Woman Leader

Project coordinator

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Vice-Rector for Educational Activities of the Management Workshop «Senezh» of the ANO «Russia-the Land of Opportunities», head of the program «Woman Leader»

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about the project

Coordinator — Maria Afonina

Vice-rector for educational activities of the Senezh Management Workshop at the autonomous non-profit organization ‘Russia: A Country of Opportunities’ and head of the Woman Leader programme

Objectives:

The Woman Leader educational programme is being implemented by the Senezh Management Workshop at the autonomous non-profit organization ‘Russia: A Country of Opportunities’ in conjunction with the Council of the Eurasian Women’s Forum.

BACKGROUND:

Given the new realities in society, there is a growing demand for women to be more involved in all spheres of public life: the digital economy, industry, the promotion of social innovations, international cooperation, and regional development. Women leaders are becoming much more prominent in state, municipal, and corporate management, including business, public sector, science, and culture.

For several years now, Russia has been one of the top three leading countries in terms of the level of development of female leadership and the number of women in senior leadership positions. This was made possible thanks to extensive systematic work that aims to develop women’s leadership programmes and effective social lifts.

Women leaders have long been on an equal part with their male counterparts. Also, unlike men, women combine several roles at once. They are CEOs, leaders, wives, mothers, daughters, colleagues; the list goes on and on. Having a proper balance helps a woman to combine all the roles in her life. The search for this balance in life is practically a super skill for the modern woman.

Programmes and measures that aim to bolster women’s role in the country’s socioeconomic development as well as its public and political life are part of the National Action Strategy in the Interests of Women and are being actively implemented as part of the project activities of the Council of the Eurasian Women’s Forum.

The formation and development of a community of successful women, where each woman is unique and is ready to get involved in solving the country’s top socioeconomic problems and to promote the women’s agenda in Russia and around the world, is one of the most important challenges for women in the modern world.

MISSION:

To form and develop a community of successful women, where each woman is unique and is ready to get involved in solving the country’s top socioeconomic problems.

LONG-TERM GOALS:

1. To develop and train women (entrepreneurs, managers) in modern management skills and competencies, including by following the WORK & LIFE BALANCE strategy.

2. To bolster the role of women in solving major socioeconomic problems by forming and developing communities and involving women in the implementation and supervision of social projects.

3. To conduct training in an effort to create a community of like-minded women who promote a new women’s agenda that meets modern challenges in the development of a socio-political culture.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Participants in the Eurasian Women’s Forum’s projects
Participants, finalists, and winners of the competitions implemented by the autonomous non-profit organization ‘Russia: A Country of Opportunities’

The educational programme includes four online modules as well as inter-module work with participants.

STRUCTURE OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME:

First module: ‘I’m a leader’

Key themes:

Personal brand
Social media and online image
Lifestyle and career
Digital etiquette
Positioning

First inter-module period: ‘My personal goal is to break through to a new level’

Second module: ‘Community'

Key themes:

Networking
Types of communities
Community management
Community development
Positive contribution to the development of the environment, country, and world

Second inter-module period: ‘Team social project’

Third module: ‘Professional growth’

Key themes:

Project scaling and finding opportunities for development and growth
Career counselling and the search for ways to grow and develop professionally

Third inter-module period: ‘Pilot part of the project and attainment of the personal goal. Recap’

Fourth module: ‘My team’

Key themes:

Inner circle and building harmonious relationships
Work-life balance
Work and family
Emotional intellect

The inter-module period is a 12-week support programme for participants and their projects, which includes:

organizing and conducting group-based master-mind sessions for participants with mentors once a week at the same time as the team times over the course of the entire inter-module work with a focus on participants achieving their personal goals and the team completing the pilot part of the project while also coming up with a further way to scale it and ensure balanced professional growth;
inter-module webinars;
consultations with project development experts;
evaluation procedures and discussions with an expert of the evaluation results and personal development paths.

The first stage of the Woman Leader programme was held from 21 September to 18 December 2020.

It was attended by:

140 participants from 42 regions with 26 team projects.

18 winners of the Leaders of Russia competition.

122 representatives of projects of the Eurasian Women’s Forum.

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Programme partners: SREDA Academy of Urban Technologies and Leader Business Group consulting agency

The participants’ projects focused on the following themes:

Tourism development
Creative industries
Support for talented children
Family training
Ecology and sustainable consumption
Development of women’s leadership and entrepreneurship
Education
Professional development, career guidance, and employment assistance

All the projects underwent hypothesis testing and either an analysis of the relevant theme or a pilot version, and also developed a platform and started working with target audiences.

Examples of pilot projects:

Study of themes and analysis of surroundings in Russia (the projects ‘Mamy-Mame’, ‘Architecture of Traditions’, and ‘Expedition to Women’s Leadership’)
Seminar on vocational guidance for schoolchildren (‘LIT’ project)
Conference on environmental habits (‘WIN’ project)
Excursions
Creation of a platform for family business training (‘Lantana’ project), women’s entrepreneurship (‘L.E.T.O.V.’ project), preventive vaccination culture (‘Pulse of Life’ project), and to exchange experience in promoting talented children (‘World Children’ project)
A digital electronic platform (‘Golden Resource’ project)

Pilot projects: