Valued at Work is transforming how technical industries build inclusive, high-performing teams by making leadership, trust, and clarity more than buzzwords. It’s doing so not through workshops or awareness days, but through systems that embed inclusion directly into delivery.
The Pressure of High-Stakes STEM Industries
In STEM and technical industries, performance is everything – but often comes at the cost of people. Complex projects, shifting priorities, and intense delivery pressures make these industries fertile ground for burnout, disengagement, and underperformance when leadership systems aren’t up to scratch. Lauren Neal, founder and Chief Programme Creator of Valued at Work, saw this repeatedly during her 20+ years managing large-scale technical projects. It wasn’t lack of expertise that held teams back – it was poor alignment between leadership, team dynamics, and culture. That realization became the foundation for Valued at Work and its flagship framework The Valued at Work Blueprint™.
The Origin of Valued at Work: Where Vision Meets Transformation
Lauren’s mission is simple: build workplaces where people thrive and results rise™. Founded in March 2023, Valued at Work draws on deep delivery experience and lived insights from male-dominated sectors, reframing inclusion not as an HR initiative, but a business-critical system. It traces back to a critical realization that Lauren Neal had during her time leading technical projects in the energy sector. Over the years, she saw a troubling trend: despite the high technical expertise of project teams, the leadership culture was often misaligned. This misalignment led to disengagement and, eventually, burnout and often attrition among skilled individuals. What was missing? A deeper connection between inclusive leadership and actual project performance.
Driven by this insight, Lauren founded Valued at Work with a singular purpose: to create environments where people feel valued, and as a result, performance improves. As a chartered engineer and chartered project professional, and navigating the complexities of technical projects for decades, she knew the solution lay in aligning leadership, team dynamics, and inclusion built into delivery.
“Performance through people isn’t a slogan – it’s a system,” says Lauren, capturing the essence of what Valued at Work seeks to deliver. At the heart of this transformation is The Valued at Work Blueprint™, a proprietary framework that integrates inclusive leadership strategies with practical project performance support. This is not generic leadership training but a tailored, real-world approach to transforming the most challenging environments.
Building a Bridge: Leadership and Culture Aligned with Results
Valued at Work is not just another consultancy offering broad, cookie-cutter programs that are top-down or siloed. Instead, it strategically fuses leadership strategy with project outcomes (i.e. measurable results), something that many consultancies overlook. By embedding accountability, trust, and operational rigour into live delivery environments, Valued at Work ensures change isn’t superficial – it’s sustainable. Their approach is rooted in real-world project experience rather than theoretical concepts, making it uniquely suited to technical industries where complexity is high, and retention is often low.
One of the company’s most notable offerings is Thriving in STEM – a career accelerator designed to support women and other under-recognized talent in navigating the challenges of technical roles and building lasting career momentum. In high-pressure environments where the pressure to perform is constant, creating space where individuals can thrive is not just important, it’s essential. By implementing The Valued at Work Blueprint™ across both B2B and B2C environments, Lauren and her team help individuals and organizations unlock stronger results through inclusive leadership and aligned team dynamics.
For B2B clients, Valued at Work delivers leadership programs, strategic consulting, and project performance interventions, always with an eye on building high-functioning, inclusive delivery teams. For individuals, Thriving in STEM provides the clarity, confidence, and tools needed to level the playing field and rise through the ranks.
Real-World Impact Meets High-Pressure Environments
From coaching delivery leads to resetting multi-million-dollar project teams, Valued at Work brings transformation to where it matters most – in delivery. The Blueprint™ doesn’t sit in a slide deck. It’s integrated in the daily operations of high-stakes teams, shifting how leaders align, communicate, and deliver results.
“Inclusion isn’t something we do on the side – it’s built into how we lead projects, manage teams, and deliver outcomes. That’s what makes the shift stick.” says Lauren. This method goes beyond typical culture-building exercises that many organizations rely on, offering instead a practical framework that embeds leadership within the very fabric of day-to-day project work. It’s not about adding more, it’s about making existing processes work better for people and performance.
Valued at Work is quickly building a reputation as a trusted voice in the leadership and performance space, bringing both high-level strategy and practical solutions to the table. Featured in high-profile outlets like Forbes, CEO Magazine, and HR.com, Lauren Neal has been recognized for bringing a systems-based perspective to creating healthier, higher-performing workplaces – especially in industries where pressure is high and retention is low.
Thought Leadership: Changing the Narrative Around Leadership in Technical Industries
Beyond her consultancy work, Lauren is actively shaping the conversation around leadership and team performance in technical sectors. As a regular contributor to ChemicalProcessing.com and a featured voice in publications like Stylist and Oilwoman, she challenges outdated thinking and offers new ways to lead in complex environments.
Her debut book, Valued at Work, brings these ideas to life through storytelling – using fictionalized scenarios inspired by real experiences to explore how trust, bias, and leadership shape outcomes in male-dominated industries. It’s not a traditional leadership manual; it’s a story with insights woven throughout.
“It’s not about ticking boxes or hitting diversity targets,” Lauren explains. “It’s about building trust into the systems that drive results – that’s where real change happens.” This is why the Valued at Work Blueprint™ is more than just a consultancy tool, it’s a system that brings lasting change.
For Lauren, this is just the beginning. She continues to challenge outdated leadership practices, focusing on how inclusive, trust-based cultures can directly impact project performance. With support from public grant-funded business programs and recognition through supplier diversity networks, Valued at Work is expanding its reach – proving that inclusive, performance-driven leadership can be both strategic and practical.
A Diverse Supplier, A Commitment to Real Change
Backed by decades of delivery experience in engineering and project environments, Valued at Work brings both credibility and lived experience to the leadership conversation as a certified diverse supplier and a member of MSDUK. But this work goes far beyond ticking boxes. The company helps clients embed trust, equity, and accountability into the systems that drive team performance and project success.
This perspective – grounded in real-world delivery and shaped by under-recognized voices – allows Valued at Work to offer more than compliance training. It brings a strategic edge to organizations seeking to improve retention, build stronger leaders, and deliver better outcomes through their people.
For teams operating under pressure, Valued at Work offers a practical, measurable path to performance – one where culture and results rise together.
Visit Valued at Work to learn how your organization can lead with clarity, build trust, and deliver results that last.
Links:
