For Jo Trueman, Director of Strategy, Planning and Resources in People Services at the Open University, senior leadership in higher education has never been a purely technical exercise. Recently, she spoke to us about how the Senior Women’s Leadership Development Programme helped pinpoint exactly what that means in practice. 

Jo says the programme broadened her thinking about what leadership demands in today’s turbulent higher education landscape, not least the need to lead with compassion while staying agile as circumstances shift. A strong emphasis on governance and decision-making, proved particularly valuable, deepening her understanding of how and where decisions actually get made. That understanding, she explains, is the key to effective influence. Even when she’s not in the room where a final call is made, she has developed the ability to shape the thinking and options put before decision-makers earlier in the process.  

She says: “The focus on governance and decision making for me has been really helpful in facing some of the leadership challenges that we have at the Open University. It strengthened my understanding of how and where decisions are made, and that’s really, really important because you need to understand how that happens if you want to influence really effectively.” 

Financial literacy was another unexpected gain. Every senior leader, whatever their background, needs to be fluent in the “language of finance”. It’s not just about reading figures, she says, but understanding the story they tell, so leaders can ask the right questions and contribute meaningfully to strategic discussions about priorities and resources.  

Perhaps most strikingly, the programme prompted her to rethink organisational politics. Once regarded as something to be avoided, she now sees real value in understanding how it works, and in participating with integrity.  

That shift in mindset has fed directly into her leadership practice. She describes becoming more intentional about her leadership presence, adapting her style so her messages land as intended. She has also adopted a stronger coaching approach, asking questions rather than supplying answers, a lesson learned through the programme’s action learning sets, which she says revealed just how powerful a single well-placed question can be in prompting genuine reflection. 

The programme also gave her the confidence to seek 360-degree feedback for the first time, working through the results in one-to-one coaching.  

Asked for her single biggest takeaway, she said: 

“I think the understanding that senior leadership is about much more than what you know in your technical area of expertise, it’s about your presence and how you show up. It’s about building relationships and connecting with other people.  

That’s not just about making a difference to your institution and the achievement of its strategic goals and outcomes, but about role modelling and sharing good leadership practice and really supporting the growth and development of the next generation of leaders, particularly women leaders.” 

She says the programme offers a rare, protected space to step back and reflect on leadership style and direction, while going well beyond conventional leadership theory through action learning sets, role-play exercises and peer networks featuring inspirational speakers. Beyond personal and career development, she believes the real impact is the motivation and means to support future women leaders in higher education.