Professional development – the process of acquiring and improving skills, knowledge and competencies relevant to your profession or career – may be something you keep meaning to do, but it keeps dropping down the to-do list. On International Women’s Day, we look at the importance of professional development for women, and a new initiative that makes it easier
Chloe, who works in a Wellington technology company, keeps meaning to get around to doing professional development. But she has been so busy at work and with two primary-aged children that she keep putting it on the backburner.
Chloe did notice that her co-worker Mark was doing professional development, including an online course, events and networking.
“He did mainly after-work stuff, whereas I left work at 3pm for the school run and made up my hours in the evening.”
“Mark just got a new high-up job at another company, and a position on a board, and he said that professional development had been really important. He said he’d used the professional-development budget allocated to him by our employer. It was only then that I realised there was a budget allocated to my professional development!”
Typically, professional-development budgets don’t carry over to the next financial year, so it may be a use-it-or-lose it situation, as Chloe found. Your employer should tell you about this budget, but, otherwise, ask if it exists.
Chloe’s interested to hear that her company’s $250 budget for her professional development would pay for her to join Global Women New Zealand’s Power Circle, an initiative begun in December, providing professional development, networking, mentoring, events and information-sharing for women. “Having it ‘come to you’ feels a lot less daunting than trying to research what to do on your own,” Chloe says.
Katie Bhreatnach – CEO of Global Women New Zealand, a network of 450 New Zealand women leaders working in Aotearoa and other countries – tells me about the who, what, where, when, why and how of Power Circle.
“We want to further Global Women New Zealand’s vision, of a prosperous Aotearoa that’s gender-inclusive and equitable. Our leadership programmes are part of unlocking potential and breaking down barriers, but we’re also challenging ourselves to go further in new ways.”
“We work with partner organisations that have a lot of ambition for creating an environment for the women in their organisations to thrive, but sometimes they have a constrained pot of money to put toward that. We’ve also talked to women who would like the opportunity to invest in themselves. And that’s where the idea for Power Circle came from.”
By Design
Power Circle is intentionally designed to be accessible in every way. “To start with, it’s intentionally a very low price at $250 a year.”
It’s also designed to be very practical and easy to apply, including through its insight series Tirohanga, sent by email fortnightly. “It’s video content from one or several Global Women members about their thoughts, ideas or experiences with a topic, that you could implement, that might challenge your thinking or challenge the way you might be doing things now.” They call it a ‘leadership spark’.
From April onwards, Power Circle’s online mentoring circles will bring members together for one hour in an evening each month to get learnings and insights from mentors, who will be senior leaders drawn mainly from Global Women NZ’s community, alongside some subject-matter experts. The 2000-odd alumnae of Global Women NZ’s leadership programs automatically become members of Power Circle and are keen to give back in these ways.
And Power Circle is about to launch online portal ‘A Knowledge Hub’. “The portal allows women in Power Circle to connect with one another. So I might be interested in talking to people in Whangarei who are passionate about sustainability and te ao Māori. And people with that shared interest can proactively reach out to me. If I signal that I’m interested in mentoring young Māori women starting out, they know they could approach me about that.”
Also launching soon is podcast ‘When Two Become One’; each episode will bring together two women to talk. “Again that’s digestible for whenever it suits you, perhaps while walking or running.”
“Life’s busy, and it’s really easy not to prioritise investing in yourself, so Power Circle is intentionally designed to be available to women who do shift work or have commitments in terms of unpaid labour, including caring for elderly relatives or children.”
“It’s digestible to when and how it suits you and your circumstances.”
The core time commitment per month is an hour (for online mentoring) and 15 minutes (for reading or reflection via Tirohanga) but you could devote more time. “Sometimes you might have the opportunity and the ambition to invest a lot of time, and at other times you might have less.”
In Person
Power Circle is intended to suit women in a range of roles, industries and parts of the country. It offers curated in-person events around the country in different regions, several times per year. Regions including the Bay of Plenty, Canterbury, Otago, Taranaki and Northland have face-to-face Power Circle events, linking up with a Global Women member who is the face of that region. Meanwhile some Global Women events are available for Power Circle members. “I was at a Dunedin event recently,” Katie says, “and a graduate of one of our Activate leadership programmes told me, ‘Tirohanga is just what I need to keep alive the learnings from my leadership course’.”
The first Power Circle event was ‘a speed-dating’ networking event. First, a Global Women member spoke about her journey. “It set the scene,” Katie says. “Then everybody paired up with whoever was closest to them and had three minutes to talk about a question. Then I dinged my wine glass and we went onto the next question and the next person. The room was filled with fantastic energy. But the highlight for me was the feedback from women who said things like, ‘I’ve talked to 12 women that I’d otherwise never have talked to’ – or ‘until now I believed I wasn’t good at networking’ and they now realise it’s just talking and listening to someone.”
Through its different online and in-person offerings, Power Circle is bringing together women who might not otherwise meet because they’re in different industries. But you don’t have to share industries to share learnings.
Making the Case
If your employer doesn’t have a professional-development budget for you, consider making the case for it. If it’s a Power Circle membership, employers will surely make back that $250 and then some, right? “That’s exactly the intention,” Katie says. “A number of organisations that are part of Global Women NZ’s Champions for Change initiative are paying for their female employees to join Power Circle.”
“You can have fantastic opportunities for leadership and development in your organisation, but you might get to a point where you want an employee to start bringing in outside thinking so they’re not in an echo chamber.” And that could come from connecting with a broader range of people via Power Circle. “That diversity offers real value beyond just professional development.”
Meanwhile, post-COVID, not all organisations have one physical space, so Power Circle offers remote workers a local network.
DIY
If your organisation won’t pay for professional development, or you’re self-employed, you could consider it an investment in yourself. “Women might want to broaden their horizons, own their own growth and drive this themselves,” Katie says. Starting this weekend, coinciding with International Women’s Day, women can join Power Circle themselves, rather than having to go through an employer.
Knowing that learning isn’t always linear, and that it happens in different stages of a career, Katie is personally having conversations to make sure Power Circle’s offerings are tailored to women’s needs, circumstances, and ambitions.
“Like many things, it’s actually often about realising that the answers often lie within yourself. Power Circle provides you with prompts and time for reflection and learning, plus the ability to connect with other people.”
“We’re really excited about the potential for the ideas we have. But I think the magic that’s going to happen for Power Circle is the ideas and contributions that the members will make, which has been true for Global Women more widely.”
How important is professional development for women?
“Recently I was reflecting, after listening to somebody talking about the solution to diversity, equity and inclusion being tertiary education, where everyone’s educated in an equitable way. Thinking about my own journey, I was pretty educated when I entered the workforce. But I wasn’t fully formed and had more learning to do. Leadership is a journey, not a destination. No matter where you’re at in that journey, it’s important to create space to ensure you’re constantly reflecting on what’s working for you, and what you’re going to do differently. So professional development is important for your growth and trajectory.”
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