Strong Women Strong Girls … Cultivating Strong Leaders

By: Christy Uffelman

This fall the Pittsburgh region realizes a new and soon-to-be national program for emerging female leaders. Organizations looking to capitalize on the opportunity to engage, develop and retain high-potential women AND give back to the community in a real way may check out the new Strong Leaders Program piloting this fall through Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG). The program is designed to align with participating companies’ organizational goals for recruitment and retention. This is a real way to impact the region and reinforce management’s commitment to employees and the community.

The Strong Leaders Program engages professional women and their companies in a national movement of individuals and organizations across the country committed to creating positive social change for women and girls. High-potential professional women are placed as Leadership Coaches to college women, engaging in an experiential leadership development program while participating in a unique peer mentoring model with other professional women from a cross section of industries. Participating companies complement their leadership development programs with a hands-on opportunity for emerging leaders to build and apply skills.

Leadership Coaches are matched with a college undergraduate woman as a mentor. The college undergraduate woman will also be a mentor to a group of at-risk girls in grades 3 -5. The goal is to gain commitment by mid-August for five women each from five corporate sponsors for the 2011-12 program year which will launch on Sept. 24^th.

 “This experience gives our participating professional women the opportunity to be responsible for another young woman’s results. They are able to apply their leadership and teamwork skills developed in their professional lives and make a difference in the life of a young woman.”

~Lynne Garfinkel, Executive Director, SWSG

In-house Coach and Vice President of Employee and Organization Development at Mascaro Construction, Christy Uffelman, is chairing this unique opportunity for high-potential young women to form a peer group – a first of its kind in Pittsburgh. States Christy, “The organizations who will become our corporate sponsors have much to gain, not only from a leadership development standpoint, but also from a recruiting perspective as they will have unique access to the college campus leaders who are mentoring the elementary school girls. For HR and Diversity leaders alike – this program is a win-win.”

Through the Strong Leaders experience, professional women will have opportunities to:

• Gain formal leadership development and coaching training;
• Sharpen personal coaching skills that may be applied in future supervisory and management opportunities;
• Interact and share best practices in a peer group and network with other emerging leaders
• Impact the leadership skills and professionalism of a college woman; and
• Receive recognition from the company for participation in the program.

Companies with employees participating in the program will have opportunities to:

• Engage high-potential female employees in a development opportunity;
• Complement the organization’s current leadership development training providing a platform for emerging female leaders to apply communication skills and build coaching skills;
• Bolster diversity and inclusion programs with a development program targeted to young female leaders;
• Capitalize on a unique recruiting opportunity with direct access to college women as potential future workforce;
• Receive recognition at a year-end award ceremony, with exclusive sponsorship opportunities; and
• Receive recognition in the community for the partnership with Strong Women, Strong Girls.

Christy Uffelman is Vice-President of Employee and Organization Development at Mascaro Construction and is a speaker on the national stage. Christy is devoted to expanding people’s capacity, performance and quality of life by increasing their emotional intelligence. She is not only dedicated to revolutionizing how the construction industry manages talent, but is specifically committed to the development of emerging female leaders in the Pittsburgh region. As a new member of Strong Women Strong Girls’ Advisory Council, Christy will chair the organization’s “Strong Leaders” mentoring program.