PowWFollowMyLead Program™

Women Leaders

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.

The Women Leaders Program can be customized for any organization.

We have described the base framework of the Program and provided sample workshops to consider here.  We will work closely with leaders from the specific organization to design workshops for their own version of the Women Leaders Program that would best suit the organization and its current needs.   

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.
  • According to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report, Women in Leadership: Unequal Access on the Journey to the Top,  “women experience challenges that men do not when attempting to advance their careers” and “our research not only shows that women continue to face several barriers on their journey to the top, but it also reveals an alarming trend whereby women become increasingly disillusioned about equal access as they move into leadership positions.”
  • Many companies often advocate the criticality of advancing women to higher level roles, but little is usually done within these companies 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

 Challenges faced by women in the workplace 

  • Companies 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 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

  • The Program will have two Phases – each Phase has 3 monthly workshops for a total of 6 monthly workshops.
  • 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.
  • 2023 pricing for 6-month Program is $750/person. Corporate sponsorships are available. 
  • 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

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

Women Leaders Program overview

The Women Leaders Program is made up of 2 phases:

Phase 1 (Personal Skills Development)

  • 3 monthly workshops specifically designed to provide insights for women leaders 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.
  • Each workshop will be two hours long.

Phase 2 (Workplace Skills Development)

  • 3 workshops focused on providing women leaders 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..
  • Each workshop will be two hours long.

Workshop #1

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

 

Eliminate Self-Defeating Beliefs and Enhance Your Self-Confidence

Agenda:

Introduction to Program – Goals and Expectations
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.

 

Workshop #2

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

 

Essential Communication Skills to Boost Presence and Productivity

Agenda:

Empowered Networking – What’s Your Personal Brand Statement?
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.

 

Workshop #3

Phase 1: Personal Development Skills

 

Enhancing Your Leadership Skills

Agenda:

Empowered Networking – Identifying Your Leadership Identity

Speaker Presentation & Q&A

Description:

Being a leader is more than a title, it’s important to know how to lead others effectively, 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.

 

Workshop #4

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

 

Improving Emotional Quotient for Workplace Success

Agenda:

Empowered Networking – An Emotional Intelligence Game
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.

 

Workshop #5

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

 

Becoming a Super Connector

Agenda:

Empowered Networking: Who are Your Sponsors and Mentors?
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.

 

Workshop #6

Phase 2: Workplace Improvement Skills

 

 

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

Agenda:

Empowered Networking – Your Favorite Energy Boosters
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.

 

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.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING ROUNDTABLES

We invited various women leaders to join us on for robust roundtable discussions – to share their stories and lessons learned on their journey to leadership; and provide insights on how women can thrive and succeed within their organizations.

June 20, 2023: Women Leaders Roundtable – Achieving success in the workplace

Recording of the roundtable discussion will be available on The Koa Club TV Channel after the event.

Panelists

  • Karina (Guadiz) Mounivong, Vice President, Human Resources, Lumen Bioscience
  • Kara E. Gerhart, Partner, Director of Client Relations, KKRA LLC
  • Stephanie Simmons, Director of Trust and Risk Management, Microsoft
  • Yu-Sun Hwang, Vice President, People, CelLink Corporation
  • Christine Pompa, Customer Success Coach, Arena, a PTC Business; formerly Vice President of Quality, Wonder

April 6, 2023: Women Leaders in Law Roundtable – Achieving success in the law firm or as in-house counsel 

Watch a recording of the roundtable discussion on The Koa Club TV Channel.

Panelists

  • Adriana Sosa, General Counsel at FullStack Labs;
  • Jennifer Handa, Associate General Counsel, Global Compliance & Ethics at Accenture;
  • Nicole Trudeau, Director, Crypto Legal and Associate General Counsel at Robinhood;
  • Dianne Sweeney, Lead Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Silicon Valley office Litigation team and Managing Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Silicon Valley office;
  • Siân Skelton, Partner and member of the management board of Taylor Wessing LLP London office

September 14, 2022: Women IT Leaders Roundtable – Achieving success in the technology industry

Watch a recording of the roundtable discussion on The Koa Club TV Channel.

Panelists

  • Lisa Cohen, Head of Data Science at Twitter
  • Lisa Hillman, Deputy Chief Information Officer at Snohomish County, Washington State
  • Preeta Raman, Senior Director, Partner Marketing, ScienceLogic