Women’s Leadership Development Programs
With more women acquiring higher education than ever before, the opportunity to drive greater women’s leadership in organizations is huge. But it is rife with challenges as well, especially that of the ‘Hollow Middle’. It is well known that large numbers of women drop out at mid- management level, leaving few women to promote internally and accentuating the shortage of senior women leaders as role models.
However, there are also factors at the individual level which need to be addressed – the transition related challenge of women leaders. This can help in bringing about genuine women’s leadership development.
Challenges of developing women leaders at the mid-career level are
The ‘Hollow Middle’ – Starting at the manager level, there are significantly fewer women to promote from within and to hire from outside. So even though hiring and promotion rates improve at senior levels for women, there is still a significant catch up required.
Lack of role models – As the pyramid of women rising to leadership positions gets narrower, those at the bottom have fewer role models to look up to and be inspired by.
Inability to tap into and articulate a ‘voice’ /clarity around career aspirations at the individual lev
How our Women’s Leadership Development programs are different
Most initiatives for preparing women leaders focus largely on the functional challenges of leadership such as improving their business acumen through more sophisticated understanding of strategy, financial reporting and monitoring, negotiating and gaining influence.
However, it is our experience (including of personally having grown as women leaders) of working with women leaders, that at the crucial transition point of going from mid-management to senior leadership, emotional preparation and self-awareness are as important to address. This ensures deep and lasting leadership capability enhancement for women.
Who should join our Women’s Leadership Development Programs
Women in mid-senior roles. Our programs are suited for women who have been identified as high-potential leaders or cross-functional leaders, who are seeking to enhance their leadership skills, and demonstrate strong drive to reach the top of their organization and have a minimum 10 years of professional work experience
Most of the women leaders in our programs tend to be functionally, emotionally at a Transition point, where significant career decisions and changes in own leadership style are waiting to be made . In our conversations with several mid-management level women, some of the things we have heard about their experience and the difficulty of growing to the next level of leadership are
“I want to understand my own working style and that of others better, so that I can be more effective.”
“I want to learn to feel powerful – even though I know that I can deliver and have delivered, I still don’t demonstrate that. I want to be able to change that”
Women’s Leadership Development Programs – Interventions to strengthen the Pipeline of Women Leaders, addresses the above problems at the individual and organizational level. It is not just another diversity initiative – but a focused effort at preparing Hi-Potential women managers and leaders for the next level.
This is a pivot point in ensuring real diversity and inclusion, because the chances of leakage of female talent in organizations is also highest at the mid-career level.
Key takeaways for Women Leaders
- Clarity and energy around next steps – learn to articulate one’s Personal Purpose, uncover personal narratives, patterns & strong suits, understand barriers and dilemmas impeding your development
- Managerial and leadership skills for the next level – how to focus on Results, design & improvise interfaces, roles, structures to create a high performance culture, how to deal with Ambiguity & focus on strategic issues, Influence & stakeholder management
- Career development plan – how to animate your personal brand, identifying high impact projects which are aligned to career vision and a roadmap with milestones for such projects
Key Takeaways for the Organization
Organizations too get positively impacted through women’s leadership development. According to research by McKinsey & Co, women leaders tend to apply the leadership behaviours that improve organizational performance more often than men do, enhancing organizational health and hence sustained performance.
Such behaviours, including inspiration, participative decision making, people development and role modeling are also more relevant for solving future global challenges. Our interventions lead to the following benefits for the organization
An engaged and more effective talent pool of women leaders – women leadership program participants grow in confidence, executive presence, communication, influence and decision making skills, allowing them to deliver results more impactfully
Clear career track for growing women leaders – our programs help women leaders clarify their core strengths, skills and career direction. This enables them to chart out their career track and clearly see roles and parts of the organization where they can add value and create maximum impact.
Key takeaways for the Organization
The greatest benefit to organizations from investing in purpose driven leadership development is in equipping leaders to be able to respond to change. This is of high value, considering the turbulent times and the rapid rate of change that businesses are continuously exposed to.
The other organizational benefits are
- A culture of learning getting embedded because of more open, authentic communication and information flows
- Collaborative networks unleashed when leaders role model trust building and open communication
Methodology of our Women’s Leadership Development Programs
Our women’s leadership development programs use a powerful, experiential methodology that truly works. The programs which are based on extensive leadership development research, neuroscience, positive psychology, make use of the following :
Our leadership development programs are highly experiential and immersive. They are customized to each organization’s need, but some key parts of the process include
- Individual reflection and self-awareness through psychometric tools
- Personal Insights – experiential techniques to uncover personal narratives, strong suits and patterns. Connecting to personal purpose and meaning.
