PowWFollowMyLead Program™

Women In Law

The Koa Club is a builder of women communities within organizations with the emphasis on:

  • Strengthening the leadership, personal and workplace skills of women employees 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
  • Equipping women employees with strategies to maintain their well-being, especially during these high stress times
  • Helping women employees establish supportive relationships with other women at work, providing them a safe environment to share best practices and informal advice with each other

Registration Options:

  • You can choose to attend the Full Program which comprises of Phase 1 – Personal Skills Development and Phase 2 – Workplace Skills Development (which consists of a total of 6 monthly workshops from May – November).

Fee to register for full Program is $849/person.

OR

  • You can choose to attend:
  1. Only Phase 1 – Personal Skills Development (which consists of 3 monthly workshops from May to July); OR
  2. Only Phase 2 – Workplace Skills Development (which consists of 3 monthly workshops from September – November).

Fee to register for Phase 1 or Phase 2 is $449/person.

What some of the past participants in our other PowWFollowMyLead Programs have to say:

“Every single session has been full of valuable insights, and I come away from each one feeling inspired and motivated to hone my leadership skills. Not to mention, the enduring friendships I’ve built with my Huddle sisters continue to thrive to this day” – Viola S., founder of MAIKA.

“When I enrolled in PoWW Program, I had taken up a new leadership role and I felt it was necessary to build on my interpersonal and communication skills in order to encourage, influence, and grow my network. I really found the training course to be an enjoyable and valuable experience. It was also an honor to learn from other peers and their collective experiences during our “huddle” sessions. This program was exceptional and I was pleasantly surprised with the organization, assignments/ workshops and the quality of speakers. Thank you to the Koa Club team for executing such a valuable program for women of all career levels” – Nethra M., Principal Pricing & Product Marketing Manager at LeadVenture.

“I was invited by a friend to join POWWFollowMyLead and had no idea what to expect. But I ended up meeting some amazing women doing impressive work in their respective fields and gaining insight on a variety of workplace wellness topics, including how to set healthy boundaries, how to engage difficult conversations, and how to navigate career growth in a challenging environment like Covid. The networking was really valuable for me and our cohort continues to meet monthly over zoom for short check-ins” – Alison M., Financial Advisor at UBS.


The Gender Challenge

  • Even though the number of women in leadership has grown in the past five years, women are still very much underrepresented at every level in key roles in the workplace and in every industry, including within the legal field.
  • According to a Glass Ceiling Report by Law360, only about 23% of equity partners in U.S. law firms are women, even though women have made up at least 40% of U.S. law students for decades. As for in house counsel positions, according to a study by LawGeex and the Association of Corporate Counsel, Landscape of a General Counsel, it was found that approximately 42% of General Counsel positions in Fortune 500 companies were filled by internal hires, but only slightly more than one in five of these promotions were given to women.
  • Many organizations often advocate the criticality of advancing women to higher level roles, but little is usually done within these organizations to remove structural barriers and gender bias that contribute to the lack of women in leadership roles, nor to implement effective support for women to help them be prepared to pursue, and to tackle, these higher-level roles.

Women’s Leadership Study Findings

Though women’s confidence in their professional and personal lives have grown significantly in recent years, a number of women surveyed in the 2019 KPMG Women’s Leadership Study stated that not being confident enough was still the leading factor preventing them from taking more risks at their organization and that “overcoming a lack of confidence may therefore be key in creating a cycle in which successful risk- taking fosters the resilience and confidence needed to attempt further risk taking and advancement.” The study also found that 71% of the women responding to the survey think more can be done now by their organizations to encourage risk-taking among women, including the following:

  • 41% asks for more training opportunities
  • 33% believes that their organization should encourage mentorship
  • 28% thinks that there should be more flexibility offered for the women employees to be able to take more risks

