Women in LeadershipCornell

Certificate Program

Most women in a leadership role face a very common dilemma: If she's a strong, assertive leader, she's viewed as domineering and abrasive, encountering resistance as a result. If she isn't assertive enough, she's viewed as weak and a pushover, making it hard to get support within the organization. In this course, you will examine that very common double standard and identify strategies to deal with it.

All leaders, regardless of gender, face conflict and resistance and have to work with people who think, act, and communicate differently from themselves. In this course, Deborah Streeter, the Bruce F. Failing, Sr., Professor of Personal Enterprise at Cornell, will show you how to recognize when there's gender bias at play and when there isn't, and how to address any issues that arise.

Many women say they would rather go to the dentist than negotiate for themselves. Why? Women are taught early to create equity in relationships. When you negotiate with someone and you feel that you're taking something away from them, that feels like a violation of the social contract with which you were raised. There's little wonder, then, that negotiation feels deeply uncomfortable for many women.

Yet negotiating is a critical skill that everyone, especially women, has to practice and master in order to be an effective leader. In this course from Cornell Professor Deborah Streeter, you will practice key behaviors that help negotiations, including asking for what you want — something most women are not taught to do. The course emphasises the gender dimension of negotiation strategies and the critical skills on which women leaders in particular need to focus. This course will be most helpful for women leaders who are not already practiced and comfortable in negotiation settings, and those who find negotiating stressful, uncomfortable, and difficult. Negotiating is a routine part of daily life and leadership, and approaching it with confidence and skill signals that you know your worth.

Research shows that emotional intelligence is a critical predictor of performance as well as a very strong driver of leadership and personal excellence. Those with high emotional intelligence can typically read a room quickly, clue into subterfuge, and more easily show respect and empathy. While soft skills such as those may not sound impressive, they can be imperative for a woman in a leadership role. You can be a top performer without any emotional intelligence, but the numbers are against you.

In this course from Professor Deborah Streeter, women leaders can develop their emotional intelligence and learn how to use it to their advantage to manage their team to greater success.

Research shows that feedback is critical for leaders and that creating a culture of feedback is key to a team's success. The more successful a team is, the better an organization's bottom line. However, there is an art to giving and receiving feedback, and if not done properly, feedback can have a negative impact to morale. Conversely, teams who receive feedback in a positive, supportive way will strive to continue to do well.

There can be a gender dimension to giving and receiving feedback that is critical for women in leadership roles to understand, as men and women react differently. In this course, Professor Deborah Streeter will examine the gender dimensions of giving and receiving feedback and explore strategies for working as effectively as possible to lead a high-performing team.