Women’s Leadership Institute

Executive Education #1 Business School in US

Spring 2024 Program
March 28 - June 6, 2024 

Location: live online - delivered in 6 bi-weekly sessions with a time commitment of 4-5 hours per session
Program Fee: $5,250


 

Faculty director Dr. Martha Miller and UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Institute alums discuss the experience and impact of the program

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Program Overview

 
For more than 20 years, UCLA Anderson’s Women’s Leadership Institute has been developing smart, savvy and authentic leaders, skilled at building organizational value and ready to take their careers to the next level.

The program is offered live online in 6 bi-weekly sessions and employs the three-phase ACT learning model.

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The Coursework

 

The Lay of the Land & Setting Yourself Up for Success

This session examines the obstacles that are still keeping women’s talents from being fully utilized and recognized at work, and offers research-based suggestions for action. By the end of the session, participants will walk away with a concrete game plan to improve opportunities for themselves and others.

After an exercise to surface participants’ strengths and goals, Dr. Martha Miller presents the lay of the land regarding the progress and challenges faced by women in the work environment. Key points include:

  • Across industries, women are not moving into senior executive positions at a rate commensurate with their increased numbers in middle and upper-middle management.
  • Male executives tend to think work-life demands are the main issue regarding women’s lack of advancement, whereas women say it is networking and access to senior people.
  • Recent research suggests unconscious bias is a key factor, operating in both men and women, and causing them to downgrade women’s performance. For example, the “same” resume gets evaluated much more positively when a male name is put on it (the applicant is deemed more experienced, accomplished, smarter, etc.) than when a woman’s name is on the resume. A practical application of this research occurred in symphony orchestras that began “blind” auditions to counteract the bias. The hiring rate of women increased five-fold.
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Leading Team Decision Making

What are the decision making traps that lead good managers to make bad decisions? What are the considerations needed to evaluate situations and mitigate risk? This session explores the psychology of decision making, both at the individual and the group level. Participants learn how to make more strategic, sound decisions and how to exert influence when others are involved in the decision making process. Participants will explore perceptions and attitudes, improve their ability to influence others involved and make better decisions with confidence.

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Organizational Savvy

What does it take to successfully navigate the organization? Do you know what kinds of jobs routinely lead upward in the organization? How do you present yourself to be considered for one of those jobs? In this session, participants will learn how to project executive readiness through knowledge of the content needed and the style that is most effective at communicating presence, ability and confidence. Participants will also decode the relative importance of activities they engage in within a job: how discretion, visibility and relevance of their work affect their credibility and viability for promotion.

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Mentoring and Networking: A Two-Way Street

Success at the executive and managerial level depends on forming and maintaining both internal and external networks, as well as utilizing productive mentoring relationships. In this session, we:

  • Analyze our own networks and network strategies, and find out how to increase influence without compromising our values
  • Discuss strategies for developing and maintaining mentoring and sponsorship networks
  • Examine different mentor and sponsor relationships and techniques
  • Analyze our own mentor relationships while learning how to work with mentors to make the relationships more effective
  • Develop our own mentorship capabilities so that we can be better mentors
  • Identify ways of working with internal sponsors
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Leadership and Strategy to Achieve the Extraordinary

Strategic thinking is an essential leadership capability. In this session, we discuss a remarkable case study of outstanding leadership and strategic thinking that exemplifies the most critical issues a leader must address in order to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Through lectures, case study and small group work, participants learn the value and application of the following leadership skills: articulating purpose; using chaos strategically; identifying situations limited by the “Tyranny of OR”; bringing the future to the present to reduce uncertainty; and using creative chaotic conversations to expand possibilities.

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Leadership Styles and Skills

Effective leaders need to be able to work with a variety of people through different challenges in dynamic environments. Most leaders over-rely on a specific leadership style or approach, regardless of the situation. To develop one’s leadership capabilities, however, it is critical to broaden one’s leadership style portfolio in order to deliver added value and ensure strategic success in any complex situation. The objective of this session is to help participants develop an understanding of their own strengths as a leader, evaluate how they might successfully use other leadership styles and consider how to use this knowledge to identify specific actions they can take that will enhance the effectiveness of their leadership.

