Women Empowerment – Workshop 1 (Unique Value)
The Appleton Greene Corporate Training Program (CTP) for Women Empowerment is provided by Ms. Tull Certified Learning Provider (CLP). Program Specifications: Monthly cost USD$2,500.00; Monthly Workshops 6 hours; Monthly Support 4 hours; Program Duration 12 months; Program orders subject to ongoing availability.
If you would like to view the Client Information Hub (CIH) for this program, please Click Here
Learning Provider Profile
Ms. Tull is a Certified Learning Provider (CLP) with Appleton Greene. She has over 25 years of experience in coaching, consulting and training CEO’s and executives. She specializes in the areas of personal and professional development and leadership. She is passionate about empowering women in the workplace equipping them with leadership skills and helping them to reveal their unique value, so they can reach their true potential and make a bigger impact. She has industry experience in the following sectors: Technology, Financial Services, Biomedical, Consultancy and Healthcare. She has commercial experience in the following countries: United States, Canada, England, Mexico and Sweden. More specifically within the following cities: Austin, TX; Houston, TX; Dallas, TX; Los Angeles, CA; New York City NY; St. Louis, MS; Virginia Beach, VA; Chicago IL. Her personal achievements include 17 yrs. as Founder/CEO of Silverlining Concepts, LLC where she empowers business owners and leaders to own their value and earn their worth, Certified Money Breakthrough Method Coach, Best-selling Author of a book about owning your value, so you can earn your worth in the workplace, Executive Contributor to Huffington Post, Biz Journals and Brainz Magazine, featured on the Brainz 500 Global list 2021. She also is a co-host on a national TV show- that focuses on bringing more light and positivity to the world. Her service skills include; leadership development, executive coaching, business strategy, sales and marketing strategies, mindset shifting and advanced communications and presentation skills.
MOST Analysis
Mission Statement
The first workshop Unique Value is designed to help the participants to identify and own their unique value so they can present themselves confidently and make a bigger impact. Many women professionals do not fully understand their own unique value, so they don’t have the confidence to present themselves confidently or ask for what they want. During this workshop, we will reveal our unique gifts and the value we offer, so we can work in our brilliance, effectively articulate our value and make a bigger impact as a leader.
Objectives
1. Believe Yourself – Knowing your genuine value will benefit you in all facets of your life and career. It will sharpen your decision-making skills and enable you to identify the ideas, people, and issues with which you should align yourself. In this course you will learn 5 key beliefs to adopt to start believing in yourself.
2. Ignite Passion – When we align our career around our gifts/passion we will not only be passionate about what we do, but our co-workers, teammates, and customers will be attracted to us and our passion, we’ll also be able to live a fulfilled and joyful life. Discover how to ignite our passion with the Ignite Your Passion Process.
3. What’s Possible – In this course, we will learn how to turn our goals and dreams into a reality with the Go For It Formula. We will also develop our Performance Management.
4. Mindset Shift – The focus of this lesson is on changing our thinking. When we transform our mindset, we can transform our results
5. Building Confidence – Discover what it looks like to have confidence in the workplace, confidence in communication, how we can boost our productivity and expand our knowledge.
6. Visualize Dreams – We will explore what visualization is, how to visualize and how visualization can transform our lives.
7. Investing in Yourself – Discover why investing in ourselves is so powerful the top 10 ways to invest in yourself.
8. Setting Boundaries – Identify priorities and align values and learn how to create boundaries to honor them. Honor your time with time management skills.
9. Reveal Value – reveal our unique value with a proven powerful method that will transform how we value ourselves and how we articulate what you do allowing us to raise our confidence exponentially.
10. Adapting Value – Discover how to best utilize our unique value and adopt it in the workplace.
11. Stand Powerfully -Learn the 8 ways to confidently stand in your power as a professional capable woman.
12. Your Potential – Activate Your True Potential in 8 Easy Steps.
Strategies
1. Engage and elicit expectations for the course, introduce the concept of unique value and take a quiz to assess individuals self-worth, value, money mindset and level of passion.
2. Discuss Key Beliefs and Create Smart Goals
3. Present Ignite Your Passion Process
4. Develop a Career Plan and Vision Statement
5. Share success stories to help build confidence
6. Practice and learn how to adapt visualization and creative techniques
7. Implement a plan to commit to investing in yourself
8. Identify Priorities and Align Values and how to put specific boundaries in place.
9. Provide coaching around identifying unique value and perform a reveal your unique value exercise that is shared amongst the group.
10. Identify what you love and do well. Create a plan to change including a step-by-step action plan to reaching your true potential.
11. Provide resources and case studies that exemplify new practices for personal growth and productivity.
12. Develop new communication practices and collaboration with employees allowing them to effectively use their gifts and skills.
Tasks
1. Go through the Study Guide and Distance Learning lessons first and make notes.
2. Identify the key relationships that need to be managed to ensure project success.
3. Determine needs, critical drivers, concerns, and interests for each relationship.
4. Ensure that these relationships are built and maintained on a regular basis, by soliciting ideas, comments, and assessing value.
5. Schedule a meeting for the participants to meet and discuss the workshop within 30 days
6. Participants to share expectations and possibility exercises through reflection and sharing in small groups during the workshop.
7. Set a deadline for determining and analyzing the time commitment for each of the participants.
8. Participants to demonstrate personal presence, get feedback, and make a plan for further development.
9. Participants to experience the challenges of change and apply learnings to the philosophy of leading change.
10. Participants are to complete each exercise throughout the workshop fully and discuss the process and results with the group.
11. Participants to complete their project by identifying and implementing changes discussed throughout the workshop.
12. Participants to review resources for inspiration and identify at least one new tool for adoption from the provided list.
Introduction
The first workshop in our Women Empowerment Leadership Program – Unique Value; focuses on Identifying and Owning Your Unique Value, So You Can Present Yourself with Confidence and Make a Bigger Impact. Many women professionals do not fully understand their own unique value, so they don’t have the confidence to present themselves powerfully or ask for what they want. During this workshop, you will learn how to believe in yourself, ignite your passion, shift your mindset of what’s possible, visualize your dreams, discover the power of investing in yourself, reveal your unique gifts and the value you offer and learn how to stand in your power as a leader, so you can work in your brilliance, effectively articulate your value and make a bigger impact as a leader.
Each month of the Women Empowerment Program, we will dive deep into a component of the Women Empowerment Business Transformation Process. Our objective is to implement a process that will provide the women in your organization with high-level skills, tools, and support, so they can reach their true leadership potential. This profound shift will dramatically change the environment and culture of your organization and is essential for future success. As you advance through the course, we will guide you through the flowing process to reshape how women are currently seen, treated, and represented within your company. We start with Mindset Shift, Leadership Development, Personal Presence, Advanced Communication and Presentation Skills and end with Creating and Implementing Your Success Action Plan.
History
In order to own our unique value, we must have a healthy self-worth. Self-worth is an emotional reaction to one’s own self-evaluation. It’s a sense of trust in our own abilities and attributes.
This feeling is so fundamental to our functioning that we’ve given it a variety of names. There’s self-esteem and confidence, as well as self-evaluation and self-appraisal. All of these, however, appear to work in feedback loops that either increase or decrease self-worth.
