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The Leadership Industry's Most Expensive Myth

The Leadership
Industry Is
Selling You a Lie.

And it's costing you more than the invoice.

The program worked perfectly.

And nothing changed.

They came back energized. New language. New frameworks. A spark in their eyes.

You let yourself believe this time would stick.

Then pressure hit. And they were back.

  • Same decisions.
  • Same habits.
  • Same leadership ceiling you already paid to break.

After the third round of this, you stop questioning the provider.

You start questioning whether real change is even possible.

It is. Just not through events.
Apply for April 2026 Request the Full Brief
See the Difference

What leadership evolution actually looks like — and why it's nothing like what you've tried before.

Two minutes. No pitch. Just the uncomfortable truth about why your leaders keep reverting.

Dave Clare — Chief Evolution Officer

[ INSERT SIZZLE REEL — 60 to 90 seconds ]

25+ Years developing leaders across 5 countries
80% Greater behavioral adoption vs. single-event training
12 Months of sustained evolution — not a program with an endpoint
Calculate the Real Cost

The questions every business owner needs to sit with.

Before you evaluate any leadership investment, answer these honestly. The numbers will tell you everything.

01
If you lose two senior managers this year — what does that actually cost you?
Replacement costs alone run 50–200% of annual salary. Two at $150k means up to $600,000 gone — before you account for cultural disruption, strategy delay, and team morale.
02
How many hours per week do you spend compensating for leadership gaps you already paid to close?
Multiply that by 52. That is the invisible tax of leadership stagnation on your time, your decisions, and your ability to work on the business instead of in it.
03
How many high performers have left citing management — not pay — in the last two years?
People don't leave companies. They leave leaders. 70% of employees report active disengagement. Leadership is the primary cause — and disengagement is the tax your P&L quietly absorbs every quarter.
04
What has each previous leadership program actually returned — in measurable behavioral change at 90 days?
Not energy on Monday morning. Not new vocabulary. Actual sustained behavioral difference. If you can't answer this with a specific number, you already have your answer.
$600K
The conservative cost of losing two senior managers at $150k in a single year. This is not the ceiling. This is the floor — before cultural erosion, strategy stall, and discretionary effort withheld.
The Structural Problem

Why what you've tried hasn't worked — and why it structurally cannot.

Most "leadership development" is management training in better packaging. Frameworks. Binders. Certificates. Role-play theatre. Everyone nods. Everyone feels inspired. Everyone goes home. Nothing rewires.

The old model
✕Information transfer — dump knowledge and hope it sticks
✕Single event, finite timeline, then everyone goes home
✕Optimized for volume — 200 people in a room, six times a year
✕Zero accountability after the certificate is issued
✕Behavior measured at the event, not 90 days later
✕Leaders return to the same environment that created the problem
What evolution requires
→Behavioral conditioning through repetition under real pressure
→Sustained 12-month process — evolution doesn't have a finish line
→Intimate cohort — tight enough for genuine accountability
→Peer community that holds the standard beyond the call
→Behavioral measurement at 30, 90, 180, and 365 days
→Identity-level shift — not skill acquisition, but who they become
The Science Behind It

Peer-reviewed research on spaced repetition shows that applied learning delivered through sustained monthly cycles increases behavioral adoption by up to 80% compared to single-event training. That is not a philosophy. That is the mechanism most programs are structurally incapable of delivering.

What You'll Leave With

Five identity-level shifts — not tactics, not frameworks, not binders.

These are not competencies you acquire. They are shifts in who your leaders become — observable by their teams before the leaders themselves can articulate what changed.

01
Lead Yourself First
Identity, presence, and emotional regulation as the non-negotiable foundation of all effective leadership. Most programs skip this level entirely. Everything else collapses without it.
02
Coach Instead of Control
The shift from managing tasks to developing people. Leaders stop being the answer and start creating the conditions where their teams find answers. Micromanagement becomes structurally impossible.
03
Strategic Clarity at Every Level
Leaders stop waiting for direction and start setting it. They connect daily decisions to organizational purpose — and their teams feel the difference in how work is communicated and prioritized.
04
Culture as Competitive Advantage
Leaders become architects of the environment, not just managers of output. They understand that culture is the only non-copyable competitive advantage — and they build it deliberately.
05
Evolution as the Default State
The permanent shift from a fixed mindset to a continuously evolving one. Leaders stop treating development as an event and start treating it as the ongoing condition of leadership itself.
Level 01
Lead Yourself
Identity, presence, emotional discipline. Where real leadership begins — and where almost no program spends sufficient time.
Level 02
Lead People
Coaching over control. Trust over compliance. Culture over hierarchy. People thrive when led, not managed.
Level 03
Lead the Business
Strategic clarity, organizational design, and cultural alignment as a durable competitive advantage.
Self-Selection Filter

This process was built for a specific kind of leader.

