability to lead effectively under sustained pressure
Between sessions, leaders apply insights directly to real leadership challenges, supported by reflection tools and ongoing access that help surface issues early and reduce escalation.
What’s Included in The Leadership Capacity Lab™
Frequently Asked Questions
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is a structured leadership capacity–building engagement for emerging and mid-level leaders. It combines individual 1:1 coaching with a shared online cohort space to strengthen leaders’ agency, energy, and leadership capacity while they are actively leading.
It is designed to support leaders under real conditions—without adding to senior leaders’ time or oversight.
No. Coaching sessions are individual and confidential. The cohort aspect exists in the online space only, where leaders access shared resources, language, and optional peer learning. Leaders are never required to share personal or organizational information with the cohort.
Participants engage in:
- 8 individual 60-minute coaching sessions over the course of 12 weeks
- light reflection, 15-minute micro-learning, and application between sessions
- optional office hours and support as needed
The Lab is designed to integrate into existing leadership roles, not add significant workload.
Senior leaders are not asked to coach, monitor, or evaluate participants. Their role is typically limited to:
- identifying appropriate participants
- supporting participation
- engaging in an optional kickoff or alignment conversation
The Lab is intentionally designed to reduce escalation and dependency, not increase senior leaders’ involvement.
Confidentiality is foundational to this work.
- Individual coaching conversations remain private.
- No personal content is shared with supervisors or sponsors.
- Any organizational feedback is shared only in aggregate, without names or identifying details.
Confidentiality boundaries are clearly established with sponsors and participants at the outset in a written coaching agreement and upheld throughout the engagement.
Yes—only those required by professional coaching ethics and law. Confidentiality may be breached if there is a credible risk of harm to the participant or others, or if disclosure is legally required. These boundaries are explained clearly at the start of the engagement and in the written agreement.
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is designed to address common breakdowns that occur after training and before performance issues become visible. It directly supports leaders and organizations when:
- capable leaders struggle to make decisions under pressure
- people issues escalate instead of being addressed early
- leaders over-function, carry too much, and become depleted
- decision-making slows due to hesitation or over-reliance on approval
- leadership behavior becomes inconsistent across teams
- development investments don’t translate into durable, day-to-day leadership behavior
By strengthening leaders’ agency, energy, and leadership capacity, the Lab helps stabilize leadership effectiveness in real conditions—reducing friction, escalation, and preventable strain before they harden into disengagement or exit.
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is a strong fit for leaders who:
- carry real responsibility and decision-making authority
- are open to reflection and applied learning
- want to strengthen agency and sustainability, not just performance
It is not designed for performance remediation or leaders who are unwilling to engage in reflective work.
Coaching in the Lab is:
- non-directive
- future-focused
- centered on the leader’s agenda and judgment
It does not involve advice-giving, mentoring, training, supervision, or evaluation, and it does not replace organizational accountability structures.
The Lab is designed to sit alongside training, professional learning, and internal leadership programs. It strengthens leaders’ internal capacity so learning translates into behavior—reducing friction, hesitation, and escalation that often limit the impact of training alone.
Participants retain access to the online space and resources, and ongoing office hours are available to support continued application and integration.
The goal is not dependence on coaching, but durable leadership capacity that leaders continue to use beyond the engagement.
The next step is a focused conversation to explore fit. We’ll discuss your leadership context, participant readiness, and whether The Leadership Capacity Lab™ aligns with your needs.
The investment for The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is $1,599 per leader. This includes all individual coaching sessions, access to the private online cohort space, micro-learning collections, tools and resources, between-session support, and office hours. Cohorts are intentionally capped to protect depth, application, and quality of support. Pricing is structured to make leadership capacity support accessible at scale—without increasing senior leaders’ time or involvement.
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ follows a clear, intentional arc across eight individual coaching sessions.
- The engagement begins with an introductory session to establish goals, context, and priorities.
- One session focuses explicitly on agency—strengthening ownership, judgment, and decision confidence.
- Five sessions focus on energy across key domains (mental, emotional, physical, relational, and values-based), since sustained leadership effectiveness depends on how leaders carry responsibility over time.
- The final session centers on integration, helping leaders consolidate learning and apply it intentionally going forward.
Throughout all sessions, agency, capacity, and action are woven consistently—not treated as standalone topics. Each conversation connects insight to real decisions and next steps, so learning translates directly into day-to-day leadership behavior.
Participant selection is intentional. The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is designed for emerging and mid-level leaders who carry real responsibility and decision-making authority, and who are ready to engage in reflective, applied coaching.
Organizations typically nominate leaders who:
- are trusted, capable, and influential in their roles
- are navigating increasing scope, complexity, or people leadership
- would benefit from strengthening agency, energy, and judgment under pressure
The Lab is not intended for performance remediation or disciplinary situations. Selection guidance is provided to help organizations identify leaders for whom this engagement will be most effective. This approach protects the quality of the coaching experience and ensures the Lab is positioned as developmental, not corrective.
The Leadership Capacity Lab™ The Leadership Capacity Lab is led by Dr. Michelle Watson-Grant, an ICF-credentialed leadership coach, educator, and former senior leader in education and mission-driven organizations. Michelle holds an ACC credential through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and practices in alignment with ICF ethics and professional standards, including confidentiality, client autonomy, and clear boundaries between coaching, supervision, and evaluation.
In addition to her coaching credentials, Michelle brings decades of experience supporting senior leaders in complex systems, understanding firsthand the pressures senior and emerging leaders face, and the internal capacity required to lead effectively and sustainably. Her work integrates evidence-informed practices from leadership development and positive psychology with a calm, deliberate coaching approach focused on agency, energy, and leadership capacity under real conditions. Michelle's coaching specialties include Team Development, Navigating Transitions, and Burnout Prevention & Recovery.
See If The Leadership Capacity Lab™ is Right for Your Leaders
A thoughtful conversation about your leaders, your context, and what sustainable support could look like.
Designed to be useful whether or not we move forward.
