About The Program

Visiting Women Executive Exchange Program at Yale| October 2016

Transformational Leadership Fundamentals

“The pipeline for female leaders seems to be widening.” – “Women and Leadership,” Pew Research Center, January 14, 2015.

Although women face gender-specific challenges in the workplace, they add unique value and perspective to their organizations. They shatter groupthink, improve communication dynamics, and reinvigorate companies in ways that make the companies more competitive. Research shows that companies with a critical mass of top-team gender diversity enjoy significantly better financial performance.

The Visiting Women Executive Exchange Program (VWEEP) at Yale School of Management addresses the most challenging professional step for women – the leap to top management. Over one week, senior women managers from Africa and North America are prepared for transformational C-suite, board room, cabinet and university leadership through intensive instruction in critical skills needed to think strategically, make better decisions, grow organizations, and lead diverse teams in a 21st Century environment.

Yale faculty will lead a wide range of experiential learning sessions to enhance women’s leadership skills, management approaches, and behaviors. Participants develop strategic-thinking skills, build awareness of decision-making biases, and learn how to create high-performing teams, negotiate win-win outcomes, manage crises, create strategic plans to grow companies organically and through acquisitions, and create a strong personal brand. They leave with new ideas, skills, confidence, and fresh perspectives to add more value to their organization and cascade the benefits of improved gender diversity across their organization.

Each participant will receive a Certificate of participation from Yale School of Management.

Cultural Competence Facilitation

“Leaders have always needed to understand human nature and personality differences – that’s nothing new. What’s new is the requirement for twenty-first century leaders to be prepared to understand a wider, richer array of work styles than ever before and to be able to determine what aspects of an interaction are simply a result of personality and which are a result of differences in cultural perspective.” The Culture Map, Erin Meyer.

Developing an understanding and appreciation for the various cultural influences on your area of operation, and engaging partners or team members based on that understanding and appreciation are key ingredients for sustainable, transformational leadership.

The Visiting Women Executive Exchange Program at Yale School of Management brings together a peer group of women executives from Africa and North America who share Africa as a common professional interest. Through the exchange of ideas, experiences and best practices during the program’s formal and informal encounters, participants in the program have the opportunity to learn the business, organizational, and social cultures of the Africa-related market or sector in which they operate.