Where leaders learn to stand out, rather than fit in.
The emPOWERment Institute™
Grow the skillset, mindset, and heartset to lead diverse teams with courage
Leadership Certificate Program
Starting in May 2024
Carefully and intentionally created for BIPOC individuals
ABOUT
The emPOWERment Institute™ is a transformational 9-month 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 leadership development program centers the unique experiences of BIPOC individuals, empowering them to effectively grow their capacity to lead. We are heartened to see organizations doubling down on antiracism goals, and this program provides a powerful way to diversify talent pipelines. In turn, we will begin to see more diversity of lived experience, equity-mindedness, and inclusive decision-making at the helm of key initiatives. 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
Who is this program for?
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, multiracial) 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.
How does this program serve BIPOC individuals?
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.
How does this program support organizational success?
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 program is not about fixing you to fit in.
It’s about finding you to stand out.
Go deeper into the ‘why’ for this program with our podcast From EMpower to MEpower
In this sixth season of The Inclusion Solution LIVE podcast, host Mareisha N. Reese, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Winters Group, Inc., unpacks how professionals who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) can tap into their innate power to help them navigate the path to leadership. Listeners will hear from both established and emerging BIPOC leaders as they share their stories of wins and challenges, discuss how organizations can better support leaders of color, and reveal the strategies they use to thrive.
This podcast is available wherever you get your podcasts, such as Apple, Spotify, Google, and with video on YouTube.
Program Chairs
The award-winning, international BIPOC faculty created a high-impact, engaging, experiential learning program that builds skillsets around cultural understanding, trust, conflict resolution, bridging across differences, influence, and strategies for self-care and healing in the workplace. They have created this program from their deep lived experiences and can identify with your journey.
Faculty
The award-winning, international BIPOC faculty created a high-impact, engaging, experiential learning program that builds skillsets around cultural understanding, trust, conflict resolution, bridging across differences, influence, and strategies for self-care and healing in the workplace. They have created this program from their deep lived experiences and can identify with your journey.
Program Chairs
Program Chairs
Mary-Frances Winters
Founder and CEO, The Winters Group
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, Cultural Competence and Intercultural Communication, The Winters Group
Program Faculty
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, Cultural Competence and Intercultural Communication, The Winters Group
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, Cultural Competence and Intercultural Communication, The Winters Group
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, Cultural Competence and Intercultural Communication, The Winters Group
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, Cultural Competence and Intercultural Communication, The Winters Group
Program Faculty
Program Chairs
Dr. Terrence Harewood
Principal Strategist, The Winters Group
Chevara Orrin
Principal Strategist, The Winters Group
Valda Valbrun
Principal Strategist, The Winters Group
Rochelle Younan-Montgomery
Consultant, The Winters Group
Ready to unleash your innate talent? Register for The emPOWERment Institute™ here.
Get a preview of the schedule
Access the schedule of the sessions here, including dates, locations, and lengths.
| Session | Session Title | Location | Date | Session Description |
| Prework | Intercultural Development Inventory® Assessment Debrief and 1×1 Coaching Session | Virtual | TBD; 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 | Virtual | May 16, 2024 (10am – 5pm EST with 1 hour break) | 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 | June 27, 2024 (2pm – 5pm EST) | 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 | August 1, 2024 (2pm – 5pm EST) | 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 | Pod Coaching | Virtual | August 22, 2024 (2pm – 3:30pm EST) | 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. |
| 5 | Demystifying Internalized Oppression and its Impact on Your Leadership Success | Virtual | September 5, 2024 (2pm – 5pm EST) | Learners will interrogate and learn strategies for interrupting dominant cultural norms and narratives that compromise healthy racial identity and undermine culturally informed leadership styles. |
| 6 | Personal Agency and Healthy Boundaries in the Workplace | Virtual | October 10, 2024 (2pm – 5pm EST) | Learners will develop action plans for prioritizing mental well-being and healthy boundaries in their career and leadership pursuits. |
| 7 | Pod Coaching | Virtual | November 14, 2024 (2pm – 3:30pm EST) | 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. |
| 8 | Beyond Survival – Thriving | Virtual | December 12, 2024 (2pm – 5pm EST) | 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. |
| 9 | Preparing for the Transformation | Virtual | January 16, 2025 (2pm – 5pm EST) | 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. |
| 10 | Wrap Up | Virtual | February 27, 2025 (10am – 5pm EST with 1 hour break) | What have we learned, and where do we go from here? Featuring participants’ exhibition. |
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Contact us at learning@wintersgroup.com.
The Winters Group, Inc.
Proudly Black women-owned and -led, The Winters Group has helped organizations strategically increase their capacity to be more culturally competent, create equitable opportunities, and foster inclusive workplaces since 1984.
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