What is Leading Women?

What is Leading Women?Leading Women facilitates leadership prowess in women of high potential and impact.

The Gordon Institute of Business Science’s Leading Women programme recruits women of demonstrated potential and impact. The programme leads them through a year-long process to further strengthen their managerial ability leadership E.Q. (emotional quotient). These skills are developed in a supportive environment with the intention of assisting professional women to grow and excel into executive leadership roles. The aim of the programme is to develop well balanced and effective leaders for the next generation of South African organisations.

What do delegates do in the programme?
The programme consists of five components that collectively facilitate the development of various managerial competencies. Skills and challenges introduced in one component of the programme can be interrogated and tested in others. In this way delegates are constantly learning and practicing new skills and also challenging their peers to find creative means for solving problems. The five components of the programme are listed below.

1. Conversations with Extraordinary South African Businesswomen
Delegates will meet for intimate conversations with extraordinary South African businesswomen. This will provide delegates with the
opportunity to ask questions and garner advice from these high achieving women.

2. Small Group Coaching Sessions
    Leading Women delegates meet in diverse groups of six women, along with a professional coach, to further interrogate the case study
    introduced at the previous panel debate. Delegates are encouraged to bring dilemmas drawn from their own work experience before the group
    for creative problem solving and discuss current issues around gender in the workplace. These small group sessions are for delegates only.
    The delegates and coaches assigned to each group remain the same throughout the year to encourage trust among the participants. Themes
    explored in the coaching sessions include:

Impact – How do others receive my leadership style? Do I truly have the impact I believe I have?

Values – What are my core values in life? How do I best carry those out as a leader?

360˚ Evaluation assessment – Based on feedback from those I work with regularly, in what areas should I focus continued development and in what areas have I grown?

Being heard – What matters to me as a leader? How do I best get that message across to the right parties?

Vision – What does it take to formulate, convey and lead a team towards a vision?

3. Case Study Panel Debates
    A panel of professional luminaries is invited to debate solutions to a managerial dilemma presented by way of a particular case study. These well
    experienced managers pull back the curtain on the deliberation process to expose best practices they’ve developed over time. Six case studies
    will be explored over the year. Guests from outside the Leading Women programme may also attend these debate sessions.

4. Business Improvement Project (BIP)
    The business improvement project requires delegates to work in cohorts (company specific when possible) to solve a real-life business dilemma in
    their workplace, applying skills developed in the course. Each delegate is required to select a senior-level accountability partner within their
    organisation to oversee their progress on the project. An internal panel with operational oversight must also be elected to both assess the
    business improvement plan and champion its implementation within the organisation.

5. Executive Education Course
Leading Women delegates take part in a customised GIBS Executive Education course focusing on effective and authentic women's leadership.

Who should apply? Eligible delegates to the Leading Women programme:

Are upper-middle to senior level managers in their organisations with at least 5 years' experience at this level;

Have demonstrated potential to serve in leadership capacities;

Have an interest in exploring best practices through dialogue; and

Are able to commit to one three-hour session in the late afternoon, once a month.

You should expect to challenge your existing practices and interrogate your professional pathway in Leading Women. The programme combines group coaching on E.Q. skills for leadership, case study panel debates on managerial dilemmas, an Executive Education course and conversations with outstanding businesswomen to develop both hard and soft leadership skills.

Delegates meet once per month except for the opening seminar which is three full days. All assignments require delegates to apply leadership and managerial principles garnered in the programme to each delegates’ work environment, the results of which are assessed by their coaching groups. The success of each candidate is wholly dependent on the level of engagement each delegate brings to the programme activities.