
The Advanced Leadership Program is a high-impact and challenging developmental experience for elite female leaders. Over a career-defining, twelve-month journey, participants engage in a deep exploration of their own strengths and weaknesses as they relate to building and leading highly effective organisational communities. Purpose designed to stretch experienced leaders beyond their comfort zone, the ALP challenges participants to develop their critical thinking abilities and begin to unlock their full leadership potential.
The program employs a multifaceted learning approach based on expert guidance, peer collaboration, self-analysis, experiential exercises and practical application. Theoretical exploration is continually overlaid with real-world experience to ensure that participants develop the adaptive skills needed to confidently overcome future challenges. This process is further enhanced through a combination of executive coaching and peer group mentoring, enabling participants to cultivate valuable peer level networks, build their self-confidence and hone the skills to lead at the highest levels.
Participants identify frameworks and individual behaviours that underpin authentic and effective female leadership and consider what this means in their particular context. Participants go on to examine the impact of values upon leadership, decision making and organisational culture. Finally, participants are introduced to reflective practices that they can use to enhance their leadership capacity.
Leading Authentically
Participants analyse the enablers of high-functioning teams and explore ways to develop cohesion and trust in order to enhance team performance. Participants also examine the role of culture in team dynamics and learn how to foster cultures that place a premium on collaboration and collective effort.
Empowering Teams
Participants examine common workplace challenges and explore ways to facilitate discussion around wellbeing, resilience and social capital within their teams. Practical strategies, tools and models for supporting themselves and others are explored. Participants go on to develop new ways to overcome challenges, bounce back from adversity and increase their resourcefulness.
Reinforcing Resilience and Wellbeing
This theme considers ways that participants must continually redefine their role and value proposition to their organisation as they take on new roles and responsibilities. Participants identify their ingrained competency traps, develop new situation sensors and begin to recognise and leverage their strengths in order to develop their personal vision for effective leadership.
Redefining Your Role
This module provides participants with an opportunity to appreciate the benefits and challenges of diversity and inclusion from an organisational perspective. Diversity and inclusion are explored in the context of social capital and impact on organisations. Issues such as sexism and ageism are highlighted and discussed, underpinned by purposeful case-studies and curated materials. Participants are offered strategies to promote inclusion and equity and to positively leverage diversity.
Progressing Diversity and Inclusion
As leaders assume more responsibility, the problems they solve become more complex and less able to be resolved by simple, technical solutions. The ability to properly identify problems, analyse them and make sound decisions becomes increasingly important. Participants will learn how the framing of a problem affects the analysis and decisions that stem from it. They will learn how their cognitive and emotional abilities work together to inform how they think, what information they pay attention to and how they make decisions. Participants will learn how to match decision making styles to the needs of the problem so that they can achieve commitment from those who must enact the solutions.
Problem Solving and Decision Making
Participants are challenged on their current perspectives towards conflict and its role in effective leadership and collaboration. Participants explore ways to increase their confidence to engage in conflict and their ability to utilise effective feedback to enhance performance and engagement.
Engaging with Challenge and Conflict
Effective networking, within, across and beyond the organisation, is one of the key factors that distinguishes exceptional leaders. Effective communication and emotional intelligence are essential to building and maintaining a good network, which in turn can become a powerful asset on your leadership journey. Participants will explore the interface between operational, personal and strategic networks and identify new ways to become active and effective across all three.
Rewiring Your Networks
Participants examine the difference between creativity and innovation, and how to harness their benefits within their organisation. Participants explore a range of strategies to drive organisational performance and examine strategic analysis and decision making tools to help them lead effective change.
Evolving Strategic Change
This theme focuses on building leadership presence, influencing tactics and communicating effectively at an interpersonal, team, and organisational level. Participants begin to explore their preferred style of communication and the possible implications of their style on others. Participants go on to explore alternative communication styles and the ways in which communication can be leveraged for maximum impact.
Communicating with Presence and Influence
The transition to truly effective organisational leadership is not a flick-switch. Nor is it an elegant curve or linear process from one level of capability to the next. Real transformation requires time, patience and adaptability. This theme will allow participants to begin developing the mindset they will require to succeed. It will also provide tools and guidance on ways to manage setbacks along the way.