For better or worse, our early experiences lay the groundwork for our sense of self-worth. The ability to recognize and control emotions is what leads to the affective construct of self-worth, which then leads to the cognitive construct. Our self-worth enable us to make sense of our experiences, believe in our abilities, and develop an authentic identity based on our talents and beliefs.
Current Position
Despite the fact that women have made great progress in the workforce, there is no doubt that they are still finding it difficult to advance up the corporate ladder. Women from low-income backgrounds face enormous challenges to entering and succeeding in the workforce all around the world. They often have fewer job opportunities, higher safety risks, and less political representation than men.
We should celebrate the significant gains women have made in the workforce as we commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Over the last century and a quarter, their entry into paid work has been a crucial driver in the world’s prosperity.
We have gained significant benefits from the growing role of women in the economy. However, data suggests that hurdles to women’s continuous advancement still exist. The magnitude of these hurdles should prompt us to consider how structural issues, such as a lack of equal opportunity and difficulties between work and family life, are preventing women from progressing.
Despite this development, it appears that many women are still unable to fulfill their objectives. Although the wage gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years, it remains large; women working full-time still earn roughly 17% less per week than males. Even when we compare men and women in the same or similar occupations with virtually equivalent backgrounds and experience, there is approximately a 10% difference in pay.
Women continue to be underrepresented in many industries and occupations; and too many women struggle to balance work and family obligations.
Barriers to equal opportunity and workplace policies and customs that do not promote a reasonable work-life balance have slowed progress. If these barriers persist, we will waste the potential of many of our female citizens and suffer a significant loss in our economy’s productive capacity at a time when population, aging and low productivity growth are already impacting on economic growth.
According to recent data, even while women currently enroll in professional institutions in approximately equal numbers as men, they are still significantly less likely to reach the top echelons of their fields.
Future Outlook
Continued development would help our workplaces and families, as well as women themselves. However, a number of issues appear to be holding women back, including the difficulty women face in balancing their careers with other elements of their lives, such as child-care. When considering solutions, we should examine changes to work conditions and policies that benefit all workers, not just women. Pursuing such a plan would be consistent with the increase in women’s participation in the workforce, which has benefited not only their own self-worth and well-being but the welfare and prosperity of our society as a whole.
With the right support, many women have been able to change their destiny by taking control of their futures by being courageous enough to follow their dreams. This requires them to do the work. Which is to transform their belief system and to get clear on what makes them unique and how they can use those unique gifts to be fulfilled in their lives and careers and make an impact.
Empowering the next generation to be better leaders and citizens of society is more vital than ever, from mentorship and advocacy to resources and investment. The concerns raised by the epidemic aren’t going away anytime soon, which is why it’s critical that we provide our future women leaders with the tools they need to effect constructive social change and avoid repeating the mistakes of previous generations. The future has already arrived, and now is the moment to invest in it.
In today’s business climate, it’s critical for companies to have a procedure that explicitly promotes and empowers women. Especially when it comes to helping them understand their unique value. Only a proven system that guarantees all women have access to what they need to succeed can bring about change in this area. As a result, company culture, employee retention, productivity, and profitability will all benefit.
Executive Summary
The first workshop in our Women Empowerment Program – Unique Value; focuses on Identifying and Owning Your Unique Value, So You Can Present Yourself with Confidence and Make a Bigger Impact.
Although women today have made many strides in their personal development, many women professionals still do not fully understand their own unique value, so they don’t have the confidence to present themselves powerfully or ask for what they want. There is so much opportunity available to better support women in the workplace. During this workshop, we will reveal what we can do to start believing in ourselves, ignite our passion, shift our mindset of what’s possible, visualize our dreams, discover the power of investing in ourselves, reveal our unique gifts and the value we offer and learn how to stand in our power as a leader. This allows us to work in our brilliance, effectively articulate our value and make a bigger impact as a leader.
There are 12 courses (or focus areas) in the Unique Value Workshop.
Here are the areas we will cover:
1. Believe Yourself – Did you know that our value is directly related to our belief in ourselves? We can’t value ourselves unless we first believe in ourselves. This implies that we must believe the following: – You are a gifted and talented individual, you are passionate about your work, you have clear objectives and goals, you can execute your plan and achieve results, you have the ability to accomplish something extraordinary — or even impossible.
Our potential holds our value.
We’ll never appreciate our potential if we treat ourselves like garbage. Our genuine worth and value is found in our potential. We won’t be able to determine our worth unless we know what we’re capable of. Our potential is intangible, and a large part of it is determined by our attitude. If we have a keen thinking and are disciplined, we will achieve incredible results and most likely exceed our potential. It’s not where we are right now that decides our worth, but where we’re going.
Knowing our value is useless if we don’t know how to express it. We must confidently communicate our value in a respectful manner and leave our ego out of the equation.
“Instead of ego, believe in yourself and that you are enough.”
Knowing your genuine value will benefit you in all facets of your life and career. It will sharpen your decision-making skills and enable you to identify the ideas, people, and issues with which you should align yourself. In this course you will learn 5 key beliefs to adopt to start believing in yourself.
2. Ignite Passion – Are you feeling stuck or living your life on auto pilot? The truth is, that is a choice -we can choose to live a sub-standard life, or we can choose to live a life full of passion. We are all unique, we have our own set of God-given talents, skills, education, and experiences. When we start getting clear on what our gifts are and what we’re passionate about- this is when the magic happens- this is when we can discover our brilliance. People who create the life of their dreams and live their passion typically have these things in common: they’re following a burning desire that no longer allows them to ignore their passion, and they’re 100 percent committed to making significant changes and starting to take responsibility for their actions and their results.
When we align our career around our gifts/passion we will not only be passionate about what we do, but our co-workers, teammates, and customers will be attracted to us and our passion, we’ll also be able to live a fulfilled and joyful life. In order, for us to ignite this passion, we must get clear on what we truly want. Discover how to ignite our passion with the Ignite Your Passion Process.
3. What’s Possible – What’s possible for you, your resilience, your leadership, your work culture? We can change the game of life by focusing on the solution or what is possible versus the problem. The great news is that we always have a choice to make – we can create our own destiny. In this course, we will learn how to turn our goals and dreams into a reality with the Go For It Formula.
We will also develop our Performance Management. As part of performance management, it’s usual to work with a manager to build a career plan. This allows an employee or manager to discuss their aims with their boss or management and receive suggestions on how to achieve their objectives.
4. Mindset Shift – The #1 belief that holds people back is “I’m not ready.” We have a way of producing all the reasons why we can’t accomplish something versus taking action on our goals What we see as possible, determines our success. If we see an opportunity, then we are ready. It is important to always expand our possibilities since possibilities create opportunity.
The focus of this lesson is on changing our thinking. When we transform our mindset, we can transform our results. Together, we will assess our self-worth and how it directly impacts our net-worth and we will learn my 5 Easy Steps to increase your Self-Worth. We will also go through my 7 Mindsets to Adopt, so you can transform your life.
