Jess Baker Consulting
Empathy Powered Leadership Academy
INSTEAD OF ATTEMPTING TO MAKE ALL OF YOUR LEADERS MORE EMPATHIC, FIND YOUR EMPATHIC PEOPLE AND HELP THEM TO TAKE THE LEAD
Problem 1
The workforce demands are changing and managers are feeling the pressure.
While Millenials and Gen X want flexibility and purpose, Gen Z also expect to feel heard, understood and emotionally supported by their managers. But managers are struggling to keep up, leaning on HR for additional support.
Problem 2
You cannot train someone to care.
Standard leadership programmes teach skills such as motivating your team, giving feedback, and handling difficult conversations with sensitivity. These skills are essential, but only people who are naturally empathic can really do them well.
Generic leadership programmes waste your time and money.
Problem 3
You’ve been promoting the wrong people.
Most senior leaders are promoted for technical expertise, not people skills. They focus on tasks and targets, and don’t feel comfortable leading others. They prioritise their own career progression over developing others.
Managers who lack empathy are a major cause of absenteeism, attrition, and costly employee relations cases.
One Solution:
The Empathy Powered Leadership Academy
What Is The EPL Academy?
The Empathy Powered Leadership Academy takes a unique yet simple approach to help you identify and develop the people you’ve been accidentally overlooking.
Your company has a hidden pool of talent; people with empathy, compassion, and self-awareness. Yet they seldom reach the senior positions where they could make the biggest impact.
These individuals are conscientious, committed, and results-oriented. They also know how to bring out the best in others.
And yet, they downplay their contribution and lack the confidence to put themselves forward.
That’s why the EPL Academy is a game-changer: it shines a light on your hidden talent, delivers immediate impact and lasting success.
Why Focus on Empathy?
It’s not a ‘soft skill’. It’s a strategic asset. It’s also an inherent quality that not everyone has.
Instead of trying to train all of your leaders to be more empathic, find your empathic people and make them into leaders.
The research tells us clearly:
- Empathic leaders increase team engagement by 25%
- Empathic leaders strengthen organisation commitment by 20%
- Empathic leaders are 11% less likely to burn out
- Empathic leaders effortlessly create psychological safety, inclusivity, and drive innovation
Through the EPL Academy, you get to keep and motivate your most valuable assets – people high in emotional intelligence, with the potential and the commitment to deliver results.
Is the Academy Right For You?
Business Leaders: Would you like more leaders in your company who actually enjoy leading others as well as delivering results? Leaders who uphold and role-model your brand values?
HR Leaders: Would you like managers who don’t lean on your HR team so heavily? Managers who are skilled at meeting individual needs? Managers who protect your reputation rather than risk it, and who reduce the likelihood of costly ER claims? (Ps. I’ve got an easy-sell script for you if you’re thinking “Yes, but how do I get buy-in from the business?”)
Participants: Empathy is your greatest asset – would you like to harness it to become the best leader you can be, without changing who you are?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, then the Empathy Powered Leadership Academy is your solution. It transforms empathic professionals into leaders who deliver results, love what they do, and bring out the best in others.
How The EPL Academy Works:
Stage 1: Identify highly empathic individuals → diagnostics, interviews, baseline report.
Stage 2: 12-week Academy → live Coaching Pods, online content, practicals & reflection.
Stage 3: Deliver → Follow-up learning, booster calls, post-programme results and reporting
When Will We See Results?
You’ll start to see results straight away. Participants quickly gain confidence, speak up more in meetings, and share their ideas more openly. They become clearer in how they communicate and more visible in the value they bring.
Within weeks, you’ll notice them stepping forward instead of holding back – early signs of the leadership potential that the Academy fully develops.
How much time does this require?
Participants commit around 60 minutes most weeks during the 12-week Academy. This includes:
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Watching a short training video or listening to pre-recorded audio (10-20 mins)
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Completing reflection questions or a worksheet (20 mins)
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Joining a live Coaching Pod (30 mins)
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Optional guided meditation or audio exercise (10 mins)
- In addition, there will be six live group Q&A scheduled in advance (60 mins)
Managers and HR sponsors have only minimal touch points – for example, a briefing at the start and a check-in mid-way. EPL does the heavy lifting, so participants stay engaged without disrupting workload.
What's so special about the Empathy Powered method?
Because we’re working with people who are naturally good with people with high EQ – self-aware, socially engaged, highly empathic, self-managing, who are also reliable, conscientious and care about their impact – using the EPL method it doesn’t take long to transform that potential into visible influence, confidence, and measurable business results.
They don’t need standard and out-dated leadership training. They need targeted tools to:
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Step into influence while broadening the impact of their empathy.
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Strengthen boundaries and resilience so they don’t burn out.
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Build visibility and confidence to claim and enjoy senior roles, and role-model for others.
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Translate their natural empathy into engagement, retention, and performance gains.
The result? Leaders who already have the right foundations, and now deliver the impact, visibility, and results your organisation needs.
Will this duplicate what we’re already doing?
The Empathy Powered Leadership Academy enhances other employee initiatives:
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Wellbeing & Burnout Prevention: EPL leaders reduce stress and absence by modelling resilience and creating psychologically safe teams.
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Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DIB): Empathic leaders make people feel heard and included, increasing the impact of your DIB strategy.
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Engagement & Retention Programmes: EPL leaders directly boost engagement (up 25%) and organisational commitment (up 20%), multiplying the effects of your investment.
