Women in Leadership: Intensive Learning for Emerging Leaders

This course empowers professional women in leadership roles to communicate with greater clarity, confidence, and influence. You will begin by analyzing your own communication patterns to identify strengths and growth areas in leadership contexts, then explore research-backed strategies to overcome common barriers women face at work, such as being interrupted, having ideas overlooked or appropriated, and navigating bias in meetings and negotiations. Through practical frameworks, role plays, and reflective exercises, you will learn to demonstrate executive presence using voice, body language, and message framing tailored to different organizational audiences. You will practice designing and delivering high-impact messages that communicate expectations, priorities, and boundaries, and use strategic storytelling to articulate vision, build alignment, and mobilize support. The course also guides you in adapting your style to influence stakeholders across levels and cultures, advocating effectively for yourself and others in promotion and resource conversations, and leading difficult conversations using structured communication models. You will conclude by building a personalized communication development plan with clear goals, practice strategies, and metrics to support your continued growth as a leader.

This course equips women leaders who oversee teams with the tools to negotiate and advocate more strategically for themselves, their teams, and their organizations. You will learn to map key negotiation and advocacy opportunities in your current role by analyzing interests, Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNAs), sources of power, and potential barriers shaped by gendered expectations and organizational politics. You will diagnose common forms of gender bias, stereotype threat, and backlash risk that emerge in negotiation and advocacy settings, and choose concrete strategies to mitigate their impact while preserving your authority and psychological safety. Building on this foundation, you will apply structured negotiation frameworks to real workplace challenges such as roles, resources, visibility, and organizational initiatives. You will learn to adapt advocacy strategies to different stakeholders and power dynamics, tailoring your messaging, framing, and influence tactics across levels, functions, and cultures. Through practice with scripts and tools, you will conduct difficult conversations about compensation, role scope, and support using assertive, data-backed, and values-aligned communication that both protects relationships and advances your interests. You will also learn to leverage networks, champions, and allies to amplify your advocacy and institutionalize agreed changes, and to evaluate your negotiation efforts for continuous improvement. By the end of the course, you will be able to design clear negotiation and advocacy plans that set goals, define walk-away conditions, and sequence asks to create mutual value for you and your organization. You will use influence and framing techniques to position your proposals as advancing shared organizational priorities such as performance, equity, and innovation, increasing senior stakeholders’ willingness to support your initiatives. Finally, you will create a personal leadership and advocacy roadmap that integrates your values, long-term career vision, and leadership identity as a woman, translating the course insights into concrete commitments you will implement with your team and across your organization.