5. Building Confidence – People that are self-confident appear to be at ease with themselves and their work. They invite others to trust them and instill confidence in them. These are all desirable qualities to possess. But being confident in ourselves isn’t always simple, especially if we’re naturally self-critical or if others put us down. There are, thankfully, steps we can take to boost and maintain our self-confidence which we will cover in this course.
There is a distinct difference between those who drive towards their goals and get what they want in life and those who can’t. We will uncover the difference. We will discover what it looks like to have confidence in the workplace, confidence in communication, how we can boost our productivity and expand our knowledge. We will also gain access to the 5 Tips to help build your confidence.
6. Visualize Dreams – Visualization is a powerful tool to assist you in reaching your goals. The Law of Attraction and the power of vision go hand in hand. The concept is to envision an image in your mind that will be drawn to you if you visualize it often enough. You probably already do this without even realizing it! When you focus on what could go wrong, things tend to go wrong, reinforcing the inclination to focus on what could go wrong… because it has in the past! You may, however, harness that great creative ability for your own gain. In this lesson, we will show you a proven method how. We will explore what visualization is, how to visualize and how visualization can transform our lives.
We also will go through the Law of Attraction and how we can use it as a powerful tool to attract what we want. Finally, we will go through the 6 Ways to Help You Visualize Success.
7. Investing in Yourself – Investing in ourselves is the best return on investment we can have. Whether it’s building our career, learning a new skill, working on our creativity or personal development; we need to give to ourselves first before we can give to others.
So, it’s not always money that’s required, when investing in oneself, time and energy are just as important. Investing in yourself, requires learning how to maximize the unlimited potential that lies within your mind and body.
Why is investing in yourself so powerful?
Investing in yourself sends a powerful message to yourself and the world. The message is: The value and potential that I possess, is important enough to me that I’m going to give it the energy, space, and time to grow and create results. In this lesson, you will discover the top 10 ways to invest in yourself.
8. Setting Boundaries -Setting boundaries is essential to maintain our happiness and to be fulfilled in our life. In this lesson, we will identify our priorities and learn how to align with your values. We will also go through a process of how we can set up firm boundaries so we can thrive in our work environment. Finally, we will learn time management skills so we can effectively manage our time leading to massive productivity.
9. Reveal Value – Our unique value is made up of many things- our unique God-given talents, our skills, our education, and our experiences. So, in this case, there is no one else like us. We are each amazing and unique. Co-workers will want to work with us because of who we are and what you bring to the table that is different than everyone else. That is why there is truly no such thing as competition, especially if we build our career based on our unique gifts/passion. In this lesson, we will reveal our unique value with a proven powerful method that will transform how we value ourselves and how we articulate what we do allowing you to raise our confidence exponentially.
10. Adopting Value – Now that we’re clear on our unique value, it is important to know how to best utilize our unique value and adopt it in the workplace. In this lesson, we will explore our past experiences that allowed us to use our gifts. We will also address key areas such as Role on a Team, Key indicators, Learning Style, Social Orientation, Relationship Patterns, and End Goals and how your unique value can be properly utilized in each area. It’s crucial to keep in mind that our gifts and talents will develop and become more apparent with time and additional life experience will, in most situations, aid in sharpening your awareness of our strengths and talents.
11. Stand Powerfully – When we hear the word “power,” we may think of control over other people, or money, or even forcefully influencing the course of events. That is one dictatorial definition of power, but there is another: the ability to act in an effective manner. There’s the power of speech, for example, or the ability to ask for what we want, or the simple ability to say no to what you don’t want and yes to what you do. So, what does it mean to stand in your power? It implies that you value what is most essential to you. It indicates that you are aware of who you are, what you are capable of, and why you make the choices you do. Nothing can shake the foundation of who we are or rock our boat. In this lesson, you will discover 8 ways that you can confidently stand in your power as a professional capable woman.
12. Your Potential – In this last lesson, we will discover the exact steps to take to live up to our true potential. Many individuals anticipate there will be more obstacles in life and continue on their path with their head down, dreading failure. Or they let one person’s negativity affect their attitude when an unhappy customer takes out his or her aggravation on them. Or they may carry the rejections into their next sales pitch when the “noes” outnumber the “yeses” in sales. If you resonated with any of these statements, you risk not only suffocating your intrinsic potential, but also never discovering who you truly are or what you can become. It’s all too easy to allow life’s difficulties sap our energy, deplete our motivation, and give us a pessimistic attitude, but there is a method to keep challenging situations and negative ideas from getting in the way of your success and pleasure. We can be intentional with our plans moving forward. In this final course of the workshop, you will discover How to Activate Your True Potential in 8 Easy Steps.
Impact for Positive Change
At the conclusion of each workshop, we will focus our collective attention on how you, as a leader, will put what we’ve learned into practice in your company. Impact for positive change not only requires putting what you’ve learned into practice but also taking action to make a significant difference. That starts with a strong desire to change and reflection on what you’re going to do differently. It’s also crucial to consider how you’ll involve people in your organization in the discussion about what you’ve learnt and make requests for what you need from them in order to succeed. Not only will your formal team be involved, but so will your cross-functional colleagues. How would you collaborate to ensure all the women in your company have everything they need to succeed?
Curriculum
Women Empowerment – Workshop 1 – Unique Value
- Believe Yourself
- Ignite Passion
- What’s Possible
- Mindset Shift
- Building Confidence
- Visualize Dreams
- Investing in Yourself
- Setting Boundaries
- Reveal Value
- Adapting Value
- Stand Powerfully
- Your Potential
Distance Learning
Introduction
Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Women Empowerment corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.
Study environment
You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.
Study tools & rules
Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.
Successful distance-learning
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.
Self-assessment
Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.
Accepting responsibility as a student
Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.
Planning
By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.
Management
Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.
Study objectives & tasks
The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.
Study forecast
As a guide, the Appleton Greene Women Empowerment corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.
Performance management
It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.
With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.
With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.
Keeping in touch
You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.
Work colleagues and family
You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.
Making it relevant
The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.
Distance-learning check-list
Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.
Tutorial Support
Programs
Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.
Support available
You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.
Support Process
Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.
Time Management
It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Women Empowerment corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Women Empowerment program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.
Distance Learning Guide
The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.
How To Study
The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).
Tutorial Support
Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Women Empowerment corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.
Tutorial Support Tips
Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.
Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails
Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.
Think about the impression that you want to create
Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.
Remember that quality is preferred to quantity
Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.
Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers
Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.
Keep a record of your tutorial support emails
It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Individual training workshops or telephone support
Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.
Tutorial Support Email Format
You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.
Subject line of your email
Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.
Main body of your email
Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)
Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.
Question 1
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 3
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 4
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Question 5
Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.
Procedure
* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.
How To Study
Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.
Planning your study environment
Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.
Planning your program objectives
It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.
Planning how and when to study
Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.
Planning your study tasks
You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.
Planning your time
You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.
Keeping in touch
Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.
Charting your progress
Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.
Making it work
To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.
Reading methods
Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.
Speed reading
When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.
Content reading
Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.
Making structured notes on the course manuals
When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.
Organizing structured notes separately
You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.
Question your understanding
Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.
Clarifying your understanding
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.
Question your interpretation
Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.
Clarifying your interpretation
If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.
Qualification Requirements
The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Women Empowerment corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Women Empowerment Specialist (AWES). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.
