Empower Your Future
Professional Development Programme
Are you seeking an impactful solution to elevate your company's commitment to foster inclusion and provide equal access to opportunities? Our "Empower Your Future" professional development programme is designed to bridge the gender gap in career advancement, offering your employees, especially women, a powerful toolkit for success. This programme also engages participants' leaders, through 3 virtual webinars focused on Allyship, Active Sponsorship and Accountability, so that they provide the best support to their team members!
The programme enables participants to:
✔️ Dare to dream and overcome limiting beliefs, to explore and apply for leadership roles with confidence and conviction
✔️ Create and activate a career development plan, focused on increasing visibility and their sphere of influence at work, and marketing themselves so that they are seen and heard for the right things
✔️ Hold courageous conversations and negotiate for what they need, both at home and at work, to help them advance in their career
✔️ Be a role model and inspire other employees in the company
✔️ Build a network of women in business to serve as mentors and role models
✔️ Become a competitive advantage for your company and contribute to the company’s leadership diversity
Who this programme is for
Our Empower Your Future programme is aimed at professional women who would like to focus on their career progression, without the risk of overwhelm and jeopardising their work/life integration.
As participants follow the programme, themes of both the barriers and opportunities women observe at work, are consolidated and fed back to the organisation, to help business leaders, HR and DEI functions to continue fostering an inclusive culture.
However confident and assured they are, women can sometimes feel exposed and uncomfortable discussing their challenges and feelings in a mixed-gender group. In women-only sessions, participants can be open and honest without worrying how they’ll be perceived. They also realise that they are not alone in the challenges they face and this often comes as a very palpable relief.
In some instances, it might also be of strategic importance to include men in the participant cohort. Doing so, even as a quota, allows male participants to experience being part of an underrepresented group, hear the challenges that their female colleagues face and learn how to become DEI champions and allies.
The programme incorporates a blend of e-learning, live webinars or in-person sessions and virtual group coaching, to share challenges, normalise fears, inspire each other and increase spheres of influence and networks.
Programmes can be run internally and across business functions, with participant numbers of 8 to 20.
Our approach is to also enable organisations to improve equity and inclusion at a systems and leadership level and we recommend that senior sponsors and line managers of the participants are involved to support the career development plan and activation, as well as offering feedback and observations during the duration of the programme.
Why choose the Empower Your Future programme for your company?
In today's dynamic business landscape, creating a supportive atmosphere for all employees is essential. This comprehensive programme can be delivered virtually, in person or using a hybrid format and combines training webinars, individual coaching, and online learning, enabling your team to advance their careers more effectively.
By fostering growth in your female talent, you're not only empowering them but also strengthening your organisation's DEI whilst helping to address the issue of attrition and improving the number of women in leadership roles both now and for the future.
To hear more about the reasons why we advocate for advancing women, we invite you to listen to this LinkedIn live replay.
Our approach
Female participants
We help you define the criteria to identify participants, manage the onboarding to the programme and accompany the participants with our leadership trainers and coaches.
Coaching
We encourage participants to have a Coach during the leadership programme, to deepen the learning. Coaches can be provided through Thriving Talent if required.
Engaging Managers
Managers play a key role in the success of the impact of the programme. We ensure Managers are fully involved in the programme and feel best equipped to support participants and be allies of change.
