Co-facilitated by Louise Pitre and Brook Thorndycraft
A six-session embodied learning journey for women and gender diverse leaders to explore our relationships to power.
The attention on gender equity in leadership has exploded in recent years. A growing number of women, trans, and non-binary people are stepping into leadership roles or enrolling in leadership development programs. Many workplaces are trying to adopt a gender equity approach to leadership development. Globally, there has been a rise in women elected into high level political leadership roles. At the same time, there is ongoing and increasing grassroots challenge to patriarchal paradigms of leadership.
This trend is positive. What is curious however is that very few people are talking about power. While there is support for gender-diverse leaders to navigate gender dynamics and break down barriers to accessing resources, there are few opportunities to explore how cis-women and trans and non-binary people have internalized dominant patriarchal ideas of what it means to be in power. As stated by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, “Power is the last dirty word. It is easier to talk about money and much easier to talk about sex, than it is to talk about power.” This learning journey is an opportunity to have that conversation.
In this group we will explore our relationship to power, the pressures to adopt dominant ways of leading, and how we envision and embody radically healthier, more collective, and more transformative ideas of leadership power.
We will explore some of the ways our experiences around gender and gender identity intersect with other aspects of power that tend to show up (or not show up) in our lives and leadership in both helpful and unhelpful ways. Some of these other aspects of power include:
- Our other social identities such as race, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion, age and so on
- Our roles and positions, including formal leadership roles as well as the authority bestowed on us based on expertise and experience
- The personal sources of power that we bring with us and that we develop throughout our lives.
This group is for you if you:
- Identify as female, transgender, or non-binary, and are in a formal position of leadership
- Feel unsure how to step into the power of your role in helpful ways
- Want to uncover and befriend your relationship to power
- Want to understand how you use your power, and how it impacts people around you
- Want to radically reimagine power as transformative for self, organization, and system
- Are interested in using your positional power for equity and social justice
In a compassionate and brave space, this group is grounded in Julie Diamond’s Power Intelligence Framework®, relationship and systems coaching, Somatic Experiencing®, Social Presencing Theatre and Deep Democracy. Every session will provide participants with opportunities to integrate new learning through guided reflection, dialogue, and embodiment.
Dates:
Wednesdays from November 2nd to December 7th, 2022
3:00-5:30 pm AT / 2:00-4:30 pm ET / 11:00-1:30 PT
Please fill out the form on the right to register.
Rates for the learning journey:
The group learning journey is $950 +HST, with 20% of spots available for sliding scale. Contact for more information.
About the facilitators
Louise Pitre (she/her), B.Sc., MHA, ORSCC, ACC identifies as a white, hetero, cis-gender, middle class, currently able-bodied, French Canadian settler who lives, works and plays on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and the Leni-Lunaape. Prior to coaching, Louise was an executive director in the non-profit sector facilitating organizational and systems change in the areas of gender equity, gender-based violence, and equitable access to mental health services for 2SLGBTQSIA+ community and newcomers. For more than 30 years she has been dancing with power, every new dance step a discovery about her relationship to power, and how it influenced her leadership. Today, as a leadership and systems coach and facilitator, she co-creates brave spaces for heart-centred and embodied conversations about power, equity, inclusion and belonging. Growing and sustaining the seeds of equity and justice “out there” are impossible unless leaders and systems tend to their inner soil. Louise is an ICF-certified coach with CRR Global, as well as a certified Diamond Power Index Coach with Diamond Leadership. She is trained in arts-based processes like Theatre of the Oppressed and Social Presencing Theatre. For more information visit www.louisepitreconsulting.ca
Brook Thorndycraft (she/they), MA, B.Ed., Q.Med, works in K’jipuktuk/Halifax, Nova Scotia, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw, as a Mediator, Leadership Coach, Adult Educator/Facilitator, and Organizational Consultant, particularly in the areas of conflict, organizational change, and relational leadership. Brook coaches people who want to deepen their relational leadership capacity, such as: developing their own emotional intelligence; motivating and engaging employees to be their best; navigating conflict or upheaval; creating healthy cultures of feedback; stewarding an organization through change; becoming aware of their own use of power; championing equity and inclusion; and ensuring psychological health and safety in the workplace. She offers support, training, and mediation to teams going through transformation, or wanting to improve their workplace culture. Brook approaches workplace issues with a combination of cognitive, embodied, and creative approaches rooted in conflict transformation, popular education and group process, systems theory, mindfulness, Deep Democracy, and Somatic Experiencing®. Brook is a white queer person of Jewish, Austrian, and English ancestry. Brook brings many years of involvement in social justice work and organizing.
Leadership Power Pack: Optional Coaching Package Add-On
For those interested in deepening their embodied awareness of their leadership impact and effectiveness, we are offering a Leadership Power Pack coaching add-on to the learning journey. This Leadership Power Pack includes 6 one-hour coaching sessions, the Diamond Power Index® (DPI) multi-rater assessment tool, a DPI report with a description of strengths and opportunities for development, a leadership development plan, and foundational practices to embodied leadership. The Leadership Power Pack provides leaders with practical knowledge and embodiment practices to assess and amplify their leadership impact through the effective and conscious use of positional and personal power. Participants will start their coaching journey with Louise Pitre to complete the DPI assessment, review the results, and identify actions to improve their leadership impact. Following these 3 coaching sessions, participants will journey with Brook Thorndycraft to build their capacity and practices for embodied leadership.
Optional coaching package rate is $2500 +HST. This includes $500 for your personalized Diamond Power Index assessment and $2000 for 6 coaching sessions.