Women Empowerment – Grading Contribution
Project Study – Grading Contribution
Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%
Qualification grades
A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.
When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:
Pass with merit
A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory
Pass with distinction
An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory
Preliminary Analysis
Empowering the women of your company is crucial for organizational development and growth. Identifying the Unique Value of these women, as defined in the ‘Introduction’ portion of this program, entails considerable changes to an organization’s culture, systems, and processes. As a result, an empowerment strategy can kickstart transformation. A supportive infrastructure enables positive activities and provides an efficient and strategic business foundation.
Current Challenges for Women in the Workforce
An article in The Economist, Female Power; Women in the Workforce stated, “The economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years.”
Ensuring that female employees are a high priority in your company’s HR compliance strategy will encourage more women to apply for available positions while also ensuring that your present female employees feel safe, protected, and respected. Here are the top four workplace obstacles that many women confront on a daily basis.
Top 4 Challenges:
Motherhood
Employers are not allowed to discriminate or take adverse action against a woman because she is pregnant. However, an employer is not required to give paid maternity leave or paid childcare leave in the future. A woman’s absence from work to care for a kid is likely to have an impact on her career advancement.
Negotiating an arrangement that offers flexible work choices such as telecommuting and working non-standard business hours can help a career woman who becomes pregnant or a working mother deal with this issue. Employer incentives such as flexible schedules and hours are becoming more common as a method to attract talented employees. In fact, professional flexibility allows both men and women to choose their family lives over career growth.
Equal Pay
On average, women continue to earn less than males. Women are hired at lower pay rates in entry-level professions, and the wage gap widens as they advance in their careers. To discover if a pay gap exists, a company should undertake a pay audit. If there is no wage disparity, the company should consider releasing the information to employees and job applicants. Preventing pay negotiations is one approach to prevent a pay gap from forming.
A woman can request a pay audit from her company, but she risks being labeled a problem by management. The lady in that situation must determine whether or not she wants to fight her employer over a salary disparity. If not, the woman may want to look for a new career at a company where the pay gap has been bridged by management.
Leaving for a new job appears to be an excellent strategy to make up for the income gap. According to data, a woman with an MBA who switches professions two or more times is paid $53,472 less than a woman who stays at her initial job and rises through the ranks. Women who move careers must demonstrate their worth to their new bosses. Men with MBAs who switched jobs made $13,743 more than those who stayed with their previous employer.
Fewer Leadership Opportunities
Many firms still have a male-dominated top management. What is the reason for this? It’s often because men are allocated to high-profile, mission-critical assignments that serve as professional stepping- stones. This pattern could be a result of the organization’s decision-makers’ ingrained biases.
These can be huge roadblocks in a woman’s career path, especially for women of color. To overcome this, a woman must contact a sympathetic supervisor or decision-maker and negotiate meaningful assignments that will allow her to contribute significantly to the business.
Eventually, the employer will have to address the disparity in opportunity. Employers will need to promote women’s participation in key positions. Employers can do this through mentoring and engaging their career-minded female employees by assigning them to project teams, keeping them accountable for their responsibilities, and giving them the opportunity to perform. But first, they can equip them with all of the skills and tools necessary for them to become successful leaders within the organization.
Industry Specific Bias
In some industries, the challenges women confront are more pronounced than in others. Women encounter considerable challenges in the high-tech industry. The same appears to be true in research labs, the energy industry, and other science and technology-based companies. As a result, women in these organizations are more likely than their male counterparts to depart.
A woman attempting to forge a career in these fields must be aware of these biases, but she does not have to accept them. Employers in these industries must implement the organizational and cultural changes listed above to attract and retain the finest personnel, or they will confront substantial talent shortages in their workforces. They will simply be unable to attract or keep the high-skilled women and men they require. These individuals will seek employment in other industries where the work environment is more family-friendly and tolerant of diversity.
In a high-tech job, a woman might find her boss open to her requests for improved career chances, flexible work schedules, and cultural changes.
Opportunity for Change
Women are now ready to step into leadership roles, but in order for organizations to attract and retain talented women they must admonish sexism and offer gender parity in pay, experiences, and opportunities for success.
The Women Empowerment Leadership Program is a process of accelerating the professional growth of women in the workforce. Although women have made significant strides in the workplace there is no doubt that women are still struggling to move up the corporate ladder. Women who are socioeconomically disadvantaged face insurmountable barriers to entering and excelling in the workforce around the world. They often have fewer opportunities for economic participation than men, greater safety risks and less political representation.
Preparing for the Workshop
Participants are encouraged to come into the program with an open mind and be ready for a transformation from the inside out. There will be a lot of mindset work that involves being open to change.
It’s important to assess where your company is before you start making significant changes to its structure.
Examine your current processes and infrastructure.
Participants should also ensure that they are familiar with the company’s major people-related processes. The processes of performance management, recruitment, talent assessment, and talent development should be familiar to all participants. The goal of the workshop is not to change these processes, but to supplement them with the Women’s Empowerment Business Transformation Process in order to improve their effectiveness. Participants make a list of recent successes and failures in each of these processes. Later on, when discussing how to integrate the process into the existing model, the list will come in handy.
It may be beneficial to the participants if these processes are also examined from the standpoint of the employees. One or two of the participants should sit down with a few important employees and question about the success of the processes. The efficiency of these processes, not the method itself, should be the focus of these discussions. When discussing the process’ efficacy, it’s important to consider the outcomes from the perspective of the people it’s supposed to help. Ineffective processes, regardless of their efficiency, fail to meet the customer’s expectations. The Women’s Empowerment Business Transformation Process will be able to fill in the gaps identified by identifying holes in these procedures.
The Business Transformation Process
The core objective of the Women Empowerment Leadership Program is to enable organizations to develop empowered and skilled women leaders within all departments of their organization.
Each month we will dive deep into a component of the Women Empowerment Business Transformation Process. Our objective is to implement a process that will provide the women in your organization with high-level skills, tools, and support, so they can reach their true leadership potential. This profound shift will dramatically change the environment and culture of your organization and is essential for future success. As you advance through the course, we will guide you through the flowing process to reshape how women are currently seen, treated, and represented within your company. We start with Mindset Shift, Leadership Development, Personal Presence, Advanced Communication and Presentation Skills and end with Creating and Implementing Your Success Action Plan.
The first workshop in our Women Empowerment Program – Unique Value; focuses on Identifying and Owning Your Unique Value, So You Can Present Yourself with Confidence and Make a Bigger Impact.
Many women professionals do not fully understand their own unique value, so they don’t have the confidence to present themselves powerfully or ask for what they want or be ready to step into a leadership position.
During this workshop, through the impactful training and exercises; we will uncover how we can help these women believe in themselves, ignite their passion, shift their mindset of what’s possible, visualize their dreams, discover the power of investing in themselves, reveal their unique gifts and the value they offer and learn how they can confidently stand in their power as a leader. This allows us to work in our brilliance, effectively articulate our value and make a bigger impact as a leader.
How this will be achieved, is by implementation of the following strategies:
1. Engage and elicit expectations for the course, introduce the concept of unique value and take a quiz to assess individuals self-worth, value, money mindset and level of passion.