- Storytelling to learn how to use stories to articulate values, purpose and influence key stakeholders
- Personal Mastery tools and practices focused on managing Energy, Focus and Time
- 1-1 Coaching with experienced coaches
We draw upon neuroscience, experiential learning theory and adult development to focus on achieving awareness, developing lasting new practices and further enhancing existing strengths.
Tools for Self-Awareness
Finding/clarifying career and personal aspirations
Skills Gap Assessment
Identifying and plugging knowledge and skill gaps towards meeting the above aspirations
Energy Enhancing Practices
Working on energy flows and blocks and learning practices to support continuous movement towards aspirations
Peer Coaching
Deep connect and support from a cohort who are also in this journey
1-1 Coaching
Working with experienced coaches to navigate leadership and transition challenges
Tracking & Measuring Diversity
Tracking and measuring organizational factors which will enable greater real diversity and inclusion
How do our Leadership Development programs foster being purpose driven and centred?
Our leadership development programs have two defining characteristics – immersive and experiential. They are designed to impact the being and the doing of participants. We focus on enabling leaders to find and communicate their purpose through developing the following practices
- Finding and conveying meaning at work – we help leaders connect to goals which they find personally meaningful and in line with their vision of who they want to be and how they want to lead. This becomes the source of their energy and they use their skills and strengths to rally people around this. Time and again, we find that leaders who are connected to goals which go beyond personal gain, are able to tell powerful and inspiring stories which bind people together and multiply their energy. Our leadership development programs therefore, teach leaders to dig into the source of such inspiring stories and communicate them compellingly.
- Reframing difficult and challenging situations and emotions into growth opportunities – Purposeful leaders do not shy away from difficult and challenging situations, but instead reframe these to find possibilities for growth and learning for themselves and others. In our leadership development work, we encourage leaders to look at challenging situations in the face, and practice how they can see them more constructively.
- Building connections and community – In a departure from the image of the leader as powerful, one who is an expert and has all the right answers, our leadership development programs enable leaders to become comfortable with asking for help and admitting that they may not know it all. This in turn helps them to be able to build authentic connections and facilitating the flow of important information across the organization much more quickly and effectively.
- Experimenting and risking failure – By reframing failure as an opportunity to learn, our leadership development work enables leaders to see the value in experimenting. We get leaders to challenge what failure means to them personally and how they might reduce the fear of failure by de-personalizing it. This puts them in the space where they are then open to proactively looking at risks and possible failures with their people and plan mitigating strategies.
- Managing their own energy – Leaders have to deal with a lot and this requires constantly replenishing and growing their own energy. We help leaders develop a range of practices to energize themselves (physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually).
Key takeaways for the Organization
The greatest benefit to organizations from investing in purpose driven leadership development is in equipping leaders to be able to respond to change. This is of high value, considering the turbulent times and the rapid rate of change that businesses are continuously exposed to.
The other organizational benefits are
- A culture of learning getting embedded because of more open, authentic communication and information flows
- Collaborative networks unleashed when leaders role model trust building and open communication
Methodology of our Leadership Development Programs
Our leadership development programs are highly experiential and immersive. They are customized to each organization’s need, but some key parts of the process include
- Individual reflection and self-awareness through psychometric tools
- Personal Insights – experiential techniques to uncover personal narratives, strong suits and patterns. Connecting to personal purpose and meaning.
- Storytelling to learn how to use stories to articulate values, purpose and influence key stakeholders
- Personal Mastery tools and practices focused on managing Energy, Focus and Time
- 1-1 Coaching with experienced coaches
We draw upon neuroscience, experiential learning theory and adult development to focus on achieving awareness, developing lasting new practices and further enhancing existing strengths.
Testimonials
Career development coaching: "I was in a dilemma about whether i should pursue a certain role that had come up in the team given my skillets. Being the wonderful listener that Kavita is, she was skilfully able to grasp my context, challenges and work aspirations. The guidance that followed helped me immensely as she was able to put it in context of emerging roles in the industry, what managers typically expect from new trendy roles, with the foresight of how I might better navigate my career towards long term success. I came away from the session with a sense of clarity, ease and deep knowing of what to do next. Deep gratitude to you Kavita. May you continue to inspire and guide professionals like us take more heart aligned career decisions."
