The emPOWERment
Institute™
WHERE LEADERS LEARN TO STAND OUT,
RATHER THAN FIT IN.
Transformational Accredited Leadership Certificate Program for BIPOC Professionals
The emPOWERment Institute™ is a transformational leadership development program for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) professionals who aspire to leadership roles and want to grow the skillset, mindset, and heartset to lead diverse teams with courage while unapologetically showing up as their authentic selves.
This program centers the unique experiences of BIPOC distinctive identity groups through a trailblazing leadership development program that resolves the frustration of career stagnation while supporting organizations in achieving their diversity, equity, and anti-racism goals through enriching the talent pipeline of organizations who have claimed a lack of leadership-ready BIPOC talent. Upon completion, learners will have developed a sustainable action plan for embedding transformational leadership as a part of their daily experience, including the prioritization of self-care and setting healthy boundaries.
Drawn from the wisdom in Mary-Frances Winters’ best-selling book Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind Body and Spirit, and other resources, this experience will encourage learners from all minoritized groups to flow from fatigue to fullness.
Grow skillset, mindset, and heartset
Take up and own your space
Find community among BIPOC professionals
Activate personal agency and healing
Build and affirm your unique leadership skills
Move boldly into your inherent power
This program is not about fixing you to fit in. It’s about finding you to stand out.
The emPOWERment Institute™ is open to early to mid-career BIPOC professionals who aspire to move into leadership roles or progress into higher level leadership roles. This certificate builds and affirms core competencies needed to navigate the intricacies of leading and thriving in predominantly white spaces. Using an asset rather than deficit framework, learners will learn to move boldly into their inherent power. While each cultural group (e.g. Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, mixed race) has different history with assimilation or acculturation, the commonality is a minoritized experience where they are “othered” and kept from progressing in organizations. Many BIPOC may be susceptible to internalized oppression, learned helplessness, and a general “divide and conquer ideology” perpetuated by the dominant culture. This program seeks to build coalitions, while honoring the unique experiences of each group. The program utilizes an innovative “pod coaching” strategy to allow for community building among affinity groups for sharing and learning.
This is a program that is carefully and intentionally created for BIPOC individuals; it is not a space for aspiring allies.
Traditional leadership development programs typically rely on dominant culture narratives and overlook the realities of BIPOC professionals in the workplace who face daily microaggressions and even other more serious inequities. Such programs also ignore African, Eastern, and indigenous inspired leadership styles that may come more naturally to BIPOC employees and bring additional value to the organization. Build the skills and capabilities that are needed to lead diverse teams while navigating predominantly white spaces. Advance your career in a way that prioritizes healing, activates personal agency, and celebrates your authentic self. The award-winning, global faculty created a high impact, engaging, experiential learning program that builds skillsets to lead in and influence organizational cultures to become more just and equitable.
Leaders in predominately white organizations have been lamenting for decades that there are too few BIPOC in the leadership ranks. Leadership development programs aimed at cultural assimilation rather than cultural adaptation have not succeeded in changing the situation. It is well documented that diverse thinking and decision-making leads to better organizational outcomes. Grow and develop your leadership pipeline by empowering BIPOC professionals with the skillset, mindset, and heartset to unleash their innate talent. Your organization will make tangible progress toward its diversity and inclusion goals with employees who graduate from this program leadership ready and prepared to help your organization thrive without compromising their authentic selves.
This is a program that is carefully and intentionally created for BIPOC individuals.
Mary-Frances Winters
Founder and CEO,
The Winters Group
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Vice President of Learning and Innovation, The Winters Group
Want to learn more? Get more information on The emPOWERment Institute™ here.
Access the schedule of the sessions here, including dates, locations, and lengths.
| Session | Session Title | Location | Session Duration | Session Description |
| Prework | Intercultural Development Inventory® Assessment Debrief and 1×1 Coaching Session | Virtual | 1 hour | Learners will receive 1×1 coaching to review the results of the Baseline Assessment of Cultural Competence using the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) |
| 1 | Program Kickoff | Chicago, IL | 7 hour | Community, connection, and grounding. Learners will be introduced to the program, faculty, expectations, and meet their learning pod partners. |
| 2 | Cultivating a Robust Sense of Self as a Leader | Virtual | 3 hour | Learners will examine their own cultural identities and its influence on how they experience the workplace as people of color and how they impact their capacity to lead. |
| 3 | Trust and Conflict Across Differences | Virtual | 3 hour | Learners will leave with an understanding of how their and other cultural groups build trust and resolve conflict in the workplace and enhance their leadership ability with strategies for bridging. |
| 4 | Demystifying Internalized Oppression and its Impact on Your Leadership Success | Virtual | 3 hour | Learners will interrogate and learn strategies for interrupting dominant cultural norms and narratives that compromise healthy racial identity and undermine culturally informed leadership styles. |
| 5 | Beyond Survival – Thriving | Virtual | 3 hour | Learners will explore strategies for moving beyond assimilation and imposter syndrome in the workplace. Learners will also learn new skills to enhance their leadership capacity. |
| 6 | Personal Agency and Healthy Boundaries in the Workplace | Virtual | 3 hour | Learners will develop action plans for prioritizing mental well-being and healthy boundaries in their career and leadership pursuits. |
| 7 | Preparing for the Transformation | Virtual | Retrieving data. Wait a few seconds and try to cut or copy again. | Learners will have the opportunity to work with a small group to consider exhibition design, what change will look like, who should be involved, and what type of accountability is needed for sustainability. |
| 8 | Wrap Up | Chicago, IL | 7 hour | What have we learned, and where do we go from here? Featuring participants’ exhibition. |
Access the schedule of the Pod Coaching and Office Hours here.
Pod coaching and office hours are virtual, 90-minute opportunities for small groups (pods) to meet with other individuals who share their identities to dig deeper on a particular concept that was addressed in the larger workshop under the facilitation of a coach. There will also be an open discussion with faculty where learners can bring questions about the program.
Have questions?
Contact us at learning@wintersgroup.com.
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The Winters Group, Inc. is a certified Minority / Women-Owned Business Enterprise.