Programme overview - participants:
| Week | Content | Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kick off | Time to meet your cohort properly, design alliances and start with working on your Golden Circle: your why! |
| 2 | Overcoming your inner critic | Learn about the Mental Fitness model and tools to overcome your own saboteurs and limiting thoughts. |
| 3 | The art of feedback & courageous conversations | Learn tools to ask for what you need and hold courageous conversations at work and at home. |
| 4 | Your vision of success and SMART goals | Gain tools to overcome self-limiting thoughts so that you can dream big! Craft a clear vision and purpose that excites you and articulates what you want to achieve. Define inspiring short term goals and objectives, that bring you closer to your macro goals without getting into overwhelm. |
| 5 | Networking & growing your sphere of influence | Tactics and exercises activate your stakeholders and spheres of influence to appreciate your value, so that you build your internal and external network with a powerful elevator speech. |
| 6 | Negotiation with authenticity | Develop your muscles of negotiation to stay present, visible and manage conflicts with conviction and confidence. |
| 7 | Programme close-out | Celebrate the learning and successes you have gained from the programme. Create an accountability plan to ensure sustainability of the personal and professional impact, including acting as a change champion and mentor in the business. |
Programme overview - managers and sponsors:
| Week | Content | Learning Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kick off - being an ally | Engage in a focused workshop tailored for managers in our program, illuminating their pivotal role, exploring allyship, and honing allyship skills through interactive scenarios, ensuring a clear actionable plan for moving forward. |
| 2 | Becoming an inclusive leader and understanding your saboteurs | Explore how fostering inclusivity enhances team performance, gain insights into identifying and addressing saboteurs of inclusion, and equip yourself with practical tools to amplify your skills as an inclusive leader. |
| 3 | The art of feedback & preparation for the 3-way meetings | Learn tools to ask for sharing feedback and having courageous conversations with your employees and outside of work. Prepare for the 3-way meeting with the coach and your employee. |
Programme elements
Live interactive group sessions
These are focused on key themes to allow for questions, coaching and action planning. Guest speakers will join throughout the programme. All sessions are recorded and shared for those not able to attend the live webinars.
One-to-one coaching
Participants choose their certified leadership coach to challenge, champion and hold them accountable to their goals. We recommend a package of 3-5 hours of coaching per person as well as a 3-way meeting with the line manager at the beginning and end of the programme.
WhatsApp group
An optional WhatsApp group to stay connected with the other participants during the programme and to encourage exchanges with each other and the programme leaders. This can also be facilitated with other community platforms.
Accountability pod
An accountability pod to share within a smaller group as they work through the exercises, and hold each other accountable while championing and challenging each other.
E-learning
Optional video lessons and resources available through the Thrive Online e-learning platform.
Interactive sessions with the managers
Interactive sessions with the managers to provide support and accountability: The managers are an important part of the programme’s success in supporting someone’s career aspirations. The three dedicated interactive sessions prepare them for the 3-way meeting with the coach and their ongoing role as an ally for the participants.
What previous participants are saying
“The Empower Your Future programme is a powerful journey to get crystal clear on what’s important in your life and career and to build an action plan to achieve prioritised goals. Having an accountability partner proved to be the most effective way to keep momentum and added fun into the process. The intention setting exercises, visualising my life into the future and re-thinking networking were of particular value to me and I prioritise my time and energy differently as a result of having completed the programme. I look forward to continuing to revisit the content in the workbook on a regular basis to stay on track and aligned with what’s most important to me in my career and personal life.”
"It was uplifting, reading other people's views of your strengths, some of which I was colour blind to. Although much of what I read I had heard before, I had never truly absorbed it. The programme gave me the space and focus to do just that."
"Throughout the exercises and the group work, what crystallised for me was how much I loved working in specific environments, it focused my attention."
"I found it really thought provoking, it quickly boils down to the priorities and it got me into action."
"I found the career goal and intention setting exercises very powerful. I struggled with this at the beginning with how can I reward myself - but soon got it!"
"I saw all content and topics being applied little by little both in my personal and professional life and it turned out they were way more relevant than I could have hoped or expected."
"The programme formed my professional perspective and vision with all the given models and techniques like the feedback model, the elevator pitch and the "Why statement". I am much more clear on my future steps, I am strengthened on my negotiation skills to reach my targets and to stick-to-the-point."
"The practical approach and examples made the link with everyday life really straightforward. The concepts we learned helped me to deal with different kinds of situations at work and at home."