Ever wonder how women with high-demanding jobs have a work-life balance? Well, you may be surprised to learn that they don’t!

In the School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion’s upcoming Transforming Success® professional development program, program leaders from McDonald Graham—a duo that provides leadership development and coaching services—explain that work-life balance is a myth.

 One of the first issues Dr. McDonald and Dr. Graham address in the program is the rejection of an unattainable standard of work-life balance and the introduction of a model that better reflects the reality of women’s lives.

Drs. McDonald and Graham are a partnership drawing on two decades of professional practice with a wide range of organizations. They are skilled at helping people let down their guard, have honest conversations about their lives, and discover new ways of approaching work and life that lead to greater effectiveness and more fulfillment.

The program offers a curriculum that addresses a unique aspect of leadership development that is often missing from leadership curricula. Women who participate in this training can expect to learn self-management and self-regulation tools that are grounded in research and tested through practice. When applied, these tools provide the foundation of good leadership and address common challenges faced by today’s current and emerging leaders.

The program takes place over six highly interactive sessions. The topics of the sessions are illustrated in the below graphic:

Discussing the program, Dr. Mona Fouad, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, said “After the first two cohorts of the program gave it rave reviews, we decided to make Transforming Success® part of our development and retention efforts. This is one of our most successful programs.”

Since 2016, we have offered the Transforming Success® program seven times for female faculty who are new or emerging leaders. In total, 92 faculty members have completed the program. The fall 2022 program, which begins September 8th, has 22 registered participants from 13 different departments in the School of Medicine.

Moving forward, the Transforming Success® program will be offered at least once a year. In preparation, recruitment requests will be sent to chairs, asking them to nominate emerging or new female faculty leaders who may be interested in participating. The program can accommodate up to 24 faculty divided into two groups. If a faculty member is interested in participating, please reach out to your department's chair for nomination into a future program session.

For more information about the Transforming Success®, visit: https://mcdonaldgraham.com/transforming-success/