You were great at the job.
Nobody prepared you for leading the people.
LEAD LAB® is a 12-month practical leadership program for team leaders, managers, and supervisors who are in the role, doing their best and ready to build the skills that make the real difference.
Most leaders were never actually taught how to lead.
Think about how you got here.
At some point, you were really good at your job. You understood the work, you delivered results, you built good relationships, and people respected what you brought.
And so, officially or informally, by promotion or circumstance, you became responsible for other people.
Maybe it came with a new title. Maybe it crept up on you gradually. Maybe you took on a team because the organisation needed someone to, and you were the obvious choice.
Either way, you were now a leader. And leading people turned out to be a completely different skill set to the work that got you here.
Nobody sat you down and taught you how to do it. There was no manual. There was maybe a one-day course, a well-meaning manager who gave you some advice, or a few good role models you tried to emulate.
Mostly, you figured it out as you went.
You still are.
And here's what that experience often feels like.
You give a clear direction, and the team hears something completely different.
You're asked to drive a change from above. Your team pushes back. You're stuck in the middle, trying to translate between two worlds that don't quite understand each other.
You know a performance conversation needs to happen with someone on your team. You've been putting it off for weeks, because you're not sure how to have it without things getting worse.
You've tried to build accountability in the team, but things still slip. You follow up, you remind, you check in and it still feels like you're the one holding everything together.
Someone above you makes a decision that affects your team, and you have to be the one to deliver it, even though you weren't consulted, and you're not entirely sure you agree with it.
And underneath all of it, there's a quiet voice that wonders: am I actually any good at this?
If you recognise yourself in any of that, you're not failing. You're not the wrong person for the role.
You're experiencing what happens when capable, well-intentioned people are put into leadership positions without being properly equipped for them.
It happens everywhere. In businesses, in government departments, in community organisations and not-for-profits. Across every sector, at every level.
And it's fixable.
There's a phrase I use with almost every leader I work with when I first meet them.
The Accidental Leader pattern.
Here's how it goes: you were excellent at the work. You got noticed. You got promoted, or moved into a position of responsibility. And suddenly you were leading a team, without anyone really teaching you how people leadership actually works.
Most of what you know about managing others, you picked up by watching previous managers, learning from your mistakes, and relying on instinct. Some of that is really valuable. Some of it has become a habit that might not be serving you as well as it once did.
Organisations promote people based on technical skill and results, and then assume that leadership capability will either develop naturally, or can be addressed with the occasional training day.
It rarely works that way.
Real leadership capability, the kind that builds strong teams, navigates change, and creates genuine accountability develops through deliberate practice, good frameworks, and support over time.
That's not a judgement on you. It's just the truth about how skill-building actually works.
"Meat in the sandwich"
There's a specific experience that team leaders, supervisors, and middle managers describe more than almost anything else.
Being caught in the middle.
Above you, there are expectations, strategies, decisions, and directions that come down from leadership. Some of it makes sense. Some of it arrives without enough context, resourcing, or consultation. And your job is to implement it - to translate the organisation's direction into something your team can actually act on.
Below you, there's a team with its own dynamics, its own concerns, its own history, and sometimes its own well-established resistance to change. People who've been doing things a certain way for years. People who are tired, or uncertain, or quietly waiting to see if this one sticks.
And you're in the gap between those two worlds.
You don't have the full authority of leadership above you. And you don't have the safety of being in the team below you.
You're accountable for outcomes you don't always fully control, with people you didn't always choose, in conditions that don't always make sense from where you're standing.
That is genuinely hard. And most organisations don't acknowledge just how hard it is.
Here's what changes when you have the right skills
The leaders I've worked with who've built a real skill set for people leadership describe a shift that goes beyond just 'getting better at my job.'
Their confidence changes. Not because things get easier, but because they know what to do when things get hard.
They stop dreading performance conversations, because they have a way to approach them that actually works.
They get better at bringing their team through change, because they understand what resistance really is and how to work with it rather than push against it.
They feel less isolated in that middle space, because they have tools and language for navigating both directions.
And over time, their team's performance reflects it. Not because the team magically improves — but because consistent, clear, skilled leadership creates the conditions for people to do their best work.
That's what LEAD LAB® is built to give you.
Introducing
LEAD LAB®
A 12-month practical leadership program for leaders ready to build something real.
LEAD LAB® was built for leaders who want more than a one-day workshop and who want a program that works with the actual situations they're navigating, develops real skills over time, and delivers support when they need it.
It's a practical system built around the real moments that shape how your team performs every day.
How do you set an expectation that actually lands the first time?
How do you give feedback that creates change rather than defensiveness?
How do you lead a team through a change they're resistant to, without losing people or your own credibility?
How do you have the performance conversation you've been putting off?
How do you develop the people in your team, not just manage them?