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Talent & Succession Planning: EPL develops the hidden, overlooked talent already in your workforce – broadening your pipeline without costly external hires.
Think of EPL Academy as the “influence accelerator” that amplifies the success of your existing HR and leadership strategies.
How is EPL different from other leadership or EQ training?
Most programmes take a one-size-fits-all approach, teaching generic leadership behaviours to every manager. The reality is that you cannot train someone to have higher EQ, just as you cannot train IQ.
As a Business Psychologist I’ve seen the managers with crossed arms in the training room and I’ve heard them say, ‘My team hits the targets, I don’t need to be here’.
What you can do is identify the people who already have empathy, self-awareness, and influence potential – then develop them into impactful leaders who deliver measurable results.
These people relish the opportunity for personal and professional growth. And, given the right development focus and the specific set of skills and tools, unique to EPL Academy, they see deep and meaningful results, quickly.
Built on twenty years of leadership coaching with global brands and national charities, EPL Academy delivers rapid, lasting results by focusing where the true potential already lies.
We already use OPQ/ MBTI / DiSC , does this help?
Yes. Our Empathy Powered Leadership diagnostics can overlay with existing data to accelerate identification of hidden talent. Any profiling tools you already use will speed up this part of the process.
Can you scale this across my business?
Yes. Jess Baker Consulting works alongside a trusted team of associate psychologists, facilitators, and coaches. Together they bring depth of expertise, diversity of perspective, and the capacity to deliver EPL Academy programmes at scale – ensuring consistency, quality, and tailored support for every client.
What if we can’t guarantee a promotion at the end?
That’s not a problem. The goal of EPL Academy isn’t to promise a job title – it’s to prepare people so they’re ready when opportunities arise.
Participants leave with greater confidence, influence, and resilience, which benefits their current teams immediately. Promotions often follow because leaders become more visible and effective, but the ROI also comes from higher engagement, stronger retention, and reduced burnout — outcomes every organisation values, regardless of role changes.
Can we call it something else internally?
Yes! We call it the Empathy Powered Leadership Academy. But when we work with you, you can name it whatever fits your culture. The framework and methodology are ours. The branding – and the results – are yours.
Who is NOT for?
The Empathy Powered Leadership Academy is not for:
- People who do not want to be better leaders
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People unwilling to reflect, grow, or build on feedback.
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Organisations content to keep firefighting attrition, burnout, and disengagement.
The EPL Academy is for organisations ready to find their empathic people and help them to take the lead.
Sounds great but how do I pitch this internally?
I love that you get it! But we know not everyone will see the obvious value. Words like empathy and Emotional Intelligence can put some people off. As a Business Psychologist I know how to successfully sell into lots of different industries. it usually starts with the internal pitch before a call or meeting with me is set up. So I’ve had an idea…
To help make your initial internal conversations go smoothly, I’ve crafted the perfect pitch. It’s got a script, and your choice of a slide deck presentation (Canva or MS ppt, Google doc, PDF). I’ll walk you through this on a video call and together we’ll discuss specific FAQ so that you are fully prepared to talk about the EPL Academy with confidence.
What's the biggest cost?
The cost of doing nothing.
Sorry to be blunt, but ignoring this ongoing problem will cost you more than dealing with it now:
- Attrition: As well as usual attrition costs, you’ll also be losing your highest worth individuals (the empathic ones) who’ll end up working for your competitor.
- Absenteeism: People leave because of their manager, and if your managers are not good at people skills, absenteeism will rise.
- Customers leave: Poor internal relationships kills client experience.
- Tribunal risk: A single ER case can cost you more than an EPL pilot.
- Brand erosion: If you’re not known for having great managers, your recruitment costs will soar.
Even a small pilot pays for itself many times over. Keep just one of these potential leaders and the savings alone outweigh the cost of the programme.
As seen in…
Empathy Powered Leadership Academy ~ Packages
Small Cohort
A small group of highly empathic people will be taken through the programme at the same time. As well as individual coaching, they’ll get to know and support each other through the group calls. They’ll become a catalyst for change, and benefit every part of the organisation.
The Cohort Model
In this scalable model, individual cohorts run in parallel. This means that participants benefit from the intimacy of small group training, while the organisation benefits from being able to scale it.
Bespoke 1:1 Pathway
Tailored private coaching for individuals who would like professional development.
About Jess Baker
Jess Baker is a Chartered Business Psychologist, leadership coach, and author specialising in developing empathic leaders into confident influencers. With over twenty years’ experience working with global brands, national charities, and MBA students at Cambridge Judge Business School, she brings psychological depth and practical tools to leadership development.
Her award-winning book, The Super-Helper Syndrome, has been translated into multiple languages, and her thought leadership has been featured in publications including The Telegraph, The Times, HR and Business magazines, and national media outlets. Jess has spoken to audiences of up to 15,000, delivering keynotes on imposter syndrome, resilience, and leadership.
At the heart of her work is the belief that empathy is not a weakness but a competitive strength. Through the Empathy Powered Leadership Academy, she helps organisations identify overlooked talent and transform them into confident, influential leaders who deliver measurable results.
Jess works alongside a trusted team of associate psychologists, facilitators, and coaches. Together they bring depth of expertise, diversity of perspective, and the capacity to deliver EPL Academy programmes at scale – ensuring consistency, quality, and tailored support for every client.
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