Women in Law – Challenges

  • Companies and law firms have the responsibility to look at how they evaluate and promote female employees and ensure that women are being given a fair shot. Many are now more proactive in finding new ways to address the gender imbalances within their organization, but clearly there is still a lot of work that can be done to reduce, and eventually erase, institutional bias.
  • Beyond institutional bias, there are also other challenges that may hold back women lawyers from gaining satisfaction in their jobs. achieving coveted leadership positions or leading effectively:
    • Lacking confidence to ask for what they need, whether it’s for a raise, a more flexible schedule or additional team support
    • Experiencing imposter syndrome or other limiting beliefs
    • Not realizing that doing good work is only part of the puzzle to getting a seat at the table.
    • Not knowing how to find allies and sponsors to champion them
    • Not getting the support they need to be successful for the long term

Program Overview

  • Program Kickoff: Leading Women in Law Roundtable Discussion (April)
  • The Program will have two Phases – each Phase has 3 monthly workshops for a total of 6 monthly workshops (Phase 1: May, June and July 2023, August break and Phase 2: Sept, Oct and Nov 2023.)
  • Each workshop will be held virtually once a month for 2 hours.
  • Structured Mentorship Huddles
  • Empowered Networking for 1st thirty minutes of the workshop.
  • Minimum of 30 paid participants for Program to be held.
  • Program fee is $849/person.
  • All participants automatically get free membership to The Koa Club general community as the alumni club.
  • Access to workshop materials and recordings in proprietary Workshop Dashboard designed for Program participant’s access and use.
View Workshops Mentorship Huddles

Women Leaders in Law Roundtable – Achieving success in the law firm or as in-house counsel 

We have invited women law firm partners, general counsels and chief legal officers to join us on Thursday April 6, 2023, 9:00am-10:30amPT for a robust roundtable discussion; to share their stories and lessons learned on their journey to leadership; and provide insights on how women lawyers can thrive and succeed within their organizations.

Panelists

Adriana Sosa, General Counsel at FullStack Labs

Adriana is a dynamic and innovative Legal leader with 20 years of experience in the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing sectors, specializing in international transactions, complex contract negotiations, and channel distribution matters. She is passionate about people development, simplification, globalization, and a business-first approach to delivering legal services. Adriana has a strong track record of attracting and developing culturally diverse, high-performing, business-focused, international and domestic teams, and she has held worldwide legal leadership roles for Fortune 200 companies.

Alison (Ali) Butler, General Counsel at Vantage Specialty Chemicals

Ali joined Vantage in 2022 as its first General Counsel. She has more than 20 years of experience serving as a strategic advisor to public and privately held companies across a number of industries. Most recently, she was the Deputy General Counsel at Bright Machines, a software and robotics company focused on the manufacturing industry. Prior to making the switch to in-house counsel, she was a partner at Mayer Brown LLP in the Corporate & Securities practice. Ali received her B.A. from University of Rochester and her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School.

Nicole Trudeau, Director, Crypto Legal and Associate General Counsel at Robinhood 

Nicole has been working with the law at the intersection of technology and finance, applying more than a decade of experience as a traditional corporate, financial services and securities regulatory attorney to emerging FinTech, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Some career highlights include being General Counsel of a global cryptocurrency exchange with more than four million retail users and various B2B and Institutional product offerings, four years as the head of the Legal and Compliance Department for a roughly $7 billion registered investment adviser and broker-dealer with 15 publicly-traded funds and global subsidiaries focusing on deploying environmental, sustainable and governance (ESG) investment strategies, and more than 10 years of financial services regulatory expertise practicing at various international law firms in Washington, DC representing a range of clients before financial services regulators including the SEC. She has launched several actively managed UCITS ETFs in Europe, one with a first of its kind carbon offset feature and obtained no-action relief on behalf of the entire asset management industry from the SEC allowing compliance with international financial regimes (MiFID II).

Dianne Sweeney, Lead Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Silicon Valley office Litigation team and Managing Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Silicon Valley office. 

Dianne leads the Silicon Valley Litigation team and is the managing partner of Pillsbury’s Silicon Valley office. A skilled commercial and technology trial lawyer, Dianne represents clients on complex business issues in federal and state courts as well as before administrative panels. Her experience in complex corporate transactions and litigation proceedings encompasses merger, shareholder, joint venture and earnout disputes in California and Delaware; antitrust cases; contested property tax assessments; key executive employment disputes and trade secret claims. Dianne also provides risk management assessment and strategic litigation counsel to emerging businesses, especially clients in the high-tech sector. Among the many awards and honors bestowed on Dianne throughout her career, she was most recently recognized by Best Lawyers (published by BL Rankings LLC), Commercial Litigation (2022 – 2023), and was the recipient of the 2021 Santa Clara County Bar Association Salsman Award.