Developing a Leadership Mindset
This theme centres on building a coherent and dynamic ‘game plan’ for future growth. Within the context and expectations of their current situation, participants consider the steps required to effectively leverage their experience and put measures in place to realise their full potential presently and in the future.
Creating Future Focus
PROGRAM MODULES
Segmented into eleven key themes, the Advanced Leadership Program engages participants in a comprehensive exploration of the responsibilities and opportunities of senior leadership. Through exploring previous experiences, participants gain a deeper understanding of their innate drivers and derailers and develop the skills to take a more adaptive approach to current and future challenges.
ENQUIRIES AND ENROLMENTS
All applicants enrolling into the program must satisfy WLA’s admissions criteria and adhere to standard admissions policies and procedures.
To obtain the relevant documentation please contact WLA’s Admissions Department on:
Phone: 1300 938 571 or Email: info@wla.edu.au
The standard program fee is $15,990 + GST per person. The enrolment fee covers all tuition and coaching, program related materials and access to the WLA online learning portal
COURSE FEES
Participants undertake a psychometric assessment which provides meaningful insight into their personality, characteristics, values, strengths and derailers. Known as the ‘Hogan Leadership Forecast Series’, the assessment generates three development reports based on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). Each report offers detailed information regarding the characteristics, competencies, and values that underlie how the participant approaches work and leadership and how they interact with others in the workplace. These assessments are designed to bring together three distinct aspects of personality to provide strategic self-awareness and assist in identifying key areas for development.
Psychometric Assessment
Throughout the program, self-directed learning content is accessible via our state of the art online learning management system (LMS) allowing participants to engage with it at any time from any device. Content includes high quality video tutorials, ‘best practice’ leadership literature, experiential activities and reflective tasks. Throughout the program, participants are also free to connect with each other 24/7 via the LMS and discuss ‘top of mind’ issues.
Self-Directed Learning
Through the one-on-one executive coaching, participants take a deep dive into their individual situations and establish the foundations for their unique vision of success. Participants attend four sessions with their executive coach, at key points throughout the Advanced Leadership Program. WLA has designed a rigorous, best practice approach to coaching which adheres to the code of ethics established by the International Coaching Federation.
Executive Coaching
The peer coaching sessions are designed to develop participants’ own coaching capacity so they can not only increase their own self-awareness, but support learning in others. Participants are invited to reach out to their peers in order to practice meaningful, outcome-driven coaching conversations. The peer coaching sessions offer real-time feedback to participants and enable them to develop meaningful, impactful connections with their peers.
Peer Coaching
As participants work through the program, they are asked to identify, plan and undertake an Adaptive Leadership Challenge. Through their Adaptive Leadership Challenge participants have an opportunity to test out new strategies and methodologies and integrate their learning into their everyday environment. Outcomes and results from the Adaptive Leadership Challenge are presented to peers at the end of the program.
Adaptive Leadership Challenge
Participants attend six, virtual workshop days, scheduled across the program. The workshop days are segmented into three high impact sessions with breaks in-between. During the workshop days, participants explore new concepts and strategies and work collaboratively on real-time challenges. The unique format offers valuable insight informed by collective experience as well as reflective practice.
Virtual Workshop Days
PROGRAM EXPERIENCE
Encompassing a sophisticated blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning, the ALP immerses participants in a multilayered development journey designed to ensure maximum individual impact. Coordinated via our state of the art learning management system, the program provides powerful and accessible learning.
ELLIE BROWN TALKS ABOUT HER CAREER AND THE ALP
Ellie Brown is a course facilitator for Women & Leadership Australia, a role she pursued following her completion of the Advanced Leadership Program.
CARMEN ELLIOT DISCUSSES THE ADVANCED LEADERSHIP PROGRAM (ALP)
Carmen Elliot (Chief Financial Officer, Fantastic Furniture) talks about the Advanced Leadership Program (ALP)
THERESA JACQUES DISCUSSES THE ADVANCED LEADERSHIP PROGRAM (ALP)
Theresa Jacques (Director, Department of Intensive Care, St George Hospital) talks about the Advanced Leadership Program (ALP).