Career Development Program
Scientific research has shown that ambitious women, even if they are young, and without children, get stuck in their career.
This happens because many women don’t understand how to play the game of ‘building a successful career’.
If they don’t manage to grow in their own organization – they find another job elsewhere, but then they realize that the same type of game is played in any company or academic institution.
Our ”Career Development Program for Women” is a combination of 6 workshops, 6 group coaching sessions and 1 personal career coaching session. Pre- and post-assignments will be given for each session and participants will write a reflection summary after each session. Participants will be encouraged to interview one or more (female) role models and to find a mentor during the program. Participants will develop their vision and mission during the program. The program is given with a lot of humour and positive attitude towards both women and men.
The first time we organised the Dutch in-person version of this program was in 2007.
Lidy Hartemink, then female manager of the year, asked us to develop this program for 7 talented women. As a female role model, she wanted these women to have more impact. And she succeeded! All of these seven women became board member between one and four years after this program.
Since then we have organised this program about 50 times now, and it has proved its value!
Would you like to have this program as in-company?
Please contact us at info@intouchwrm.nl for more information.
Career Development Program
Would you like to:
- Understand the unwritten rules of ‘making the career’ game
- Learn to negotiate strategically
- Make personal branding strategy
- Develop your own field of influence
- Learn ways to fight biases
- Discover your levels of powers
- Learn practical tools and tips that you can directly apply
- Meet other growth—minded women
- Have more fun at work
Career Development Program
Are you ready for your second or third step in your career?
Have you been offered a first-level managerial role, but wasn’t yet ready for it?
Do you want to break trough a “glass ceiling” that you encountered?
Are you interested in discovering the rules of “making the career” game?
Do you want to have more fun and enjoy at your work?
Then it’s you
‘Afrondingsavond Masterclass Stratego voor vrouwen 2019’
Next start: March 2022
| 1 | The unwritten feminine and masculine rules | 13:00-17:00 | 22/03/2022 |
| 2 | Strategic negotiation for women | 13:00-17:00 | 12/04/2022 |
| 3 | First inter-vision: Your field of influence | 13:00-17:00 | 10/05/2022 |
| 4 | Unconscious bias | 13:00-17:00 | 31/05/2022 |
| Strategic visibility and profiling | |||
| 5 | Second inter-vision: Your professional presence | 13:00-17:00 | 21/06/2022 |
| 6 | Five levels of power and influence | 13:00-17:00 | 07/07/2022 |
| 1 Personal coaching session | t.b.d |
Do you have a group of minimum 4 colleagues that would like to join such a program? Then we can organise it as an in-company and tailor to your organisation.
Contact us for more information: info@intouchwrm.nl
Career Development Program
DAY 1: Workshop ‘The unwritten feminine and masculine rules’
What this workshop covers
This workshop is about the unwritten rules and how to play the game of ‘building a successful career’ strategically and without losing your own identity.
Why it matters?
At first, many women have no idea that a sort of game is being played at. Their work. They expect the same transparent rules to apply as those applied during their school and study periods: you do your best and you are evaluated accordingly, in the form of higher grades.
In the office, however, the rules are much more diffuse. And since most of the organizations and companies were founded by men, these rules are adopted to masculine working style.
What you’ll learn
The participants will learn the differences between feminine and masculine working styles and how to adopt different styles to reach their career goals. The participants will have discussions about the unwritten rules they have to deal with at their company.
DAY 2: Workshop ‘Strategic negotiating skills’
What this workshop covers
This workshop gives insight in the negotiation process and goes deep into the dynamics among the 11 feminine and masculine archetypes in the that process.
Why it matters?
To operate more effectively within our field of influence, we have to negotiate! To be able to do your work well, you need money, space and position. And so you negotiate budgets, (meeting) times to present your ideas, training possibilities, physical space and promotions, etc. Not without reason, negotiation is one of the most critical factors for success. Masculine and feminine unwritten rules in negotiation are different. For instance, in a masculine environment the negotiation starts with the first ‘No’. Many women, however, perceive a ’No’ as a ‘No’ and stop negotiating before they even started.
What you’ll learn
Participants learn different steps in negotiating: how to prepare, what strategy to choose, how to play the ‘negotiation game’ and how to deal with the ‘No’. Based on the checklist that we developed, the participants will prepare and practice their own business negotiation case with the trainer. Participants will learn how to strategically adopt their behaviour at different stages of negotiation and respond in a way that might not feel natural to them. They will become aware of the pattern in their own and other people’s behaviour and choose a more well-thought-out strategy, instead of “waiting to see what happens”.
DAY 3: First Inter-vision: Your field of influence
What this inter-vision covers
Participants will draw their own field of influence around a strategic goal. Participants will attribute the archetypes from previous workshop to the various players in their field of influence. Participants will discuss their own field of influence with the group. They will share findings and end with a question. The group will give feedback on the field of influence, tips to act and help each other making steps in these different fields.
Why it matters?
Women don’t always work together the way men do. This has to do with networking styles and the ability to separate personal and business interests. There might be issues between women, such as the ‘Queen bee’ and ‘crab basket’ effect. It is very important for women to help, support and lift each other in an effective way.
What you’ll learn
Participants will analyse their own field of influence and reflect on the following questions: Who are the main ‘players’ in my field of influence? Who has formal and informal power? What position do I choose? How do I use my own power? Which strategies are used and which strategy will I choose? Participants realise the benefits of reflecting on each others field of influence and how empowering each other helps them in their career path.
DAY 4: Workshop ‘Unconscious (gender) bias’
When a woman starts to express her ambition and climb higher on the influence ladder, she unavoidably comes into contact with different types of biases. It can be a practical obstacle for reaching her career goals and on a long term, it can lead to less self-steam and discourage career progress. Participants will understand what unconscious bias is and why people should be aware of it. But most important, how women can influence or even discuss other person’s bias without being seen as aggressive. Participants will discuss work-related situations at PartnerRe and processes where gender bias, parental bias and cultural bias might occur and will learn practical tips on how to fight it.
Workshop ‘Strategic visibility and profiling’
During this workshop, participants will learn how to effectively present themselves to other colleagues and clients, while working online and in global remote teams.
We will show and discuss how to:
- brand yourself while staying authentic
- clearly communicate within a global/remote workplace
- strategically share your own business successes
- get a ‘social proof’ of your expertise
Participants will feel empowered to network strategically while working within a truly global team. They will be able to use practical tools to face challenges when it comes to their strategic visibility, while staying authentic and clearly communicating about their successes.
In this workshop, participants will also understand their core values and how to connect these values with their personal vision and the time-line of their life which they previously made.
DAY 5: Second inter-vision: Your professional presence
What this workshop covers
This workshop is about becoming more visible, strategically showing your results and becoming aware of the way you present yourself, your career goals, personal vision and mission.
Why it matters?
Being modest and ’just doing your job’ feels quite comfortable for many women. They will unconsciously continue to keep this style. By getting in-depth feedback about the way they present themselves, they will understand their patterns and that will give them an opportunity to learn and to do it differently the next time.
What you’ll learn
Participants will give a 10-min presentation to the group about most important things they have learned during this program, their own personal journey and their ambitions for the future.
They will get the feedback from the group on their way of presenting and learn about their unconscious behaviour. They will become aware of their strongest attributes and about the amount of disappearing acts they tend to keep on doing. They will get practical tips on how to show their best self during final presentations.
DAY 6: Workshop ‘Five levels of power and influence’
What this workshop covers
The workshop covers five levels of power, which are the path that people take in developing their own personalities. In fact, this is the same path they take when developing their business qualities. Anyone can step into this system at any level, but they can also get stuck at any level.
Why it matters?
Today’s successful leader needs to be able to assimilate all the levels of power and apply one or another at any given moment. Power, however, often has a negative connotation. Women in particular are often reluctant about describing themselves as being powerful. They would rather think that others have power, than that themselves are powerful. But power is needed to ensure that you get things done. The ‘power to’ is the skill to start and substantiate something, but also to have the freedom and opportunity to do it.
What you’ll learn
During this workshop, the participants will get insight in the five levels of personal power. Participants learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the different levels and how to use them strategically. They will learn how to use more power in their verbal and non-verbal communication. Participants will share their own personal vision and how do they use level 5, power of personal vision.
Career Development Program
Online!
The maximum number of participants is 6. All activities will be live virtual sessions. This program is a long-term program that lasts for 6 months and is given in 6 separate days (+ 1 individual personal coaching session) distributed over the course of 6 months.
Career Development Program
Dr. ing. Mira Vasic is a Senior Partner, co-owner of ‘In Touch Female Leadership & Career Academy’ and Senior Lecturer at IEMBA programs of Geneva Business School. She is an expert on topics of female leadership and gender-diversity and she is a career advisor for people living all around the world.
In the past ten years, she has been working as a researcher and consultant for both commercial and governmental sectors in Serbia, Spain, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands. Mira has a tremendous passion for leadership development and empowering women. She also holds a PhD in Structural Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (2015) and fluently speaks 4 languages. Mira is a frequently asked international speaker.
Her value is her enthusiastic approach and her great sense of humour.
Career Development Program
“Mira is a wonderful facilitator and coach who pushed me to take risks, experiment and learn new ways to show up in my work. I most appreciated her willingness to challenge my thinking, whilst opening me up to new perspectives and frameworks for me to leverage. Her authenticity, her courage and her candor were refreshing and inspiring. I look forward to working with her again someday.”
Caroline Dowling, Head of Sales Leadership & Team Performance at Google
“During the “Six Months Career Development Program for Women”, Mira has been for me a source of inspiration and motivation. With her passion and enthusiasm she helped me crossing the borders of my comfort zone and taking full control of my career path and vision.”
Fernanda Lato, Global Project Leader Sourcing at Atlas Copco
“During this excellent program I became aware that working with my own personal values is something extremely valuable to me. I learned how to use my influence in different ways and that I am a lot more independent than I thought I was.”
Ines Plasmans, Director Communication and Public Affairs at Prorail
“This is really the best gift I could ever give to myself. It is a ‘must’ for every woman who wants to become more empowered and who wants to develop her strategic skills. This very intensive program and various workshops teaches you a lot about yourself, to put things in perspective, gives you time for a good laugh and you will realize you are not the only one facing career challenges.”
Mandy Hundertmark, HR Executive Director, JVN gaming & entertainment group
“I made huge steps during this program. Not only a next step in my career (and salary increase) but also as a person. I really recommend this program for any woman who wants to develop het personal leadership skills.”
Renate Beckers, Programmamanager Organisatieontwikkeling, Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland
“Due to this program I feel a lot more confident. I can now appreciate the political game and play by the unwritten rules. And I am a much better negotiator. This is a very practical program that guarantees direct successes. It’s inspirational, motivative and extremely useful”. Alinda Magielse, Territory Manager Surgical, Bausch + Lomb
“This program taught to experience my job more as a game. I can now play the game strategically and have lots of fun with it. I don’t get irritated by my male peers of managers, I now realize what they do, how they think and I use it! Working is so much easy now.” Marjolein Meulensteen, Portfoliomanager Responsible Investing, a.s.r. insurance
Career Development Program
The total investment for this “Career Development Program for Women” is € 2.350,= excl. VAT, incl. the e-book ‘Stratego for women’ and the e-book ‘The unwritten feminine & masculine rules’ for each participant.
If you would like to invoice your company or pay by a bank transfer, please send us an email: info@intouchwrm.nl
Interested in more?
Link to: Gender bias
Gender Bias
Workshop to become aware of both the feminine and masculine unwritten rules
Link to: Live and online workshops
Short online workshops
We regularly offer short online workshops several times a year on topics like:
- Gender bias
- Unwritten rules to play the career game
- Working in the Dutch business culture
- Negotiating skills for women