Career development coaching: "I was fortunate to collaborate with Kavita in getting help on identifying career growth aspirations and taking action on higher studies. In today's world where professionals have to continuously upskill themselves, it was good to partner with Kavita in preparing myself for my long term career growth. Her dedication and coaching ability was key to drawing out my interests, motivations and skills and conveying these compellingly, which made a big difference to my candidature for advanced studies. I would highly recommend Kavita for career development coaching for professionals who want to keep pace with a changing world of work."
Career transition coaching: "My first interaction with Kavita happened during COVID, when I was at the crossroads of wondering what to do next after a decade of experience. I’ve interacted with coaches in the past before her, but one of the standouts with Kavita was the richness of the conversation and the clear structure she brought to the fragmented thoughts I had on my career trajectory. This structure helped me prioritize what I like and don’t like and move forward with my choices with far more clarity. It also gave me the courage to make unconventional decisions with more confidence. I also believe that an advantage that Kavita brings to the table is her own career trajectory, which makes the conversation easy and relatable. As I move forward with my career, she remains one of my primary contacts for any sort of advice I may need, and I’d recommend a conversation with her for anybody who is at an inflection point in their career."
Career Transition Coaching: I reached out to Kavita with high scepticism and as an experiment that I thought would fail in all probability. I was struggling with not being able to take even moderate risks and the ‘no, can’t do. Why rock the boat’ voice was very strong. I am happy to say that just a few sessions with her were enough to uncover subconscious messages and move me towards new actions. She firmly but supportively, challenged me to see new perspectives and rearrange some of my old beliefs. Subsequent to her coaching, I enrolled into a couple of Psychology related programs and have moved on or am rather in the process of moving on from a 24 years plus MNC corporate career - crafting the next 10 years. I haven’t felt this calm and ‘looking forward’ attitude in decades. If you are in touch with Kavita, be ready to be pleasantly surprised on what you will uncover and where you will find yourself moving. You will definitely get back a dream.
Career & Personal Growth Coaching : I had connected with Kavita at a time I was going through a low in my professional life. During the several weeks of my interaction, I got an opportunity to introspect and look at aspects of my life from a different prism. In particular, some areas I found helpful were: 1. The Wheel of life, 2. Making the most of the cards we are dealt, 3. Personality tests that helped me understand my personality type and the reason I was responding in a particular manner, 4. Some implementable ideas I could work on, to get out of the 'professional shell' at that time. I am thankful to her for getting the negativity out of my life then. I would recommend Kavita as a mentor for anyone looking for a guiding star for his/ her professional journey.
Career Transition Coaching: "I was not sure if I needed to talk to a career change expert to navigate my career transformation journey, but I am glad that I did. Working with Kavita has been a transformative experience which helped me gain valuable insights into my aspirations, strengths, and areas for growth through a mix of self reflection exercises and tools. She is very perceptive and she provided constructive feedback that challenged me to think outside my comfort zone and consider alternative perspectives. The comprehensive support I received went beyond traditional career coaching, encompassing holistic personal development."
I reached out to Kavita for coaching during a career break. Kavita has been a guiding force in a time where I questioned my existing patterns of being in a professional setting and was experimenting with new ways. She directed light towards my blind spots, and helped me see and articulate strengths in me that either I didn’t know how to pitch well or I wasn’t even aware that they existed. She gets to the root of issues through thoughtful questions that lead you to better clarity about what to do next, and allows answers to emerge with time through deep discussions. She takes one’s current context, their natural abilities and accumulated experiences to give sharp, practical advice. Working with her made me evaluate not just my professional life but also my personal life. She would be a great person to work with for anyone considering getting help with career thinking.
Career Transition Coaching: I hired Kavita as a career transition coach last year as I came to a crossroads in my career trajectory after having spent 22 years in a highly competitive high growth trajectory in a super speciality role. I wanted a clear voice of reason and an independent coach to evaluate my skillsets and my needs and guide me. Kavita did just that. I had 4 sessions with her and thanks to her I had the courage to explore alternate pathways and even reach out to people who are in different industries/professions and explore what I would like to do. Even after our engagement was over, Kavita has been checking on me and giving me periodic advice. I am glad she guided me when I needed most at my career turnpoint.
Career Transition Coaching : After taking two years of an education sabbatical I reached out to Kavita as I was trying to re-enter my career. She is a highly professional and perceptive individual. An astute listener who takes in a lot before providing a very clear perspective and direction - both of which were very important to me as I was trying to second guess myself. Definitely someone I would like to see as a coach as I navigate my career transition.
