Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change

The evidence is clear: inclusive leaders and inclusive organizations outperform those that are not, yet women remain underrepresented in all levels of management. This program is designed to help elevate the impact of women leaders – enabling them to better navigate the business landscape, develop and leverage their talents, and step into roles of greater influence.

Despite the compelling case for equality of gender representation at all levels of an organization, even with the best of intentions, unconscious bias can influence who advances at work. Participants in the Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change program learn time-tested techniques and practical ideas they can apply immediately to their careers to combat these performance-limiting biases and better capitalize on their strengths.

Get ready to be inspired, network with likeminded colleagues, and learn applicable skills for an immediate impact on your career and your organization.

Professors Malia Mason and Trish Gorman, experts in gender, leadership, negotiations, and strategy, are the program's faculty directors.

Focused on women’s advancement, this unique program provides participants the knowledge, skills, tools, and real-time problem-solving needed to further their own advancement, and that of other women in leadership roles.

For a complete program schedule, download the agenda.

Please Contact Us

Please contact our Learning Solutions Specialists at +1 212-854-3395 for a personal conversation to learn more.

The Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change program prepares participants to expand their influence and advance their leadership. Participants gain confidence in their leadership identity, empowering them to effect change in their workplace.

During this highly interactive program, you will learn how to:

• Advocate for yourself, your team, and your collective ideas
• Establish strategic networks and better leverage them to champion change
• Engage supporters through compelling communications
• Overcome challenges to your visibility and authority
• Negotiate favorable outcomes and manage conflict
• Articulate your vision and your action plan for personal leadership

Guest Speakers

Each iteration of the program features guest speakers who share their leadership journeys with program participants. Recent speakers include Sharon Price John, president and CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop, who explained how she effected a turnaround at her organization, and Nancy McKinstry, CEO of Walters Kluwer, who shared lessons from a major digital transformation experience.

In this video, hear from guest speaker Rachel Mushahwar, General Manager, Head of Americas for Retail, Hospitality, and CPG at Intel, on why the topic of women in leadership is important to her.

Upon completion of this program, you will earn three credits towards a Certificate with select alumni and tuition benefits. Learn more.

The Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change program uses a combination of online tools, interactive lectures, inspirational talks, and workshop exercises to build participants’ confidence and hone their skillsets. Sessions taught by Columbia Business School professors, women’s leadership practitioners and business leaders are supplemented by sessions with colleagues from various fields and industries.

In the weeks leading up to the program’s start, the faculty directors will help participants identify and frame their personal goals for participation in the course, connect participants with each other, and solicit participant input to be used throughout the program with various online activities.

You will focus on crystallizing your goals and cultivating the supporters you need to realize your ambitions, including:

• Identifying and developing your:
  • leadership identity
  • personal brand in the workplace
  • motivations, values, and strengths
  • vision statement for your leadership
  • personal positioning statement
• Evaluating your formal and informal networks to identify the strengths of your network and individuals who can become supporters of your mission
• Learning strategies for advocating for yourself and gaining visibility for your accomplishments

You'll also focus on interactions with others and communicating effectively, including:

• Effective and productive communication tactics in an array of contexts: informal, formal and when the stakes are especially high
• The importance of storytelling to enlist supporters and facilitate decision-making
• Strategies and techniques for making your voice heard
• Specific approaches for enhancing your deal making success

You will also get equipped to create a new future – from envisioning new strategies to driving change in your organization, specifically:

• Visioning skills required to identify and pursue opportunities beyond your to-do list and to alert others to new possibilities
• Assessing your level of comfort in taking risks
• Adopting a new framework for thinking about risk, uncertainty, and failure
• Applying these new learnings to the opportunity to advance women’s leadership in your workplace and develop strategies to make that happen

For a complete program schedule, download the agenda.