Gender differences do exist, and you may suffer from them
We all know by now that a good representation of women in the workplace is becoming increasingly important to workers and customers alike. At major law firms, 60% of the staff are women, but this is not translating into gender parity at the top, we learn from a survey carried out by FD and published in both Mr. and “Hello Zuidas”. Among almost 1.700 partners employed at 16 different firms, just 21% of them is female. At only 5 firms, more than 30% of the partners are women.
It may not be a coincidence that female lawyers from these five law firms: Pels Rijcken, Kennedy Van der Laan, Van Doorne, Allen & Overy and Baker McKenzie regularly participate or have participated in the (International) Women Leadership Programmes by OSR.
Leadership development for women in law
Investing in high potential lawyers is a top priority for law firms. It makes sure their talented employees develop the qualities they need to become successful lawyers or partners.
OSR Legal Education has developed a unique bi-annual International Women Leadership Programme (IWLP) in close cooperation with the best law firms of Europe. This programme is linked to daily practice and gives participants the opportunity to create their own effective network. The main focus of the programme is career development for women in the legal profession. More than 150 talented lawyers already completed our programme.
During three modules, the following subjects will arise:
- Leadership & awareness
- Applied personal leadership
- Putting leadership into practice
All three modules will be arranged in a different city in Europe, every module will take up two days of training.
You need to be in charge of your own destiny
You always have a choice how you want to proceed your career. However, it can be a big struggle to stay to yourself and at the same time keep going in the system of your work. In hindsight you realize moments of choice, but (self) awareness is the basis for being effective. Skills won’t work if you’re not aware. And be aware that women are promoted based on their proven potential (so keep a list!) whereas men are promoted on their potential.
The International Women Leadership Programme will help you in becoming aware of your choices, (leadership)skills, and needs. Participants of the latest programme shared learning goals like:
- How to confidently take on the path of partnership in my own way? (participant that is on track to become local partner in London)
- What do I want and how do I make that happen in my own way?
- I would like to become more confident and find my own grounding, voice and being confident about that. (principal associate in year 1 of the 2 year track to become partner)
- How can I stay close to myself while being forced into a system? (counsel)
Trainers
This leadership programme is developed by OSR in close cooperation with several large international law firms and a team of expert trainers.
Pascale de Vilder
Anne-Marijn Coelingh-Bennink
Maryvonne Kurris
Elise van Doorne
Bernadette Deitmers
Female partners
Part of the programme is the active participation of a female partner on each course day in order to inspire the participants and support them in their learning curve. The female partners who are guest speakers in this programme, tell the real stories and participants are actively invited to ask any questions they may have, supplying a safe learning environment.
One of the topics spread by the female partners is focus. In general female lawyers focus on their work and their clients, thinking their good work will be noticed, whereas their male counterparts focus on their careers and becoming partner and speak out loud. A take-away for women is to take every chance you get in your career and if you want something, always build a business case to prove that your idea is valuable. Another one is “Don’t be nice always. “No” is an answer too.”
Participant responses
- ‘Excellent training in terms of identifying habits and receiving tools to work on those habits so you can develop your skills in order to become a good and effective partner and leader.’
- ‘The course has exceeded my expectations.’
- ‘I really appreciated the topics discussed!’
- ‘I gained a deeper understanding of the necessity in being able to prioritise and to be self-confident.’
- ‘The training and trainers were fantastic!’
- ‘I recently got very good feedback from my boss who "blamed" my progress on the leadership programme. The sessions have been very helpful and I tried to adopt as many things as possible. And it worked:) Thank you!’
- ‘I learned that good leaders aren't necessarily born, leadership requires work.’
- 'Perfect mix of theory and practice, funny moments and exercises that help focussing and fixing in mind certain feelings and situations.'
- 'These 3 meetings have been for me like the 3 Christmas of Dickens’ tale (A Christmas Carol): I lived the first one as the “Ghost of past Christmas” because I focused on how I have been brought up and on why I am as I am, the second was the “Ghost of present Christmas”, with awareness of the situation in which I am NOW and the third was the “Ghost of future Christmas” with a focus on what to do in the future! ;) '
- 'Very interesting topics and they were very well explained by the various speakers. Some items I was already aware of but others were real eye-openers. What I also really enjoyed was the interaction with the other participants: talking about our shared (and diverging) experiences, best practices and obstacles. It's always nice to know that you're not the only one who is struggling with certain issues and to talk about how other people feel about this and tackle this. Also, I think it's remarkable how well the organisation managed to provide a useful and value-adding course digitally rather than physically. I fully appreciate these circumstances are suboptimal (well, hard) for everybody and I am really thankful that the organisation put effort in making sure that they could provide the best experience online as was possible.‘