Williamson Community Leadership Program
A program for senior level leaders to transform their leadership, create lasting connections and gain a new set of skills to drive meaningful impact on society's complex issues.
Applications Open June 2026 for 2027 Program
Williamson Community Leadership Program Overview
The Williamson Community Leadership Program is a unique, immersive, 10-month program for established leaders and senior executives seeking to strengthen their leadership capabilities, expand their perspective and create meaningful impact in their organisations and communities.
For 35 years, the program has brought together a diverse group of leaders from business, government, not-for-profit, academia and philanthropy.
Often described as life-changing, the Williamson Community Leadership Program expands the way leaders see the world and transforms the way they exercise leadership. It equips participants with practical skills to navigate complexity, work across difference and lead through uncertainty, while pushing them to experiment and continually challenge how and why they lead.
Graduates of the program - Williamson Fellows - join our Alumni community of over 7,500 leaders from across sectors, industries, backgrounds, identities and life experiences.
Applications open Tuesday, 30 June.
The Leadership Complex Times Demand
Navigate Ambiguity & Disruption
Learn techniques to adapt and thrive in changing, complex and uncertain environments.
Lead Across Difference
Strengthen your relational capability to value and bridge diverse perspectives, experiences and expectations.
Build Cross-sector Connections
Forge a trusted network across business, government and community, and expand your understanding of systems.
Challenge Assumptions
Examine the values, beliefs and patterns that shape how you and others lead, make decisions and respond to change.
Drive Progress
Develop your ability to mobilise others towards real outcomes, especially when managing competing priorities.
Strengthen Strategic Influence
Build your judgement and stakeholder awareness to influence across functions, sectors and decision-making environments.
Who is Williamson For?
The program is for leaders with significant professional, community and/or life experience. Participants are selected through a competitive process, considering professional experience, lived experience and the contribution they will bring to a diverse cross-sector cohort.
- Do you have 10+ years of leadership experience?
- Are you ready to significantly elevate your leadership capability?
- Do you want to strengthen your capacity to lead through uncertainty?
- Are you a strong technical leader looking to expand your leadership beyond technical expertise?
- Are you seeking a practical, immersive and challenging leadership experience?
- Are you ready to contribute more to your organisation or community?
- Are you willing to question assumptions, experiment and fully commit to being a more impactful leader?
The Williamson Experience Across Sectors
Business
“After 28 years in banking, my approach to leadership had naturally been shaped by a very corporate setting.”
You can get very caught up in what's important in the private sector, and that creates a blinkered view of society and leadership. Now I'm reflecting on how to contribute more meaningfully in my own community, and how to bring key threads of what I learned back into my corporate life.
Emma Dearlove (WCLP '25)
Head of Private Clients, ANZ
Government
“Before Williamson, I felt stuck in my leadership journey.”
I'd been quite institutionalised in how I approached leadership, not taking the time to think differently or consider other perspectives. By digging into what I thought was my issue, it turned out to be something much deeper than I expected. That's allowed me to be a better leader.
Stephen Braithwaite (WCLP '25)
Inspector, Victoria Police
Not-for-profit
“I'm learning how to ask the right questions of my team.”
I'm learning how to make sure they're the ones leading change in different areas, and that I don't need to be that person in every space. I'm also making sure that we're always led by our purpose and driven by impact. All of that has come straight out of the Williamson program.
Madeleine Buchner (WCLP '25)
Founder and CEO, Little Dreamers
Access the Leadership Victoria Alumni Network
After completing the Williamson Community Leadership Program, you’ll join a diverse Alumni network of 7000+ leaders across Victoria, built over 35 years of Leadership Victoria programs. You’ll gain access to exclusive Alumni events, and have opportunities to continue your leadership learning and connect with other like-minded leaders.
Learn more about Leadership Victoria Alumni.
What Makes Williamson Different?
