Leadership Development

The entire program has been a very positive, immersive experience that has left me feeling empowered and ready to take on future challenges. I have met many like-minded individuals with whom I’ve connected through our shared experiences and personal stories. The 1-to-1 coaching sessions have proven to be extremely valuable, as was participating in the two-day workshops and listening to the brilliant guest speakers who were very inspiring. The coaches were wonderful and really engaging and the range of topics covered in the workshops were very relevant and stimulating to listen to and participate in. I particularly loved the ‘book of gifts’ that was collated from the feedback the other participants gave me as I was participating in the final 'storytelling' exercise. The feedback I received has been invaluable and made me change the way I viewed myself or thought that others viewed me.

I absolutely loved the programme! For me personally, it was so much more than I was expecting and the outcomes will shape who I am moving forward to lead in Cyber Security.  I have the mindset of ‘always open to learning’ and Steve and Nathalie managed to challenge me in the exercises we had to undertake and push my boundaries.   

I really enjoyed the inspiring women who came in to the workshops to tell us about their journeys. Whilst everyone was different, it was nice to hear other role models stories. 

I have learnt that you are never too old to develop yourself and I do have quite a lot of leadership skills and just need to remind myself about different situations and to use them, dust them off and focus. I have also learnt that I enjoy bringing the best out of others and being a positive reinforcement to less confident women. I also learnt that I need to focus a wee bit more on myself and do what is going to make me happy in my longer term goals. 

Within about half an hour of the workshop,I knew it was going to be a positive experience. Steve and Nathalie were so welcoming and make such an effort to put us at ease, and the women in the room were wonderful. My cohort is full of women from such a variety of backgrounds and experience - it was an absolute pleasure getting to know everyone over the last nine weeks. 

Exploring different tools for leadership were a particular highlight: using powerful questions with other cohort members and helping them think differently about situations was very rewarding. 

One eye opener for me was mapping out my power bases –I didn’t realise how varied and wide my power bases were, and how much power I had to do good. This was such a confidence booster and really made me rethink how I look at my position. 

The coaching sessions I had with Steve is where it all came together – building confidence and working on the things that I felt were most important. Steve was very honest and knowledgeable, and it put me in a better place mentally. 

The little thoughts that you choose to feed are the ones that grow. I’ve spent so long feeding the negative, imposter syndrome, self-conscious voices and ignored the good ones.

Since the workshops, group challenge and coaching sessions, I feel more confident. I’ve developed that little inner voice I needed to say ‘you CAN do this’. It was always there but just needed more of a facts-based, no-nonsense approach that was coached out by Steve!

Essentially, this program forced me to take time and space and reflect on who I am and what I want in my career and life – both as a leader and as a person. I’ve spent years working on one project after another, thinking that success was just continuous delivery, without taking any time to grow myself.  

I now know, through my coaching sessions and reflection, on what drives me - that success is less about having a five-year plan and more about having an approach that’s flexible and tailored to me as an individual. 

I decided to enroll on the program on the thought process that participating in something like this would give me a running start to getting my mind ready for taking on a leadership role. I had applied for a team leader position a week before and was having doubts in myself that I was even capable for such a role.  

On the first day of the programme I remember walking in full of nerves and feeling like a complete imposter, only to have those thoughts dissolve away as the day progressed. This program gave me the tools and techniques needed to combat these types of thoughts, to re-direct my mind away from fear and doubt and see things more as opportunities and chances to succeed, to be more daring. After each session, I left feeling a real shift in how I thought about myself, and how I approached situations.  

Every element of the program had me stepping out of my comfort zone and challenging myself. I really enjoyed the group sessions, practicing the techniques taught and discovering more and more about me that I didn’t know existed or had forgotten about. I always left at the end of each day feeling energised and motivated.  

Since the final session I have received complimentary narratives from my colleagues on my positive energy and noticeable rise in confidence. I also find my working relationships have improved especially in supporting and empowering those around me. An example of which was coaching a colleague who was struggling to decide on whether to apply for a promoted position. Using the techniques learned of the 3 levels of listening and asking powerful questions, they gained clarity on their own needs and ambitions. Realising that this was indeed what they wanted. To then supporting their interview preparations using the same techniques to re-frame thoughts, helping to keep their nerves under control.

The one-to-one coaching offered was something I’d never experienced before and such a beneficial process in self-discovery. It’s changed the way I think and approach situations in a much more productive way, and it’s things that I identified myself! Just from someone asking the right questions. Truly life changing. 

Lastly the group of women I am now a part of is one of many great takeaways from this program. To be part of a network of inspiring, empowered women that I can tap into ,and give back to, for support, ideas, mentoring and to simply share successes with is truly a blessing.  An outlet I didn’t realise I so desperately needed. 

I have really enjoyed the program, it was different to the generic corporate training programs, which tend to be quite PowerPoint-heavy. I liked the “experiential” part of it – it was very interactive and there was a lot of discussion and reflection. There was a good mix of talks, discussions, group exercises and time for chatting/networking. I particularly liked the session on leadership styles, as it got me to reflect on the different ways one can be a leader, which I hadn’t really considered.

I learned that some of the feelings I experience as I progress through my career (uncertainty, questioning oneself, imposter syndrome etc) aren’t unique to me, and are in fact experienced by many others, including the fantastic guest speakers. It made me more confident about putting myself forward for things like new projects and promotions, even if inwardly I have doubts.  

The program provided me with invaluable insights into the careers of the other participants and we all learnt from each other and made some deep connections, whereby we will most definitely “meet up” and “share/support” again. I also had several lightbulb moments of how I was going to approach project teams and stakeholders in a different way, using my new-found learning.

The Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security program provided me with several takeaways, whereby I learnt various new models that will most certainly benefit me in my present leadership role and future as a leader going forward.

I valued the Drama Triangle and the Empowerment Dynamic models and they have already helped me to identify characteristics of roles I work with on a weekly basis. I am adamant that I will continue to use many of the taught models as they are new to me and they really helped me to understand my thinking and that of my teams/stakeholders.

The overall learning from the program helped me to also strengthen and be aware of the importance of my own emotional intelligence and when I may need to self-regulate in complex situations, both on a professional and personal level. The role playing and team feedback on this was excellent, as it challenged me to not reply immediately, but instead listen intentionally to how others perceive your presented situation. The group project provided an opportunity to develop trusted relationships with individual group members and appreciate a deeper level of conversation and participation to meet our end goal.

The coaching took me on a deeper level to review both my professional and personal objectives and I truly valued this opportunity and experience. Having neutral observation on your situation and coaching you through complex thoughts is invaluable.