Consultant
and Leading
Conference Speaker

The power and influence programme for women

Both personally and professionally, I take a particular interest in the issues working women face in order to be successful. It is a well-known fact that balancing work and home life is difficult and requires a delicate balance of personal organisation, determining priorities and handling stress.

It is also a well-known fact that women are taught managerial skills in the same way as men but I believe this thinking is fundamentally flawed. Standard management development programmes do not take into account the specific cultural pressures on women that can affect their ability to deliver.

How can management development programmes be changed?

What typical programmes do not sufficiently take in to account is the psychology of achievement. Women are taught a variety of messages about appropriate behaviour from a very early age.

The programme on Power and Influence I offer examines how women are expected to be carers and nurturers in their lives and with their children and how this skill can make a woman a good manager if she uses it to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. Equally, the programme examines how the same skill can make a woman a poor manager if she develops passive behaviour that hides personal success or leads to increased anger and frustration.

What does the programme cover?

The programme covers three stages of learning.

In Stage 1, I analyse and explain many of the cultural messages women absorb without, in some cases, even realising it. These messages can affect the ability to build confidence in certain skills or we may know what makes good managers but do not know how to deliver that.

Stage 2 teaches practical behavioural tips to enhance a woman's ability to deliver in her role as a manager and influence the people around her.

Stage 3 offers opportunities to problem-solve issues women experience in order to diagnose difficulties in their skills and suggest practical steps that can be taken to remove these difficulties.

For further information and details of courses on the Power and Influence programme, please go to the forthcomong events page or contact me.