The Williamson Community Leadership Program is an experiential leadership program that goes beyond traditional classroom-based learning and in-house leadership development.
There are no assignments or exams. Instead, participants learn through a cycle of exposure, reflection, application and integration.
Participants encounter a diverse range of new people, places and systems, make sense of what they are learning with peers and faculty, then apply practical frameworks to their own leadership context.
Sustained impact
In a 6-month post-program survey of the participants of the 2024 Williamson Community Leadership Program, leaders reflected on the program's impact six months after completion.
rated the program as highly relevant to their leadership context.
"This will help me work through significant adaptive challenges in my life, with a framework and support available."
rated their overall satisfaction with the program at 80% or higher.
"The Williamson Community Leadership Program stretched and challenged me, and is an experience I will never forget."
expressed high confidence that their leadership will continue to develop past the program.
"This year of personal growth has equipped me with new ways of seeing, understanding and relating to people and systems."
Built for organisational impact
The Williamson Community Leadership Program is an investment in leaders who can help organisations perform, adapt and lead more effectively in complex and volatile operating environments.
The program develops leaders who return with broader perspectives, stronger judgement, and the ability to make progress across teams, stakeholders and systems.
By stepping outside their usual context, participants unlock experiences and relationships that in-house programs and ordinary life simply cannot provide.
Adaptive capacity
Navigate uncertainty, disruption and competing priorities without losing momentum.
Strategic influence
Influence across functions, and internal and external stakeholder environments.
Stronger teams
Strengthen trust, collaboration and performance within and across diverse teams.
Practical frameworks
Apply cutting-edge leadership frameworks to complex challenges, change and decision-making.
New insight
Bring new perspectives and cross-sector intelligence back into your organisation.
Leadership readiness
Build confidence, judgement and readiness for progression, succession and broader responsibility.
Better decision-making
Connect organisational strategy with the broader economic and social context in which it operates.
Sustainable leadership
Help leaders manage burnout, maintain perspective and remain effective through prolonged change and competing demands.
Trusted by organisations across Victoria
2027 Pricing
Williamson Community Leadership Program
Business/Government
$23,625 + GST
NFP or self-funded
$19,850 + GST
Williamson Plus
Includes the full Williamson Community Leadership Program experience, plus 3 one-to-one coaching sessions with accredited Faculty and an additional diagnostic and debrief.
Business/Government
$26,625 + GST
NFP or self-funded
$22,500 + GST
Scholarships
Leadership Victoria scholarships enable people from, and who work with, marginalised communities to undertake Leadership Victoria’s programs, developing leadership capability across Victoria’s rich diversity of communities, and ensuring more mainstream leaders gain exposure to a diverse range of perspectives.
Click here to view all scholarships available and access scholarship criteria for the 2027 Williamson Community Leadership Program.
Scholarship support may be available for applicants who:
demonstrate financial need
identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
work with, or come from, communities experiencing disadvantage or marginalisation
meet the eligibility criteria for a named scholarship
Named scholarships
The Eastern Health Foundation Scholarship
Victorian Government Office for Disability Scholarship
Brian M Davis Scholarship for a Child/Youth Sector Leader
Jeff Robinson Memorial Scholarship for Sustainability & Environmental Leadership
Entry to Williamson is competitive. Applicants submit an online application and selected applicants are invited to interview based on merit, including professional experience, lived experience and the contribution they will bring to the cohort.
Program fees are structured to have an organisational component ($17,850+GST) and an individual component ($2,000+GST). In rare cases, a full (100%) scholarship may be provided, but generally scholarships contribute all or part of the organisational component, and successful applicants are expected to contribute a minimum of the individual component. Payment plans are available for self-funded participants.
Successful applicants are required to commit to full attendance and participation in the program. Scholarship applicants should therefore carefully consider the time commitment before applying – a successful applicant who finds they are unable to meet the requirements must forgo the scholarship, and may have denied another community leader the opportunity to undertake the program.