This is not a year away. Apart from one immersive retreat, the entire program is virtual, and it is designed to run alongside a full workload or a sabbatical. Your leader keeps leading while they train. Implements what they are learning as we go, and comes away with greater skills and capacity after each meeting.

The program runs for a full year across four seasons, moving from steadying the self, to strengthening close relationships, to building healthy community, to leading change outward. It includes private coaching sessions twice a month to start and monthly thereafter, a monthly leadership cohort, a live workshop each season, and one immersive four-day retreat on fifty acres in the Shenandoah foothills, with dates offered so participants can choose the one that fits. August is held as an integration month, and enrollment can begin in any season. The work is led by Reverend Maeba Jonas, Master of Divinity, a former campus chaplain at Goucher College who now trains leaders and caregivers building communities that thrive.

Sacred Compass Leadership Training is as practical as it is grounding. Participants train in conflict resolution and mediation, learning to sit in the middle of a hard disagreement without escalating it or absorbing it. They learn restorative justice practices for repairing trust after something breaks, whether that is between two people or across a whole team. And they build the embodied skills that hold all of it together, the capacity to stay regulated, read a room accurately, and lead from something steadier than adrenaline. These are the skills that decide whether a hard season strengthens a team or scatters it.

Most professional development treats depletion as a personal failing, the sort of thing a stronger person would have avoided. This program starts somewhere more useful. Capacity is a function of the container, not the character of the person carrying the load, and you cannot rest your way out of a container that leaks. The work here is building a leader who can hold more without breaking.

Replacing a senior leader can cost more than a year of their salary once you count the search, the ramp, and the quiet damage of the gap. Keeping one steady, skilled, and committed is one of the highest-return decisions a budget line can make. Leaders finish this program more resilient, better equipped to handle conflict, and far more likely to still be in the role a year later, doing it well.

The Compass Leadership Training qualifies as professional development and is regularly funded through professional development budgets, leadership development funds, or board-approved investment in key staff. The program is $10,800 for the year, which fits within most professional or leadership development budgets. I make approval simple, with a program description written for reviewers, a budget justification, facilitator credentials, an invoice, and a W-9, all formatted for your HR, finance, or board teams.