leading on the line
A Programme To Support You Standing By Your Values When The Pressure Is Real
Close the integrity gap
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Close the integrity gap
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Close the integrity gap
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Close the integrity gap
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Close the integrity gap ~ Close the integrity gap ~ Close the integrity gap ~ Close the integrity gap ~
‘Leading on the Line’ is a four-part leadership journey for leaders who want their organisations to act with integrity and stay relevant in a changed world.
Starting March 2026
Why Now?
Because The Stakes Have Never Been Higher
Pressure is intensifying: Political instability, social crises, environmental emergencies, rising authoritarianism, scapegoating of marginalised groups, to name a few. Leaders can no longer wait to see what happens.
Silence comes at a cost: Defaulting to neutrality, or “staying safe,” risks losing trust, credibility, and impact. People are looking to you for leadership.
Integrity is tested in real time: Can you act on your values when the pressure is highest? Where are the gaps between what you believe and what you actually do?
This moment demands action: The world doesn’t wait for long learning curves. Leaders need practical strategies to navigate complex moral and strategic tensions if they want to stay relevant and show that a better way is possible.
Ask yourself: When the next crisis hits, will you know your line? Will you act with clarity, courage, and integrity, or will your values get lost in the pressure?
Programme outcomes
By the end of ‘Leading on the Line’, you will:
What you get
The Programme Offers…
Four interactive workshops: explore leadership under pressure and practice applying values in complex scenarios.
One-to-one coaching session: surface values, clarify your red lines, and address personal blocks.
Personalised action plan: leave with strategies tailored to you, your organisation, campaigns, or movement.
Peer group learning: connect with leaders facing similar dilemmas, share experiences, and co-create solutions.
Scenario-based simulations: practice high-stakes decision-making and learn how to hold integrity under scrutiny.
Guidance on strategic communications: learn to articulate your values and decisions publicly without compromise.
Crisis navigation toolkit: actionable frameworks to respond ethically and decisively when real-world pressure hits.
The Workshops:
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Finding clarity in your values and stamina under pressure
We begin with you. Not just your values in theory, but how they hold when pressure is real. We surface your red lines, uncover the assumptions that box you in, and see how your relational and organisational environment shapes your stamina for moments when silence or compromise seem easier.
This module builds the foundation for values-led leadership: clarity on where you stand, what you’ll compromise on, and how to sustain yourself when silences seems safer than action.
Know your line. Lead With Clarity. Stand steady under pressure. -
Re-open choices fear has closed and imagine new directions
Fear can make speaking up feel impossible, and retreat seems safer than action.
In this module, we step back to explore what’s truly possible, opening pathways for action and impact.
Drawing on your organisation’s commitments to equity, justice, dignity, and social change, we’ll reframe constraints, challenge limiting assumptions, and explore responses rooted in courage rather than avoidance.
Discover what’s possible when fear no longer limits your leadership. -
Build collective integrity with boards and teams
Courage can’t be carried by one leader alone. It needs alignment across the whole organisation.
This module focuses on alignment in teams, boards, and peers around shared principles. It is about the work to shift from avoidance, blame or ‘us and them’ dynamics towards alignment: building consensus without compromise, setting collective red lines, and distributing leadership so integrity becomes an organisational stance, not a personal burden.
Transform individual conviction into collective strength. Lead with integrity, together. -
Rehearse credible, principled responses for public scrutiny
When crises and contested issues hit, silence speaks loudly.
In this final module, you’ll rehearse credible, principled responses to public scrutiny. Learn how to stay calm under backlash, translate personal and organisational clarity into public action, and leave with strategies to strengthen trust while demonstrating integrity.
Lead out loud. Speak with confidence, courage, and clarity when it matters most.
Meet Your Facilitators
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Meet Your Facilitators
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Meet Your Facilitators
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Meet Your Facilitators ~ Meet Your Facilitators ~ Meet Your Facilitators ~
LETESIA GIBSON
I’m Letesia Gibson, founder of New Ways. My work sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, justice and belonging, helping leaders and organisations reimagine how they show up and remain relevant to the communities they serve or support.
I bring more than 25 years of experience as an organisational consultant, brand strategist, future of work specialist and change-maker. I challenge white supremacy culture and systems that keep organisations serving the needs of a few into places that create new possibilities through their leadership, services and experience of work. At the core is a belief that leadership needs integrity, courage, and deep care.
My relationship with integrity is personal. Earlier in my career, a lack of it led to a full burnout as I navigated the dissonance of being a senior leader in an organisation with a high-profile outside, yet a toxic inside. Here, I learned the physical and psychological cost of working out of alignment with my values. That experience grounds my commitment to guiding others: to resist the temptation of compromise, to centre morality and humanity, and to ensure equity and belonging are not side projects but work as foundational organisational principles.
To Leading on the Line, I bring the balance of tenderness and challenge that New Ways is known for, with the creativity and imagination needed to get us somewhere new.
JO ATKINs-POTTS
I come to this work having lived the cost of standing by my values. My leadership has been shaped by roles across charities and grassroots movements, and by navigating the dissonance between what organisations say they believe and how they act. I’ve seen racism, misogyny, and power hoarding behind progressive facades, and learned what it takes to hold the line when integrity feels inconvenient.
For over a decade, I’ve worked in the charity sector, from founding an internationally recognised movement for gender liberation, to senior management in established charities, to now consulting across the sector. At heart, I’m a human rights campaigner, and my consultancy brings that spirit into practice: helping organisations strengthen governance, sharpen communications, build movements, and navigate strategy with clarity. I support leaders and teams to hold their values steady while acting boldly in the world.
My approach is rooted in solidarity and truth-telling. I don’t think anyone should have to wrestle with values alone, and I won’t shy away from naming what others might leave unsaid. You can expect honesty, courage, and permission to expand beyond the narrow options fear offers us.
“Instead of avoiding the uncomfortable truths, we face them together. This is not a time to bury your head in the sand”
“This is the first workpace where I feel I can bring my full self and not compromise my values”
“I watched our leadership take a public stand – that wasn’t easy but I felt so much pride that we’re stand up for our values”