2. Discuss Key Beliefs and Create Smart Goals
3. Ignite Your Passion Process
4. Develop a Career Plan and Vision Statement
5. Share success stories to help build confidence
6. Practice and learn how to adapt visualization and creative techniques
7. Implement a plan to commit to investing in yourself
8. Identify Priorities and Values and how to put specific boundaries in place.
9. Receive coaching around identifying unique value and perform a reveal your unique value exercise that is shared amongst the group.
10. Identify what you love and do well. Create a plan to change including a step-by-step action plan to reaching your true potential.
11. Access resources and case studies that exemplify new practices for personal growth and productivity.
12. Develop new communication practices and collaboration with employees allowing them to effectively use their gifts and skills.
Resources:
More on The Law of Attraction: The Secret by Rhonda Byrne Click here
More on Investing in Yourself: How to Invest in Yourself: 33 Ways to Change Your Life’s Potential
Online Creativity Tools: Online Tool as a Creativity Prompt
There are a number of online resources that act as prompts to spark your creativity:
1. Need an idea for a blog article? Portent’s Content Idea Generator gives creative entrepreneurs title ideas to tweak and make your own.
2. The Idea Lottery from Idea Champions generates random connections between words using a grid format to spark new trains of thought.
3. Creativity Games has a simple random word generator to stimulate lateral thinking.
4. The imagination prompt generator might be useful for stimulating writing ideas in a pinch.
5. Or, if you’re open to random suggestions to solving a tricky problem, try digging into the magic sandbox from Idea Sandbox.
6. The Creativity Pool contains hundreds of unused ideas for products uploaded by creative entrepreneur from all over the world. Some are terrible, but you might find a gem of inspiration between all the rest.
Useful Tools for Assessing/Developing Strengths:
Individual character strengths
Complete the free online VIA test and generate a ranked list of your character strengths and virtues to understand your cognitive, emotional, social, and community profile.
Team character strengths:
Make use of team reports to combine VIA character strength profiles from multiple team members.
Explore the team from more than one perspective to understand their strengths and the value each member brings.
Read more about the VIA.
Once you have completed the VIA assessment, check out The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality by Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath (2019), available on Amazon.
Use the Strengths Builder as a way of developing your signature strengths. Create a life in which you thrive, function at your best, and make the best of opportunities as they arise.
PositivePsychology.com Strengths Resources
We have many resources at PositivePsychology.com that will help you to build your strengths.
Strength journaling provides a way of attending to and exploring your strengths. Use the worksheet provided to celebrate your Positive Qualities.
Learn to focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses by Identifying Limiting Beliefs About Personal Strengths.
What strengths protect your family? Recognize and grow these strengths using the Family Tree of Strengths worksheet.
Exploring Character Strengths guides you in identifying and reflecting on character strengths.
Finally, the Maximizing Strengths Masterclass© is the ultimate tool in helping yourself and others identify and develop their strengths. This coaching package is just what you need to become a strengths-based practitioner and help clients reach their potential.
17 Strength-Finding Exercises – If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop their strengths, this collection contains 17 strength-finding tools for practitioners. Use them to help others better understand and harness their strengths in life-enhancing ways.
More on Meditation: Beginners Guide to Meditation: Meditation the Complete Guide – Meditation for Beginners, Mindfulness, Happiness and Peace by Katie Anderson
Process Review:
People want to know why, therefore there should be a clear convincing explanation for the program. They should make the Women Empowerment Program a top priority, committing the time, focus, and dedication required to succeed. The program should have a direct STRATEGIC impact on the future of the organization. The most effective strategy is to connect the Program to the company’s mission, purpose, value proposition, and organizational values. At its most advanced degree, Women Empowerment is intended to generate an improved culture and equal playing field for women of your company.
What would be the compelling rationale for attracting employees to the Program and satisfying senior management?
Is the Women Empowerment Program supported by the Human Resources Department?
HR is a key player in the decision-making process. Employee engagement is a powerful outcome and basis of the Women’s Empowerment Program, which will play a key role in reducing turnover since it:
• recognizes the value of people
• channels energy into purposeful action
• capitalizes on employees’ joint creative energies
• empowers employees to become more entrepreneurial
• flows ideas and innovation across internal and external boundaries
• maximizes the creation of value while reducing non-value-added work
Is this program compatible with HR’s strategic and operational goals?
Measuring Success:
Quality metrics are crucial in almost every aspect of life. Management is like sifting fog without distinct metrics, and there will be no consensus of vision, value, methodology, or results. During the early stages of a program, a company should consider what measures should be utilized to determine whether the program met its objectives.
Put a Preliminary Plan in place:
Important questions that should be asked (but not solved just yet). The following are some of the questions the leaders should ask:
• “Which departments, branches, or business units will be piloted first?”
• “How do we position the program?”
• “What are the participants’ primary concerns?”
• “What are the most likely stumbling blocks and resistance?”
Course Manuals 1-12
Course Manual 1: Believe Yourself
Did you know that your value is directly related to your belief in yourself? You can’t value yourself unless you first believe in yourself.
Believing in oneself entails trusting one’s own ability. It entails believing that we CAN do something if we put our mind to it. We can overcome self-doubt and have the confidence to take action and get things done when we believe in ourselves.
This implies that one must believe the following: – You are a gifted and talented individual, you are passionate about your work, you have clear objectives and goals, you can execute your plan and achieve results, you have the ability and the potential to accomplish something extraordinary — or even impossible.
“Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” ― Christian D. Larson
The Passion Belief Method Assessment was designed to help you discover where you stand when it comes to your self-worth your value, your relationship with money and the level of passion in your life or career.
Discover if you’re a Self-Saboteur, a Striver or a Passionista!
Exercise 1:1 – Take the Passion Belief Method Assessment
Share your results with the group.
There are 5 Key Beliefs that are important to have
Let’s take a deep dive in the 5 Key Beliefs:
1. I’m a gifted and talented individual – It is important to believe that we all were created with amazing gifts, talents, and skills that we can use to make a difference in the lives of others. Each one of us is different and have our own set of strengths. It’s nearly impossible to believe in oneself when you keep failing at something that others appear to find simple.
When there is a lack confidence, we tend to concentrate on what we can’t achieve. This is because we are more aware of our flaws. In our mind, they are painfully accentuated as symbols of shame, weakness, and failure.
“I’ll never be great at anything!” quickly increases from “I’m lousy at this!”
The good news is that everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. One must figure out how to recognize one’s strengths so that they can make the most of them.
The following is a quick way to start increasing confidence:
Stop wasting time on stuff we’re not wired for.
The key is to find out what we’re already good at and focus on improving it.
Instead of stressing about not measuring up, successful people focus on the good — what they excel at — and delegate weaknesses to others.
They will feel more competent and confident as soon as they change their focus to improving their strengths. They can become a rockstar by putting effort into enhancing their innate abilities.
Remember, we all have been created with many amazing gifts, talents and skills and we must use them so we can make our mark in the world.
2. I’m passionate about my work – Passion fuels our motivation. Often, people fail to achieve the success they desire because they lack the motivation.
In the beginning, they are so motivated with their newly set goals. Most people are driven in the early phase when they first started a project.
But after a while, when they don’t get the results they want, or when they don’t see the outcome that they have expected, they start to lose steam.
People will start to lose interest in their project/goal when they fail to produce any significant success from their hard work. And it is for this reason that the majority of individuals eventually give up. They are unable to maintain their motivation over time. One must realize that success is a marathon, not a sprint. As a result, one must understand how to develop long-term motivation to support your actions.
And one of the best ways to stay motivated is to have a passion for what we do. This is why, when we are passionate about something, we are more likely to stay motivated for longer periods of time, increasing our chances of success.
Making it a priority to focus on the things we are passionate about is essential. Achieving this goal is in direct alignment with our purpose, which drives everything we do and increases our value even more. Passion is contagious, and because it’s so uncommon, it raises the level in which we are valued by others.
So many of us die on the inside while we’re young and go around like zombies until our physical bodies perish.
We can avert this existential catastrophe by spending as much time as possible doing what we love.
3. I have clear objectives and goals – As individuals we must be ready to reach our personal and professional goals. It first starts with a decision to make a change. Then we must set a bold goal for ourselves. Why do we have goals? Most people think it’s to get something we want or to get different results; but really, it’s about growing. Change is inevitable but personal growth is a choice.
Here are the 3 Powerful Steps to Setting and Achieving Your Goals.
Step 1:
Goal Creation Process
First, it starts with a dream, idea, or a concept. This is where it’s important for us to tap into our creative mind and discover what it is we truly desire. What fires us up and gets us excited? Start making a list. This should be something that scares us and is a challenge, something we currently have no idea on how to achieve.
Then it moves into theory. This is where we give our dream, idea or concept some serious thought.
Next, we move into fact. One must ask the following question: Is it possible for me to achieve this goal? You must find proof. Has anyone else done it? If the answer is yes, then you can move forward in knowing you can do it too! Finally, it’s time to set our goal. In order to do this, we must ask ourselves, am I willing to do what it takes to accomplish this goal? If the answer is yes, then you have yourself a goal.
Step 2:
Use the SMART Goal Formula
In order to set a solid Bold Goal for ourselves, it is important to follow the SMART Goal formula.
S– Specific- What will you do? (i.e., lose weight. go after a promotion, volunteer more, start an organization to help others)
M– Measurable- How will you do it and how will you track your progress?
A– Attainable- Is this something you can attain.
R– Relevant- Is this something that is very important to you? What is the cost of not achieving this goal?
T– Set a Timeline- By what date do you want to reach this goal?
Step 3:
What is the WHY behind the goal?
It is very important to have a motivation to inspire us each day to take action on our goal. This is our WHY. The goal itself will not be enough to get us through the obstacles or challenging times; and trust me, they will be there. So, our WHY or the result of our goal is what we want to focus on and what will keep us moving forward. Example: If you want to lose weight – losing weight will result in improving your health (that would be your WHY) If you want to apply for a new position within your organization – result – you can better utilize your gifts and skills and increase your income (that would be your WHY).
• I can execute my plan and achieve results – It’s possible that we don’t have what it takes to achieve our objectives right now. However, if we feel we can progress, develop, and learn, we will succeed – even if nothing goes according to plan. We will develop.
All of our efforts are motivated by our deep belief that we and our lives can improve for the better. We’ll be more willing, if not eager, to put in the effort necessary to achieve those adjustments.
There is no better way to increase our self-esteem than to witness the fruits of our efforts. We must, however, believe it is valuable, or we will not put forth the effort.
Commit to taking consistent action daily. Then assess the results and course correct along the way.
• I have the ability and potential to accomplish something extraordinary – or even impossible -Our potential holds our value. We’ll never appreciate our potential if we treat ourselves like garbage. When we’re drowning in fears, doubts, and self-sabotaging behaviors, success feels out of reach. All the knowledge, training, and equipment in the world won’t make a difference in our lives. Our genuine worth and value is found in our potential. We won’t be able to determine our worth unless we know what we’re capable of. Our potential is intangible, and a large part of it is determined by our attitude. If we have a keen thinking and are disciplined, we will achieve incredible results and most likely exceed our potential. It’s not where we are right now that decides our worth, but where we’re going.
Knowing our value is useless if we don’t know how to express it. We must confidently communicate our value in a respectful manner and leave our ego out of the equation.
“Instead of ego, believe in yourself and that you are enough.”
Believe IT: How to Go from Underappreciated to Unstoppable, by Jamie Kern Lima, isa great book that focuses on the power of believing in yourself. The author Jamie began trying makeup to hide her rosacea and eventually became a cofounder of IT Cosmetics. Jamie sold the company to L’Oréal for $1.2 billion in 2016, and in her book, she imparts some valuable lessons about tenacity and faith.
Believing in ourselves and knowing our genuine value will benefit us in all facets of our lives and careers. It will sharpen our decision-making skills and enable each of us to identify the ideas, people, and issues with which we should align ourselves.
Exercise 1:2 – The 5 Key Beliefs
The participants should review and discuss each of the 5 Key Beliefs shared in this lesson. For each belief, they will share an example. After sharing examples of the 5 Beliefs, the participants should then discuss opportunities for improvement in these 5 areas.
Exercise 1:3 – Create a SMART Goal
All participants are to answer the following questions:
1. What is your goal – what will you do?
2. How will you do it and how will you track your progress?
3. Is it attainable?
4. Why is this important to you?
5. What is the cost of not achieving this goal?
6. By what date do you want to reach this goal?
All participants will share their answers with the group. The act of sharing their goals with others is very powerful because it provides a higher level of commitment.
Course Manual 2: Ignite Passion
A big problem today is that most people live their lives like zombies, repeating the same routine day after day until they become numb to it and go into autopilot mode. This is very painful to witness; it’s as if they don’t have any inner fire; they’re just a bland, lifeless human with no emotion.
The good news is that we always have a choice: we can either stay stuck on the same unfulfilling path to nowhere, or we can choose a different path, or—even better— build our own – a life full of passion and fulfillment. However, stepping out and breaking free from one’s current life and creating a new reality in life and business demands a very motivated individual.
People are frequently caught up in their work or their lives, trying to conjure up enough energy to get through the day, and they develop a finite picture of what’s real and what’s achievable. It’s difficult to recognize what we’ve become and where we’re going when we can’t look beyond our daily calendar.
People who live their passion and build the life of their dreams have two things in common: they’re driven by a burning desire that won’t let them ignore it, and they’re 100 percent committed to making big changes and taking responsibility for their actions and outcomes.
In order, for one to ignite this passion, they must get clear on what they truly want. They must ask themselves; What are you passionate about? What really fires you up?
This is what we call the “Ignite Your Passion Process.”
The Ignite Your Passion Process
This is a process that was designed to assist in starting to reveal and ignite one’s true passion.
Think about the following three questions:
1. What do I love to do?
2. What do I do that I can’t help but do?
3. What do people tell me I’m good at or that I’m a natural at?
Passion in the workplace
Every person’s paradigm, perceptions, and passions are unique.
As stated by Einstein “Every person is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to fly high, it will give its entire life believing that it is inane.”
