15th-16th October, hintlesham Hall, suffolk

The Leadership Pause

Reflection, resilience and renewal for senior women who spend their careers and lives supporting everyone else.

Permission to pause.
Tools for creating space to think.
Time to rediscover what matters next.

The Leadership Pause is a premium leadership retreat designed to strengthen leadership effectiveness.

Created for a carefully curated, invitation-only cohort of senior women leaders, it provides the protected space to step away from day-to-day operational demands, think strategically and invest in your own leadership. Bringing together experienced leaders from diverse organisations and sectors, it creates the openness, trust and quality of conversation that is only possible in a small, carefully selected peer group.

Combining the reflective space of a retreat with the rigour of executive development, participants leave with greater clarity, renewed resilience and practical insights they can apply immediately within their organisations.

Register Your Interest

The Space Every Leader Deserves

The Leadership Pause is designed for senior women in people leadership roles, those who lead others to lead better. These women carry enormous responsibility — for people, for culture, for strategy.

Yet the very roles that demand the most clarity, creativity and calm are the ones least likely to offer the space to find them.

Alongside demanding careers, many are also balancing family life, caring responsibilities and the questions that often come with midlife. This retreat offers the space to step back, reflect and invest in themselves.

Constant demands

Back-to-back meetings, organisational pressures and the weight of being the person others turn to — with little time to step back and think.

Protected reflection is rare

Strategic thinking, self-awareness and genuine renewal require uninterrupted space — a luxury most calendars simply don't allow.

The cost of never pausing

Without deliberate rest and reflection, even the most capable leaders experience diminished clarity, energy and long-term resilience.

Learn to protect head space

When we spend our lives constantly rushing and doing, having space to think can feel daunting. Time to break that cycle.


Strategic Space To Think

The most impactful leadership decisions are rarely made in the chaos of day-to-day operations. They emerge when we create the space to step back, think strategically and see with fresh perspective.

Every aspect of The Leadership Pause has been thoughtfully designed to support both your thinking and your wellbeing. From the moment you arrive, you'll experience an environment that encourages reflection, meaningful conversation and genuine restoration, allowing you to return to your organisation with renewed clarity, energy and focus.

We've intentionally included periods of unstructured time into the programme, creating space to pause, reflect and recharge. Without the pressure to move from one session to the next, you'll have the opportunity to process ideas, make meaningful connections and simply think, something that's all too rare in modern leadership.

Decluttering Executive Leadership

Identify and examine the cognitive, emotional, and operational clutter competing for your attention. You will leave with actionable strategies to lighten the load, establish boundaries, and lead with greater focus both professionally and personally.

An Environment Designed for Deep Focus

Set in a peaceful, distinguished Suffolk country estate, the retreat environment is intentionally chosen to minimize external noise and provide an elevated, distraction-free space for high-level thinking and peer connection.

Intentional Nourishment and Connection

Enjoy thoughtfully curated, seasonal dining experiences designed to nourish both body and mind. These unhurried meals provide a relaxed backdrop for genuine, peer-to-peer discussions and meaningful networking with fellow senior leaders.

Integrated Wellbeing and Recovery

True strategic vision requires physical and mental recovery. To help you fully transition out of execution mode, the experience includes a dedicated head massage treatment, with additional wellness facilities available to support your personal pace throughout the retreat.

Meet Your Hosts

The Leadership Pause is co-created and facilitated by Joy Burnford and Ingrid Pope, combining practical leadership insight, thought-provoking conversations and a warm, supportive environment where women can step back, reflect and grow.


Joy Burnford

Joy is the founder of Encompass Equality, an experienced board adviser and one of the UK's best-connected voices in leadership, culture and inclusion.

For more than 25 years, she has brought together senior leaders to share ideas, tackle complex challenges and build meaningful relationships.

Known for her ability to connect people, ideas and opportunities, Joy curates conversations and experiences that inspire fresh thinking, build trusted relationships and create lasting impact.

Through The Leadership Pause, she creates the environment, conversations and connections that enable senior women to step back, think differently and reconnect with what matters most.

Ingrid Pope

Ingrid is the founder of Creating Space and author of Uncluttered: How to Create Space to Think, Work and Live.

Passionate about helping people thrive in an increasingly busy world, Ingrid works with leaders to reduce overwhelm, quiet the mental noise and create the clarity needed for better thinking and better decisions.

Combining practical tools with thoughtful reflection, she helps people make space for what matters most, both at work and in life.

Through The Leadership Pause, Ingrid will lead the retreat's learning journey, equipping participants with simple but powerful approaches they can continue to use long after the retreat has ended.

