Discover why power is a skill set, then learn how to build yours and become a positively energizing leader.
While slow but steady gains have been made in terms of boardroom representation,* many women leaders don’t identify with the commonplace perception of ‘power’, typically associated with authority and force.
However, as the workplace changes, and long-standing productivity metrics prove increasingly unsustainable, a new approach is needed — one founded on purpose, empathy, communication, and well-being.
This online program equips you to harness your unique power as a woman leader to land an impact and drive positive change. Over six weeks, you’ll discover how power is a skill set that can be developed, and must encompass both strong attributes, such as charisma and persuasiveness, as well as connected traits, including empathy and communication.
Guided by Program Lead Convener Emma Seppälä and her esteemed Yale SOM colleagues, you’ll interrogate existing power structures in organizations, and learn how focusing on positive relational energy for leadership can help you transform your workplace for growth.
Finally, you’ll examine how everyday junctures can be leveraged for power, helping you become a more effective changemaker and driver of organizational success.
* McKinsey (Sep, 2021).
This course taught me so many tangible takeaways and also reaffirmed some of the ways I was already leading, which was based on pure gut instinct. I loved meeting other women operating at high levels and sorting through the same issues!
About the Program
What to Expect
- Gain an expanded view of power as a skill set that can be learned, and encompasses strong and empathetic attributes
- Enhance your understanding of organizational power dynamics and structures and build the tools to thrive in them or drive change from within
- Uncover practical strategies for utilizing everyday moments, a growth approach, and your own internal power to become a positively energizing changemaker
- Develop a clearer perspective of women’s unique qualities as leaders, as you engage with a global network of like-minded professionals
Who Should Attend
- Senior women leaders, including those in the C-suite, directors, and business founders looking to leverage sources of power and drive organizational success
- General, operations, and regional managers who want to build their leadership capabilities in order to advance into more senior positions
- Aspiring leaders seeking to take the next step in their careers or simply promote positive change in their organizational context
- Experienced professionals such as consultants, analysts, project managers, and specialists wanting to learn more about power dynamics and how best to navigate them
Agenda
- Orientation module
- Module 1: Reframing power
- Module 2: Leading with positive energy
- Module 3: Harnessing your power
- Module 4: Navigating structures of power
- Module 5: Growth and power
- Module 6: The power of the changemaker
I was pleasantly surprised by the sense of community that developed among the students. Despite being online, we were able to connect through discussion forums, and I felt like I was part of a group of people all working towards a common goal.
Faculty
Program Lead Convener
Emma Seppälä
Lecturer in Management
Areas of Expertise: Positive Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Well-being, Social Connection
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Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her best-selling book, The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016), has been translated into dozens of languages. Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.
Program Co-Conveners
Heidi Brooks
Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behavior
Areas of Expertise: Leadership, Organizational Behavior, Workplace Issues
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Heidi Brooks teaches and advises on the subject of everyday leadership: the everyday micro-moments of impact that shape our lived experiences. Creating more courageous communities—especially within organizations—is a particular passion of hers. Dr. Brooks specializes in large-scale culture change projects focused on individual and collective leadership effectiveness in organizations. Interpersonal Dynamics, the MBA elective she has taught for 15 years, is one of the courses most in demand at the Yale School of Management (SOM). Recently, Dr. Brooks pioneered the Everyday Leadership course at Yale SOM, where she first taught the Principles of Everyday Leadership. She has also taught Emotional Intelligence, Power & Politics, Managing Teams and Groups, and Coaching Skills for Managers. Dr. Brooks received her doctorate in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. A life-long experiential learner, you can find her as a student in classrooms as far-ranging as improvisational theater and immersion language lessons.
Rodrigo Canales
Kelli Questrom Associate Professor of Management and Faculty Director, Social Impact Program at the Boston University Questrom School of Business; former Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management
Areas of Expertise: Economic Development, Emerging Markets, Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Organizational Behavior, Social Enterprise
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Rodrigo Canales does research at the intersection of organizational theory and institutional theory, with a special interest in the role of institutions for economic development. Rodrigo studies how individuals can purposefully change complex organizations or systems. Rodrigo's work explores how individuals’ backgrounds, professional identities, and organizational positions affect how they relate to existing structures and the strategies they pursue to change them. His work contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that allow institutions to operate and change. Rodrigo has done work in entrepreneurial finance and microfinance, as well as in the institutional implications of the Mexican war on drugs. His current research is divided into three streams. The first focuses on the structural determinants of the quality of startup employment. The second explores the conditions under which development policies and practices integrate rigorous evidence. The third, with generous support from the Merida Initiative, explores how to build effective, resilient, and trusted police organizations in Mexico.
Rodrigo is faculty director of Questrom’s Social Impact Program. Before, he was Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, where he taught the Innovator Perspective. He sits on the advisory board of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT; he spent the 2014-2015 academic year advising the Mexican government on the US-Mexico bilateral relationship; and sits on the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy.
Michael Kraus
Professor, Northwestern University
Areas of Expertise: Societal Inequality (race, class, gender, power); Emotion (empathy, pro-social emotions, psychophysiology); Self (authenticity, dissonance, culture)
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Michael Kraus is a social psychologist who specializes in understanding the psychological processes—the affective states, motivations, and relational strategies—that maintain and perpetuate dimensions of societal inequity. His research has examined this topic through a variety of research methods that involve controlled laboratory and field experiments, attitude surveys, ethological observations, and psychophysiological and nonverbal assessments of group interactions.
Kraus is a leading expert in the social psychology of inequality and a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the Society for Social and Personality Psychology (SPSP). He has received awards for outstanding research through the APS Rising Stars program, the SPSP Sage Young Scholars Award, and the Committee for the Study of Socioeconomic Status at the American Psychological Association. He has also received an award for outstanding mentorship in the social sciences from Yale University.
Before arriving at Northwestern, he was an undergraduate psychology and sociology major at the University of California, Berkeley, and later, a doctoral student in social psychology. Kraus has held appointments as a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, an associate professor in organizational behavior at Yale University, and an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Registration Information
Program Details
Registration close: February 25, 2025
Program starts with orientation: March 5, 2025
There are no prerequisites for this program. Register to get started. Our online program partner, GetSmarter, will welcome you and guide you through the steps to secure your place in the program.
Program Fee Assistance
A program fee reduction of 15% is available for those working in the nonprofit or government sectors; Yale University alumni; small groups of 3-6; and those who have previously participated in a Yale Executive Education program with Yale SOM or 2U/GetSmarter.*
*Discounts cannot be combined
This program does not qualify for veteran financial aid or veterans benefits at this time.
Program Collaborator
This program is presented entirely online in collaboration with leaders in digital education, GetSmarter, a 2U, Inc. brand. Technology meets academic rigor in GetSmarter’s people-mediated model which enables lifelong learners across the globe to obtain industry-relevant skills that are certified by the world’s most reputable academic institutions. This interactive, supportive teaching model is designed for busy professionals and results in unprecedented certification rates for online courses.
View the online Women’s Leadership Program: Leading with Power and Influence on the GetSmarter website.
Modules are released on a weekly basis, and can be completed in your own time and at your own pace.