Here are the questions we’ll be asking you to answer for the application and why:

Q1: What is your current career role and status? We want to make sure your leadership experience will be a good fit for the program and also that the program will fit your needs.

Q2: What are you looking to achieve from this program? We are assessing the fit of what our program offers to what you are looking for.

Q3: What are your current top leadership challenges? same as above

Q4: What impact do you aspire to have in your organization or more globally through your work? We want leaders focused on impact.

Q5: What have you done so far to develop your leadership skills and style? We want leaders who invest in their professional development.

Q6: Describe your ideal leadership development community program. We are again assessing for fit between your needs and what the program offers.

Q7: If accepted into TLA, what do you bring that will benefit the cohort? We are looking for members who aren’t just looking to receive. The purpose of a membership community like ours is that growth is a mutually beneficial give-and-take experience.

Q8: How did you hear about the program? We want to know if you are connected to any of our current members or which of our channels you found us.

Q9: What industry are you coming from? We want to make sure that the industries we focus on match your needs.

For the interview, we ask questions such as:

Tell me about your experience with leadership.

Why this program? Why now? How could this program fill a need or gap in your current development?

What do you need from membership community to make it feel like it was worth the investment?

Have you had experiences with leadership development or coaching? What are your expectations?

Tell me a time you had a conflict with a leader. How do you handle it?

In your opinion, what distinguishes a good leader from a great leader?

This is a gender-inclusive but women-centered space. How do you feel about that? What comes to mind?

Can you make the commitment to be fully engaged (show up to as many live events as you can, especially for your small group and accountability partners, be engaged with a community platform to support others asynchronously)

If you are satisfied at the end, would you be willing to share a testimonial?

Will your organization be paying? Do you need an invoice for that?

What questions do you have?

Overall, we are looking for strong, collaborative members who have the energy and interest to support others while they work on their own leadership journey.

There are two phases of the application process:

1. Submit a brief application that is connected to setting up an interview call

2. Show up for a brief interview

Based on your application materials and interview, one of three outcomes will occur:

(a) You get accepted. Yay! We will notify you the moment we determine you are a fit and provide next steps.

(b) We may determine that a second interview will help us better evaluate the fit.

(c) We may determine that what you are looking for is not a good fit for the community or that what the community offers is not a good fit for what you are looking for. Often, we will be able to share that during the interview. But, there are times that we may need a second interview (see above) to determine that.

If things don’t work out, don’t woyry! You can always apply again for a future round if circumstances change.

All who apply will go through a rigorous review. We begin making decisions about filling slots as soon as we start interviewing. You will know if you are accepted no later than 2 weeks prior to the start of the cohort and will be required to finalize your payment to hold your spot.

Currently we are running it as a fully virtual program.

In general, this program was designed specifically for people who mostly work in limited funding organizations or have limited funding themselves. The cost of a program like this is typically $5,000-7,000 per person when we work with sponsoring organizations.

As such, it is already priced at a fraction of the real value - and made to specifically meet the needs of individuals who may need to pay out of pocket.

That said, there several great ways to save money, as follows - ask us about these if you are interested:

1. We offer special discounts or bonuses for every person you recommend.

2. If you pull together a group of qualified applicants, we can create a group discount.

3. Many organizations have professional development budgets. Check with your department to see if they can support all or part of the cost of the program! (See information in the next question about how to make a strong pitch.)

If you are pursuing reimbursement from your organization and need an invoice letter, a letter to request funding, or an invoice that allows the institution other options to pay directly, you may use any of the resources below:

1. Download our Template to Request Institutional Funding

2. If you are an organization interested in sponsoring multiple individuals or a group cohort, email us at admin@gotowerscope.com to talk about group pricing.

3. If you need a separate invoice please let us know.

This is meant to be comprehensive to meet many of your needs. But if you do need more 1:1 support, we do offer executive coaching and you can find out more from our website.

We do allow folks into the cohort on a case-by-case basis focused on making sure each individual would benefit. We suggest applying if you are interested and we can talk further about whether this would be a good fit or not. 

Recent research has found that if you put in the time and engage fully, it typically takes between about 8.5 to 10 weeks to create sustainable change. Indeed, we have found exactly that in our initial 9-week beta test: Committed and engaged Founding Members began to see results in weeks 5-9.

Like anything, the more you put into showing up, engaging fully, and trying things out in between small and large group live sessions, the greater the results.

Designed by a psychologist, our program is specifically designed based on that habit-forming research and infuses research-backed psychological principles of what it takes to achieve results, including:

• Goal-setting

• Tracking progress

• Embedded accountability

• Access to routine feedback

• Learning best practice principles

• Consistent practice

• Peer support

• And much more…

It typically takes 6 months to see consistent improvements in your own leadership behaviors and about 12 months to start seeing those behavioral changes turn into larger scale impact for your team or organization.

At about the 12-18 month mark, leaders we work with start to significantly reduce how much time they spend constantly putting out fires and increase the time spent in higher level big picture strategy work.

This timeline is greatly affected by how large and complex your organization is and how much politics is getting in the way, but these are the very things that we will work on helping you navigate with savvy and confidence. 

We would suggest allocating approximately 1-2 hours per week to take full dvantage of all that we offer.

• With our divided attention sometimes we need to learn outside of work, in small chunks, and self-directed to develop your individual career journey goals.

• Career development is no longer linear - people have gaps that are both horizontal and vertical. That is especially true for women with additional caregiver responsibilities. This allows you to develop a more flexible leadership development pathway.

• Continuous learning and growth, that is not connected to what your organization may offer you, is a more sustainable competitive advantage that is within your control, at a time when you need it.

As a service-based business focused on curating small, meaningful cohorts and offering a cost that is aligned with our social impact model, we cannot offer refunds. However, it is important to us to provide high value for all participants. If there are concerns or problems that arise in the program, we want to receive your feedback and will work with you to improve your experience.

This group is NOT a good fit of those who want:

• Training (instead of development). This is an interactive program requiring engagement, trying things out, and giving and receiving support, not a place to sit back and listen.

• (Solely) a support or friendship group. While group members will receive plenty of support and develop lasting relationships, this program is focused on helping leaders set, accomplish, and sustain their goals.

• Therapy, counseling, or life coaching. If these services are identified as an additional need, we can discuss how best to engage with this community while also seeking out additional support outside the program.

Absolutely! This is not a women-only program. However, it is women-centered. That means we welcome ANY applicants who would be open to discussions that might include the impact of things like sexism and gender biases that affect leadership outcomes.

The content would benefit anyone, regardless of gender. However, since most leadership development programs do not make room for discussing how our identity and societal messages might shape who we are and how we therefore navigate our world, we take additional measures to ensure we create a space to have these discussions comfortably and safely.

If you are not sure that that would work for you but feel that otherwise everything about this program resonates, we absolutely encourage you to apply and we can have a chance to talk further during the interview to make sure it's a good fit.