Inspiring Women is delivering a range of workshops, talks and events for businesswomen.

Former England rugby captain Catherine Spencer founded Inspiring Women when she recognised that so many inspiring women's stories of determination, belief, focus, trust, leadership, communication, hard work, team work and sacrifice were not being shared with organisations who could benefit greatly from those stories.

Spencer set about sourcing Inspiring Women speakers and coaches from sport and business who she believed could communicate their stories and lessons effectively. 

She has teamed up with successful business entrepreneur Jo Wimble-Groves to deliver the workshops, which are aimed at HR and L&D departments to adopt as part of their internal diversity and equality programmes. 

They are tailored around helping and supporting women to thrive in their roles and to grow into leadership positions. The launch event communicated the main aim Spencer and Wimble-Groves have for the workshops, boosting women’s confidence in the workplace. To do this, they are encouraging more women to raise their hands and put themselves forward for opportunities, which in turn will help them to thrive in current roles or to progress to more senior management levels. 

Spencer spoke about the need to encourage women. “There is a chronic shortage of women in leadership roles. The government’s target of 25% of women serving on the boards of FTSE 100 companies has not been met according to a Cranfield University Study. Therefore, the Inspiring Women’s workshop programme is specifically aimed at closing that gap. Giving women the support, confidence and skills they need to become leaders”. 

Research conducted on behalf of KPMG pointed to professional working women wanting leadership, decision-making, networking and critical thinking training to help them move into leadership roles. It also found that seeing women in leadership roles encouraged them to get there themselves, and support and encouragement are key to them progressing as leaders. 

On January 19, more than 50 people attended the launch, which was supported by British Olympian turned leadership coach Steve Backley OBE.

Backley stated: “I am delighted to support Catherine and Jo in the launch of their workshops. I have known Jo personally for many years and I am sure this will be an exciting and successful venture for both Jo and Catherine. I have always had an interest in performance, and today, I shared some insight from the Olympic games on what makes great people great”.