Women’s leadership certificate program to be offered at the UA Global Campus

A new certificate program to help women develop and strengthen skills important to professional and personal success will be offered in September at the University of Arkansas Global Campus in Rogers.

The Women’s Personal Leadership Effectiveness Program for rising leaders is offered by Inseitz Group in partnership with the Global Campus. The leadership program was developed by Becky Paneitz, founder of Inseitz Group and president emeritus of NorthWest Arkansas Community College, and Pat Bailey, provost and vice chancellor emeritus for academic and student affairs for Arkansas State University at Mountain Home.

The program is designed to take women from where they are to where they want to be in their personal and professional lives through curriculum, coaching and self-assessment, “from wherever they are in the journey of life or work career,” Paneitz said.

Registration is now open for the first group of women. The 11-week course will be limited to 12 to 15 women who have been employed for at least three years and are a mid-level manager or supervisor for at least one year. Participants should also show an openness to feedback and a willingness to learn and be willing to commit to the time and rigor of the program.

The program runs from Sept. 14 to Nov. 30, meeting on Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon. Classes alternate between in-class meetings at the Global Campus in Rogers and online independent study. Participants will meet with coaches several times throughout the program to a develop a personal life plan.

Paneitz said she has always had a passion for helping women succeed and became particularly focused on establishing a character-based professional and personal development program for women since retiring from NWACC in 2013.

“The curriculum and self-assessment tool provide the perfect foundation for the program,” she said. “Our program will empower women to make a real difference in all parts of their lives.”

The program has been developed over the last 18 months and included research, discussions with individual woman and two focus groups involving 50 women, Bailey said. Bailey said she completed her dissertation on women’s leadership issues and has since been passionate about helping women meet their full potential.

The two were the featured speakers during a 60-minute press briefing Wednesday (June 15) to announce the partnership with the Global Campus. They are both certified Personal Leadership Effectiveness coaches and trainers through Future Achievement International, based in San Diego. A team of coaches and others have been certified or in the process of becoming certified through an online program through FAI.

A similar course is being offered for credit in the Bumpers College on the UA main campus in Fayetteville, Paneitz said. The program is the only in-depth, uniquely women-focused, character-based professional development program in Northwest Arkansas. Locally, it is intended to encourage and aid women in advancing in the companies where they work.

Women in the program will learn about the 10 character-based principles that impact personal and professional success; hear from professional women about the impact of these principles on their own lives as well as meet with personal coaches to complete a personal and professional life plan.

Companies are encouraged to sponsor attendance by their mid-level female managers. The benefits to companies are lower employee turnover and a better working environment to increased employee productivity and less time spent managing personnel problems.

Research conducted with Fortune 500 CEOs by the Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation found that 75% of long-term job success depends on soft skills and people skills while only 25% depends on technical skills, according to a news release from the briefing.

Prospective participants can now register online at this link.