Executive Coaching · Leadership Retreat at Sea
Your leadership doesn't need another conference room.
An executive leadership development program — private executive coaching and a leadership retreat at sea, for leaders who need to grow differently.
- Floral curtains.
- Muffins.
- Powerpoints.
- Flip chart paper.
Yet year over year, we continue to choose this.
- Airport hotels.
- Forced bowling.
- Ice breakers.
- Role play.
And somehow we've decided to accept and keep doing this.
We can do better. Join us.
Why come aboard?
Because your last professional development offsite ended with a certificate nobody framed. This one ends on deck, looking at the horizon — the work actually done, because for once the room itself, the fluorescent light noise, and life... finally got out of your way.
Life aboard
This isn't another hotel conference room leadership seminar. This is real growth in a space that actually inspires it.
The work is mostly yours — private 1:1 coaching, behavioral insight work, and time set aside for the thinking you never get to do at your desk. If you want company, there's a small group of other SAIL professionals aboard: share a meal, take a conversation on deck, or don't. No ballroom, no breakout schedule, no facilitator racing a stopwatch. The ship frames it differently — the horizon behind you, the office a time zone away, and the room to actually lead, not just perform the part.
Take a more comfortable seat at the table.
Choose you & grow →SAIL is a leadership development program designed around the human doing the leading.
We begin by understanding how you lead — how other people experience you, and what you actually want to work on. Your executive coaching and your leadership retreat are then built around what we learn, not around a generic curriculum.
- 8
- Private coaching sessions
- 2
- Leadership profilesCrowsNest360™ + Periscope™
- 4–5
- Nights aboard Virgin Voyages
- 1
- Leader it's built around
The four-word method — tap a letter
Self-Care.
You can’t lead well running on empty. SAIL starts with the human — sleep, energy, the margins that make you operate. The ship makes the space; the coaching makes it last.
We start before you set foot on the ship — assessments, a coach matched to you, and the first real conversations about what you’re actually going to change.
Four to five nights where the work is mostly yours — private coaching sessions, thinking time, and the space of a Virgin Voyages ship to do it in.
The voyage isn’t the finish line. Post-voyage coaching and integration keep the change alive until it’s just how you lead.
Nothing is mandatory.
Everything is available. You decide how much of it you want — and how much of it you don't.
- No mandatory networking.
- No mandatory dinners.
- No forced vulnerability.
- No eight-hour classroom days.
- No icebreakers.
Forcing an executive to play Two Truths and a Lie at 8:15 a.m. isn't leadership development. It's a hostage situation with coffee.
Why a ship
The ship isn't the gimmick. It's part of the methodology.
Aboard Scarlet Lady
Distance from normal organizational roles. Autonomy over your own time. Space to think, time to decide, room for connection, solitude when you need it, and a facilitator coach that doesn't ask you to perform.
A different environment instead of familiar workplace cues.
Choose you & growSAIL is the leadership product. Virgin Voyages is the environment. SAIL for Leaders™ by Not the HR Lady is an authorized Virgin Voyages® Gold Tier First Mate — an independent leadership-development program, not owned or operated by Virgin Voyages® or the Virgin Group.
Explore SAIL by goal
SAIL is new.The work behind it isn't.
Tara Furiani
Founder, SAIL for Leaders
Creator & Host, Not the HR Lady
Author · Leadership Expert · Executive Coach
Tara Furiani has spent her career in executive leadership, human resources, and organizational development — leading teams, building people functions, and developing leaders inside real organizations. She created Not the HR Lady to argue with how most companies develop people, and built SAIL to do something about it.
Alumni voices
The growth doesn't end at the port.
Months and years after their voyage, here's where the work shows up — in how they lead, decide, and hold themselves when it counts.
“Six months later I'm still reaching for the version of me that walked off that ship. The coaching didn't give me answers — it made me stop avoiding the questions I already had.”
“My team noticed before I said a word. The way I run meetings, the way I hold the silence — that came back with me. It's the most lasting development I've done in fifteen years.”
“A year out, the frameworks are gone but the instincts stayed. I trust myself sooner now. That's the ROI nobody measures.”
Questions, answered
The short answers.
What is SAIL for Leaders?
SAIL for Leaders is an immersive executive leadership-development program delivered before, during, and after a 4–5 night Virgin Voyages sailing. It combines private one-on-one coaching, two behavioral assessments, and a self-guided development app for one all-inclusive price of $6,500 per participant.
What does SAIL stand for?
Self-Care, Accountability, Influence, and Learning — the four-part framework every SAIL program is built around. A deeper phase called SAILING adds Introspection, Negotiation, and Growth for alumni who want more time.
How much does SAIL cost?
$6,500 per participant, all-inclusive. That covers the cabin, all meals and beverages, the CrowsNest360 and Periscope assessments, and eight private coaching sessions. Cabin upgrades, airfare, and pre- or post-voyage hotels are optional add-ons.
How long is a SAIL voyage?
The core program runs four to five nights aboard a Virgin Voyages ship. Private coaching begins weeks before you board, and two integration sessions follow after you return home.
Is SAIL part of Virgin Voyages?
No. SAIL for Leaders is an independent leadership-development program and an authorized Virgin Voyages Gold Tier First Mate. It is not owned or operated by Virgin Voyages or the Virgin Group.
Who is SAIL for?
Experienced leaders — founders, senior executives, rising leaders, and functional leaders preparing for enterprise responsibility. The common denominator is readiness to do the work, not title or industry.
Not ready to SAIL yet?
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Where we're going
What do you want to work on when nobody needs you for a minute?
Choose the voyage. We'll help you build the rest around what you actually need.