Women In Executive Leadership Program

In our introductory session, you will meet your fellow participants and begin to explore your own understanding of leadership. We will dive into how our thoughts govern our feelings, actions and results. We will start to focus on recognizing thoughts, behaviors and actions that sabotage or support our careers. We will give a brief overview of topics that will be addressed during the course and you will also identify individual goals that you want to achieve as a result of this course.

All leaders understand that "who you know" matters and that getting people to want to help you succeed is crucial for career success. This session will help participants understand the importance of networking for career success. Participants will analyze their existing networks and create a networking plan that will serve to connect them with career influencers. The session will also explore the importance of women on boards and the status of corporate female leadership going forward.

Having a mentor gives you a sounding board for ideas for major decisions and gives you access to your mentor's knowledge and experience. The mentorship component of this program will be discussed in detail. All participants will identify and secure a senior-level mentor. Participants will also begin to build a personal and professional roadmap (Individual Development Plan) that will encompass both your desired destination and the steps, experience, and development you will need to make progress on the journey. The IDP will be an ongoing project throughout the course and will require out-of-class work.

Leadership is less about your needs, and more about the needs of the people and the organization you are leading. Leadership styles should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges facing the organization. In this session, you will come to understand your leadership styles and how to best leverage for any given situation. Leadership communication and motivation will be discussed using the DiSC assessment. This session will also explore change in the workplace and best techniques to stay purpose driven, communicate clear goals, and to provide inspiration.

Good communication means the intended message is received by the audience without any distortions in meaning. Good communicators are generally superior employees and leaders because their teams understand the task at hand, and get the job done on time and on budget. This session focuses on women's communication habits that either sabotage or support success.

Negotiation plays an extremely important role in career advancement. This largely interactive session will teach you how to prepare for negotiation and allow you to role-play an actual negotiation that you can take back to your work environment. The goal of this session is to give you practice being strategic about your negotiation 'asks' and to create immediate ROI for you.

In this session, we explore the fundamentals to successful public speaking. We address the new paradigm of presenting online, as well as some of the traditional best practices with respect to public speaking. Participants will practice presenting their Individual Development Plans and will receive group feedback to help them prepare for their final class presentation.

The concept of power is an integral part of leadership. Effective leaders influence other people’s actions, thoughts, and emotions to achieve a common goal. In this session, we will learn how best to navigate through the organizational politics to effectively influence, motivate, and engage others within the organizational structure.

Business strategy is a commitment to a set of coherent, mutually reinforcing plans aimed at attaining a specific goal. Great strategies promote alignment among various groups within an organization; clarify objectives and priorities, and help focus efforts around them. Many leaders fail to recognize the importance of their own influence while setting and implementing strategy. This course will delve into strategy and how to most effectively influence everyone in the organization to ensure maximum buy-in.

Participants will present their Individual Development Plans to their cohort colleagues. The afternoon will be an eye opening and limit-challenging experience. Karen Pfeffer and Connie Phelan will lead us on an exploration of what "fear" is, what holds us back and how to move forward in courage. Families and co-workers are invited to attend this session, which will be followed by presentation of Certificates and a small reception.