WIMM Leadership Programme
In 2019, the MRC WIMM Diversity and Inclusion committee organised our first in-house Leadership programme to empower female post-doctoral scientists at key stages in their career to develop into effective leaders and support them in their transitions into senior academic roles.
The second programme ran in 2021/2022 with another cohort of female post-doctoral fellows. It was again very well received, as illustrated by the testimonies of some of the attendees.
The 2022/2023 third round of the programme is currently underway. This year, the workshop has been offered to both male and female post-doctoral scientists.
The programme is by led by Milly Sinclair (http://www.millysinclair.com), an executive coach with 25 years of experience in working in the field of leadership facilitation. It focusses on how talented people thrive and the common pitfalls, and the participants explore leadership presence and impact on relationships. It also offers one-to-one coaching sessions to help participants define their professional objectives and clear actions to reach their goals, and helps them create a supportive peer network of engaged and inspirational colleagues in the WIMM.
Listen to the Leadership programme episode of the Inside WIMM podcast:
Inside WIMM |
The course taught me that a change in culture can start now, with our own change in attitude and behaviour. For example; to listen and to amplify the voices of women in meetings and seminars by encouraging them to speak and share their opinions; to sit in the front rows of seminar rooms and invite our female colleagues to join us; to highlight the contributions of female colleagues in our publications; to improve childcare conditions and career opportunities for mothers. These small gestures can have a real impact on women’s careers and inspire other women, and men, to follow them. The climb to the top can be tough going for anyone and the best gender equality intervention is to focus on equality of talent and potential. The most crucial element that has to change, even if progress has been made so far, is that gender should never be a factor to determine whether or not a person can be a great leader.”Dr Margarida Rei