Professional Women’s Leadership Matrix
Introduction to Strategic Leadership
Strategy is defined as the unique and sustainable way that a company adds value to a marketplace or customer segment. So why is the concept of strategy so easily defined, yet so difficult to formulate and implement? Why do more than 70 -90% of all strategic plans fail to deliver the expected results? Participants will be introduced to the critical linkage between strategy development and execution in this first session. The group will explore fundamental concepts behind strategy formulation and discuss strategic options that successful firms have chosen to achieve sustainable advantage. The group will then identify the data sources, analytical perspectives and best practices required to craft a winning strategic plan.
In the second half of this session, we will explore how leaders effectively manage the complex actions required to execute a strategic plan. The participants will be introduced to a methodology for achieving strategic objectives from the financial, customer, process and employee perspectives. We will then introduce the Leadership Program case study that will be used throughout the week to provide real-life learning of both strategy formulation and execution. This foundation will then be strengthened throughout the program to assist participants in building personalized, actionable strategic maps for their own organizations.
Principles of Servant Leadership
The topic of leadership has generated significant research and publications targeted toward gaining a deeper understanding of this mission-critical capability. Best-in-class leadership practices are emerging that still allow for a broad range of leadership styles, depending on context and culture. In this session, we will first explore current best practices in leadership and then seek practical insight into the relative effectiveness of different leadership approaches.
Participants will then collectively explore a comprehensive list of knowledge, skills, attributes and practices required in today’s leadership settings. Topics such as inspiring performance, facilitating communication, selecting and developing others, fostering teamwork and leading change will be highlighted. Individuals will then begin development of their own personal leadership model and gap analysis for continued personal development work after completion of the Professional Women’s Leadership Program.
Value Creation and the Customer Perspective
Whose job is it to create customers? Whose job is it to keep customers? What do customers have to do with ‘value creation,’ anyway?
In this session we will address these questions and more. The session is structured around three key principles. First, whether you lead a for-profit, non-profit or government organization, understanding how value is (or can be) created is a necessary condition for long-term success. Second, knowing how to effectively engage all employees in the effort to develop a customer orientation—not just those who work in marketing or sales—will also be key.
Finally, being able to demonstrate success on both financial and non-financial performance measures will ensure that the organization remains committed to a customer focus, and actually creates the value promised to customers. In addressing this last principle, we will take a case-based approach to understanding how an actual organization has dealt with the problem. The case study used in this session will integrate with the material covered in a later session focused on accounting & related financial reporting concerns.
Accounting and the Financial Perspective
This program provides a critical understanding of the accounting system and how financial statements, as a primary output of the accounting system, are used to report and assess an organization’s value creation. Participants will learn the language of accounting and be introduced to the elements of financial reporting. In addition, participants will be introduced to fundamental decision models using financial information and accounting-based performance measures that culminate in better internal and external investment and financing decisions. The case used in this session will integrate with the material covered in an earlier session focused on leadership and value creation.
The Internal Process Perspective: Innovation, Operations and Relationships
Value in an organization is primarily created through excellence in internal business processes. The financial and customer perspectives described in previous sessions describe the desired business outcomes. In this session, we will uncover the four pillars of internal processes that drive performance in strategic organizations. Leaders need to focus on the most critical few internal processes that deliver differentiating value. These critical few processes then serve as the strategic themes of execution. Operations Management, Product Innovation, Customer Management and Regulatory processes will be discussed and then brought-to-life using the Leadership Program Case Study. Finally, participants will apply the learning to their own personalized strategic map.
Learning and Growth Perspective
Continuous learning organizations have demonstrated sustainable advantages in responding to turbulent industries and reinventing themselves in today’s rapidly changing environment. They have shown particular strengths in the areas of innovation, change management and integration of mergers and acquisitions. In this session, we will discover the benefits of the less tangible aspects of organizations – the human, information and organizational capability that must be developed an aligned to achieve strategic objectives. Learning and growth of employees and the systems that help them to learn and communicate are fundamental to success. This session will explore the connections between culture, knowledge management, teamwork and leadership and an organization’s desire to deliver on its strategic plan.
Triangle of Empowerment: Thinking Global, Acting Local at Work
One of the current concerns of activists who work for women’s rights and women’s empowerment is to develop theories and practical ideas through which we can achieve lasting alliances between women’s lives, workforce, community, and society in order to advance the status of women. The triangle of empowerment will be used as a tool and as a metaphor to examine the position of women in their work place.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a member of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), authorizes this program for 3.6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) or 36 hours.