Career Transition Coaching : "As I worked through my transition, the sessions with Kavita helped in several ways - holding the space and helping me understand that many of the emotions I was feeling were par for the course, helping me reflect and look at the issue in new and different ways that went around some of my own blocks, and also opening myself to new possibilities and breaking out of old patterns of behaviour. All of this was grounded in getting to know myself better through the sessions and through specific tools that Kavita brought to the work. Within a few sessions, I had far greater clarity on the path ahead."
Career Transition/Change Coaching & Workshops : Kavita is a professional who naturally manages to make you feel at ease. She is empathetic while simultaneously encouraging and challenging you to find your own answers. Kavita has facilitated career development and career transition workshops for our MBA students and Executive MBA students at IIM Amritsar. The different dimensions related to one's career and how can that be intertwined with personal reflections is how she centers most of her sessions. This is extremely useful as we go into the new future of work, where each person will have a unique career path and will have to rely on self-awareness of strengths, skills and values to navigate their career. Kavita's approach is totally non-judgmental and the sessions are really focused on you and on what you want to achieve.
Leadership Coaching: "As HR & People Head, I had nominated some of our senior members to a leadership development workshop designed and facilitated by Kavita. I am happy to say that we got what we were expecting and more. Kavita is a fantastic coach and facilitator who can create impactful shifts for people at the emotional and intellectual level. Her style of coaching which is supportive and still challenging, helped our leaders to accept and drive their own change processes instead of resisting it. I would recommend Kavita and her colleagues for leadership development/coaching which is truly transformative and helps people get unstuck."
I found a very supportive coach in Kavita who listened deeply to me. Not many people do that these days. She understood where I came from, did not have any preconceived notions about anything or anyone and did not judge me for my thoughts and beliefs. She guided me on how to overcome my limitations and I followed up on that. It really helped. My mid-career transition from construction sector to consulting would have been much more challenging without this support.
Leadership & Personal Growth Coaching: "I was looking for coaching to help me grow in my career. Executive coaching can be tricky if you don't find the right coach and after speaking to three other coaches, I had a discovery coaching conversation with Kavita. We almost immediately hit it off and at the end of the session, she summarized my needs so perfectly, that I decided to sign up with her. Kavita is an extremely good listener and that is so important as she allows you to speak out everything that you've been carrying around so long. This then enables her to provide you with the right structure and tools to work with to achieve what you long for. Her questionnaires made me dig deeper and think about things I had never paid attention to. She has a knack to break down overwhelming situations into achievable goals and then ensuring we are tracking progress together. It's a journey she chooses to be on. I am so glad to have met her and recommend her to anyone who is looking for a coach with patience, someone who can help you break your old patterns and provide you the structured process in which you can achieve your goals."
Career Change Coaching: "I highly recommend Kavyata for any mid-career professional looking/thinking about a switch in their career. Kavita brings her experience and a very empathetic approach to guide us through the process. I have had other career coaches before but I find that the coaching with Kavita has been the best so far - it’s a good mix of understanding oneself first and combining it with our aspirations. This is unique."
Participant at Urja, a mid-career transition program: "I was at a crossroads in my career and I needed to make a thoughtful choice about the kind of role I wanted to continue playing in my organization. I was on the verge of taking up significant additional responsibility which would allow me to have much more impact through my work. But this step had to be taken weighing against certain personal decisions and consequences of my taking up this role. This confusion was what made me participate in Urja - Kavyata's workshop for mid-career change. Urja helped me to develop comfort with the current ambiguities. I came to know about how working on certain behaviours could help me achieve more output for my role and take on more responsibility without being overwhelmed. Engaging with new people helped open up and experiment without fear of being judged. There was lot of noise and discomfort within me, during the initial phase of the workshop. Trying to find answers was difficult. Facilitators gave me confidence to stay connected with the process till the end and that helped me to overcome the discomfort and trust on the process and have patience. The answers started coming out very elegantly at the end of the workshop and that was a ‘Aha’ moment!"
Personal Growth Coaching: "We are living and working in a rather rapidly evolving world that demands a creative, innovative approach for individual as well as organisation success! As I worked my way up the ladder, I have actively engaged in coaching with Kavyata, a couple of times and found both times the process helped me think and act differently by making me more aware of my own self and my environment. It helped me acquire a fluidity of perspectives, approaches and behaviours that helped me lead effectively through ambiguity. The need to own our (and our team's) outcomes is far higher in 2020 than a few years ago - a broader perspective and a creative, intrapreneurial approach is key to thrive in this brave new world we inhabit!"