These are the things that separate a leader who survives from one who genuinely moves the business forward.
The Momentum Framework
LEAD LAB® is built around the Momentum Framework
A practical roadmap developed by Natalie Lincolne that covers the three core areas where team performance either holds up or falls apart.
DELIVER - Setting clear direction, plans, and expectations so your team knows what's needed, why it matters, and who's responsible for what.
GROW - Building the capability of your people: how you hire, onboard, give feedback, support development, and help individuals become stronger contributors over time.
OPTIMISE - Creating the systems, rhythms, and shared ownership that reduce how much the team depends on you for every decision and direction and frees you up to lead, not just manage.
Over 12 months, you build practical skills across all three areas, not as abstract concepts, but connected to the real people and performance issues showing up in your team right now.
Everything included in LEAD LAB®
LEAD LAB® ESSENTIALS
Monthly live training sessions with Natalie
Each month, a live 90-minute online session focused on one practical area of team leadership. Sessions are practical, focused, and connected to what's actually happening in leadership today. Recorded so you can revisit or catch up when you need to.
The Leadership Resource Vault
Practical templates, checklists, and guides for the real situations you face: setting expectations, structuring feedback conversations, planning a team development discussion, approaching a difficult conversation, onboarding a new team member, and more. Tools you can pick up and use not frameworks to read and forget.
Monthly check-ins with a success coach
Each month you complete a short self-review and your success coach reviews it with you. A regular checkpoint on what's shifting, where you're getting traction, and where you're getting stuck. Development is more effective when someone's paying attention to your progress alongside you.
Email support between sessions
Team situations don't wait for the next scheduled session. Email support means you can get guidance when something comes up in real time.
Private peer community
A private group with other leaders working through the program in their own organisations. Some of the most useful conversations happen here, hearing someone else in a different sector describe exactly your situation, and how they handled it, is genuinely valuable.
1–2 expert guest sessions per year
Each year, LEAD LAB® brings in one or two guest experts on topics relevant to what the group is working on.
Progress tracking
Pre- and post-program assessments so you can see clearly how your approach has shifted across 12 months. The goal is real behaviour change, and real evidence of it.
INVESTMENT
$1800
LEAD LABTM ESSENTIALS INVESTMENT DETAILS
Get 12 full months of LEAD LABTM ESSENTIALS for a one-time payment of $1,800, or take advantage of our flexible payment option with three instalments of $700 spread across 90 days.
LEAD LAB® PLUS
for those who want more personalised support
Everything in LEAD LAB® ESSENTIALS
PLUS6 additional one-on-one coaching sessions
Tailored to your specific role, your team, and the challenges you're navigating. Particularly valuable if you're dealing with a high-stakes team situation, a complex change, a difficult team dynamic, or you simply want to build faster.High Performing Teams audio training
A 20-minute deep-dive you can listen to anywhere.
Quarterly Planning masterclass and workbook
A practical on-demand session for planning how you'll lead your team through each quarter.
Team Wellbeing Program in a Box
A ready-to-use resource for supporting your team's wellbeing in a genuine and practical way.
INVESTMENT
$3950
LEAD LAB® PLUS INVESTMENT DETAILS
Get 12 full months of LEAD LAB® PLUS for a one-time payment of $3,950, or take advantage of our flexible payment option with three instalments of $1,400 spread across 90 days.
Plus, you’re covered by our 100% Money-Back Guarantee.
Show up, do the work, and if you don’t see the results, we’ll refund your investment in full.
This is for you if...
You've been promoted or moved into a leadership role and feel like you're figuring it out on the fly
You're managing a team that's resistant to change, inconsistent in performance, or unclear on expectations
You're caught between the expectations of those above you and the realities your team is dealing with
You've avoided performance conversations because you're not sure how to have them well
You want to build real confidence and capability as a leader, not just survive the role
You've done one-off training before and found it didn't translate into lasting change
You're ready to invest 12 months in building something real, with support along the way
LEAD LAB® is for you whether you're...
New to people leadership and still finding your feet
A few years in, and realising you've hit a ceiling you want to move through
Experienced, but navigating a particularly challenging team or organisational situation
Working in business, government, local council, not-for-profit, or community services
The program works across sectors because the challenges of leading people are more similar than they are different regardless of what the organisation does.
This is not for you if...
You're looking for a one-day solution to a long-term challenge
You're not willing to apply what you learn to real situations in your team
Your organisation won't support any form of development and you're not in a position to invest personally right now
If the timing isn't right, that's genuinely okay. But if you're reading this and the timing feels like it never quite arrives, that's worth reflecting on too.
What shifts when your leadership does
The outcome of LEAD LAB® isn't just 'being a better leader.' Here's what it actually looks like in practice.
You stop dreading the conversation you've been putting off because you have a clear, practical way to approach it.
