This year 4D's resident twins Philippa and Penelope are delighted to have delivered our unique, 2 day programme called ‘Women Step Up’ live in London for RSA.
This version of the course was tailored to precisely meet the needs of the fabulous, female delegates who attended. However, despite the title the programme is not exclusively for women.
Yes, it is true that only five percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women so ‘Women Step Up’ is very much about the challenges women with ambition meet in the workplace, from both male and female colleagues. And yes we do unpack and explore how to handle some of the daily obstacles women face from sexism and discrimination to a lack of flexibility in terms of parental leave. However these are issues that impact on everyone in the workplace and also on the evolution of business as a whole in the 21st Century. So the course is less about gender issues and much, much more about increasing personal impact, assertiveness and influencing effectively.
These are key capabilities for women in leadership roles as Sheryl Sandberg – COO at Facebook - points out in her book LEAN IN. She tells us: “When a woman excels at her job, both men and women will comment that she is accomplishing a lot but is not as well liked by her peers. She is considered “too aggressive,” “not a team player,” “a bit political”; she “can’t be trusted” or is “difficult.” Those are all things that have been said about me and almost every senior woman I know.”
So, it’s clear that ‘stepping up’ requires good to great levels of communication, networking and negotiation skills. Women Step Up is our learning and development response to the call for not only women but everyone in the work place to identify their passions, take some risks and communicate with clients, colleagues and friends to co-create new opportunities and a new way of ‘being’ human in life and work. For everyone.
