The Paradigm Shift Toward Women Leaders Certificate

Online ~30 hrs

Leadership Skills for Women:

The Secrets of Female Leaders

Overview/Description
This course reveals the secrets of many women who have become successful business leaders. It teaches women how to become players in the business world and make their careers work for them. Learners will also discover some of the ways great female leaders handle themselves and gain even more professional power.

Target Audience
Female executives, midlevel managers, supervisors, team leaders

Lesson Objectives:

Get in the Game

*  Recognize benefits of understanding the unwritten rules of the game of business.

*  Identify steps of learning to play the game of business.

*  Apply strategies for playing the game of business in given scenarios.

*  Identify ways that mentors and advocates can help women advance in their careers.

*  Identify people who can make up an effective professional network.

Take Charge of Your Career

*  Recognize the importance of taking charge of a career.

*  Identify strategies to become an advocate in advancing one's own career.

*  Apply strategies that advocate career advancement in given business scenarios.

*  Select effective communication methods of successful leaders.

*  Determine whether communication methods are used effectively in given business scenarios.

*  Identify ways to take smart risks in business.

Discover Your Abilities to Lead

*  Recognize the importance of displaying abilities to be a leader in business.

*  Identify behaviors that leaders should exhibit.

*  Apply techniques to help you focus on your skills in given business scenarios.

*  Select ways to find balance between work and home.

Building Your Support System

Overview/Description
"Building Your Support System" will teach women that few can succeed in business without a support system. The course explains how mentoring relationships and networking can help women reach their professional goals. Women will learn how businesses are developing and evolving today. The course also focuses on the importance of having a healthy balance between work and home.

Target Audience
Female executives, midlevel managers, supervisors, team leaders

Lesson Objectives:

The Benefits of Mentoring Relationships

*  Recognize the benefits of good mentoring relationships in building a career.

*  Identify roles a mentor can play in a protégé’s career.

*  Apply the steps to choose appropriate mentors in business scenarios.

*  Choose behaviors that will help build strong relationships with mentors.

The Importance of Networking

*  Recognize the importance of networking in moving a career forward.

*  Identify people who are crucial to a professional network.

*  Use appropriate networking strategies in business scenarios.

*  Analyze whether employees asked effective networking questions to learn the corporate culture in business scenarios.

Developments in Business

*  Recognize how recent developments in business benefit women.

*  Identify changes in business today that benefit women.

*  Identify reasons women may have advantages over men in the changing business world.

*  Identify strategies that take advantage of gender diversity in business.

*  Employ strategies in business scenarios to take advantage of the positive effects of gender diversity.

Finding Balance Between Work and Home

*  Recognize the importance of finding a balance between work life and home life

*  Select strategies that will help a professional make the right choices about her life and career.

*  Apply strategies in business scenarios to make the best choices about life and career.

*  Analyze a scenario to determine how successful a female leader has been in keeping work life and home life separate.

*  Identify appropriate strategies for handling crises through the use of a support system.

Playing by the Rules

Overview/Description
This course is intended to help women understand the basis of many traditional businesses founded by men. It will help all women moving into leadership positions because every organization has some set of rules that must be understood to gain success. It also gives women a basis for finding ways to change the rules as they become leaders.

Target Audience
Female executives, mid-level managers, supervisors, team leaders

Lesson Objectives:

Learn the Rules

*  Recognize benefits of learning the rules of an organization.

*  Identify reasons many men seem to inherently understand the rules of business.

*  Select ways to deal effectively with the unwritten rules in a company.

Know How to Play

*  Recognize why it's important to understand how to play the game of business.

*  Identify results of displaying confidence as a leader.

*  Use techniques for taking new approaches to a job in a business scenario.

*  Select strategies for being assertive as a business leader.

*  Use strategies for being assertive as a leader in business scenarios.

*  Select ways to let go of emotions while playing the game of business.

Change the Rules

*  Recognize benefits of changing the rules of business.

*  Identify ways to gain support for changing the rules of business.

*  Identify methods for bending the rules in business.

*  Identify techniques that help women in leadership gain greater influence in business.

*  Successfully apply techniques for exerting influence in business scenarios.

Groundbreaking: The Paradigm Shift toward Women

Overview/Description
This course describes ways women in leadership can help companies adjust if they are among the first women leaders in their organizations. Learners will look at why more companies are welcoming women into the ranks of leaders and how women can use their skills to reach top jobs. The course also explores ways to make the company more accepting of women in leadership and how such leaders can benefit a company.

Target Audience
Female executives, midlevel managers, supervisors, team leaders

Lesson Objectives:

Growing Opportunities for Women to Lead

*  Recognize the value of the paradigm shift toward more women leading in business.

