Since October 2016, a new group of Leadership Programme (LP) members has started their journey to explore and develop their own leadership. Halfway in the programme, we wonder how they are doing. What have they learned so far? Have they used their new skills professionally or personally yet? To find out, we asked them!

Networking!
One of the goals of the Programme is to enhance your professional network. The LP members do so by networking at the TopFem Network Events. Christel van Binsbergen:

“It is so great to have conversations with ambitious women who already came so far during their career and hear about their experiences”.

By attending the professional training session the LP members get to know each other better and better. For the training sessions, the LP is divided into two groups. Each training session group is a mix of different backgrounds and studies. The LP members do not always share the same vision on leadership, which leads to interesting group discussions. Frederique Hoppe:

“It is very interesting to hear about everybody’s vision about leadership, to go deeper into this vision, to share your own vision and most of all: to learn from each other”.

Professional training sessions
Both LP groups are guided by Phyleen Mattaar from VIStrainingen during the four training sessions. The two groups do not follow the same path, because Phyleen adjusts every training to the personal need of the group members. However, the overall training session themes are the same for both groups: Personal leadership styles, Me and others, My mission and Here I am. Marielle Chartier:

“Learning what personal leadership means to you, gives you the opportunity to develop it better and with a special focus”.

One of the leadership theories the LP members learned is the behaviour matrix. By determining whether you are more formal or informal and whether you are more dominant or passive, you can determine what kind of person you are. The combination of dominant and informal gives you the ‘promotor’ behaviour style, while being dominant and formal is assigned as the ‘controller’ behaviour style. Lisette van Nijhuis:

“The behaviour matrix keeps intriguing me. It helps you to understand certain situations better, but also why everybody reacts different and how to cope with this.”

Development
Eventually, participating in the LP will have an important impact on your career. For example, the LP members learned how to catch the attention from recruiters and how to get their CV on top of a company’s CV pile. In addition, they learned that you should not be discouraged by high expectations or other distracting factors. Us women should sometimes be more like men: do more and think less! Apart from focussing on personal and professional developmentl, there is always time to do fun things. Fatima Jarmohamed suggested to visit the first virtual reality ballet of the world and informal dinners and drinks are being planned.

It is interesting to see that not only professional relationships are made between the LP members during the training sessions, but true friendships start to arise.

Written by Marjolein van Vliet.

Graduated MSc, TopFem Leadership Programme participant and part of the Marketing Committee.