Harappa Education (estb. 2018), an online learning institution with 25 plus skills curricula has launched its ‘Women’s Leadership Programme’ keeping in mind the unique set of challenges faced by women leaders at the workplace. The programme will be conducted by leading professionals such as Nazli Bhatia, senior research fellow, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Ireena Vittal, an industry veteran who has served with McKinsey & Co. as a partner for 16 years and many others. Shreyasi Singh, founder and CEO, Harappa Education talks to Dipta Joshi about the need to equip women with ‘Thrive Skills’- an essential set of cognitive, social and behavioral skills that enable individuals to succeed at every stage of their career.    

 

Q) What was the objective behind launching the Women’s Leadership Programme?  

A) Over the last decade or so, there’s been extensive research around women’s leadership and gender representation in the workplace. Studies have shown that with women in leadership roles, businesses can achieve higher profits (a 50 percent increase), greater representation, and better collaboration. Many businesses have also reported that they are committed to promoting and supporting women professionals, especially in leadership roles. Despite this, progress has been slow as women leaders continue to face a unique set of obstacles at work. Be it the double bind of likeability vs. authority, a struggle to correctly position their brands, or the hindrances posed by self-limiting beliefs, women leaders are still not equipped and empowered to navigate the unique set of challenges they face. 

 As a woman entrepreneur and CEO, I’m familiar with these challenges and obstacles. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to these challenges forcing a number of women to leave their jobs or step back from their careers to navigate growing responsibilities of child rearing and senior care.  It’s crucial to stem this slide.

 We were keen to create a distinct programme to help women leaders, especially those at crucial cusps in their career, to accelerate their growth. Based on our distinctive 10 on 10 pedagogy, the Women’s Leadership Programme is aimed at delivering transformative outcomes for women leaders and leaders in the making. And we hope this will in turn lead to better business outcomes and smarter problem solving at workplaces. 

 Q) How does the Women’s Leadership Programme resonate with what Harappa Education stands for?

A) In today’s volatile, fast-evolving world, working professionals are constantly grappling with the fear of becoming irrelevant or their skills becoming redundant. Our mission at Harappa Education is to beat this by equipping our learners, irrespective of industry or function, with an essential set of ‘Thrive Skills’- an essential set of cognitive, social and behavioral skills that enable individuals to continuously succeed, at every stage of their career. Developing these ‘Thrive Skills’ help them cross their most-crucial career milestones with confidence, ease and adaptability. Harappa’s Women’s Leadership Programme is one such offering that’s aimed at helping women professionals develop an inherent edge, achieve transformative career success and thrive continuously. 

 Q)What women-oriented skills will the programme focus on?  

A) We designed this programme with a shared vision: to answer what we can do to make the world of work better for women professionals. We wanted to curate an academically robust as well as application-oriented programme tailored to the ever-evolving needs of women managers and leaders-in-making. It offers the best concepts from organisational behavior, creative thinking, personal leadership, communication practice, and the cognitive sciences to offer a learning experience like no other. 

 Based on interviews with leading global experts and research on industry trends and forecasts, we’ve identified 15 must-haves ‘Thrive Skills’ for women leaders that the programme will focus on. These include – supporting and empowering other women, communicating with power, being resilient, increasing self-awareness, cultivating a personal brand, having the courage to be vulnerable, building alliances and networks, trusting one’s intuition, asking for money, overcoming perfectionism, being confident and authentic, tackling imposter syndrome, moving from judgmental to neutral language, questioning limiting beliefs and balancing passion with persistence.

 Q) Is the course designed as a self-paced course and who is it suitable for? 

The programme has a unique, blended, online-first format: a combination of self-paced courses as well as live masterclasses. With 30 hours of programme time ideally spread across 15 weeks, women managers with 10 plus years of experience across functional and business teams make up our ideal cohort. 

Also Read: 90% Women hesitate to ask for raise at work: Harappa Education Survey