You bring your team through a change or a new direction without losing people or spending weeks managing the fallout from resistance.
A team member who's been underperforming starts to shift because they finally have clear expectations, consistent feedback, and someone following through.
You feel less isolated in the middle, because you have tools and language for both directions - upward and downward.
Your manager notices. Because your team's performance reflects yours, and yours is improving.
And over time, something else shifts too.
You stop feeling like you're faking it.
Not because everything becomes easy. But because you know what to do when things get hard. You have a system. You have skills. And you have evidence that they work - from your own team, over 12 months.
That's confidence that's real. Not manufactured, but earned.
How to fund your LEAD LAB® membership
Option 1: Your organisation pays
Many participants have their LEAD LAB® membership funded by their employer through a training or professional development budget.
If this applies to you, the best approach is to make a clear business case to your manager or HR. Below this section, there's a downloadable template that covers what the program is, and what the organisation gets out of it. You can book a call with Natalie to discuss and how to frame the investment in language that resonates with decision-makers.
Option 2: You pay for yourself
Some leaders choose to invest in LEAD LAB® personally, particularly when they don't want to wait for a budget cycle, when the organisation's training budget is limited, or when they want to own the development independently.
If you're in Australia and paying personally, LEAD LAB® may qualify as a self-education expense, potentially claimable in your tax return if the program relates directly to your current employment. This isn't financial advice, always check with your accountant, since individual circumstances vary. But it's worth being aware that the option may exist.
Option 3: A bit of both
Some participants split the cost, their employer covers a portion through a training budget, and they contribute personally towards the balance. If your organisation won't cover the full amount, it's worth asking whether a contribution is possible.
Brought to you by renowned Leadership Coach, Founder and CEO of Incredible People
Natalie Lincolne
Natalie Lincolne is the Founder and CEO of Incredible People, a leadership development consultancy based in Western Australia.
She has spent more than 25 years working with leaders at every level, from brand-new team leaders navigating their first direct report, to experienced managers who've hit a ceiling, to executives leading large and complex organisations through significant change.
She has coached more than 1,000 leaders, designed and delivered programs across private enterprise, local and state government, and the not-for-profit sector, and holds qualifications in psychology, education, management, and coaching.
What sets Natalie apart is that she's a practitioner, not a professor. Her expertise comes from working directly with leaders through real challenges not from the lecture room. When she talks about what works, it's because she's seen it work, across hundreds of real teams and real situations.
She launched Incredible People in 2008 with a mission to build leaders who genuinely inspire and guide their teams to perform at their best. LEAD LAB® was created because she kept seeing the same gap: capable leaders, real commitment, and not enough practical support to bridge the distance between where they were and where they wanted to be.
"I've sat across the table from over a thousand leaders over the years, and I keep seeing the same thing. Someone capable, someone who cares, someone who is genuinely trying, and who just hasn't had the support they needed to develop the skills that make leading people less hard.
They need practical tools, a structure to apply them, and someone in their corner. That's what LEAD LAB® is."
I would recommend LEAD LAB to anyone who is passionate about learning, growing, adapting and being the best leader they can be. There are practical lessons to be learnt, and even more lessons when we unlock the diverse resource that is other people!
The training and information in LEAD LAB is easily applied in my own work/to my workplace. I find the templates and documents in The Vault give me suggested structures to use for planning and idea development.
Feeling so pumped to move on this.
Look out world. I'm ready!!
I feel so much clearer about where I'm going as a leader - AND how to get my team there with me.
Thank you so much!
Some of the organisations we've worked with:
Ready to lead with confidence?
Join LEAD LAB® now.
Choose your level of support
LEAD LAB® ESSENTIALS
For leaders who want the full structure, practical tools, and ongoing support to build real leadership skills across 12 months.
✓ 12 monthly live online training sessions with Natalie (90 minutes each, recorded)
✓ Access to the Leadership Resource Vault
✓ Monthly progress review with a success coach
✓ Ongoing email support
✓ Private peer community
✓ 1–2 expert guest sessions per year
✓ Pre- and post-program assessments
✓ 2 x 30-minute one-on-one coaching calls
INVESTMENT
$1800
LEAD LAB® PLUS
For leaders who want more personalised support with specific team situations, difficult conversations, or faster development.
Everything in Essentials, plus:
✓ 6 x 60-minute one-on-one coaching sessions with Natalie, tailored to your goals
✓ High Performing Teams 20-minute audio training
✓ Quarterly Planning on-demand masterclass and workbook
✓ Team Wellbeing Program in a Box
INVESTMENT
$3950
Our 100% Money-Back Guarantee
LEAD LAB® is built around real application, genuine support, and measurable change.
If you engage fully with the program over 12 months and you don't see a genuine improvement in how you're leading, we'll refund your investment in full.
FAQ
I've done leadership training before and nothing stuck. What's different about this?
