Gulf Council Countries (GCC)
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Gulf Council Countries (GCC)
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Design and Delivery of International Women’s Leadership Development Programme
The Gulf Council comprises six countries – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There’s been a growing awareness of the need to grow their economies by diversifying beyond natural gas and oil. It’s also a key government aim to support more women into a variety of industries and roles. As a master accredited coach, it is a personal mission of emintell’s founder Elaine Akester to offer international women’s leadership development opportunities.
She identified the GCC as an area where her expertise could help to unleash female talent and worked with intermediaries to secure the necessary infrastructure and licences to enable her to realise this ambition.
What We Did
Over two years, emintell delivered six women’s leadership programmes in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in Dubai, UAE. Participants on each programme came from across the GCC countries and included female leaders in medicine, dentistry, defence, academia, automotive, aviation and technology industries. The programme modules comprised:
- Leadership Models and Principles – core components and traits, role models, understanding personal leadership presence, brand, impact and ambitions. Exploring leadership models and context; situational, servant, conscious and transformational
- Leading Yourself – self-awareness of emotional intelligence levels, strengths and areas for development; recognising communication preferences, communication impact and adaptability; managing setbacks and pressure, and maintaining resilience and wellbeing; prioritising tasks, ways of increasing personal effectiveness and performance at work
- Leading Others – how to build and maintain a high-performing and resilient team with a core purpose, values and agreed behaviours (such as trust, handling conflict, accountability); handling pressure; influencing and negotiation skills, handling challenging conversations; the importance of developing a talent pipeline
- Leading Change – understanding the core elements and stages of organisational change programmes; exploring the different response of people to change; ways to overcome resistance and secure genuine shared commitment to it
- Communication and presentation skills – understanding your personal style and its impact on others; recognising other people’s style and adapting your own for maximum impact
- Ongoing development – summarising the programme and key actions from it; identifying mentoring opportunities and sources of further support and research. For those committed to entrepreneurship, time was spent on their business plan, including possible sources of funding and support
Impact and Benefits
The impact of participation in this innovative and culturally focussed international women’s leadership development programme was very significant for all who attended. Benefits specifically reported in feedback included:
- A rare opportunity to explore and understand their unique leadership style, presence and impact
- Gained clarity and insight into personal mission and purpose
- Gained clarity on personal values and importance of aligning these with their leadership work
- Developed meaningful connections with other female leaders from across the region, excellent networking, inspiring and motivational programme
- Gained significant knowledge in understanding their level of leadership skills and created plans to optimise their strengths and realise untapped potential
- Increased appetite for leadership advancement and realisation of leadership potential in their personal industry sector
- Provided motivation and expert skills in leading one’s self for the entrepreneurial participants
Elaine considers this project one of the highlights of her leadership development career and remains committed to supporting women globally to unleash their full leadership talent, enabling them to flourish, support their families and benefit local economies.
If you’re interested in finding out how emintell can support the advancement of women’s leadership in your country, region, or organisation, please get in touch.
