Professional leadership coaching deepens and sustains leadership development. Learn more about our world-class leadership coaching services.
Women’s Leadership Development
Keeping and advancing talented women in leadership roles requires more than individual training. Create an organizational culture that helps individual women and the organization thrive.
Our Women’s Leadership Development Solutions
Leadership Training Programs for Women
Our Women’s Leadership Experience is a research-based women’s leadership program you can customize for your organization’s unique context and culture. Build on our trusted curriculum to equip women with the skills they need to advance even further.
Or, if your organization is in the tech sector, offer our Advancing Technical Women program to women leaders in STEM roles. Designed by former women engineers, this program helps hone women’s leadership skills so they stay and rise to more senior roles.
Open, Mixed-Gender Leadership Programs
Our global open leadership programs provide world-class leadership training and executive coaching for women and men at your organization, enabling them to build greater self-awareness, influence, and communication skills.
Explore our leadership training offerings available for every leader level and use our proven, world-renowned programs to build scalable leadership development training for your talented women leaders at all levels.
Custom Women’s Leadership Development & Culture Change Solutions
Partner with our experts in organizational leadership for a systemic review to ensure your organization has the strategy and culture needed to support your retention and promotion goals for women leaders.
Approaches include investments that strengthen your culture to foster peak performance, bring more voices to the table, and capitalize on the benefits of the way women lead to foster a better environment for all.
Elevate Talented Women to Lead Your Organization
How to Develop — & Keep — Women in Leadership Roles
Research shows that leadership can be a little more complicated for women. Intersecting identities, double standards, ongoing burnout, and bias (both conscious and unconscious) can all place disproportionate burdens on women leaders.
While offering leadership development training to individual women can help them navigate these challenges and advance into higher leadership roles, we believe that’s only one piece of the puzzle. To truly retain talented women and benefit all employees, organizations must look at the bigger picture, too.
Intentional efforts to provide support through policies and training, while building an inclusive culture, can ensure your organization is advancing and retaining talented women leaders while strengthening your entire workforce.
We Are Trailblazers of Women’s Leadership Development
At CCL, we’ve led groundbreaking research on women in leadership roles since 1987 — conducting some of the world’s earliest research on breaking the glass ceiling and pioneering leadership training programs for women specifically.
For decades, our research team has explored the barriers women leaders often face and the conditions that help them rise. Our pioneering insights and research into women in leadership have shaped global conversations and influenced how the field approaches women’s leadership development today.
Rooted in our belief that remarkable leadership fosters authentic connections, opens doors to opportunities, and ignites change, we design transformational, personalized women’s leadership development experiences that expand human potential and support women leaders at every stage of their careers.
Driven by client demand, we’ve partnered with hundreds of client organizations for innovative leadership training for women. Our proven programs have helped thousands of women leaders navigate workplace challenges, step into their power, and lead more effectively.
Whether you’re strengthening your pipeline, accelerating rising talent, or building enterprise-wide women’s leadership development, we can help your women leaders realize their potential — and create conditions which enable them to thrive at your organization.
Why Choose Us for Leadership Training for Women?
At CCL, we’ve shaped the leadership development industry for nearly 6 decades through pioneering research and evidence-based innovation. We’re proud of our extensive expertise and experience serving organizations seeking leadership training for women.
As trusted architects of transformation, we partner with clients — from global Fortune 500 companies to regional nonprofits — to help them tackle the challenge of women’s leadership development. When working with us, your organization can expect:
- Evidence-based leadership training solutions, based on nearly 40 years of research and experience in women’s leadership development
- Collaboration with best-in-class leadership experts who have earned many awards and accolades for our partnerships with clients
- Customized white-glove services tailored to your organization’s needs and drawing insights from one of the largest leadership research databases in the world
- Transformational, women’s leadership development programs centered on individual strengths, skills, and real-world challenges
- Access to scalable learning experiences that foster new ways of thinking, expand capacity, and drive sustainable growth across your organization
- Partnership with a mission-driven organization working to advance the practice of leadership worldwide through a belief in the positive ripple effect that leadership development can have on individuals, teams, organizations, and society
Our approach goes beyond skill-building — we help leaders instill new, deeper ways of thinking. With CCL as your partner for women’s leadership training programs, you gain evidence-based, purpose-driven development that delivers meaningful, measurable, lasting impact for your organization.
Go Deeper on Women’s Leadership
Discover our top 3 recommendations for organizations that want to support women’s leadership, based on our research, and how we’ve helped address systemic and culture-based challenges around women’s leadership development: Download our report on retaining & supporting women leaders.
More About Women’s Leadership Development
Having Women in Leadership Roles Improves Organizations
Our research has found that, in addition to driving bottom-line financial performance, having more women in leadership roles predicts higher job satisfaction and commitment to the organization — for people of all genders.
But for all the benefits of women in leadership, barriers still remain. That’s where investments in building a culture of inclusion matter. Organizations that want to recruit, support, retain, and promote high-potential women need to start by looking at the larger systems in which they operate to find the root causes of women leaving or not being promoted. Combined with evidence-based leadership training programs for women, this support can provide a culture that retains talented women and strengthens organizational culture for every employee.
