Why every senior leader needs a board-level Critical Friend

For senior leaders on the path or recently appointed to the top of their organisation, leadership development is rarely about acquiring more knowledge.

Rather, it’s about developing strategic confidence, judgment and presence while continuing to juggle the demands of leading a business at a time when the pressure can be intense.  

The challenge is usually about more than capability – it’s about the deeper shift in mindset and behaviour as you step up from a senior operational role (where you no doubt excelled) to leading strategically at the highest level.

It’s not easy – and it takes time. But this is where Partners for Leadership participants benefit from the provision of a board-level Critical Friend.

Providing independent challenge and support

As a participant on our two-year strategic leadership experience, every senior leader is carefully matched with their own Critical Friend.

In confidential one-to-one sessions, each provides personalised support at intervals to suit the participant’s needs throughout the experience and beyond, once a board or divisional role has been secured and/or the core P4L experience has been completed.

‘The Critical Friend isn’t a coach or a mentor,’ explains consultant Coralie Hooper who coordinates Telos Partners’ involvement with P4L.

‘They are someone the senior leader can call on, as and when things come up – an independent sounding board who isn’t there to judge, but is there to listen and offer the right amount of challenge and support.’

A relationship built on trust

'The Critical Friend [is] simply brilliant. Having their impartial but informed opinion has helped me enormously'

P4L’s Critical Friends bring multi-sector career and consultancy experience, with many also widely admired in the strategic leadership development field.

Yet at the heart of the value they provide is the trusted individual relationship they create with the participant.

This complements the personal and professional development senior leaders experience through Partners for Leadership’s other key elements – including the six 24-hour retreats they attend at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

As one P4L participant says: ‘The Critical Friend [is] simply brilliant. Having their impartial but informed opinion has helped me enormously.’

Promoting accountability and growth

'Being a Critical Friend means forming a candid, high-trust partnership with [the P4L participant] where [they] can do [their] best thinking and hold [themselves] accountable for [their] growth'

As for our Critical Friends, they are equally enthusiastic about the support they can provide at this key point in a senior leader’s career.

‘Being a Critical Friend means forming a candid, high-trust partnership with you where you can do your best thinking and hold yourself accountable for your growth,’ Critical Friend Cara McCarthy explains to the P4L participants she supports.

​‘Our conversations will help you gain new perspectives and clarity to navigate the challenges of leadership. And, we’ll have a really enjoyable time!’​

Fellow P4L Critical Friend Alan Hooper DL describes his approach as ‘to listen (so that I can understand), to discuss (so that we can we can agree what needs to be done) and to support.’

Critical Friend David Marshall says he ‘seeks to provide constructive challenge and to support P4L participants through analysis of issues and subsequent action’.

Read more about our Critical Friends, including what each finds most fulfilling about the role, here.

Want to know more about Partners for Leadership and join our June or September 2026 cohorts? Visit our ‘Programme experience’ page and get in touch to talk to one of our experienced team here.