*  Identify the global changes in business that has offered women more leadership opportunities.

*  Identify examples of the cultural changes in corporations that provide more leadership opportunities for women.

Breaking through the Glass Ceiling

*  Recognize the importance of succeeding in reaching a leadership position as a woman.

*  Identify the appropriate steps to take in creating an advancement plan to help her move forward in her career.

*  Identify the techniques for successfully exhibiting self-confidence as a leader.

*  Apply the steps necessary for successfully exhibiting self-confidence as a leader in a role play.

*  Sequence the steps in the shared-vision process.

*  Apply the shared-vision process in a given business scenario.

Making Use of Diversity

*  Recognize advantages of having diverse leaders and staff members.

*  Identify examples of targeting formerly underrepresented groups for products and services in the new marketing paradigm.

*  Predict whether a female business leader will be successful in convincing her company to make the marketing paradigm shift to include underrepresented groups.

*  Assess whether a female leader in a given business scenario is successful as a diversity advocate in her organization, based on all the strategies necessary for being a diversity advocate.

*  Match specific qualities of leadership with examples of ways a woman can use these qualities outside the professional setting.

Establish and Maintain Authority

Overview/Description
This course teaches women how to establish and maintain their authority as leaders in their companies. "Establish and Maintain Authority" offers self-assessment ideas to help learners better understand their own abilities and styles. Women can also learn better communication skills and how to handle their authority appropriately.

Target Audience
Female executives, midlevel managers, supervisors, team leaders

Lesson Objectives:

Understand Yourself as a Leader

*  Recognize advantages of having a solid understanding of oneself as a leader.

*  Match the three styles of leadership to examples of each.

*  Match specific leadership qualities with examples of cultivating those qualities in the workplace.

*  Identify the questions to ask to help determine one's leadership potential.

Build Communication Skills

*  Recognize benefits of building strong communication skills.

*  Select common self-defeating communication habits.

*  Sequence the steps to effective communication.

*  Apply the steps for effective communication in a business scenario.

Be Proactive

*  Identify benefits of being proactive in one's career.

*  Match fears that female business leaders must overcome with examples of those fears.

*  Apply strategies for successfully asserting oneself in a business scenario.

*  Sequence the steps in the process for neutralizing conflict.

*  Apply the steps in the process for neutralizing conflict in a business scenario.

Use Your Authority Appropriately

*  Recognize benefits of knowing how to use your authority appropriately.

*  Determine whether a leader has successfully created a supportive environment in a given situation.

*  Identify the steps a leader should take to delegate duties effectively.

*  Determine whether a female business leader has effectively delegated tasks to her staff.

*  Determine whether a leader has set the stage for successful negotiations in a business scenario.

Leadership Skills for Women Simulation

Overview/Description
While women have entered and successfully adapted to most industries, including traditionally male-dominated fields, they have yet to obtain equal representation in the upper ranks. There is no doubt that women are capable of being successful managers and executives, and many women are discovering that training is the real key to getting beyond the "glass ceiling." Women need to learn the unwritten rules of the business game and manipulate them to suit their needs. That's not to say the rules are different for men and women; merely, that some believe women haven't traditionally been taught the rules, and, therefore, have a disadvantage when playing the game. The skills practiced in this simulation pertain to both men and women. Understanding the unwritten rules of a corporate culture, emulating successful leaders, practicing strategies to demonstrate confidence, advocating for you, overcoming stereotypes, finding a balance between life and work, and using proven leadership techniques to negotiate conflicts are all skills that any leader needs to understand. However, the situations in this simulation are created for a female learner who may not be privy to the unwritten rules of career advancement. This simulation has been written with the assumption that the learner is a woman with a six-year-old daughter.   

Target Audience
Women at all levels in the workplace.

Lesson Objectives:

Leadership Skills for Women Simulation

*  Utilizing your mentor to help you advocate for yourself and others and to understand and practice unwritten rules.

*  Observing and understanding the unwritten rules.

*  Practicing the unwritten rules, including using the REV model.

*  Overcoming fear and female stereotypes by valuing your unique experiences.

*  Applying appropriate strategies for communicating effectively.

*  Avoiding self-defeating communication styles.

*  Building personal relationships and networking.

*  Acting like a leader by being confident and creating a supportive environment.

*  Advocating for yourself and others.

*  Applying appropriate strategies to find a balance between work and home.

*  Cultivating and practicing leadership skills (assertiveness, decisiveness, and supportiveness).

*  Using steps to neutralize conflict.

*  Following appropriate steps of delegation.

*  Practicing steps for negotiation.