We have created the GovWFollowMyLead™ Program specifically to help public sector organizations achieve their objective of empowering and retaining their female talent.
Our leadership training program has been carefully developed over the years in close collaboration with the leadership teams of public sector organizations, with the key objective of providing women working in the government with the important tools and strategies to reach their potential in the workplace, to achieve career goals and job satisfaction and to be effective leaders within their teams and organizations.
As part of the GovWFollowMyLead™ Program, we also create a unique supportive community for the participants through our highly effective Mentorship Huddles. Each Huddle is made up of a maximum of 10 women in the Program, facilitated by a Huddle Mentor, who is a peer to the women in the Huddles. The women in each Huddle will collaborate closely to work through insights and learnings from the workshops and use their designated Huddle as a safe space to open up and seek needed help, support and guidance from one another.
The core GovWFollowMyLead™ Program is typically made up of two phases, with multiple workshops under each phase:
- Phase 1 (Personal Skills Development)
- Phase 2 (Workplace Skills Development)
- 10 workshops program (5 workshops for Phase 1 and 5 workshops for Phase 2 with at least 1 workshop focused on wellness and resiliency).
- Each workshop will be held once a month for two hours.
We will either hold a Mentorship Huddles competition in between these two Phases, where members of each Huddle will collaborate and present their recommendations to a panel of public sector leaders on a hypothetical scenario based on insights gained from the first half of the Program, or a Huddles “This is Us” showcase at the end of the Program year, where members of each Huddle will collaborate and do a presentation to showcase their Huddle team’s unique strengths, creativity and passion.
Watch a short video about our GovWFollowMyLead Programs:
Testimonials from Past Participants of the Program
“Having the opportunity to be a mentor and lead a huddle group was a really empowering experience. I got to build on my facilitation and coaching skills while also watching my huddle members learn and grow. The workshops also covered a wide variety of topics and issues and helped me learn new skills and think differently about how I navigate my professional world.” Amanda G., Lead Oracle Applications Business Resource Center, King County Shared Services.
“For the last two years, I’ve undertaken a big career change, leading the Information Technology Department Business Operations and Support team as their manager, delighting in the opportunity to expand my knowledge and apply skills I had already refined. I joined the Koa Club last year to give back. After so many years in government, I thought I could share tricks and tips and support others in their careers. I didn’t know how much I truly needed it for myself. During last year’s FollowMyLead program, I had loads of fun, met amazing women, and collected lots of different nuggets that really helped me navigate my career transition better. After such a great experience (and after having had a GREAT huddle mentor last year), I am thrilled to become a huddle mentor for the 2022 program.” Joanie F., Administrative Services Manager, Snohomish County Department of Information Technology
“Participating in the women’s leadership was an excellent opportunity that I highly recommend! I underestimated the lack of connection I’ve had with peers outside of my own agency and I’m grateful to have developed relationships with women who have similar life demands and career aspirations. It was a rewarding experience to take time for personal and professional growth, develop camaraderie and to learn that you’re not alone in trying to manage a life, family and career. The network this organization can provide is invaluable.” Laura F., MPA, Supervisor III, Snohomish County Conservation and Natural Resources Surface Water Management.
“I highly recommend this program for any women in any position of any field. It really helps you realize, acknowledge, focus and change or re-direct not only the way you think about yourself and others that you work with, but also reflect on how you are perceived by your peers, co-workers, leads, supervisors, etc. This is a great program to empower women through all aspects from how you communicate, to how you dress, your self-confidence and how you can achieve your goals.” Julie Y., IT Systems Specialist, King County Department of Judicial Administration.
“I love being a part of this program. It’s led by women for women. I’ve gained powerful insights in not only my career but on how to enrich my life. I’ve really enjoyed watching other women as they step into their power and being a support structure to help them do it. Susan and this program really live up to their motto – Be Koa!” Jennifer B., Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Manager, King County Information Technology
The GovWFollowMyLead™ Program is designed to:
- Strengthen the leadership, personal and workplace skills of women in the public sector so they can build the confidence to succeed, gain insights on being effective leaders, managers and team members, and be armed with useful tools to navigate commonplace workplace challenges.
- Equip women in the public sector with strategies to maintain their well-being, especially during these high stress times
- Help women in the public sector establish supportive relationships with other women at work, providing them a safe environment to share best practices and informal advice with each other.
Program Bonus
Once registered for a GovWFollowMyLead Program, the participants will also be automatically made a community member of The Koa Club. The Koa Club is a global community of achieving women seeking growth and empowerment in their professional and personal lives and it offers workshops, events and activities that are designed to help its members gain new knowledge and skills so they can be empowered in unexpected ways, not only in relation to their careers, but also practical life skills that are designed to improve the quality of their daily lives. The Koa Club will act as the participants extended learning club outside the Program and as their alumni club when they complete the Program.
program overview
The GovWFollowMyLead™ Program typically has ten different workshops, held once a month for two hours each and is made up of two phases:
Phase 1 (Personal Skills Development)
The Program will typically have 5 workshops for Phase 1, focused on the well-being and personal development for the women participants and which are designed to help them gain the necessary tools to tackle stress in their lives and find productive ways to relieve pressures that women face at work and at home, especially during these challenging times. Phase 1 workshops also provide insights for women on mastering life-changing skills to gain self-awareness of the unique superpowers that reside within each of them and fight off any limiting beliefs that creates obstacles to their success.
Phase 2 (Workplace Skills Development)
Phase 2 of the Program will typically consist of another 5 workshops, this time focused on providing the women participants with practical strategies for operating effectively within the workplace, including understanding the need to develop behaviors that align with and support personal leadership brands and career direction, navigating complex relationships, learning the tools to build and leverage strategic networks within the organization to engage authentically.
Personal Skills Development
Sample Topics:
- Developing a Mindset of Success
- Adopting the Successful Leadership Mindset
- Eliminate Self-Defeating Beliefs and Enhance Your Self-Confidence
- Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
- Confidence and Performance
- Habits of Highly Effective Communicators
- Essential Communication Skills to Boost Presence and Productivity
- Cultivating Your Self-Awareness and Personal Brand
- Personal Branding – Becoming Visible
- Roadmap for Strengthening Your Personal Brand
Workplace Skills Development
Sample Topics:
- Developing Your Leadership Potential
- How to be an Inspiring Leader
- Effortless Leadership – Cultivating an Authentic Leadership Identity
- Improve Your Conflicts Management Skills
- Effective Giving and Receiving of Feedback
- Understanding How to Manage Up, Down and Across Your Organization
- Leading Change in the Workplace
- Principles of Influence and Persuasion
- Building Collaborative Influence at Work
- Negotiation with Confidence
- Applying Your Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
- Improving Emotional Quotient for Workplace Success
- Using Emotional Intelligence to Drive Results
- Creating a Solid Foundation for Professional Growth with Allies, Mentors and Sponsor
- Strategies for effective relationships at work
- Building an awesome workplace culture
- Workplace relationship management fundamentals
- Building a Personal Board of Directors
Wellness Skills Development
Sample Topics:
- Applying Principles of Somatic Intelligence to Achieve Wellness and Resilience
- Outsmart Work Life Balance
- Strategies for Managing Pressures and Increasing Resilience
- Combating Decision-Making Fatigue
- Keys to Reclaim Your Energy as a Conscious Leader
questions.
For any questions about the GovWFollowMyLead Program, please contact the Program leadership at info@thekoaclub.com
mentorship huddles
As part of the GovWFollowMyLead Program™, we will also be organizing several Mentorship Huddles for the women who have signed up for the Program.
The Mentorship Huddles is a group mentoring program within the GovWFollowMyLead Program© that enables the participants to collaborate with colleagues within an organization who share common interests or learning objectives and develop together.Each Mentorship Huddle is made up of 6-8 women who have registered to attend the GovWFollowMyLead Program© and is led by a Huddle Mentor. The Mentorship Huddle brings together smaller groups of women to collectively explore and discuss workshops and other relevant issues – while being mentored and guided by a Huddle Mentor, who will be someone who has knowledge and/or experience with the various issues and challenges raised by the workshops.
why mentorship huddles?
- It encourages the expansion of knowledge pool as women from across departments and generations in an organization can collaborate to learn from one another.
- It helps to build intra-organizational personal relationships by breaking down silos between departments, genders, ethnicities and beyond, providing a safe space to discuss things which can sometimes be uncomfortable.
- It gives members a place where they can have a voice that matters to build confidence and develop or improve leadership and other skills.
- It connects people with varying skillsets to tackle challenges or issues raised during a Huddle meeting.
- It may help open access for the participants to influential peers, future sponsors and senior leadership that they might never have interacted with before.
- It aims to inspire participants to push themselves to deal with obstacles by understanding that others in the group may be tackling similar issues and helping them to overcome those issues or obstacles.
- It fosters the building of trust between participants that allows them to come together in support of each other’s goals, while simultaneously seeking to achieve their own.
It aims to be more fun than traditional mentorships with group activities including role play and brainstorming that creates energy and camaraderie.
how does a mentorship huddle work?
- All participants will be assigned to a Mentorship Huddle, facilitated by a Huddle Mentor. The assignment will be based on results of a survey collected from each participant after the first workshop to determine the best fit for any specific Mentorship Huddle.
- After each workshop, questions and details of that workshop will be shared with the Huddle Mentor who will use the provided information as the base for group discussions at Huddle meetings.
- Huddle meetings will be scheduled by the Huddle Mentor as appropriate with that specific Huddle group and will be held no less than once a month.
huddles competition
- We have created this competition with the hope of encouraging more in-depth learning and discussion on the leadership topics that were introduced to the participants in the GovWFollowMyLead™ Program.
- Some of the key objectives of this competition are to encourage successful collaboration among the Mentorship Huddle team members, to encourage self- assessment and recognition of issues raised in the hypothetical scenario by the Program participants, to increase awareness of current situations and work on strategizing solutions, to develop an understanding of these commonly encountered issues to become a more empathetic leader and colleague, and of course, to get fired up because it is a competition and have fun in the Program.
- We invite leaders from participating organizations to act as judges for the competition and share their insights to the Program participants.
huddles showcase
- In lieu of the Huddles competition, the Program may opt to conduct its own version of a “Show & Tell” showcase of the Huddle teams, where each Huddle team will be asked to work on a project of their choice for the entire Program year that will showcase their Huddle’s collective strengths, creativity and passion.
- Some of the key objectives of this showcase are to encourage successful collaboration among the Mentorship Huddle team members, have the Huddle teams tap into their pool of creativity and to reinforce some of the key learnings from the workshops as they will be asked to include insights from these workshops into their showcase.
- We invite leaders from participating organizations to view and appreciate the work that each Huddle has put into their showcase project.
Note: We will do either the huddles competition or the huddles showcase for each Program (not both).