Siân Skelton, Partner and member of the management board of Taylor Wessing LLP London office.

Siân specialises in all aspects of technology and privacy law. She works with technology companies of all sizes, from startups to global brands, and guides them through contract negotiations, crossborder compliance matters and privacy governance. She’s embedded in London’s tech ecosystem through her work with our Tech City programme. Siân’s a regular advisor to North American tech startups looking to expand into the UK and Europe. Siân helps technology companies to draft and negotiate commercial contracts which provide the maximum value to their business. She can also help clients in other sectors on a wide range of commercial matters, especially related to IT contracts. This includes technology, software and website development, support and maintenance, reseller and partnering arrangements and issues related to online content and information. Siân works with companies at the forefront of ecommerce, consumer and fashiontech, healthtech, proptech, adtech, software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud services. She regularly gives talks to the tech community from our Tech City office, and welcomes startups to talk through their early commercial and IP questions. Sian has won numerous awards during her career, including for the Legal 500 UK 2022 for Retail and consumer, Legal 500 UK 2022 for IT and telecoms Next generation partner and The Lawyer Awards 2020 for best talent and inclusion initiative – development and continued implementation of the award’s Gender Plan.

details.

Workshops will be held online and the dial-in details will be provided to the participants once they have registered for the Program.

questions.

For any questions about the Program, please contact us at info@thekoaclub.com

2023 Women In Law Program overview

The Women In Law PowWFollowMyLead™ Program is made up of 2 phases:

Phase 1 (Personal Skills Development)

  • 3 monthly workshops specifically designed to provide insights for women in-house counsel on mastering life-changing skills to fight off any self-doubt that creates obstacles to their success, build effective communication skills beyond engaging in legalese and to learn useful strategies to curb decision fatigue and build resiliency.
  • Phase 1 of the Program will be held in May, June and July 2023.
  • Each workshop will be two hours long.

Phase 2 (Workplace Skills Development)

  • 3 workshops focused on providing women in-house counsel with practical strategies for operating effectively within the workplace, including, applying emotional intelligence to help with decision-making process, managing the different levels of relationships in the workplace, and developing their leadership potential.
  • Phase 2 of the Program will be held during September, October and November 2023.
  • Each workshop will be two hours long.

Mentorship Huddles “This is Us” Showcase (December 2023)

Each Mentorship Huddle team will present their team project that they have worked on throughout the year, showcasing their collective strengths, creativity and passion. We have created this Mentorship Huddle Showcase with the hope of encouraging successful collaboration among the Mentorship Huddle team members, to encourage self-assessment, to get fired up because it is an opportunity to show off your Huddle to others and have fun in the Program. We invite leaders from the participating organizations to act come view the showcase and share their insights to the Program participants

Workshop #1

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

Wednesday, May 24, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Eliminate Self-Defeating Beliefs and Enhance Your Self-Confidence

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pmPT: Introduction to Program – Goals and Expectations
12:30pm-2:00pmPT: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

Research and studies conducted over the years on the subject of women’s leadership and progression in the workplace have found that many women lack confidence at work on a regular basis and that many women tend to wait until they are 100% confident in themselves before deciding to accept a new position or request a raise. Having a lack of self-confidence can directly affect our productivity and job performance, which in turn affects our professional success. Low self-confidence often shows up in the form of self-defeating beliefs and patterns of behaviors where we may doubt our abilities, believe that somebody else is better than us without any factual basis, or worry that we will soon get “found out” our capabilities are limited. These limiting beliefs are often the culprits obstructing us from going beyond our comfort zone to grow, achieve the successes we deserve, or be effective leaders or teammates. To make progress on self- confidence, it is important to challenge these negative self-narratives and to avoid an onslaught of self-criticism when we encounter failure.

