IMPACT

The Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change program prepares participants to expand their influence and advance their leadership. Participants become more affirmed of their personal leadership identity and committed to the changes they will affect in their work and workplace.

During this three-day program, you will learn how to:

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

360 Assessment Tool

The program starts with a comprehensive assessment of your leadership competencies, including critical skills like situational adaptability, strategic mindset, building teams, driving a vision, managing complexity, innovation, and building collaborative relationships and networks.

Feedback from your managers, peers, or direct reports helps you understand the value you bring to your organization, the strengths and talents you are respected for, and areas you can focus on to take your leadership skills to the next level.

Before the program, you will receive a virtual coaching session to help you make sense of the report, allowing you to reflect on your assessment before jumpstarting your thinking and development at the program.

Guest Speakers

Each iteration of the program features of set of guest speakers from the outside world who share their leadership journeys with the participants in the program. Recent guest speakers include Sharon Price John, president and CEO of Build-a-Bear Workshop, who explained how she affected a turnaround at her organization, and Nancy McKinstry, CEO of Walters Kluwer, who spoke about undergoing a digital transformation at her company.

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 days towards a Certificate with select alumni and tuition benefits. Learn more.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

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

The weeks leading up to the program will help participants frame their personal goals for participation in the course, connect participants with each other and with their coaches, and solicit participant input to be used throughout the program with various online activities.

Participants should budget five to six hours of preparation for the program, including a virtual coaching session prior to the start date. Program participation also includes a group coaching session after the program.

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
• when the stakes are high
• The importance of story-telling to enlist supporters and facilitate decision-making
• Strategies and techniques for making your voice heard in challenging situations.
• Specific approaches for overcoming obstacles in conflict situations and managing negotiations to a beneficial outcome.

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.

PARTICIPANT PROFILE & TESTIMONIALS

The Women in Leadership: Expanding Influence and Leading Change program is designed for middle- to upper-level executives who are looking to develop their leadership abilities and expand their impact and influence.

Alumni and up to four of their colleagues are eligible for a 25 percent tuition benefit for programs lasting up to seven days. More on the Alumni Tuition Benefit.

Typical Participant Mix

Hear from Past Participants:

Christine Keta

Christine Keta

Program Operations Manager at the New York Power Authority

"Every woman transitioning to a leadership role should take this course. It provided me with a network of inspiring women and the tools to reflect on my career and what I need to do to continue to ask what for I want. "

Angelica Coronel

Angelica Coronel

Programmatic Lead at Google

"The Women in Leadership course gave me another perception of leadership and a way to be an authentic and different leader in my organization."

Tina Biswas

Tina Biswas

Program Director at Razorfish

"The Women in Leadership program provided me with tools and frameworks I can utilize to make an immediate impact on my organization."

Kelsey Achenbach

Kelsey Achenbach

Strategic Marketing Manager, Celanese

"The program was a great way to get women together to discuss leadership challenges and collectively make commitments to improve the advancements of women in the workplace."

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MZ Goodman

VP of Product, Goop

“As a woman who works in technology I’m sort of fascinated by the lack of women in the space. I think there’s a real opportunity for all of us to raise the bar for enterprises, so I’m taking Women in Leadership as a mentor to other women.”

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Gabriela Antunez

Financial Controller/ FP&A at Microsoft

This program has given me the tools to unlock my self development as a leader towards my long-term career goals.

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Shefali Karani

Executive/Director/Owner at Rama Phosphates Ltd, India

A very inspiring and empowering program. It helped motivate me to move forward in my career and life. I hope to improve and uplift others around me.

Shawn Rose.jpg

Shawn Rose

Manager at Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Branch

My time at the Women in Leadership program was very impactful and gave me tools and tips for moving forward in my career.

Brena Galvao.jpg

Brena Galvao

Senior Manager at Visa

An amazing and inspirational experience!

Christine Keta

Christine Keta

Program Operations Manager at the New York Power Authority

Angelica Coronel

Angelica Coronel

Programmatic Lead at Google

Tina Biswas

Tina Biswas

Program Director at Razorfish

Kelsey Achenbach

Kelsey Achenbach

Strategic Marketing Manager, Celanese

mz-goodman.png

MZ Goodman

VP of Product, Goop

GabrielaAntunez-WIL-profile-pic.jpg

Gabriela Antunez

Financial Controller/ FP&A at Microsoft

Shefali Karani.jpg

Shefali Karani

Executive/Director/Owner at Rama Phosphates Ltd, India

Shawn Rose.jpg

Shawn Rose

Manager at Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Branch

Brena Galvao.jpg

Brena Galvao

Senior Manager at Visa

FACULTY

Rita McGrath, Faculty Director
Associate Professor of Management
Faculty Member, Executive Education

Rita McGrath is a globally recognized expert on strategy, innovation, and growth. Her work and ideas help CEO's and senior executives succeed in rapidly changing and volatile environments, and she is valued for her rare ability to connect research to business problems. Recognized as one of the top 10 management thinkers by global management award Thinkers50 in 2017 and winning the award for outstanding achievement in the strategy category, McGrath speaks regularly at corporate events, such as the Microsoft CEO Summit and the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. She appears regularly on television and radio and is often cited in the press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, and Businessweek and has published several articles in the Harvard Business Review. McGrath is the co-author of three books in addition to her latest book, The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast As Your Business (Harvard Business Review Press).

She has also been named one of the top ten business school professors to follow on Twitter, and was named one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter by Fast Company magazine. In 2009, she was inducted as a fellow of the Strategic Management Society, an honor given to those who have had a significant impact on the field.

Prior to life in academia, McGrath was an IT director, worked in the political arena and founded two startups.

Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, Program Facilitator
Director of Organizational Learning and Research,
Columbia Business School Executive Education

Upon earning her doctorate in Adult Learning and Leadership from Columbia University, Dr. Nakamura joined Columbia Business School as Director of Organizational Learning and Research for the Executive Education division. She conducts research and develops content as well as serving as an Executive Coach. Her areas of research interest include social capital building, leadership development, and online learning. She authored the "Japanese Women’s Leadership" chapter in the book, Current Perspectives on Asian Women in Leadership. The book explores the unique socioeconomic challenges encountered by women leaders in China, India, Japan, Korea, and other Asian countries, where traditional cultural expectations and modernized values coexist. She also serves as adjunct assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her course includes facilitating adult learning with neuroscience in mind.

In addition to her doctorate, Dr. Nakamura holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Literature; a Master of Arts in International Education; and a Master of Education in Adult Learning and Leadership.

 
Faculty members who have taught in the program include: