As a participant in this programme you will join a lively community of highly experienced female professionals and reinforce your leadership journey through an extensive learning experience. This programme, which has at its core an eight-week online course component, will provide you with insights and tips on how to navigate the opportunities and challenges of women in leadership positions. It will enable you to be in harmony with your aspirations and contribute to a culture of gender equality.

Introduction

The Leadership, Women and the UN Programme aims to promote the expansion and renewal of prevalent paradigms of leadership and ensure a more gender-balanced workplace across and beyond the UN system. Furthermore, key to the purpose of the programme is to advance the transformational, principled and inclusive leadership culture envisioned in the UN System Leadership Framework.

The programme gives you a unique opportunity to explore different leadership approaches and their situational application, the gender and cultural dimensions of leadership, dynamics of power, influence and negotiation, as well as deeper personal-professional coherence and self-awareness to develop a set of skills for transformative and charismatic leadership.

Upon completion of the programme you will be prepared to thoughtfully lead yourself through the challenges and opportunities for women in leadership roles; influence the leadership culture of your organization; increase the impact of your projects; and unlock the leadership potential of your team.

The programme is designed for highly experienced UN women professionals at P4-P5 levels.

Click here to find out how our alumnae assessed the impact of the programme.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of the programme you will be able to:

• Develop enhanced self-awareness and align leadership efforts with aspirations
• Thoughtfully adopt varied leadership approaches in daily practices to better manage the challenges and opportunities for women in leadership roles
• Demonstrate strengthened skills in effective communication, negotiation, and influencing for transformative leadership
• Gain tangible skills to unlock your leadership potential and that of your team, and increase the impact of your projects
• Positively influence your organizational leadership culture
• Develop a lasting and supportive community

Course methodology

The programme unfolds as a learning journey of four months across three phases: a preliminary phase, a core programme and a consolidation phase.

The preliminary phase begins four weeks before the beginning of the core programme and it is designed to promote individual awareness around leadership styles and approaches. During this phase you can expect a total of three hours of individualized asynchronous learning through:

• A questionnaire to prompt individual reflections on leadership needs, styles and aspirations and inform the delivery of the core modules)
• A 360-degree leadership and personality assessment to provide insights into individual leadership strengths and areas for further development
• Access to an online, self-paced UN System Leadership Framework eLearning module

At the core of the learning journey lies a two-month online learning experience that consists of four core modules spanning eight weeks. Each module lasts two weeks and includes:

• Three synchronous virtual learning experiences with experts, established leaders and facilitators (120 min each)
• Asynchronous individual activities such as pre-readings, guided self-reflection and journaling activities and action-planning
• Asynchronous group activities organized in a moderated online forum to promote community building and experience-based knowledge sharing
• Zoom-in resources, recommended materials, and tools to deepen knowledge acquisition and transfer

As a participant you will be able to follow the progress of your learning journey on a dedicated online learning platform that features:

• Sections curating all programme material and activities (e.g. recording of online learning experiences and weekly activity instructions)
• A moderated discussion forum where group activities will take place and where participants will be able to share reflections and pose questions
• An online library with zoom-in resources (videos, articles, inspirational quotes, tools and templates)

The learning journey will conclude with a final phase of learning consolidation where you will be supported for four weeks to further your learning application process and develop your individual action plan.

Through the course of the programme, you will have access to two individualized executive coaching sessions of 90 and 60 minutes respectively.

Upon successful completion of the Programme, you will be offered the possibility of becoming part of the vibrant LWUN Alumnae Community.

The community, comprised of over 780 women leaders from 75 duty stations across the world, provides a truly unique opportunity to further individual and collective leadership journeys, establish mutually beneficial knowledge sharing mechanisms, leverage diverse expertise and skillsets, and forge partnerships to promote a systemic renewal of leadership paradigms.

Course contents

In this programme, you will be exposed to the following content:

• Leadership Styles and Approaches
• Leading Change and Innovation
• Gender and Cultural Dimensions of Leadership
• Authentic and Inclusive Leadership
• Leadership Influence, Charismatic Leadership and Gender
• Political Acumen and Strategic Negotiation
• Managing Energy for Greater Leadership Alignment and Balance
• From Reflection to Action

Target audience

Female UN staff at the P4-P5 level and other highly experienced female leaders preparing for senior leadership roles. By nomination and open enrolment.