In this workshop, our speaker will discuss how limiting beliefs such as impostor syndrome and self-doubt often manifest in women’s lives, wrecking hard-earned confidence, and what you can do to overcome them. She will bust a few misconceptions about confidence and share a set of tips on how to build and maintain self-confidence. She will also discuss the importance of striking the right balance in developing self-confidence as being overly confident can create its own set of pitfalls. This workshop will provide an actionable list of strategies and tools that can help you make positive changes and strengthen your confidence and courage.

Speaker:

Confidence & leadership expert Micha Goebig is a public speaker, certified coach and published author as well as a member of Forbes Coaches Council and the lead coach on the speaker team for TEDxSeattle. The founder & CEO of GO BIG COACHING, she helps women in tech, mobility and other male-dominated industries lead with confidence and unlearn what holds them back, including but not limited to impostor syndrome, perfectionism, and people-pleasing.

Before training as a coach, she founded, and still owns, GO BIG COMMUNICATIONS – a boutique agency that specializes in corporate communications for the German luxury car and supplier industries, a field in which she has 20 years of experience as a communications expert, intercultural trainer and workshop host. Micha holds a master’s degree from the University of Munich, taught at several colleges in the USA and Germany, has published extensively in both German and English (including a novel with RandomHouse), and trained with Monika Scheddin in Germany as well as Rich Litvin and others in the USA. In all she does, she follows a German-style approach: efficient, pragmatic, solution-driven, direct.

Workshop #2

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

Wednesday, June 21, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Essential Communication Skills to Boost Presence and Productivity

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pmPT: Empowered Networking – What’s Your Personal Brand Statement?
12:30pm-2:00pmPT: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

Even if we are experts in our fields, maintain leadership roles within our organization, or always have innovative ideas or viable solutions to issues, if we are not able to convey our thoughts, ideas, expertise or requirements in a meaningful way to others, our influence will be greatly limited.

If we want to show others that we have qualities of a leader who can inspire, motivate and persuade those around us to act, or to help us achieve our goals (which may sometimes be known as “executive presence”), we certainly need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively with others whom we interact with to build trust and credibility. According to G. Riley Mills, co-founder of Pinnacle Performance Co. in Chicago and author of The Bullseye Principle (Wiley, 2018), “[t]he ability to communicate with clarity and purpose is the key to personal and professional success.”

In this workshop, our speaker will share strategies on how you can communicate in a way that will strengthen your professional relationships, boost teamwork, and help you to become more productive. Our speaker will also guide you on how to avoid communication failures that can cause misunderstanding, mistakes, and reduction in productivity at work. Lastly, our speaker will discuss how you can continue to maintain good communication skills where you have to resort to new forms of communication due to remote working in our new normal.

Speaker:

Andrew McMaster, Founder of ImprovMindset, is an actor, director and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the arts. He was a founder of Jet City Improv, a non-profit theater that he managed for 25 years, and worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies to provide presentation support and messaging as well as team building and communications trainings.

Andrew is dedicated to experiential learning, providing opportunities for self-discovery and driving innovation in our everyday lives. His exercises are designed to develop leaders who can communicate on all levels (focusing on emotional intelligence) and have your team practicing key relationship-building skills. Participants will leave with practical tools and lessons to apply at all stages of their work, even in crisis.

Workshop #3

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

Wednesday, July 26, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Productivity Culture – Understanding and Managing (and Avoiding!) Burnout

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pm PT: Empowered Networking – Your Favorite Energy Boosters

12:30pm-2:00pm PT: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

According to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which captures how people are feeling about work and life in the past year, U.S. workers are some of the most stressed employees in the world, and another survey by Deloitte’s Women at Work 2022: A Global Outlook found that almost half of the 5,000 women surveyed felt they are experiencing burnout.  Stress levels of working women have been much higher than men, in some cases due to women having to juggle their busy careers with demanding family caregiving and child-care challenges, and in other cases, caused by factors such as feeling isolated from working remotely, reluctance to delegate, always putting others’ needs over their own, inability to say no, feeling the need to always be perfect and working twice as hard to prove themselves. Employees suffering from burnout generally feel cynical and detached from their work, suffer from the beliefs that they are unaccomplished and ineffective in whatever they do, and are constantly overwhelmingly exhausted.

In this workshop, our speaker will discuss the common culprits causing burnout, helps us to recognize the signs of burnout in ourselves (and in others whom we may be managing at work) and will share valuable tools and strategies on how to prevent and recover from burnout in order for us to stay productive and feel re-energized.

Speaker:

Carol Elizabeth Donahoe, Certified Life And Success Coach for High Achieving Women; Founder of Carol Elizabeth Donahoe Coaching

Carol is a personal development and leadership coach for high-achieving women, a yoga instructor and a lifelong fitness professional, but her life did not always look this fun. She has been through her own (sometimes self-inflicted) struggles, and if she has learned anything, it’s this that she shares: “The way that you feel is a direct result of your choices, actions, and behaviors. You want to put yourself and your own needs first, but you’re NOT. Well, that’s exactly why I’m here: to help you create a new behavior: one where you and your needs come first. Actually, I’m here to help you create a myriad of new behaviors, but it all starts with one important choice: YOU.”

Workshop #4

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

Wednesday, Sept 20, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Developing Your Leadership Potential

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pm PT: Empowered Networking – Identifying Your Leadership Identity

12:30pm-2:00pm PT: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

Even if you are currently in an individual contributor role, there may be times when you may be asked to take on a leadership role (perhaps as a team leader for a project), or you may be given the opportunity to move to a position that allows you to manage others, or you 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.

Our speaker in this workshop will help you to:

  • Gain an understanding of the various leadership styles and develop behaviors supporting the specific styles
  • Recognize and amplify your leadership skills and strengths
  • Build your personal board of advisors
  • Learn the importance of crafting a compelling vision
  • How to demonstrate commitment, courage, and flexibility

Our speaker will also explore workplace challenges that are uniquely faced by women leaders and share key strategies on how to overcome these challenges.

Speaker:

Sharon Podobnik Peterson, Founder of The Center for Conscious Leadership

Sharon Podobnik Peterson supports exceptional leaders in visioning and realizing a future that others cannot yet see. As an educator, serial entrepreneur, and coach, Sharon is a master at evoking possibility in people, ideas, and organizations, and catalyzing ideas into action. She believes that lasting transformation requires deep reflection, calm power, courageous action, and a willingness to experiment with tiny shifts in being that create dramatic results in our outer world. She works with clients to bring to light their most powerful and authentic leadership identities, and cultivate an embodied, effortless leadership presence that increases confidence, clarity, and the ability to be joyfully and intentionally disruptive. 

Sharon most enjoys working with highly accomplished individuals and teams who are moved to combat systemic inequality and envision a more just, peaceful, and equitable world. Sharon is a graduate of the Georgetown School of Continuing Studies Leadership Coaching Certificate program and holds ICF ACC credentials.

Workshop #5

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

Wednesday October 18, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Improving Emotional Quotient for Workplace Success

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pm: Empowered Networking – An Emotional Intelligence Game
12:30pm-2:00pm: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

Emotional Quotient (EQ), also known as Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EIQ), is generally defined as a person’s ability to recognize, understand, manage, and reason with her own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Having higher EQ results in greater success in the workplace, as it can help with decision-making process, improve work relationships, minimize conflicts, and increase empathy towards others in different situations. TalentSmart conducted a survey which found that “90% of the top performers were high in emotional intelligence, with a higher average income per year” and that “emotional intelligence also accounted for up to 60% of the job performance for supervisors through CEOs.”

In this workshop, our speaker will discuss the five key components of emotional intelligence at work:

  • Self-Awareness: The capability to recognize personal emotions, emotional triggers, and limitations which allows us to better understand how others might perceive our emotions
  • Self-Regulation: The ability to control and adjust emotions so they do not have a negative effect
  • Intrinsic Motivation: Having the inner drive to pursue goals for personal reasons, rather than for a reward
  • Empathy: The ability to identify and understand the emotions of another person which allows us to handle workplace situations more effectively
  • Social Skills: The ability to interact and negotiate with other people in order for us to listen, speak, and resolve conflicts more effectively and to find the best way to meet the needs of each person.

Speaker:

Details coming soon

Workshop #6

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

Wednesday, November 15, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Becoming a Super Connector

Agenda:

12:00pm-12:30pm: Empowered Networking: Who are Your Sponsors and Mentors?
12:30pm-2:00pm: Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

According to Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh, authors of Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships That Matter, “[s]ocial capital is the most important currency in the world.”  One major misconception about connectors is that people think it is easy to be a connector. In reality, it is often difficult to be an effective connector, or even harder to be a super-connector. To be a super-connector, you will have to understand the needs of the people in your network and know how to be the crucial bridge for connections in your ecosystem.  Each of us have the potential to become a super connector even if we may not have the strongest network at the moment. We can create opportunities and grow our influence by carefully curating our network to strengthen the bonds we already have and to build trusted long-term relationships.

Our speaker in this workshop will discuss what it means to be a super-connector, the key traits they exhibit, how they are able to effectively connect others in a mutually beneficial way and in doing so, how their professional relationships will be valued and sought after.

Speaker:

Ellenore Angelidis, Founder and CEO of L.E.A.D. (Lead, Empower, Activate, Dream) LLC, is focused on empowering high performing, value driven leaders, teams, & organizations to multiple their impact. She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund (a 501(3)(c) NGO) which is focused on increasing educational opportunities (literacy, tech and art) for K-12 kids in Ethiopia, her daughter’s birth country. Previously, as a 13+ year employee of Amazon, Ellenore was part of the company’s recent growth; she held senior business, product and legal roles for Amazon in Seattle, Luxembourg, and Paris – and is passionate about bringing change and forward momentum. Prior to Amazon, she received her legal start at the Chicago firm of Baker & McKenzie, then went on to manage complex litigation including regulatory matters, public relations and crisis management, as well as supported strategic sourcing for Sears, in Chicago, Illinois.  Ellenore is also a published writer; on-line magazines (Working Mother, Adoptive Families, InCulture Parent, and Women’s Essence), on LinkedIn and on blogs (Ethiopian Ties and Balancing Career Family). She also published two children’s books, The Loud Prince and Surprise on Lake Tana, with colorful, diverse characters, through Kindle Direct Publishing. She has built teams across a variety of disciplines, companies, and countries which gives her a uniquely broad perspective to share.

At home, Ellenore has a partner of 25+ years and 3 children, ranging in age from college to elementary school, plus a dog, a cat, and a parrot. As a volunteer, Ellenore has held board and fund-raising positions with the not for profits WACAP and Ethiopia Reads.

Huddle Showcase & Graduation

Wednesday, December 6, 2023
12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 @ 12:00pm – 2:00pm PT

Huddles “This is Us” Showcase

Agenda:

12:00pm-2:00pm PT: Huddles Showcase

Description:

The 2023 Women in Law Program will have its own version of a “Show & Tell” showcase of the Huddle teams. Each Huddle Team will be asked to work on a project for the entire Program year that will showcase their collective strengths, creativity and passion. Details about this Huddles Showcase will be shared at the first workshop with progress check-ins on a quarterly basis. On Septmeber 20, each Huddle Team will showcase their project to the entire cohort and to leadership from their organizations whom we will invite to attend this workshop to see all the work that each Huddle has put into this project.

mentorship huddles™

Mentorship Huddle Program Overview

As part of the PowWFollowMyLead Program, the women will be assigned to Mentorship Huddle groups made up of 6–8 participants, which will be facilitated by a Huddle Mentor, a peer to the participants. The Huddle Mentor creates a supportive environment for their Huddle team that fosters a feeling of belonging and value as a member of the organization and the program. Huddles typically meet for an hour once a month.

The women in each Huddle will collaborate closely to work through insights and learnings from the workshops and use their Huddle as a safe space to open up and seek needed help and guidance from one another. The women will also be paired up within the Huddles so that they can be accountable to each other for their successful journey through the program.

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.
  • 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.