Communities of Practice and Certification Program
As part of your membership benefit, LEADERSHIP USA® offers a Women in Leadership (WIL) program to partner with you to enhance your existing internal WIL program.
In order for any WIL program to be successful, LEADERSHIP USA® highly recommends it be tied to the company’s P&L, with an executive sponsor and budget, an internal facilitator from L&D/OD/HR/TM, and paid time to attend the meetings.
We suggest you embed the program into your regular goal setting and performance process, so it is part of a full program, not a “one off” event.
Purpose
This program is designed to increase the impact of women leaders, allowing them to leverage their unique talents, develop their skills, navigate the business landscape, and move into roles of greater influence. Additionally, it creates a Community of Practice in your workplace, where women can come together and discuss their opportunities.
Format
- LEADERSHIP USA® will offer quarterly one-day learning events at our various regions around the U.S., led by world-class experts, who speak on a variety of leadership topics. We recommend creating separate WIL Communities of Practice in each regional office (if applicable), since different instructors are selected by each region’s Leadership Advisory Council. The Colorado learning events will be filmed for those who were unable to attend live and have no local region.
- Each member organization kicks off the program with an internal webinar or meeting, outlining the program, expectations for participation, and any rules/regulations to follow.
- As pre-work prior to each event, WIL participants will read the instructor’s book for the upcoming event and reflect on its contents with a personal journal.
- Several weeks before the live session, the participants will meet in a local or regional office (or via Skype/gotomeeting for distributed offices and recorded for those unable to attend live). Your internal facilitator will lead the session to discuss goals for the upcoming session.
- WIL participants will meet with their manager to review accountabilities.
- Several weeks after the live session, WIL participants will again meet onsite or virtually using the Discussion Guide provided by the instructor. They will discuss how they will implement the lessons learned, how the learning will benefit the organization, and what barriers they expect to overcome.
- Participants will review any additional self-study resources provided by the instructor and posted to the LEADERSHIP USA® learning library. The instructors often have additional online and video resources available to license or purchase for a deeper dive into that content if desired (you’ll work directly with the instructor for these options).
- WIL participants will meet with their manager to review learning and implementation.
- After leaders participate in FOUR such rotations (#1-8 above), they are eligible for certification. We prefer all sessions are completed in one calendar year, but it’s not required, as sessions are cumulative. Three of these courses must be live LEADERSHIP USA® events, and only one may be a LEADERSHIP USA® one-hour webinar.
To be certified, participants must complete a capstone paper, outlining what they have learned and their implementation plan moving forward (e.g. a project plan, a mentor plan, a coaching plan, a career plan, a mindset shift, a behavior change, additional coursework, a dissertation, etc.).
The participant submits this paper to LEADERSHIP USA, the internal facilitator, and the manager. After it is confirmed and accepted by the member organization, LEADERSHIP USA® will issue a Certificate of Completion (currently pursuing a WBENC certification).
Participants
How you select participants is up to you. Some organizations offer it to their senior leadership; others offer it to their highest potential director level. We encourage you to invite men to participate in the WIL program; however, please know there will be frank conversations about the specific situations women face.
Annual Summit
LEADERSHIP USA® COLORADO, which is headquarters for LEADERSHIP USA®, will also host an Annual Women in Leadership Summit in Denver, CO, in summer 2018 (exact date TBD). The Summit is open to ALL leaders employed by LEADERSHIP USA® member organizations. We highly encourage participation in this Summit as part of the program, but it isn’t required.