MEDIA ADVISORY: Women of Influence Advancement Centre provides powerful curriculum in response to research results highlighting gaps in Women’s Advancement
Women of Influence Advancement Centre provides powerful curriculum in response to research results highlighting gaps in Women’s Advancement
Eight courses help high potential women gain the intangible skills to advance to senior leadership roles more powerfully
TORONTO – MAY 12, 2014 – Women of Influence launches eight courses in response to the 7 Pitfalls for Women in Business outlined by the recent white paper on the Solutions to Women’s Advancement. In collaboration with Thomson Reuters, the white paper surveyed 326 executive women from across North America to examine how top female executives define their leadership style, strengths, and challenges. The common themes of the paper established a course of action for women and corporations looking to close the gender gap at the executive level.
The call to provide women with intangible skills relevant to leadership and career development has been taken up by the Women of Influence Advancement Centre in the launch of eight highly targeted one-day courses. These courses ensure that women gain the necessary skills, mindsets, and habits showcased by highly successful executive level women. The centre’s unique approach of leveraging the expertise of highly sought after executive coaches, intimate group sizes, and creating an experiential learning environment ensures maximum value to each participant.
“We really wanted to throw out the traditional model of training in which facilitators present hours of slide deck material and the participants act as passive learners who leave with a workbook that eventually collects dust in their office. Instead, we’ve leveraged experts and coaches who are highly skilled at creating customized experiences. This ensures that each participant leaves with new insight they can apply personally, along with strategies and action items to advance in their own position,” says Christine Laperriere, Executive Director & Lead Coach of the Women of Influence Advancement Centre.
Of the five themes examined, Big Picture, Leadership Responsibility, Leadership Maturity, Self-Initiation and Career Advancement, women executives scored their ability to advance their careers the lowest. In addition, many of the pitfalls for women in business are due to a lack of intangible skills such as the ability to make bold requests, self-promote, lead with confidence, strategically network, and stay the course through stressful times.
The Advancement Centre course offerings span a broad range of subjects that highlight the common strengths exhibited by high-powered executives. In this specialized curriculum, we help women learn to personally thrive by ensuring they identify their passion and remain empowered when stress levels are high. We also help women grow their influence by teaching how to be bold without being perceived as abrasive and refine their leadership presence. We provide participants the critical skills to ensure they grow a successful career by helping them leverage their personal brand, network strategically, and get on boards to create an even larger positive influence in the world.
Women of Influence is North America’s leading organization dedicated to the professional advancement of women. Celebrating its flagship 20th year in 2014, Women of Influence continues to offer a menu of solutions through corporate consulting on Gender Intelligence, professional coaching, events, and content — both online and through a quarterly magazine. Renowned events include the Deloitte Women of Influence Luncheon Series and the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards. Women of Influence has a community and reach of over 120,000 in nine cities across North America including Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, New York City and Washington, DC. For more information, please visit womenofinfluence.ca.
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For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Heggie
416-923-1688