Most leadership training is a single event — a day, a workshop, a short course. It can be useful, but when you go back to a full workload, the frameworks get forgotten and the behaviour doesn't change.
LEAD LAB® runs across 12 months specifically because that's how long it takes to build a real skill set. You learn something, apply it to a real situation, see what changes, and build from there. The program is designed for that cycle — not just for the day itself.
How much time does this actually take?
Around three hours a month, primarily the live monthly session. You can dip into a tool or resource in five minutes when a specific situation comes up.
LEAD LAB® was built for people with real jobs and full schedules. The monthly rhythm means you're never overwhelmed, and the content connects directly to what's happening in your team right now — so the time you spend feels genuinely useful.
Can my organisation fund this?
In many cases, yes. If your organisation has a training or professional development budget, LEAD LAB® is a strong candidate for employer funding. There's a downloadable template on this page that you can adapt to make the case to your manager or HR. It covers what the program is, what the organisation gets out of it, and how to frame the ROI conversation.
Can I claim this on my tax return if I pay personally?
Potentially, yes. In Australia, self-education expenses that relate directly to your current employment may be claimable. This isn't financial or tax advice — check with your accountant, because individual circumstances vary. But it's worth knowing the option exists.
I work in government / not-for-profit / a small business. Is this relevant to my sector?
Yes. LEAD LAB® includes participants from across all sectors — business, local and state government, not-for-profit, and community services. The challenges of leading people are broadly similar regardless of sector, and the peer community that develops across the year is often one of the most valuable parts of the program for this very reason.
What if I'm quite new to leadership?
LEAD LAB® works well for leaders at any stage — from those who are very new to the role through to experienced managers who've hit a ceiling or are navigating a particularly complex situation. The program meets you where you are and builds from there.
What if I need more one-on-one support?
LEAD LAB® Plus includes six additional one-on-one coaching sessions with Natalie. If you're on Essentials, additional sessions are also available to purchase at a discounted rate at any point during the program.
What if I miss a live session?
Every session is recorded and available through the LEAD LAB® portal so you can catch up or revisit when it suits you.
LEAD LAB® At A Glance
Modules and Learning Outcomes
FOUNDATIONS MODULE
This module sets the stage for your leadership journey by introducing the Momentum Framework (details on the next page) and defining what a truly high-performing team looks like.
These foundational concepts “wrap around” everything in the Momentum Framework, and by understanding them you’ll be better equipped to align your leadership approach with the behaviours, mindsets, and systems that enable sustained team excellence.
SELF LEADERSHIP MODULE
This module builds your ability to lead yourself before leading others, focusing on mindset, self-awareness, self-management, and emotional intelligence as cornerstones of effective leadership.
MOMENTUM FRAMEWORK MODULES
DELIVER
To establish a clear direction and align teams towards shared goals, avoiding confusion, duplication and performance gaps.
Purpose
Purpose and vision serve as the foundation for team success, providing clarity, motivation, and direction. This module explores how leaders can craft and communicate a meaningful purpose and vision that inspires commitment and aligns team efforts.
Plan
A clear purpose and vision must be translated into actionable plans. This module focuses on creating annual goals and quarterly plans to ensure consistent progress and adaptability to changing circumstances.
Perform
Monitoring progress is an essential operating rhythm of a high performing team to maintain momentum and identify areas for focus improvement. This is also
fundamental to building an adaptive team – a key superpower. This module introduces tools and strategies for tracking team performance, celebrating achievements, and addressing challenges proactively.
GROW
Focuses on hiring, onboarding, and developing talent to enhance engagement and productivity.
Hire
Building a strong team starts with hiring the right people. This module explores the importance of hiring for cultural fit, shared values and potential, alongside technical expertise.
Onboard
Effective onboarding accelerates a new team member's integration and productivity.
This module provides a roadmap for creating a structured onboarding experience that sets clear expectations and builds early confidence.
Develop
Feedback is a powerful tool for growth, trust, and performance. This module teaches leaders how to provide timely, specific, and actionable feedback that underpins continuous improvement and accountability so they can be high-performing team members in their current roles.
OPTIMISE
Emphasises regular development discussions, coaching, succession planning, and systemised processes, minimising disruptions and avoiding constant fire-fighting.
Support
Ongoing investment in team development creates stronger engagement, capability, and retention. This module explores how to approach career development discussions and translate them into action.
Scaffold
Strong teams and resilient organisations plan for both leadership transitions and the continuity of critical operations. This module combines succession planning for key roles with business continuity planning for essential processes and services. Leaders will learn how to identify critical positions and functions, develop potential successors, and create contingency plans to minimise disruption during periods of change or uncertainty.
Systemise
Clear systems and processes create efficiency, reduce errors, and free up time for strategic leadership and creativity. This module focuses on developing repeatable systems that empower team members and ensure consistency.