Meet your Trainer

The Games Leadership Academy was founded by Melissa Phillips, an Executive Coach and Leadership Psychologist who has worked in the Games Industry for over a decade.

Melissa has worked as a Head of Studio, Operations Director, Producer, Games Programme Manager and Consultant across a number of different Game Studios and Organisations. She also continues to actively make games and enjoys being a part of the development process.

“I started the Games Leadership Academy because it felt like we were having lots of conversations in the Games Industry about what needed to change, but there were few spaces in which this awareness could be grown and come directly from the Games Industry itself.”

You can see more talks from Melissa Below!

The Games Leadership® Framework

“The Games Leadership Academy is here because I know what it’s like to need this support. I’ve worked in the Entertainment Industry now for nearly 20 years and I was often unprepared for the challenges of Leadership - especially the loneliness that came with making decisions without the right support. I started this journey to fill that gap.”

Melissa Phillips, Director - Games Leadership Academy

The Games Leadership® Framework is our approach to developing well-rounded Leaders within the Games Industry. Leadership is not just about the skills you have but also about understanding how you interact with your team and foster a positive culture.

The framework is built around three interconnected parts:

Me: The Leader; your self-awareness, your beliefs, and your goals.

The Games Leadership® Blueprint is our foundational course designed to help you understand yourself as a Leader and set you up for success. We believe if a Leader isn’t supported and in tune with themselves then it can be challenging to effectively connect the other parts of the framework model.

You: The individual relationships between the Leader and their Team Members. This element is about understanding, supporting, and guiding your team on an individual level - how the Team individually progress and grow.

Us: Bringing it all together. How the Leader and individual Team Members join together to create a Culture. Successful Leadership depends on building environments where everyone feels they belong and can collaborate effectively.

We use this framework to help design our content and courses. We start with you, moving to your relationships with others, and culminating in the collective team. Together, we make more impactful Leadership!

GDC 2024 ‘We Need to Talk About Games Leadership®’

Podcast: Branching Factor - Musings on Games Leadership with Melissa Phillips | Branching Factor #018

Our Values

We support the belief that good leaders invest in their own personal development and in the development of those around them.
Learning is key to understanding who we are and how we can make an impact in our industry.
We are at the forefront of understanding and exploring the emerging trends and needs of the Games Industry.
It is part of our mission to ensure we are bringing relevant and up-to-date information to our course materials.
We want to build Ethical Leaders, who champion best practice to support people and processes within their workplace.