ACCELERATE the growth of female talent within your business

In 2013, the FT selected ABSTRACT, the experts in business improvement through people, as research partners to address the questions around the low numbers of female talent in senior positions. They undertook a huge research project to understand what the key accelerators were for the relatively few women who were reaching the top in business.

From that research, the team at ABSTRACT created a programme of study and development that fills the career skills gaps that help to accelerate a women’s career and the untapped potential businesses were missing out on.

Since then significant and genuine progress has been made by many organisations but, as Gender Pay Gap reporting continues to reveal annually, there is still a long way to go.

Here, Andy Nicol, CEO at ABSTRACT outlines the programme they have created to address and significantly enhance the career prospects of women.

The ACCELERATE Programme

Our award winning ACCELERATE programme is designed to empower the growth of female middle and senior managers in your business – and encourage them to lift others as they climb.

Over six modules – including building superior confidence, establishing a personal brand, mastering organisational politics and attracting sponsors and mentors -delegates will work towards self-actualisation, with the emphasis firmly on driving individual responsibility to develop and succeed.

Our coaches provide tools, techniques and models designed to increase self-confidence and provide new methods to achieve career goals. Through a blend of short lectures, peer-coaching and group work, delegates are challenged, stimulated, and inspired to take their tools out of the classroom and into their workplace, boardrooms and conference suites. And by doing so, they provide their business with a previously untapped and under-utilised talent pool.

To maximise the potential of this programme, the cohort groups are usually blended from across an organisation to optimise the learning experience and to encourage the building of networks across different business areas.

• Ideal for higher or intermediate level managers within your talent population.
• Five modules are experienced over three months, followed by a review and reassessment module after another six months.
• Primed for virtual delivery, or face-to face in groups of up to 20 delegates with two expert facilitators.

The ADVANCED ACCELERATE Programme

The ACCELERATE Programme provides a fulfilling, rewarding and invigorating journey for participants that many want to continue. Some of our clients and participants want to continue their progression after the programme, so we have introduced an ADVANCED ACCELERATE Module to stimulate and maintain that incredible momentum.

This Advanced post-programme development module is designed to bring together ACCELERATE alumni once again to review, share, and celebrate their progress. It’s an opportunity to re-calibrate their professional objectives and hone their developmental goals away from the corporate environment, under the tutelage of our coaching, as well as introducing stimulating new content. It provides an opportunity to explore new concepts, and develop fresh leadership tools to take back into the professional landscape and further their career goals.

Programme components also focus on senior level subjects such as:

• Becoming effective at the highest of levels
• Mitigating and accepting risk as part of the way you work and think
• Improving judgement and decision making.

This offers senior level insight and skills to your people in anticipation of their rise to the highest levels of your company.

The ADVANCED ACCELERATE Module is;

• For senior leaders and those who have successfully completed the ACCELERATE Programme
• A single one-day Module delivered 6 to 12 months after completion of the final ACCELERATE Module
• Available as either virtual or face-to-face delivery.

The AMBITION Programme

Working with our clients to develop and deliver the ACCELERATE Programme, it became clear that several key factors were causing women in more junior and lower level management roles to decelerate their career trajectory, preventing them from reaching their full potential.

The AMBITION programme has been designed to address these factors through a short fast paced programme, providing focus and structure and a real ‘shot in the arm’ to delegates.

Across three optional modules, delegates discover how to build confidence with clarity and learn about modern day resilience.

They are introduced to the concepts of organisational politics, personal and organisational purpose, how they can develop their personal brand and profile and how to influence others. They explore realisation and self-determination, discover their Career Anchors, and ‘How to Build the Future You’.

Participants come to understand and recognise their strengths and be inspired to push themselves out of their comfort zones to realise more ambitious goals.

The AMBITION programme;

• Comprises of up to 3 modules, usually delivered over 2 to 3 months
• Is ideal for lower level management and more junior staff with potential
• Is complimentary to the ACCELERATE programme but also works as a standalone programme
• Can be delivered as either a virtual or face-to-face programme.

Covid-19 and ACCELERATE

We initially built ACCELERATE and AMBITION for face-to-face delivery and we have delivered these as face to face programmes in the UK and internationally – however, in the midst of Covid-19, we adapted both for virtual delivery. This has proven equally successful, and we intend to continue offering the virtual programme alongside face-to-face, even after social distancing is relaxed.

In summary, ACCELERATE and AMBITION offer a suite of career management development solutions that support ambitious and talented junior women through to aspiring future business leaders and board members. We are also delivering these programmes in mixed gender groups. They can also be applied to any underrepresented talent group.

These programmes support the AMBITION of your people and ACCELERATE the growth of female talent in business. For more information contact Nick Goddard at [email protected]  or visit https://www.abstractuk.co.uk/