developing women leaders
Research exploring leadership development for women, maintains success rests in the design of ‘women specific’ leadership development programs.
Ibarra (et al) in Taking Gender into Account: Theory and Design for Women’s Leadership Development Programs 2011, argue that in the past, practitioners have not engaged with a structured approach to leadership development for women. The result has been either they have delivered the same programs to women as they have to men – an ‘add women and stir’ approach effectively ignoring gender, or they have gone down the path of trying to ‘fix’ women which highlights gender and locates the ‘problem’ in women. Neither approach addresses the systemic realities women face, nor are likely to foster sustainable leadership capacity.
Developing women for senior leadership roles must focus on both gender and leadership without victimising or blaming women and at the same time, giving women a sense of agency in their careers.
We have designed and delivered development programs specifically for women leaders given these realities. One recent example was delivered for the Australian Institute of Sport across High Performance for two cohorts – the first being women in executive roles, the second catering to high performance female coaches. Both programs were across 7-8 months, designed for women to identify opportunities and remove barriers for personal transformation within a safe space for learning, experimenting and peer support.
Incorporating 360-degree feedback and coaching, our programs support participants to:
Name, claim and leverage key strengths
Consciously develop presence to influence change
Make sense of how experiences have shaped them and who they could become
Develop strategies that enable them to be more fully seen and understood
Intentionally explore and develop their relationship system to enable conscious connections
Leaders will experience context relevant development in a variety of ways throughout their careers and as such, we do not propose women should only ever be included in all female cohorts. However, for the purpose of supporting female leaders to develop and progress against the stated program objectives, all female programs are highly beneficial in having robust conversations and in understanding core issues.
Artem acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Victoria where we meet and work, recognising their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities.
We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past, present and emerging.