Your Course of Study
The Women's Leadership Forum provides a range of learning experiences that add up to a powerful, transformative week.
Through faculty lectures and case studies, you will explore how other professional women have overcome challenges in their industries, their companies, and their interpersonal interactions. You will have privileged access to the latest research on leadership, gender in the workplace, and emerging best practices that are helping today's most successful companies outperform the competition.
Each day, you will meet with a Board of Advisers—a small group facilitated by a professional coach—who will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, articulate and overcome your personal leadership challenges, and guide you through the process of developing your personal action plan in the context of key lessons from each day's curriculum.
Deriving practical solutions from executives who have "been there," you will craft a realistic agenda for change in your company and in your own approach to leadership. Your small group work will incorporate guided self-assessment exercises that help you and your Board of Advisers to design a leadership approach that maximizes your strengths.
At the same time, you will be able to identify and address personal blind spots in a supportive environment, and create a more balanced approach that enables you to work more effectively with a diverse range of colleagues. This personal action plan will help you to implement what you have learned in the program and to continue developing your ability as a leader.
Key topics will include:
- Leadership—aligning your leadership strategy and style with your own personal values and self-image
- Innovation—identifying opportunities for new or enhanced products, services, and business models, while supporting entrepreneurial initiatives
- Negotiation—capturing maximum value through skillful and effective negotiation
- Service Management—helping your organization enhance service and differentiate on service excellence
- Change—leading organizational change and creating an environment that inspires and sustains results-focused change
- Values—implementing ethical negotiation and decision-making strategies across all levels of the organization
"This course was truly eye-opening—I gained profound insights from the innovative teaching methods of the HBS faculty and from the dynamic exchange of so many different student viewpoints. The variety of media used to facilitate classroom discussion and illustrate the coursework contributed to a rich learning experience."
Kavita Sharma [Product Manager], JP Morgan Chase & Company, U.S.