Create a World-Class Women’s Leadership Development Initiative
A focus on organizational culture, combined with targeted leadership training programs for women, can make a dramatic difference. Development and support can help individual women better navigate challenges and prepare them for more senior roles. Our women’s leadership development programs offer a safe environment to explore building agency and self-clarity, aligning goals with intentions, balancing self-promotion with authenticity, building a strategic network, and creating greater work-life balance. And our executive coaching for women strengthens their skills and provides the support they need to continue their development.
Whether you’re looking for a customized solution to support the talented women in your entire organization, or scalable programs designed to strengthen your overall culture to be more equitable and inclusive, we offer a variety of evidence-based women’s leadership development programs and solutions, available both virtually and in-person.
What Our Clients Are Saying
As a top-ranked provider of leadership development, we’ve shaped the industry for more than 50 years and are trusted globally to design and deliver solutions that enable individuals and organizations to reach their full potential. Clients around the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — have partnered with us for leadership development, including women’s leadership training programs, driving remarkable transformations at their organizations.
But don’t just take our word for it — take theirs.
Ingersoll Rand partnered with CCL to develop a custom women’s leadership training program, delivering positive impact on company culture as well as team diversity. The company is not only achieving talent development and business goals, they’re also making a powerful — and enduring — difference in the lives of women leaders.
For 3 consecutive years, the Brandon Hall Group has honored Stellantis (formerly known as Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles) and CCL for the custom women’s leadership program we developed together. The program received a Silver award in 2022 and 2021, and a Bronze award in 2020, for excellence in the category of “Best Advance in Leadership Development for Women.”
Let’s Talk About Leadership Training for Women at Your Organization
Have questions? Our experts are here to help. Let’s talk about how our decades of research and experience in women’s leadership development can help to create a climate where all your talent can thrive.
Related to Women’s Leadership Training
Drive business outcomes by partnering with us to create a customized leadership development program tailored to your organization’s context and culture.
Learn more about our leadership training courses, which are targeted to develop the skills leaders need to succeed at all levels of your organization.
Women’s Leadership Development: Research & Resources
Replace Type
There are many benefits of having more women in the workplace, including greater employee engagement and retention. Learn more about the value of women in leadership positions and what women want from work.
Replace Type
There are some persistent barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace. Learn how your organization can help grow your ranks of women leaders.
Replace Type
Formal policies are just one piece of what’s needed to attract, develop, retain, and promote talented women in your organization.
Replace Type
Together, we can help create a network of champions. Download our free resources on the importance of mentoring and sponsoring, particularly for women leaders – and learn how to get started today.
Replace Type
Organizations and individuals striving for gender parity in the workplace need to rethink systems and challenge assumptions in order to cultivate a culture capable of harnessing the power of all people.
Replace Type
Watch this webinar to learn how “feminine” leadership traits can help strengthen organizational culture and address increasingly complex and systemic challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions About Leadership Training for Women
What is the gap between men and women in leadership?
At many organizations, while half or more of frontline workers are women, there are fewer women moving up the ranks, with very few women executives at the top. In fact, women outnumber men at almost every educational level, yet hold just 24% of senior management roles and make up only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Many companies struggle to tap the power of women’s leadership and have fewer women in the leadership pipeline because women in the workplace often face a disproportionate share of barriers to advancement, including double standards, the second shift, and the infamous glass ceiling.
How can leadership development help women break the glass ceiling?
Leadership development initiatives can help women break the glass ceiling. By offering women leadership training opportunities, providing greater flexibility and work-life balance, ensuring women leaders receive constructive feedback, and continuing to evolve organizational policies and practices, companies can keep and advance talented women in leadership roles. In addition, organizations should keep in mind that mentoring and sponsoring at work are important — particularly for women.
Why is leadership training important for women?
Recently, the pandemic has undone much of the progress women have made in the workforce in the past several decades. In fact, women are now leaving their careers at much higher rates than their male counterparts. Plus, they face additional barriers to advancement. This is why leadership training is important for women — now more than ever. Organizations must make intentional efforts to invest in the retention and support of their talented women leaders. Additionally, leadership development training helps women navigate the unique challenges they face, and advance and promote other high-potential women.
How do women in leadership make organizations better?
According to our research on women in the workplace, having more women in leadership roles actually makes an organization a better place to work, for people of all genders. We found that having higher numbers of women leaders predicted several positive organizational outcomes, including less burnout, higher job satisfaction levels, and greater commitment to the organization — for both women and men. Plus, extensive cross-industry research has found that having women in leadership helps to drive bottom-line financial performance.
What do women want from work?
For the most part, the same things that men do. In our research study of nearly 750 women and men leaders, we found that there were no statistical gender differences when it comes to how interested men and women are in raises, promotions, and leadership development opportunities, with 81% of women reporting that they were interested to extremely interested in leadership development training.
More questions? Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation!
Get Our Latest Updates
Subscribe to our email newsletters that highlight our latest research-based articles, products, programs, and more to help you strengthen your leadership skills.