Read both columns. The right people will feel seen. The wrong people will self-disqualify. Both outcomes are exactly right.

This is for you if...
→You've invested in leadership development before and watched it fail to stick
→You're tired of being the bottleneck in your own business
→You want your leaders to coach, not boss — and you understand that requires real behavioral change, not a new framework
→You can protect four hours a month per participant and understand why that investment is non-negotiable
→You want identity-level evolution, not incremental skill improvement
→You lead an organization with 20–500 people and need your leadership layer to evolve with the business
This is not for you if...
✕You're looking for motivation, inspiration, or a high-energy event experience
✕You want a leadership checkbox for compliance or HR requirements
✕Your organization is in crisis and needs immediate intervention — not development
✕You're unwilling or unable to protect four hours a month per participant
✕You believe leadership development is a one-time event, not an ongoing evolution
✕You're satisfied with where your leadership team currently sits
If you got to the bottom of the left column and felt seen — that's the signal. If you got to the bottom of the right column and felt relieved — this isn't your process, and there's no shame in that. L.E.A.P. works because the people inside it chose it for the right reasons.
Who's Behind This

Practitioners, not theorists.

[ DAVE CLARE PHOTO ]
Dave Clare
Chief Evolution Officer & Founder — Circle Leadership Global

Dave Clare has spent 25 years developing leaders across five countries — not from a classroom, but from inside real organizations navigating real pressure. He gave up a six-figure corporate income to pursue one mission: evolving the world of work.

He is the author of humAIn: How AI is Making Workplaces More Human and founder of Circle Leadership Global, operating across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and the USA.

He is not an academic. He is not a theorist. He is a practitioner — and that distinction is everything.

25+
Years developing leaders
5
Countries served
2+
Books published
2018
Circle Leadership founded

"I've watched leaders come through this process and come out the other side. The language changes. The way they walk into a room changes. L.E.A.P. stops people being accidental leaders and makes them intentional ones."

Collin Dayley
Circle Leader, North America

"Dave Clare is one of the most significant business thinkers of our time. He has profound and implementable systems which, when applied, help any business to thrive in the bold new world. Zero fluff and all substance."

Dr. Daren Martin PhD
The Culture Architect

"His commitment to purpose-driven leadership is infectious. His impact has been transformative, leaving a lasting mark on our ecosystem and helping shape its future direction. I highly recommend Dave Clare to any organization seeking a dynamic speaker who delivers both inspiration and practical, real-world insights."

Craig Josic
Founder, Silicon Coast & FWD Fest

"[ INSERT L.E.A.P. PARTICIPANT TESTIMONIAL — specific behavioral outcome, named leader, role, company, and timeframe. ]"

[ Name ]
[ Title, Company ]
April 2026 Cohort

Twenty leaders. Twelve months. One direction.

Cohort Begins
April 2026
Exact start date confirmed on enrollment. Onboarding begins 2 weeks prior.
Duration
12 Months
A sustained evolution process — not a program with a graduation ceremony and an endpoint.
Time Commitment
4 Hours / Month
Less time than most single workshops. More behavioral change than every workshop you've attended combined.
Available Seats
20 Leaders
Structural limit — not a sales device.
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Twenty is the number the model requires. Large enough to bring genuinely diverse industries, perspectives, and leadership challenges into the cohort. Tight enough that every participant knows every other participant — and no one can disappear into the back row. In an online cohort, that intimacy is everything. It is what makes the accountability real.
Enrollment closes in
-- Days
-- Hours
-- Minutes
-- Seconds

Enrollment closes March 15, 2026 — or when 20 seats are filled, whichever comes first.

Investment

Less than one regretted hire. More than every program you've tried.

One investment. Two payment options. Either way, less than the cost of one quarter of silent leadership stagnation.