Practical Details

15–16 October 2026

The retreat takes place from Thursday at 2.30pm to Friday at 4.30pm and includes one night's luxury accommodation. If you'd like to extend your time to rest and recharge, additional nights on Wednesday or Friday with optional spa treatments can be booked directly with the hotel.

Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk

Set within 12 acres of beautiful Suffolk countryside, Hintlesham Hall is a stunning Grade I listed country house, just 90 minutes from London yet a world away from the pace of everyday life. With luxurious bedrooms, award-winning dining, tranquil gardens and an on-site spa, it provides the perfect setting to relax, recharge and reconnect. https://hintleshamhall.co.uk/

All Meals Included

From the moment you arrive, everything is taken care of. Enjoy refreshments on arrival, a delicious three course dinner and then breakfast and lunch on the Friday. Your stay also includes refreshments throughout the retreat, plus two glasses of wine or soft drinks with dinner, allowing you to relax and focus entirely on yourself and the experience.

Follow-Up Online Session

Stay connected beyond the retreat with a facilitated online group session and agreed community support, providing accountability and inspiration as you put your learning into practice.

Founding offer

Founding participant rate

The investment for this inaugural retreat is £797 plus VAT (£665 plus VAT if self-funding). A non-refundable deposit of £150 plus VAT is required to reserve your place.

As one of our founding participants, you benefit from a significantly reduced launch rate while enjoying the full retreat experience, including luxury accommodation, all meals, expert facilitation and ongoing connection after the event.

Spaces like this are rare. The chance to step away, reflect deeply and reconnect with your purpose as a leader — that is a genuine gift to yourself and to your organisation.

15th-16th October, Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk

Need To Make The Business Case?

The Leadership Pause is a premium leadership retreat designed to strengthen leadership effectiveness.

What makes The Leadership Pause different?

Most leadership development programmes focus on adding more knowledge.

The Leadership Pause recognises that senior leaders often already know what to do. What they lack is the uninterrupted time and space to think, reflect and make better decisions.

Combining the reflective environment of a retreat with the rigour of executive development, The Leadership Pause creates the conditions for better leadership.

Investing in Better Leadership

Today's leaders operate in an environment of constant complexity.

They are expected to make high-quality decisions, lead through uncertainty, develop their people and deliver results, often with little opportunity to step back from the demands of day-to-day operations.

The Leadership Pause is a premium leadership development retreat designed to strengthen the effectiveness of senior women leaders by creating the conditions for strategic thinking, reflection and meaningful peer learning.

Rather than adding more content to already full diaries, it provides something many senior leaders rarely experience: protected time to think.

The result is leaders who return with greater clarity, renewed perspective and practical insights that can be applied immediately within their organisations.

Why Organisations Invest

Stronger Strategic Decision Making

The quality of leadership decisions improves when leaders have the opportunity to step away from operational demands, reflect on complex challenges and consider longer-term priorities.

Participants return with clearer strategic focus and greater confidence in making difficult decisions.

Sustaining High-Performing Leaders

Leadership capacity is one of an organisation's most valuable assets.

Providing opportunities for reflection, renewal and professional development helps sustain motivation, engagement and long-term performance while reducing the risk of losing experienced leaders.

Better Leadership Through Change

Periods of organisational change require leaders who can remain calm, communicate with clarity and bring others with them.

The Leadership Pause helps participants develop the perspective and confidence needed to lead through complexity and uncertainty.

Cross-Sector Learning

Participants join a carefully curated, invitation-only cohort of senior women leaders from a range of organisations and sectors.

The trusted environment enables honest discussion, fresh perspectives and the exchange of ideas that participants can immediately apply within their own organisations.

LeadershipInvestment

Leadership That Pays For Itself

When senior leaders spend prolonged periods operating under constant pressure without opportunities to reflect, organisations can experience hidden but significant costs.

The Cost of Not Investing

These may include:

  • Reduced quality of strategic decision making
  • Slower responses to emerging risks and opportunities
  • Increased leadership fatigue and disengagement
  • Loss of experienced leaders and the associated recruitment costs
  • Reduced organisational capacity during periods of change
  • Lower levels of innovation and long-term thinking

While these costs rarely appear as a single line on a balance sheet, they have a direct impact on organisational performance.

The Case for Investment

At £797 plus VAT per delegate, The Leadership Pause offers an accessible investment in leadership capability.

  • Greater strategic clarity
  • Practical leadership insights and tools
  • Stronger peer networks
  • Renewed energy and focus
  • Increased confidence to lead complex organisational challenges

The value of one better strategic decision, one retained senior leader or one successfully navigated change programme will often exceed the investment many times over.

As the inaugural retreat, this pricing reflects an early investment opportunity for the first cohort of participants. Those who join now will benefit from the full experience at a founding rate — future retreats are likely to be priced higher as the programme grows.