Rebecca Cannon reviews WLA's Executive Ready program
Rebecca Cannon, Operations Manager at Atlas Equipment Finance, reviews WLA's Executive Ready program. Executive Ready is a seven-month part-time leadership development program for women middle-managers and leaders, enabling exceptional performance, behaviours and mindsets.
Executive Ready is a seven month leadership and career accelerator purpose designed to stretch mid-level leaders and rapidly propel them towards executive level performance, behaviours and mindsets. The program challenges participants to see themselves, their responsibilities and their opportunities with fresh eyes, enabling and inspiring them to achieve career and life goals. The significant emphasis on applied learning ensures participants rapidly enhance their leadership abilities along with their capacity and confidence to take on increased responsibility.
“Executive Ready will accelerate your abilities, ignite your passions, challenge your status quo and redefine your career and life expectations”.
Participants explore what it takes to be an effective leader using a strengths based approach. This module introduces participants to a values-based leadership framework as they take a deep dive into the relationship between authenticity and effective leadership.
Leadership and Authenticity
This module commences with an exploration of one’s own preferred style of communication and the impact of one’s style on others. The module moves on to focus on effective communication and influencing at an interpersonal, departmental, and organisational level.
Communication, Presence and Influence
During this module participants explore the practical implications of managing diverse and challenging groups. Participants examine the qualities shared by high performing teams and identify effective strategies to foster cultures that support optimal teamwork.
Team Dynamics
This module supports participants to provide feedback and motivate their team to exceed performance expectations. Participants identify key principles of performance management in order to ensure consistency with organisational objectives. This module also explores techniques involved in coaching others and building individual capability.
Driving Performance
This module focuses on the leadership skills involved in driving innovation and change. Participants critically discuss the application of relevant theory and explore the way in which innovation and change are inextricably intertwined. Participants then examine leadership challenges during times of crisis, gaining an understanding of the way in which leaders can build an agile and resilient organisation. They will also learn how to engage others in change, deal with resistance and manage stakeholders so that they can achieve their own change initiatives.
Leading Innovation and Change
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
This module focuses on developing skills to hone a competitive edge. Participants will learn to develop effective work goals and behaviours to competently manage work priorities. They will also explore the critical elements of establishing personal work objectives, prioritising workload for optimum achievement and building on professional competence.
Purpose, Priorities and Professional Development
PROGRAM MODULES
Segmented into seven distinct but complimentary modules Executive Ready engages participants in a comprehensive exploration of effective leadership practice. Executive Ready is for women who want to deepen their leadership capability and develop greater self, team and organisational awareness. Enabling leaders to unlock the full potential of their staff, the program is ideal for supporting the progression of mid-level leaders in large and small organisations and independent business owners looking to transform business performance.
To gain greater awareness of their leadership impact, participants will administer a 360° Feedback Tool to their colleagues at the start of the program. The questionnaire is based on Women & Leadership Australia’s framework for Management and Leadership which embraces the following four domains:
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Building organisational culture
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Achieving performance goals
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Driving future direction
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Enhancing personal effectiveness.
360° Feedback Tool
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
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
Focused on rich discussion and debate relevant to each topic area, the interactive online sessions help to contextualise learning themes within real world situations, rapidly equipping participants to operationalise new approaches.
Interactive Online Workshops / Webinars
Self-directed learning content is accessible 24/7 via a state of the art online learning management system that allows participants to engage with it at any time from any device. Content includes high quality video tutorials, ‘best practice’ leadership literature, workplace activities and reflective tasks.
Self-directed Learning
Throughout the program, participants are free to connect with each other 24/7 through the online community of practice and discuss ‘top of mind’ issues.
Online Community of Practice
PROGRAM ELEMENTS
Executive Ready is delivered through a sophisticated blend of face-to-face workshops, interactive webinars, peer coaching and self-directed learning. These elements are coordinated through a state of the art learning management system and carefully structured to enable participants to realise exceptional outcomes whilst continuing to be highly present and effective in their workplace environment.
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: admissions@wla.edu.au
The standard program fee is $8,990 + GST per person. The enrolment fee covers all tuition, program related materials and access to the WLA online learning portal.
COURSE FEES