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Leading Change

In this sessions participants will examine the types of leadership skills and attributes required of female leaders. They will learn how to effectively manage change through individuals and teams, and understand the associated dynamics of change management through an organization. Participants will also learn to manage the impact of changing business conditions to transform and lead their organizations. In group work and lectures, the participants will discuss proven strategies for injecting positive change into their own organizations and create actionable items to use when they leave the classroom.

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The Experience

 
The work-friendly six-session live online learning journey contains ample formal and informal opportunities to practically explore the curriculum and network with your peers, allowing you to receive feedback and gauge your progress in real-time and apply what you’ve learned immediately at work.
Leadership Action Plan

With the benefit of peer feedback and bringing together the insights gained from the program sessions, participants craft an in-depth leadership action plan that will guide their post-program career choices and professional development.

Coaching

Divided into group coaching circles, participants serve as peer mentors during the program and as members of a virtual developmental community afterward. Each coaching circle will work with a professional coach to ensure progress is tracked and goals are achieved.

Action Journal

This comprehensive reference resource is the compass that will guide your progress through the institute. It contains personal application questions, space to note your “ah-ha” moments and additional post-program readings. In essence, the Action Journal tells you what you can expect from each session and how it applies to your workplace. It will also help you to understand what is expected of you.

Adapt, Catalyze, Transform

 
The ACT Learning Model
Adapt

The first phase of the program is structured to help participants adapt as leaders. Adapting is the process of preparing for change. And this foundational work begins with a series of virtual learning opportunities:

• Participants engage in a kick-off web conference that provides them with a program overview

• They complete a personal assessment and a Leadership Competencies Assessment, along with additional pre-program assignments

• They engage in their first individual coaching session

Catalyze

The second phase of the program prepares participants to catalyze their learning through the development of a wide array of leadership skills that help them communicate their vision and inspire others to join them in driving organizational change. During these sessions, participants are provided with the appropriate tools to help them translate their learning into actionable next steps at work.

Transform

The third phase of the program helps participants transform their individual professional goals into organizational action. This transformation hinges on how they apply the first two phases of their learning journey to inspire those around them in pursuit of innovative strategies to create organizational value — in short, how successfully they can adapt and catalyze.

Progress is tracked in their Leadership Action Plan, a tool customized to their personal development goals but designed to facilitate the application of their expanded skill sets to their organization’s needs.

In addition, participants engage in two more individual coaching sessions and two webinars with their “coaching clusters” — peer groups convened to focus on application of program learning.

Impact

 
This unique institute will have a tremendously positive impact on you, and also on the organization that supports your participation.

You...

enhance your credibility and strengthen your position within your organization; create and sustain effective developmental relationships and alliances that advance your career; maximize your personal, professional and organizational potential through better teamwork and team leadership; think, lead and manage in ways that celebrate your individual attributes and perspectives; develop valuable personal and business connections with fellow managers from leading organizations and corporations.

Your Organization...

builds better leaders who are more prepared for organizational advancement; increases employee retention rates and succession planning efforts; develops and ensures a more inclusive management team that can draw on the full diversity of its experiences and perspectives; fortifies positioning as a corporate leader in the area of social responsibility.

Who Should Attend?

The UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Institute is designed for mid- to senior-level leaders, typically with five or more years of experience managing people and/or projects in a corporate, public-sector, entrepreneurial, or nonprofit environment. All leaders who wish to better understand women’s leadership challenges, or who are responsible for the career development of others are encouraged to attend.

Program Format and Fees

The UCLA Women’s Leadership Institute offers a live online immersion in releasing your leadership potential. The fee of $5,250 includes: professionally led group coaching circles, an Action Journal and other educational materials needed to complete the program.

Learn more about the UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Institute

UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Institute Form