Exceptional Self Program
The Positive Leadership logo represents a Double Helix: the independently operating upward and downward spirals of life.
The Double Helix Program focuses not on thwarting the downward spirals, but on building the upward spirals, and thereby changing the experience of work and life satisfaction.
The program is also not about raising awareness and female camaraderie, or about tactical solutions to practical personal obstacles, as there is no evidence after 30 plus years of trying that these approaches will make the difference women and organisations are seeking at senior levels, in the time frame required, to build the next generation of female leaders in greater representation than we currently have. That said, the participants will gain substantial personal and contextual awareness and build a cohort of supportive peers and potentially undertake some group-led initiatives for change.
The aim of the Double Helix program is to build the next generation of successful female leadership role models by progressively building participants’ knowledge and skills to enable them to build and sustain optimal levels of intellectual, emotional and social functioning in order to thrive and survive.
The program focuses on:
- Capacity building: building the resources required for optimal functioning in the pursuit of challenges, and in the face of adversity
- Satisfaction building: increasing personal engagement and meaning in and beyond work
- Capability building: building influencing and negotiation skills, and career management approaches to navigate the realities of business at senior levels.
The program outlined is based on, and continuously updated from, the latest academic research in the fields of:
- high potential and senior women
- leadership
- retention and engagement
- strengths
- appreciative inquiry
- positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship
- performance psychology
- neuropsychology
- well-being and depression at work
- executive coaching
- success in financial and professional services
Research shows that the approaches incorporated in this program deliver:
- optimal intellectual and emotional functioning and sustainable long-term well-being
- increased satisfaction and engagement based on strengths
- resistance to adversity, thereby requiring less bounce back resilience
- increased confidence based on personal strengths
- strategies for personal, professional and political career success
- theories, models and strategies to facilitate positive change within their own area and organisation