The Covid-19 crisis has had, and continues to have, a major adverse impact on workplaces, with many employees, especially women, struggling to do their jobs. According to the 2020 Women in the Workplace study by McKinsey & Co, “[m]any feel like they’re ‘always on’ now that the boundaries between work and home have blurred.” Many women bear the additional burden of home schooling and caring responsibilities during the pandemic while trying not to fall behind on meeting work demands. The report found that one in four women are considering down shifting their careers or leaving the workforce entirely because of the impact of COVID-19. Another study by software company, Qualtrics and online talent marketplace the Boardlist, which focuses on gender parity in the boardroom, found that women are also being left behind when it comes to promotions during this pandemic: 34% of men working remotely with children at home said they received a promotion, versus 9% of women in the same situation. In addition, 26% of men with children at home said they received a pay raise while working remotely, compared to 13% of women with children at home. It is crucial for organizations, especially at this time, to focus on different ways to support their women employees, including opening avenues for the women to achieve a more reasonable work-life balance and further investing in the women’s personal and professional development and growth to promote opportunities for their success within the organization. To help companies achieve their objective of empowering and retaining their female talent, we are pleased to offer our bold customizable PowWFollowMyLead™ Program. We aim to design a sustainable leadership training program and community in close collaboration with the leadership team at the companies, focused on providing their women employees with the important tools and strategies to reach their potential in the workplace and to achieve career goals and job satisfaction. As part of the PowWFollowMyLead™ Program, we will help to create a unique supportive community for the women employees 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 PowWFollowMyLead™ Program is typically made up of two phases, with multiple workshops under each phase:
- Phase 1 (Personal Skills Development)
- Phase 2 (Workplace Skills Development)
We offer two options:
- 6 workshops program (consisting of 3 workshops for Phase 1 and 3 workshops for Phase 2); or
- 10 workshops program (5 workshops for Phase 1 and 5 workshops for Phase 2). Each workshop will be held once a month for two hours.
For the 10-workshops program, we 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 business leaders on a hypothetical scenario based on insights gained from the first half of the Program.
For the 6-workshops program, we hold a Roundtable Discussion with invited business leaders to help us kick off the specific Program.
The PowWFollowMyLead™ Program is designed to:
- Strengthen the leadership, personal and workplace skills of women employees so they can build the confidence to succeed, gain insights into being effective leaders, managers and team members, and be equipped with useful tools to navigate commonplace workplace challenges.
- Provide women employees with strategies to maintain their well-being, especially during these high stress times.
- Help women employees establish supportive relationships with other women at work through the Mentorship Huddle™ methodology, offering them a safe environment to share best practices and informal advice with one another.
Program Bonus
Once registered for a PowWFollowMyLead 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.
Fees
If you are an organization interested in implementing the PowWFollowMyLead Program for your women employees, please either reach out to us for more information at info@thekoaclub.com or fill out our inquiry form: Click Here to fill out the inquiry form for PowWFollowMyLead Program
Fees for each participant in your organization to attend the PowWFollowMyLead Program will be dependent on the number of workshops and length of the PowWFollowMyLead Program that we design and implement in collaboration with your organization, as well as the number of participants from your organization attending the PowWFollowMyLead Program.
View Workshops Mentorship Huddles
questions.
For any questions about the Program, please contact us at info@thekoaclub.com
Program overview
The PowWFollowMyLead™ Program typically has six or ten different workshops (depending on program option selected), 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 3 (for 6 workshops Program option) or 5 workshops (for 10 workshops Program option) 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 3 workshops (for 6 workshops Program option) or 5 workshops (for 10 workshops Program option), 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.
Sample Workshop
Phase 1: Personal Development Skills
Category: Managing Stress and Building Resiliency
Strategies for Managing Pressures and Increasing Resilience
Description:
Women are amazing multi-taskers, efficient, caring, determined and adaptable and always ready to do the best for their family and at their jobs, but when it comes to themselves, women often do not offer the same support. Especially during these challenging times with the pandemic and economic downturn, women managing work, family, health, finances and other demands may feel like they are just “surviving” their lives, possibly feeling ashamed of the struggle, wondering if they are handling things the “right way”, and lamenting they have no time for themselves but feeling guilty whenever they are away from their family or work.
This workshop will address challenges and frustrations about the many pressures that women face and offer strategies to tackle these pressures and to build resilience for the long term. Key takeaways will include distinguishing what elements contribute to the pressures, gaining an awareness of how everyday pressures impact work and lives, learning to interrupt the pressure cycle before it leads to burnout, and creating a plan to put the insights into action.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Outsmart Work Life Balance
- Applying Principles of Somatic Intelligence to Achieve Wellness and Resiliency
- Combating Decision-Making Fatigue
- Keys to Reclaim Your Energy as a Conscious Leader
Sample Workshop
Phase 1: Personal Development Skills
Category: Eliminating Limiting Beliefs and Building Confidence
Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome
Description:
Have you ever felt like you’re only winging it and that it is only a matter of time until people find out that you are not as competent as they may think? Are you sometimes convinced that your successes are just down to blind luck or being in the right place at the right time? If so, you may be struggling with impostor syndrome. Many of us do, also—and especially—people who are hard-working, well educated, and successful. The good news is that, with some guidance and practice, we can change our thoughts and learn to take a more realistic—and more positive—view on our lives, careers, and accomplishments.
In this workshop, we will talk about what the impostor syndrome is, the different ways in which it manifests in people’s lives, and what we can do to overcome it. You will leave with an actionable list of strategies and tools that can help you make positive changes and strengthen your confidence and courage.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Eliminate Self-Defeating Beliefs and Enhance Your Self-Confidence
- Closing the Confidence Gap
- Confidence and Performance
Sample Workshop
Phase 1: Personal Development Skills
Category: Cultivating Personal Brand
Understanding and Cultivating Your Powerful Self
Description:
“How do you want to be seen?” When asked, many of us would say that we hope others at work see us as effective leaders, experts in our chosen field, reliable and trustworthy members of our teams, and that our contributions to our organizations are both impactful and positive. However, even before we can appreciate, or take steps to change, how others see us, we need to have a strong sense of self-awareness. A lack of self-awareness can cause us to act and behave in ways that hinder our growth, cause others to have a mistaken perception of us, and can contribute to potential toxic work-life issues. Self-awareness is the foundation to emotional and social intelligence and is one of the most valuable leadership competencies. By knowing who we are, we can better use our strengths and not have our limitations define us. Being self-aware also helps us to see the discrepancies between how we see ourselves from how others see us and provides us with the opportunity to change our actions and behavior to positively impact our “brand”. According to the Harvard Business Review, “research suggests that when we see ourselves clearly, we are more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.”
In this workshop, our speaker will discuss how we can identify our core beliefs and values in relation to others and the useful self-awareness tools to inform and direct our personal and professional development. She will also demonstrate how to best implement strategies to improve how others see our personal and professional brand.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Personal Branding – Becoming Visible
- Roadmap for Strengthening Your Personal Brand
Sample Workshop
Phase 1: Personal Development Skills
Category: Developing a Growth Mindset
Developing a Growth Mindset
Description:
Researchers have found that 90% of the way we think, feel, judge and act are driven by our mindset. Top performers tend to share the important trait of having a success-oriented mindset that is geared towards habits and actions that help them develop beliefs, emotions, and motivations that ultimately lead to their success.
In this workshop, participants will learn the limiting impact of a fixed mindset, understand the importance of developing their growth mindset, and learn the tools to build the right mindset to help achieve goals and ambitions.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Adopting the Successful Leadership Mindset
- Effective Leadership Through a Growth Mindset
Sample Workshop
Phase 1: Personal Development Skills
Category: Effective Communications for Workplace Success
Habits of Highly Effective Communicators
Description:
We often feel frustrated that our communications have not been understood or heard or that communications to us are unclear, confusing or inconsistent. Effective communication is about more than just sharing or receiving information – it involves being good at talking and listening. On the one end, it is maintaining the ability to clearly convey a message and getting the point across. On the other end, it is knowing how to listen in a way that gains the real meaning of what is being communicated and makes the other person feel heard and understood.
Good communication takes planning, preparation and consistent practice. It involves undertaking intentional steps to develop effective communication skills and doing so can greatly reduce misunderstandings, resulting in improved work and personal relationships. This workshop will discuss strategies to improve communication approaches depending on the audience, the importance of active listening and ways to develop this core skill, approaches to recognize and overcome communication barriers, and breaking bad communication habits. This workshop will also discuss different communication skills which may need to be deployed depending on the audience, whether it’s to our supervisors, our co-workers, our direct reports or our clients.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Essential Communication Skills to Boost Presence and Productivity
- Become a Better and More Effective Communicator at Work
Sample Workshop
Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills
Category: Developing Leadership Potential
Developing Your Leadership Potential
Description:
Even if a participant is currently in an individual contributor role, there may be times when she may be asked to take on a leadership role, perhaps as a team leader for a project, or she may be given the opportunity to move to a position that allows her to manage others, or she may aspire to move up to a leadership role. Being a leader is more than a title, it’s important to know how to lead others, get the work done, deal with conflict, solve problems and inspire others to follow.
This workshop will help the participants gain an understanding of the various leadership styles and how to develop behaviors supporting the specific styles, learn the importance of crafting a compelling vision and demonstrating commitment, courage and flexibility, and implementing strategies for building a successful collaborative outcome with their teams.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Effortless Leadership – Cultivating an Authentic Leadership Identity
- How to be an Inspiring Leader
- Improving Your Leadership Skills
Sample Workshop
Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills
Category: Navigating workplace culture and changes
Navigating Workplace Changes Through the Lens of Transition
Description:
At work, changes are inevitable and they usually happen outside of our control resulting in a major impact on our work (and sometimes personal) lives, such as being moved to a new job with greater responsibilities, getting a different supervisor with whom you have yet to build a trusted relationship, getting transferred to a new team led by others who do not share your same viewpoints, and more recently, the sudden need to adjust to working remotely from home which can be difficult for some given their home situations. Change is situational that can happen in an instant, while transition is a psychological experience which unfolds over time. To be successful at adapting to changes in our lives, we first need to shift our mindset to incorporate the changes into our lives by applying a three-stage transition process: Ending, Neutral Zone and New Beginning. For those of you in leadership roles or who aspire to be leaders, it is important to know how to navigate the transitions in your own lives, so you do not get derailed by the changes and to help your people process transitions effectively, guiding them to let go of old norms and to accept new ones.
In this workshop, our speaker will discuss how we can empower ourselves and others to embrace workplace changes by focusing on the transition experience and the three-stage transition process. She will also demonstrate how we can be a better support for others experiencing transitions at work when we have a good understanding of what goes through people’s minds when they are facing changes and the common behaviors that people tend to engage in when reacting to changes.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Embracing Changes in Today’s Evolving Workplace
- Building an Awesome Workplace Culture
Sample Workshop
Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills
Category: Applying Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Applying Your Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
Description:
Emotional intelligence or Emotional Quotient (EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, navigate and express our own emotions, to know the impact our emotions have on our thinking and behavior, as well as the ability to successfully navigate and influence the emotions of others. EQ is the foundation for forming, developing maintaining, and enhancing close personal relationships. Research suggests that people with a high EQ are more innovative and have higher job satisfaction than those with lower EQs. Fortunately, our EQ can evolve and increase with our desire to learn and grow, unlike Intelligence Quotient (IQ), which does not change significantly over a lifetime. Achieving a high EQ is not just for people in leadership roles, but it’s a quality needed for everyone at all levels of their careers to help foster workplace success.
At this workshop, participants will learn how EQ is a valuable skill that helps improve communication, management, problem-solving and relationships within the workplace, about habits of emotionally intelligent people, and steps to improve skills in the key categories of EQ.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Improving Emotional Quotient for Workplace Success
- Using Emotional Intelligence to Drive Results
Sample Workshop
Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills
Category: Enhancing Influence, Negotiation and Conflicts Management Skills
Principles of Influence and Persuasion
Description:
How often have we admired someone who appears to have the superpower of influence and who could also easily persuade others to do their bidding? Influence and persuasion are two separate leadership skills. Influence is a personal power that comes from a trait that you possess, is a part of your identity and involves your ability to impact or change the opinions, behaviors or actions of others without having a formal authority over them. Persuasion happens due to your action and it is about convincing others to achieve desired outcomes without coercion. Not having a formal position of authority at your workplace does not mean that you can’t wield any influence over others – you can learn to be effective at influencing diverse stakeholders that are crucial to your job.
This workshop will help the participants understand how to assess their own level of influence, finding sources of personal power, learning strategies of influencing and persuading without manipulation or coercion, and knowing how to implement those strategies.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Building Collaborative Influence at Work
- Negotiation with Confidence
- Effective Giving and Receiving of Feedback
- Understanding How to Manage Up, Down and Across Your Organization
Sample Workshop
Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills
Category: Building Beneficial Allies in the Workplace
Building Beneficial Workplace Allies
Description:
For many of us, we are so busy putting our heads down to accomplish our work that we often forget to find time to make meaningful connections with others in order to build a close network of allies who can help us, advocate for us, and promote us within the workplace. An ally is someone whom we can reach out to when we have a question or are unsure of what action to take, who empower us to achieve outstanding results, whom we can exchange mutually beneficial ideas or who will help champion us to others. Developing an ally relationship is more than finding a friend at work – its someone whom you will have a quid pro quo relationship in which both have found ways to help each other towards professional growth and success. Interestingly, it’s often harder for women to find allies at work. Women generally have no problem building close relationships and helping others, but women tend to hesitate in leveraging these relationships and feel guilty for having self-serving motives.
This workshop will assist the participants in understanding the importance of creating a network of allies, sharing strategies to form and leverage relationships allowing them to thrive in the workplace, and overcoming any emotional barriers in doing so.
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS IN THIS CATEGORY:
- Building a Personal Board of Directors
- Creating a Solid Foundation for Professional Growth with Allies, Mentors and Sponsors
mentorship huddles
As part of the PowWFollowMyLead 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 PowWFollowMyLead Program™ that enables the participants to collaborate with women from the same or different organizations who share a desire to grow and to become the best versions of themselves.
Each Mentorship Huddle is made up of 6-8 women who have registered to attend the PowWFollowMyLead 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 different organizations can collaborate to learn from one another.
- It helps to build inter-organizational personal relationships by breaking down silos between organizations, genders, ethnicities and beyond, providing a safe space to discuss things which can sometimes be uncomfortable.
- It gives participants 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. Huddle meetings typically last for an hour.
huddles competition*
- We have created this competition as part of the PowWFollowMyLead Program, with the objective of encouraging more in-depth learning and discussion on the topics that were introduced to the participants in the first phase of the PowWFollowMyLead 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 the participating organizations to act as judges for the competition and share their insights to the Program participants.
*The Huddles Competition will be held only for the 10 workshops program option.