Charlesworth

Human Performance

Susan

Launchpad: Human Performance & Leadership for Mid-Career Professionals.

Manage growing responsibilities. Achieve more through leadership. Build teams people love. Training, tactics, strategies, and elite performance tools. Grounded in real-world psychology.

Great Human Performance and people skills enhance everything you do.

If you’re a manager, you likely got here by diligently honing your craft and becoming great at what you do. People respect you. They promoted you. And they depend on you.

Now your job has changed.

It’s less about the craft, more about people skills. Meetings. Friction. Pushback. Coaching. Deconflicting. Prioritising. Making decisions when no-one has the answer. You’re busier than ever before, and your professional qualifications aren’t helping this time.

You’re not just busier at work.

As you grow, responsibilities are everywhere. People at work depend on you, and so do people at home , whether that’s children and family, friends or community. Things get more challenging in mid-career. Managing this see-saw of pressure and responsibility comes along at just the wrong time.

Your job has become managing people. Your life has become endless juggling and prioritisation. To get to the next level and master this stage of life, you need a new set of skills.

This is when human performance skills shine. Move faster at work by developing your communication, teamwork and leadership skills. Concentrate on your priorities by developing courage, stress management and self-management skills. Create cultures and systems at work so that you and the team get more done and feel more manageable.

Deliver what matters to everyone in your life and have more satisfaction in the process.

The Launchpad course

Launchpad is a well paced, 12-month, interactive programme in human performance skills delivered by Susan Charlesworth. A psychologist and expert in human behaviour and performance who teaches elite teams, like Astronauts and Antarctic explorers, to do the impossible by leveraging these essential skills to make a real difference.

Over 12 months you’ll walk through thoroughly tested tactics and strategies that you can make immediate use of, to master skills no one teaches but everyone needs.

You’ll also join the Launchpad community. A group of like-minded people dedicated to improvement through human connection and personal development.

Course content

  • How to practice Self Awareness and improve your focus (including a DISC personality profile, giving you a springboard to understand yourself).
  • How to manage yourself when you’re under pressure.
  • How to prioritise self-care (yes, even astronauts know how to rest) so you have energy to pursue your goals
  • How to leverage leadership to tap into people’s full potential
  • How to drive teamwork in your organisation
  • Communication skills to improve your clarity and overcome circular conversations.
  • How to make cultural change that create successful systems at work
  • How to find courage, prioritise and focus, and drive more of what you want
  • How to unlock creativity to manage uncertainty and succeed in changing times.

Pace

The course is designed to fit around your work and life and give you long-term support.

Leadership and management training often happens in an afternoon. Launchpad is different. We introduce concepts, teach them thoroughly, then give you time to implement them and a supportive community to reach out to whenever you need support.

We don’t give you endless homework and assignments (you already have enough responsibilities!). We do give you the time and space to process and implement what we teach, with support every step of the way.

How it works

We tackle one topic each month. You get a live training session, a live Q&A, access to a library of resources and ongoing advice, and support and encouragement in the community.

As you internalise each set of tools, what works for you, and share your successes with others, you’ll gain the ability and confidence that leads to real change.

What’s included

  • Full Personality Profile and 15-page report
  • Monthly live training sessions
  • Monthly live Q&As
  • 12 months access to the Launchpad community
  • Access to the launchpad resource library (which is always being updated)
  • Discounted 121 coaching with Susan
  • Discount and First chance for any in-person events and workshops

About Susan

Susan Charlesworth is a Human Behaviour and Performance and Human Factors Instructor to European Space Agency (ESA) Astronauts, Mission Control teams and Antarctic Explorers. She’s spent over a decade teaching psychological skills to teams working in the harshest environments known to humankind.

Susan holds degrees in Experimental Psychology and Human Factors, and is a certified NLP Practitioner, DISC Profiler, and Personal Performance Coach. She’s a TEDx speaker, co-author of The Handbook of Mental Performance, and a recipient of the prestigious Institute Lecture from the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors.

Launchpad is her response to balancing her own career and personal responsibilities. She’s closing the gap between professional high-risk sectors that understand how important leadership and Human Performance are, and the rest of the professional world, where they’re a misunderstood and often an afterthought.

This course is for you if:

  • Your work life is (becoming) less about the technical stuff and more about the people
  • You feel pressure in every aspect of your life, at work and at home
  • Professional training in your chosen discipline isn’t having an impact on actually reducing workload,
  • You’re delivering through other people and teams,
  • You want to know what works,
  • You’re ready for professional instruction.
  • Your job is becoming less about doing the work and more about leading people
  • You’re under pressure from deadlines, expectations, and every part of life
  • The technical training got you here, but it’s not helping you manage the load
  • You’re expected to deliver results through others, not just your own output
  • You don’t want fluff, you want strategies that work
  • You’re ready for serious, professional instruction, not just another workshop
  • You want the support, community, and structure to help you grow professionally and personally

What CHP clients are saying.

I am thoroughly enjoying the Launchpad course. Susan has great experience and advice to share in a manner that’s accessible and digestible amongst a busy workload. The new platform makes everything super easy. There are lots of useful resources that I can dip into as and when I need and the chat function with others is great. Sarah Tridgell, Astroscale

The Launchpad programme is thoughtfully designed for busy professionals, with flexible sessions and ongoing support that make it easy to stay engaged without overwhelming your schedule. Susan shows unwavering commitment to supporting our development. She brings a calm, grounded presence to every session and draws upon her own wealth of experience in a way which feels both relevant and personal. Her ability to offer tailored, actionable advice has made a real impact on how I approach my role and I can already see how the skills and insights gained will benefit not just me personally, but also my wider team and organisation. Marie Tilbee, Civil Aviation Authority

It was an amazing training, many thanks Susan! Pablo Alvarez, ESA Astronaut

The workshop was very valuable and insightful - an ideal balance of the underlying theory and knowledge, but plenty of space to discuss in our teams and really have all our voices heard. Susan was a great facilitator to be encouraging, stimulating and help make connections of ideas and people - thoroughly enjoyable. Vicky Hall, RAL Space

Susan was thoughtful, professional and knowledgeable. The style and content of the session was just right and the activities were genuinely useful. I have some important actions to do as a result of this session. Thank you! David Pearson, RAL Space

Susan did a fantastic job helping us as a team work through our common concerns and come up with new ways of approaching them. There was a very friendly and supportive atmosphere which made it easy to raise any problems.

An engaging and enjoyable day that allowed our team to connect and share ideas. Having the structure to brainstorm and share thoughts away from the office gave us so many opportunities to learn from one another. Yasmin Wong, RAL Space

Susan created a very welcoming and trusting environment. This got the whole group sharing and engaging on a level that isn’t often achieved in the usual settings. We came away with some real actions and inputs into team planning. Thank you very much. Charlie Haire, RAL Space

The workshop was exceptionally well-structured, fostering an environment that encouraged open, meaningful, and action-oriented discussions. The facilitation style was outstanding—thoughtful, engaging, and inclusive—ensuring that every participant felt valued and empowered to share their perspectives. The sense of community was truly remarkable. Yinge Sun, University of Oxford

Susan has a wonderful open and empathetic style of facilitating and leading. She makes every participant feel that they are special and that they have something to contribute to create action and change. She is all about collaboration rather than cliques - an approach that is so important when you are trying to build partnerships and create change. Heather MacRea, The Ideas Foundation