Individuals should, as a result, perform activities that keep them pleased at work, as job passion can reawaken and reconnect you with what matters to you.
Currently, the majority of people work just for the purpose of earning money. In all actuality, they are not passionate about it.
This is incorrect. If one spends the majority of their waking hours at work, and if they aren’t enthusiastic about what they’re doing all day, they won’t get the outcomes they want.
If they want a promotion, a raise in income, or a bonus but are uninterested in their job, they will almost certainly not get it.
Typically, the terms “passion” and “work” are two parallel things. Your work is something you do to be paid and make a livelihood, whereas your passion is something you do for fun or the joy it brings you.
If we can integrate our passion with our work, we will be able to provide our all, in terms of work performance while also having a great time doing it.
According to the Deloitte report, about 88 percent of employees are dissatisfied with their jobs. In other words, they don’t care about what they do. Only 12% of employees are enthusiastic about their jobs.
However, as times change and individuals evolve, many employers have begun to recognize this and are working hard to encourage their employees to feel passionate about their profession.
The following are some of the top advantages of having a passionate workforce:
• Encourage others to follow their passions because passion breeds passion.
• There is no absenteeism since they enjoy working.
• Show off their creativeness.
• Employer loyalty increases.
• Improve the working environment.
“Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion…” George Hegel
Employee Dedication
Any supervisor will tell you about key, hardworking individuals who propel their companies forward. They will always use the word “dedicated” to describing them. A strong sense of loyalty and support for someone or something can be described as dedication. You must have dedicated personnel available and be able to rely on them to run a successful business.
One of the three characteristics or hallmarks of worker involvement is dedication, with the other two being energy and absorption. Every employer wishes to have staff who are enthusiastic about their work. Every employee wishes to be engaged at work. Feeling involved at work is the same as loving one’s job.
Employees who are purpose-driven, on fire, and dedicated are generally the first to arrive and the last to depart. They frequently need to be reminded to stop working and go home. They find it tough to break away since they are so passionate about what they do.
This isn’t because these people are workaholics or are afraid of losing their jobs if they don’t work lengthy hours. They are truly enthusiastic about what they do. These staff are eager to get to work at the start of the day. They are continually energized by their work. They believe they are making a genuine difference. They are the genuine difference on some fundamental levels. Have you ever felt like this about your job? Ever?
There are Nine Indisputable Signs of Employee Dedication
• Punctuality at all times for meetings, work, and functions
• Known for getting things done
• Positive attitude and demeanor with the patients, clients or customers and in personal interactions with other employees.
• Possesses high work ethic
• Shows high attendance/low absenteeism at meetings, work, and functions
• Flexible to change when it comes
• A visible passion for work, almost infectious
• Often demonstrates initiative
• Knows the mission, history and values of the business and sees the vision
Developing Passion at Work
Being a passionate employee is a blessing in and of itself. If one enjoys what they do, they will not be stressed or strained while doing it. Furthermore, they will improve their abilities and expertise.
Some tips to develop passion in your department are:
1. Provide employees with independence
2. Have a growth mindset
3. Make time for them to learn
Here’s what Craig Ballantyne, the author of The Perfect Day Formula and the WSJ best-seller, Unstoppable, has to say about passion in the workplace and at home.
“It’s amazing what you can do when you are consumed by passion. Wake up early. Work long hours. Skip meals. Focus with laser-sharp intensity. And get up early the next day and happily do it again.
You are a lucky person if that kind of passion comes into your life once or twice. If it stays with you for years and drives your career, you are blessed.
You can get that passion in your life. You can get it from your job, from your lovers and partners, and even from the place where you live.
Contrary to what some self-help gurus say, passion does not come from choosing the right people and things in your life. It does not come from people and things at all. Passion comes from you and only you. And it goes wherever you want it to.
Care about your job. Care about your spouse. Care about your house, your town, and your country.
The more you care, the greater your passion. The greater your passion, the earlier you’ll rise eager to tend to what you care about.”
Source: Extreme Success: It’s All About Passion
The truth is, we are all unique, we have our own set of God-given talents, skills, education, and experiences. When we start getting clear on what our gifts are and what we’re passionate about- this is when the magic happens- this is when we can discover our brilliance and make the biggest impact possible in the workplace.
When we align our career around our gifts/passion we will not only be passionate about what we do, but our co-workers, teammates, and customers will be attracted to us and our passion, we’ll also be able to live a fulfilled and joyful life.
Exercise 1:4: Apply the Ignite Your Passion Process
Have the participants answer the following 3 Questions:
1. What do I love to do?
2. What do I do that I can’t help but do?
3. What do people tell me I’m really good at, or a natural at?
Then, discuss amongst each other.
Course Manual 3: What’s Possible?
What’s possible for you, your resilience, your leadership, your work culture?
We can change the game of life by focusing on the solution or what is possible versus the problem. The great news is that we always have a choice to make – we can create your own destiny.
In his book, Live Your Dream Les Brown shares a simple yet very powerful message: “We may not always be able to control what is put in our path, but we can always control who we are…and what we become.”
Turn goals and dreams into a reality with the Go For It Formula.
GO FOR IT Formula
Get unstuck. This starts with making a decision to change our current situation. This takes a tremendous amount of courage. When one makes this commitment / empowered decision, amazing things start to happen, and opportunities start to present themselves.
We make decisions every minute of every day. Sometimes those decisions are minor and insignificant, and other times they are life changing. But, in the end, your day, your year, and your entire life are largely defined by the sum of your decisions and actions.
“There’s a power in making a decision – even if you’re not completely sure it’s the rights one. I promise you that once you realize the powerful impact that making decisions can have, you can truly begin to live your best life.” – Jack Canfield
Open the mind. There is a possibility that things can be different. Visualizing the outcome, you desire in your mind first is essential.
Visualization is a basic approach for forming a vivid mental image of an upcoming event. You can practice for the event in advance using visualization to ensure that you are appropriately prepared. You can also generate the self-confidence you need to perform successfully by imagining achievement.
We can visualize a different life for ourselves—a life that allows us to put our priorities first, to grow, to share our gifts and lead a prosperous and abundant life.
Focus on what we’re passionate about. (Go through the Ignite Your Passion Process in the previous lesson)
Another situation that passion comes into play in the workplace is when a candidate seeking a career or position change…
It is their passion, not their skills, which will land them the job they desire or the promotion they seek.
Many job seekers are so focused on their list of abilities and experiences that they neglect to demonstrate the interviewer their genuine interest in the position. Passion can be shown in a variety of ways: for a job, an industry, a profession, a company objective, or a personal reason. It doesn’t really matter what it is.
The key is…
Those prefer to recruit people who want to be there.
What does it mean to “be there”? express your affection for any of the reasons stated above. Anyone who chooses or holds a job just for the sake of earning money will always lose in the end.
“At the end of the day, I can train anyone to do any job, but I can’t train you to love your job.” – Marc DeBoer
Observe how your life is now. We must accept our life now before it’s possible to move forward into a new reality. This means taking responsibility for the choices we have made in our life up until now.
We are where we are today because of our own choices and decisions.
Understanding this and taking responsibility for this is incredibly powerful. Once we accept that we’re responsible for our past results, then we also realize that you’re responsible for our future.