Pay in Full
$4,000
Per leader · Full 12-month access · Paid once
  • Complete 12-month access to Circle Leadership Toolbox™
  • All 12 monthly precision learning modules
  • Live monthly cohort coaching calls
  • Structured peer accountability framework
  • Progress tracking and leadership evolution roadmap
  • Call recordings for catch-up access
  • Certificate of completion
Enrol — Pay in Full
Less than the cost of one quarter of silent leadership stagnation. Less than the first month of replacing one mid-level manager.
Most Common
Spread the Investment
$1,000
To begin, then $400/month for 9 months · Total $4,600
  • Everything included in Pay in Full
  • Investment spread across 10 months
  • No interest, no hidden fees
  • Flexibility to manage cash flow without missing the cohort
Enrol — Payment Plan
The average Australian business spends $1,200–$3,000 per leader on programs that produce no measurable behavioral change at 90 days. L.E.A.P. costs less than twice that — and delivers twelve months of sustained evolution.
✦
Our Commitment to You

Complete the 12 months. Do the work. Show up fully. If you do not observe measurable behavioral change in yourself and your leaders, we continue working with you at no additional cost until you do. No fine print. Because when the model is followed, it works.

Objections Addressed

The questions you're already asking.

Sharp, honest answers. No evasion. If something isn't answered here, book a discovery call and ask it directly.

Four hours monthly. That is the total commitment. Less than most single workshops — but unlike workshops, the learning lands inside the actual workplace, with the actual team, immediately. The question is not whether you have four hours. It is whether you can afford what leadership stagnation costs across the other 160 hours of the month.
That's precisely why L.E.A.P. is structured differently. Traditional programs fail because they optimize for inspiration, not integration. L.E.A.P. is built on three behavioral drivers that programs structurally cannot replicate: public commitment, small-group accountability, and spaced repetition — which peer-reviewed research shows increases behavioral adoption by up to 80%. You are not getting a better program. You are getting a different model entirely.
Because we back it with a commitment. Complete the 12 months — every module, every call, every workplace application — and if you do not observe measurable behavioral change in your leaders, we continue working with you at no additional cost until you do. That is not marketing language. It is the standard we hold ourselves to because we know what the model produces when it is followed.
No. Twenty is the number the model requires. Large enough to bring genuinely diverse industries, perspectives, and leadership challenges into the cohort. Tight enough that every participant knows every other participant — and no one can disappear into the back row. In an online cohort, that intimacy is the accountability architecture. Beyond 20, the peer accountability that produces behavioral change begins to dilute. The constraint is structural, not tactical.
L.E.A.P. is designed for anyone in a leadership role or with clear high-potential status — from divisional managers to senior executives. The three-tier model (Lead Yourself, Lead People, Lead the Business) meets leaders at their current level and evolves them through all three. The most powerful cohorts mix levels — a senior leader and an emerging one working through the same material from different vantage points creates learning that neither would access alone.
All coaching calls are recorded and available for catch-up within 7 days. Video modules remain accessible throughout the 12-month process. Life happens — the model is designed for humans, not machines. What we ask is that the commitment is genuine. If someone is consistently absent, the cohort notices, the accountability weakens, and we will have that conversation directly.
Month one focuses on Leadership of Yourself — the foundation everything else is built on. You receive one 8–10 minute precision video module. You apply the concept directly in your workplace that week. You return to the live cohort coaching call to report what happened — not what you think about it, what actually happened. Then the peer group responds. That cycle repeats monthly for 12 months, progressively deepening across all three leadership levels.
The Only Question Left

Twelve months from now, your leaders will have evolved — or you'll be evaluating another program.

Stop training leaders. Start evolving them.
The April 2026 cohort opens with 20 seats.

April 2026
20 Seats
Closes March 15
12-Month Evolution
Book a Discovery Call Request the Full Brief
Imagine April 2027

You're not the bottleneck.

Your managers handle hard conversations without rehearsing them with you first.

Strategy moves without constant intervention.

Your leaders coach instead of control.

You didn't find better people. You evolved the ones you had.

That's what happens when development becomes a process — not an event.

P.S. You already know the old model isn't working. The only question left is whether you're willing to disrupt it. April 2026. 20 seats. Act accordingly.

— Dave Clare  ·  Chief Evolution Officer  ·  Circle Leadership Global