Women's Leadership Community

Imagine being part of a small and intimate group of leaders dedicated to improving their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. That's what happens in group coaching, and it goes far beyond a traditional training program; the process is designed to help you develop and sustain your leadership and team skills. Leadership Outfitters can help you create one of these innovative and provocative leadership development programs in your own organization!

The Women's Leadership Community is a 9-month development process that provides executives, directors or managers with key leadership distinctions, tools, methods, and ongoing learning among peers to become more effective leaders. This is a transformational process that has the power to ignite you and your personal effectiveness as a leader. It is real world, application focused, and it is customized to your needs.

The Women's Leadership Community follows one of Leadership Outfitters' primary beliefs: learning takes place from each participant's contribution, not just from the facilitator. You will learn much from your fellow participants. It's in group coaching that you will foster this unique developmental connection to receive insights and to contribute to each other's greater leadership mastery. It is intended to be a community in the best sense of the word.

What the Women's Leadership Community looks like:

We kick off the program with a 1-day self-awareness building session, followed by a ½-day session each month for eight months. During months 2, 4, 6 and 8, we focus on learning key leadership distinctions. During months 3, 5, 7 and 9, we meet for group coaching to discuss how you are applying the lessons learned. You'll share insights. You'll share your experiences. You'll conduct live problem solving and develop long-lasting relationships built on mutual respect.

We also feature triad calls between each monthly session, where participants meet or teleconference in groups of three. These triads allow you to continue your dialogue on leadership, discussing how you have incorporated the principles of leadership into your daily actions and the impact it has had on your work and those you work with. Over the course of the nine months, you will receive over 52 hours of learning and live coaching!

What you'll learn:

Through the Women's Leadership Community you will acquire new distinctions about what leading is and how to lead. If you apply what you learn, you will transform yourself into a leader who can motivate, inspire, and move through breakdowns more quickly and powerfully. During the nine months of the Women's Leadership Community, the curriculum centers on six powerful distinctions of leadership—authenticity, accountability, language, emotional intelligence, somatics, and courageous action—and their applications.

As Daniel Goleman says in his book, Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence, "The crux of leadership development that works is self-directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both. Leaders can be made more effective, if they are offered the right tools for learning. Such deep learning, however, goes beyond using the right tools. It is a process that isn't necessarily linear and smooth; rather, it is a journey full of surprises and moments of epiphany."

Here's what past participants have said about their experience:

"The WLC helped me focus on how to approach my leadership challenges from the best place possible...my own heart and mind."

-Department Head

"I am still processing or rototilling the internal garden of knowledge with all the new-found insights and learning churned up at our last meeting. WOW! The gift wrapped presents we keep getting from this leadership course seem to be gifts that keep on giving."

-Chief Operating Officer

"To be involved with a small work group of other women leaders from all walks of life has been enlightening, humbling and soul-filling."

-Department Manager

"It has been the most helpful group I have participated in regarding my ability to provide meaningful leadership at my company."

-Business Owner

Ideal participants for the WLC would be those women who:

• Enjoy learning with a small team of fellow executives, directors or managers.
• Are committed to developing themselves as leaders.
• Want to add more courageous action to their lives.
• Are willing to share their experiences with other women executives, directors or managers.
• Realize they contribute to the breakdowns and miscommunication that occur at work and are willing to look at themselves.
• Are willing to take part in a new and provocative type of leadership development.
• Are eager to learn about cutting edge development and new ideas, and then put them to work.
• Want to add more reflection to their lives.

When and Where:

All Women's Leadership Community sessions can be held at your organization's headquarters or at a local off-site location. To help you in planning as you create this for your organization, here is a typical schedule that was created for two leadership communities within the same company:

Sessions		Details
Session 1	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Group #2 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.	Self Awareness and Community Building Authenticity
Session 2	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Community Learning Emotional Intelligence & Somatics
Session 3	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Application and Coaching Session
Session 4	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Community Learning Language: Speech Acts
Session 5	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Application and Coaching Session
Session 6	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Community Learning Accountability
Session 7	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Application and Coaching Session
Session 8	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Community Learning Courageous Action
Session 9	Group #1 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Group #2 1:00 -5:00 p.m.	Application and Coaching Session

About Ris Higgins, the Program Facilitator and Coach:

E-mail: ris@leadership-outfitters.com
406-586-5504

Ris Higgins is an executive coach to senior executives and their teams. She co-founded Leadership Outfitters, a Bozeman, Montana based coaching and experiential learning company 15 years ago to offer a unique development approach for clients seeking to achieve breakthroughs in their business and personal lives. Past clients include Miller Brewing Company, Kraft Foods, J.J. Taylor Companies, Capital One, Albertsons, NASD, Wells Fargo, and Heineken U.S.A.

Bring a Women's Leadership Community to Your Organization:

Please give us a call at the number listed below to find out how you can create this innovative, thought provoking community and engage your officers, your high potentials, and organization mentors!