Women in Leadership Programme

This three-day course has been thoroughly designed with a modern woman leader in mind. It combines high-quality teaching content, built on years of experience, with interactive and highly practical sessions, where the delegates will have an opportunity to put their new skills into practice. The content will also feature interviews with inspirational women, who will share their experiences and provide useful advice on how to navigate modern workplaces and build a rewarding career.

Following two intense days in the classroom, the delegates will then go away for 6 weeks – to allow them an opportunity to experience their everyday situations via a lens of the knowledge from the course and think about their freshly designed personal development plan. They will be guided during that time by a carefully designed journal, provided to them at the beginning of the programme. They will then meet for the final day, to share reflections and experiences, and fully prepare for the journey they will be undertaking following the completion of the course.

But the benefits do not end there! The programme will also be a great foundation to get involved in the support network, hosted and operated by SPD and consequently, bring your career to the next level. All delegates are invited to participate in this highly exclusive group and are encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities it presents.

By the end of the course delegates will:

• Understand the context for their Leadership and in particular for women at work.
• Have an appreciation of their preferred Leadership Style and be confident of their strengths and how to play to them.
• Be aware of the power dynamics at play in their workplace and how to navigate the politics of organisation life by being aware of their sphere of influence and how to use it well.
• Have a tool kit for framing difficult conversations at work and know-how to, having practised using it. 
• Be aware of how to obtain your goal by asking for what you want. Delegates will have an opportunity to practice negotiation and have a framework to assist.
• Identify how to make their network work for them in support of their career goals.
• Understand the role of a leader in change. Explore the importance of vision, communication and engagement in change and be able to describe techniques for overcoming resistance to change.
• Develop a career and development goal aligned to achieving their goals. It is not enough to have a plan – we will also provide time to work out how to take the first step and make it happen by identifying support, identifying ways to remove barriers to action and planning in detail that first step.

• Women leaders, aspiring to step up to a more senior role
• Middle managers

Anne McCarthy - HR Director – Change Leaders – Non-Executive Director

Anne is a successful leader of change and is a passionate believer in setting people up to succeed. In her Royal Mail Career, Anne has worked with the CEO and her team to deliver transformational change. 

This included:

• Designing and leading the people strategy to underpin Delivery Transformation focused on organisation design, learning and engagement touching 100,00 people.
• Leading Organisation Design for the HR Function.
• Changing the way Learning and Development were practised in the organisation.
• Designing and implementing a talent review for the top 200 operations leaders.
• Leading a £360m negotiation to reform operations in London.

Anne brings good energy to her work. She is renowned for understanding the business proposition first and applying HR practice to it. She stays up to date with current thinking and her trademark is to translate even the most complex change into simple communication to which people can relate. 

A non-exec director, interim HR Director and Prince’s Trust mentor, Anne is now sharing her expertise across a broad range of business and not-for-profit organisations.