Management  Development

Enabling Managers to Manage People Better

82% of UK managers become ‘accidental managers’.  Stepping into management with no formal training!* 

As your company grows, so do the expectations placed on the people within it. Teams expand. Responsibilities shift. Talented individuals step up. And suddenly, those who were brilliant at the job are now expected to be brilliant at managing people too.  But here’s the truth:

People skills don’t automatically grow just because the business does!

They need nurturing, support, and intentional development. That’s why Management Development isn’t a “nice to have”,  it’s essential.

Great management is more than processes and checklists. It’s about mindset, the ability to lead with clarity, empathy, curiosity, and confidence. A strong leadership mindset helps managers shift from simply keeping things moving to genuinely helping people thrive.

Every workshop and programme is crafted specifically for your managers, your culture, and your business goals. No off‑the‑shelf content. No generic slides. Just meaningful, practical development that feels relevant, energising, and genuinely useful.

It’s management development that grows people skills at the same pace your organisation grows, and sometimes even faster.

*(Source: Chartered Management Institute)

Insights activity with Curious Lighthouse - showing a small Insights wheel with LEGO Minifigure on it
Communications activity with Curious Lighthouse - showing learners around a jigsaw puzzle working together
Skill will model activity for management activity using cutout people - Curious Lighthouse

Just a few ways we can work together:

  • ​How would it be if you had a steady stream of people ready and able to take on the next Management position that became available?  No more last minute promotions or endless recruitment drives?  Having a programme in place that allows your talent to prepare for promotion is a clever way of doing business.

  • Just because someone gets promoted doesn't mean you need to ease off their development!  If anything, this is the point where they need even more! 

  • There are lots of courses out there you could send your Managers on, but the thing is they'll be generic and will try to cover all basis for all attendees.   With a bespoke workshop, you get exactly the right message across to the right people. 

  • Many people make the mistake of thinking leadership is about a title.  When in reality, leadership is about mindset.  Getting people to  explore what this means to them, in their company is a great step towards creating a culture of mindful leaders.

  • A thought provoking programme for managers and leaders looking to work expand their leadership mindset and create a long standing positive legacy. Ran either as a 6 x half days or 3 full days.

Values & Beliefs activity during a Management Development workshop with Curious Lighthouse - showing values cards laid out on a large boardroom table

  • Nikie has been fantastic to work with...

    "Nikie has been fantastic to work with, delivering leadership development programs for new managers and more experienced leaders.  As well as her obvious enthusiasm and passion for developing people, one of the most important attributes has been Nikie’s flexibility to adapt the program to the differing needs of the groups, even once the program was up and running.  Feedback from the participants has been very positive, in particular around how engaging the sessions were and also the practical templates and models that Nikie shared.  Overall, the participants feel more confident and competent in their roles as people managers.  I look forward to working with Nikie again in the future."  Carolle Clements, UK Learning & Development Manager, TechnipFMC

  • I can’t recommend Nikie highly enough.

    “I can’t recommend Nikie highly enough. She delivered a leadership development course for our less experiences supervisors and the feedback was fantastic. She spent time with me to understand the company, our processes and the culture and then fully tailored the content to be relevant and engaging, using language and examples our colleagues experience day to day. The feedback from the delegates was fantastic, with everyone talking about what they had taken away from it. There was noticeable improvement in the confidence on the supervisors in their day to day roles and how they engaged in conversations with their teams."  Mykala Macfarlane - Group Head of People

  • The course was a transformative journey

    “Nikie at Curious Lighthouse was recommended to me as someone who was knowledgeable, creative and passionate about positive change. I am so glad she was all of that.  I wholeheartedly endorse the Leadership Course she created for our Band 7 Midwives. It empowered our staff to elevate their leadership skills and make a lasting impact in their personal and professional lives. The course was a transformative journey that equipped our staff with the tools, strategies, and insights needed to lead with confidence, integrity, and vision. The curriculum was practical, covering essential leadership principles such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, team building, and effective communication, as well as its focus on real-world application, ensuring that what they learnt could be immediately implemented in daily leadership tasks. I highly recommend Nikie at Curious Lighthouse to anyone committed to becoming a more effective, impactful leader.”  Sarah Powell - Head of Leadership Development at the NHS

  • To anyone looking to build on your management skills then look no further! 

    "It has been an absolute pleasure working with Nikie on the Lightbulb management development programme.  Each session was hugely informative and great fun.  In 4 short weeks I now have the tools to go forward and be a better Manager and guide the rest of my team to success.  Nikie’s approach to training is so refreshing and like nothing I’ve done before.  There was never a dull moment, and I was fully engaged the entire time.   My whole working style has changed for the better already and I feel a new sense of passion for my role.  To anyone looking to build on your management skills then look no further!  Thank you Nikie!"  
    Lisa Atkins-Gough - Operations Manager

  • I adore Nikie and her teaching style

    “I adore Nikie and her teaching style, I thought the course would be informative and teach me the basics, but it was so much more than this. Her teaching style was so refreshing as I was engaged the whole time making me think so much deeper into each subject. Having completed my course, we asked Nikie to come back and train eight more people. I know everyone took away as much as I did from the course, Nikie is able to work with an individual or larger groups but still make everyone in the room feel comfortable and listened too, giving everyone the opportunity to ask questions and give their opinions. It’s so nice to be able to be part of the conversation rather than just being talked at. She makes learning enjoyable and stimulating which is rare, I would highly recommend her and the work she does.”  Beth Ash - Production Manager

  • Nikie was a pleasure to work with

    “Thank you to Nikie Forster from Curious Lighthouse Learning who created a fun filled engaging team building workshops for Management and our Engineering team. Nikie was a pleasure to work with, she was full of energy, insights, and ideas. The sessions were a great success with very positive feedback from attendees. I look forward to working with Nikie in the future”.  Joan Kennedy - Global Senior Director, HR 

  • I have gained so much from these leadership sessions

    "I have gained so much from these leadership sessions with Nikie, thank you so much! So many activities to keep things interesting, Lego, Playmobil, Jigsaw puzzles, to name but a few, but then always followed up with discussion helping to bring the "play" into realisation of management styles, Leadership qualities, etc. Real, useable, relatable Leadership and Management techniques to employ and deploy! So great, so meaningful." – Rachel – NHS Midwife (Band 7)

  • It was incredibly informative, inspiring and most of all, fun!

    “I recently had the pleasure of being on an 8-week supervisor training programme with Nikie. It was incredibly informative, inspiring and most of all, fun!  I gained a lot of confidence and useful skills after every session which I was able to put into practice as soon as I got onto the shop floor. Nikie is wonderfully creative, experienced. and patient and I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better trainer. I really can’t thank you enough, I am so happy to have had the chance to be on this programme.  Thank you Nikie!”   Katie Mackrell - Morning Shift Co-Ordinator

Hands searching through a deck of Endless Landscape cards - Curious Lighthouse
Leadership Workshop with Curious lighthouse - showing cut out people with attributes of a great leader drawn on them
Playmobile Pro set being used as part of a stakeholder section from leadership programme with Curious Lighthouse

If you want your managers and directors to learn, lead, and grow in a creative, purposeful way, let’s talk about a development programme that fits your people perfectly.

LEGO Serious Play one-day workshop image of 3 learners working with LEGO bricks - Curious Lighthouse