Participant at Urja, a mid-career transition workshop: "Urja was the much needed pause which gave me the time to reflect and get clarity. I attended Kavyata's flagship program Urja in April 2019.The timing of the workshop was very apt given my own context of feeling the need to pause, examine, reflect and align. And living up to its name, Urja gave me the space to get in touch with my own energies and helped me reimagine and reorganise my personal and professional goals. The workshop was facilitated primarily by Kavita in a powerful yet gentle way. She drew on some insightful techniques of visualization, bodywork and deep reflection methodologies that made the experience memorable. I recommend this workshop for everyone who is feeling the need to reimagine and re energize, especially at mid-career."
Career Change Coaching: "The coaching helped me uncover a few hidden problems which were making my career transition complicated. I was able to see clearly where my interest lies and identify what I could do to pursue those interests. I also benefited from having a clear strategy to reach out to my mentors and ask for support. I am happy to say that the coaching process enabled me to make a shift in my career change process and move to a new role within 3 months."
Participant in Urja, a mid-career transition workshop: "Urja is a unique process of gifting yourself a space where one can safely and deeply explore and observe one’s own experiences, behavior patterns and self-limiting / self-promoting thought processes that make the glasses through which we see ourselves, and our world. It is a space where everyone is equal – fellow participants and facilitators – all adding to each others’ experiential journey. No other training program (I have attended and facilitated quite a few) touches the depth of feelings and thoughts, the way this program does, leaving behind a strong sense of liberation and self-realization. So if you are someone having questions about your current situation and how you can change it, if you think you deserve better, if you feel adrift and uncomfortably out of control, if you feel a deeper understanding of your own needs and emotions would help you interact with the world around you better – this may just be the space you may want to gift yourself."
Participant at Urja, mid-career transition workshop: "I attended Urja in April 2019, at the time I was taking on a significantly larger leadership role in my organization. I must say it was a turning point in my leadership journey - I had grown organically as a leader till then and Urja gave me a chance to reflect on my approach to leadership. It completely transformed me and gave me a much better understanding of myself. Now I know where to focus on. I realised that self-awareness is so important. I liked the activities and experiences, especially the plotting the emotions on a timeline. The way the program was conducted made it easy to absorb what I needed the most - the beautiful, natural setting, the evening discussions over the bonfire and the treks all created a fantastic ambience for me to really take a pause and re-energize."
Career Development Group Coaching : "Kavita had facilitated a very engaging, interactive workshop on Career Development in the Future of Work. There was a great mix of self-reflection activities, group exercises and assessments, which helped me in understanding myself and my goals, identify strengths and transferable skills. This was an excellent input for me in planning my overall career development and also learning what will drive career success for me in the long term."
Career Development Group Coaching: "I had a chance to attend Kavyata's session at IIM Kozhikode. During the session, I reflected on my personality and understood how do I behave in certain situations. I reflected on my strengths and weaknesses. I got a lot of useful learning about my areas of improvement and also about how to communicate in a better way during interviews and meetings in formal settings. What I liked especially was Kavita's easy and engaging style of conducting the workshops - there was plenty of opportunity to share our views, ask questions not only limited to the workshop content, learn from each other and think deeply. The reflections and learnings are going to stay with me for my future career development too."
Career Development Online Courses: "The webinars and sessions facilitated by Kavita were extremely valuable - I got some great pieces of advice on how do I respond to the Covid19 situation in terms of my career preparation in the present, near term as well as the longer-term future. Kavita helped me to differentiate between short and long term career goals, which were otherwise confusing me and making it difficult to commit to steps to work on them. The learnings from the sessions reinforced some of my personal plans and also opened up some new avenues that I hadn't thought of earlier. The tips on resume building were brilliant and actionable, something that I implemented immediately. I would certainly recommend attending Kavyata's online sessions, for understanding how to draw up highly actionable career development plans."
My experience with Urja has been incredible and way too worthwhile - with lot of ifs and but - why do I do need - do I actually need it and what not ? But once I stepped into the SPACE - the space uncovered so many aspects of my own self - SELF REALISATION of beauty with in you. We spend so much time and money on holiday and leisure and come back with just a relaxed body — but if any one needs to really rejuvenate the soul - URJA is one stop destination.