Realize our true potential. All human beings, regardless of background or past experiences, have the incredible capacity to accomplish far beyond what they think their limits are. We must focus on our strengths. What skills or talent do you possess? Be sure to be grateful for opportunities.
Remember: Failures are only growth and learning opportunities.
Initiate a plan. A career or life plan is your road map to success. A career plan is a set of goals for an individuals’ career with an action plan with steps towards these goals.
Writing out your plan can help you see the steps involved. Here are a couple of examples of a career plan:
Performance Management
As part of performance management, it’s usual to work with a manager to build a career plan. This allows an employee or manager to discuss their aims with their boss or management and receive suggestions on how to achieve their objectives. Human resources manage this, as part of the performance management process to avoid any conflicts or politically sensitive goals. For instance, an employee who makes their boss feel as if they are vying for their job. Employer-developed career plans focus solely on internal alternatives and may not reflect the entire spectrum of a person’s aspirations.
Sample Career Plan #1
Short-Term
• Improve Public Speaking
• Manage projects to schedule- budget and requirements
• Become more visible to stakeholders
Long-Term
Transition to a management role in the Financing Department
Action Plan
Career Change
A professional in their mid-career can create their own career plan to uncover potential job transitions or advancements. This could be a return to basics in terms of what they consider to be most important to them. Once your objectives have been established, you should do a swot analysis to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This leads to actionable objectives for both a long-term and short-term plan.
Sample Career Plan #2
Career Action Plan
Take massive action. I don’t care if someone has the best plan in the world, if they don’t take massive action to go after what it is that they want, they’re never going to get where they want to be. By taking action, they will start to get results. When they get results, their confidence increases. It’s common for women to have old, limiting beliefs or fears show up.
Even if afraid—do it anyway . . . it will get easier.
Now is the time, to take charge of our future and start creating the career and life that we desire. What we see as possible determines our success. If one sees an opportunity, then they are ready. It is important to always expand our possibilities since possibilities create opportunities.
Exercise 1:5: Create a Career Plan
Have participants develop their own mock career plan. Include what the desired career goal is and include short-term and long-term goals as well as action steps.
Once completed have participants discuss how they can help their team members formulate their own career plan. Share ideas with the group.
Course Manual 4: Your Mindset Shift
In this lesson, we focus on shifting our mindsets. We use the term “mindsets” to refer to common ways of thinking. Throughout the course, we go through a variety of topics and concepts, including narrative. The term “mindsets” has limitations—for example, the concept of mindset shifts can be counterintuitive (if minds are set, this implies they aren’t changeable)—and we’re not claiming it’s the perfect one for every situation. However, there are some benefits to using the phrase. It helps to discern between changes in thinking and changes in discourse, for example, and avoids the combination of the two, which can lead to imprecision in approach and practice.
Change your mindset and transform your life.
The first mindset shift we will address is: How to your Net-worth by increasing your Self-worth.
Let’s look at the difference between self-esteem and self-worth.
The distinction between self-esteem and self-worth appears to be often misunderstood. What exactly is self-worth? Do you automatically think of self-worth as a synonym for self-esteem when you hear the word? Most people, I believe, consider the two terms to be interchangeable. They are not interchangeable. Self-worth isn’t the same as self-esteem.
Let’s look at self-esteem before we define self-worth. The World Book Dictionary, a Thorndike-Barnhardt Dictionary, defines self-esteem as, “thinking well of oneself; self-respect “.
In the year 1657, the concept of having self-esteem was originally proposed. Self-worth was not acknowledged as a distinct notion until 1965, 308 years later. Many dictionaries still use the term “self-esteem” to describe self-worth.
Esteem is when someone or something is held in high esteem or has a good impression of them. It is based on something that has happened in the past, something external. You must be in the present moment to sense self-esteem.
For instance, we can be praised for our ability to do something well or for our performance. This stems from a perception of what others think of us.
So, what is the definition of self-worth? The World Book Dictionary defines self-worth as a favorable estimate or opinion of oneself; self-esteem.” The World Dictionary recognizes the distinction in concept but not meaning. You can view self-worth as a measure of the ability of our Spirit or True Self believes in ourselves – what we are capable of. Self-worth comes from a source INSIDE of us.
We build it by faith, by acting solely on the assumption that we are important. Our ability to believe in ourselves and cherish what we have is built on our sense of self-worth.
Self-worth serves as a conduit for receiving self-esteem.
Self-worth and self-esteem are essential beliefs for self-empowerment. To achieve serenity, love, joy, and power, you must have a valid sense of self-worth. Doubts and worries will endure without self-worth until they invalidate our aspirations and visions, undermining our best achievements.
Now that we’ve defined self-worth, we can talk about how it affects your net worth.
What is a person’s net worth?
According to Investopedia.com, net worth is the difference between the value of one’s assets and the value of one’s liabilities. Net-worth is a notion that applies to both persons and organizations as a crucial metric for determining the value of an entity.
As Jim Rohn brilliantly stated, “Your net-worth will likely never outperform your self-worth.”
5 Easy Steps to Increasing Your Self-Worth and Net-Worth
1.) Consider the following:
What kind of relationship do you have with yourself? What kind of self-care do you practice? How are you treated by others? Your interaction with others improves when you have a healthy relationship with yourself. When they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first before putting it on anyone else, this is an excellent example of this. My personal experiences, as well as those with my clients, have taught me that we cannot be connected and emotionally available to others until we are connected and emotionally available to ourselves.
So, what does a healthy self-relationship look like?
A healthy self-relationship is the ability to value oneself as a person and except and embrace our weaknesses.
A great place to start cultivating a healthy relationship with ourselves is by caring for our physical needs. Including getting plenty of rest, eating a well-balance nutrient rich diet and exercising daily.
Secondly, focusing on your inner world by regularly checking in with our emotions. Get connected with your spiritual self. Focus on joy by prioritizing activities that make you happy. What feeds our mind, body, and spirit?
Finally, act with integrity and be true to our ideals and what matters most to us. Most of the time, how we treat ourselves will determine how others treat us.
2.) Make the decision to go big. We’re not serving the world with our gifts if we are playing small. We shrink to fit in, either so we don’t stick out or because we’re terrified of failing if we put ourselves out there.
Another factor is that we do not believe we are deserving of achievement. In this scenario, we’re often punishing ourselves because of baggage. Whatever it is, accept it, let it go, and forgive yourself. We won’t be able to change anything until we’re prepared to be honest with ourselves. It’s time for each of us to declare our independence and pursue our goals. We’ve earned it!
3.) Make sure we have a clear idea of what we want. It’s critical to get clear on exactly what we want our life and career to look like if we want to build a fulfilling and prosperous future. It’s important to visualize our perfect day, including what we’d like to do, who we’d like to work with, and how we’d best serve our team. We have complete control over creating the career of our dreams, on our own terms…all it’s up to us!
4.) Make a decision on who we will be in order to achieve our goals. We must become the best version of ourselves in order to realize our actual potential. Assess if there are there any areas where we need to improve or develop in order to achieve our objectives?
Tony Robbins’ has a famous quote, “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” This may appear harsh, yet it makes perfect sense when co