Executive Leadership for Women
Source: https://business.rice.edu/executive-education/open-enrollment-programs/executive-leadership-women Parent: https://business.rice.edu/
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Lauren Maghsoudi
Assistant Director, Open Enrollment Programs
Zoran Perunovic
Senior Director, Executive Education
Empowering Women to Lead With Confidence and Impact
Upcoming Dates and Tuition
Spring 2026 Dates: May 12-15, 2026\ Fall 2026 Dates: November 2-5, 2026\ 9:00 am to 4:00 pm\ Tuition: $6,500
Overview
Leading effectively at the executive level presents universal challenges — but for women, additional hurdles exist in environments still shaped by traditional, masculine models of leadership. This four-day program equips women leaders with strategies to overcome these challenges, redefine leadership norms, and thrive at the highest levels.
Read about the Inaugural Program
Who Should Apply
- Senior leaders with 10-plus years of management experience who currently hold or aspire to roles such as Director, Vice President, or C-suite executive
- Entrepreneurs and business owners seeking to grow their organizations and expand their strategic influence
- Rising executives at an inflection point in their careers who are preparing for greater authority, board service or enterprise-wide responsibility
- Leaders from corporate, nonprofit and public sectors who are shaping organizational culture, strategy and talent development
Program Outcomes
- Strengthen executive presence. Navigate gender-based challenges with confidence and authenticity at the highest levels of leadership.
- Reframe leadership norms. Move beyond traditional leadership stereotypes by embracing collaborative, learning-focused leadership models.
- Master high-stakes influence. Develop tools to protect and enhance personal and organizational reputation, especially in moments of crisis.
- Negotiate strategically. Apply effective, bias-aware negotiation techniques to advance initiatives, influence stakeholders, and close leadership and compensation gaps.
- Advance career impact. Position themselves for expanded responsibilities, enterprise-wide influence, and board-level opportunities.
Program Overview
Topic 1: Empowering Women in Corporate Leadership\ How biases raise challenges for women (executive) leaders – and how to deal with them.
- Explore the “glass ceiling” and “glass cliff” phenomena
- Analyze how gender influences leadership perception and strategic decision-making
- Identify transition strategies for newly appointed female executives
- Address bias in mentoring and evaluation practices
- Develop actionable solutions through case studies and interactive strategy sessions
Topic 2: Leading for Learning\ How traditional understandings of leadership as directive, decisive, and “leading the charge” are more associated with gender bias than more contemporary understandings that put the emphasis on leading empowered teamwork to collaboratively determine ways forward with complex business challenges.
- Contrast traditional vs. contemporary leadership models
- Emphasize leadership as “leading from what you need to know”
- Cultivate a growth mindset and psychological safety
- Learn how collaborative, empowered teamwork sidesteps gender bias
- Practice techniques to foster learning-based leadership in complex environments
Topic 3: Reputation Management\ Zoom in on the reality that leadership, and the challenge for women leaders, comes particularly into focus when personal or corporate reputation is at stake.
- Understand how personal and organizational reputations are formed and evaluated
- Explore gender bias in reputation assessments, especially during crises
- Learn tools to manage, protect, and repair reputations
- Engage in interactive case studies, vignettes, and group exercises
- Apply management research to real-world reputation challenges
Topic 4: Negotiation\ Addressing the reality that negotiations are part and parcel of (executive) leadership – and that gender bias creates unique hurdles for women leaders to be effective negotiators.
- Learn negotiation frameworks tailored for executive-level leadership
- Understand the unique negotiation challenges and opportunities for women
- Build confidence to negotiate in high-stakes, multi-party contexts
- Practice proven strategies to close gaps in leadership and compensation
- Gain tools to influence decisions and drive strategic outcomes
Interested in Executive Education?
Hear From Our Faculty
Before you step into the classroom, get to know some of our faculty on the award-winning Rice Business podcast, Owl Have You Know.
FOUNDING BOARD
The founding board of advisors selected by Rice Business to prepare, launch, and lead this program, is an elite and distinguished group of accomplished executive women with longstanding connections to each other. The board consists of Rice Business alumni, staff and community members who have each transcended barriers, developed insights, and gained a following and reputation for their contributions to empowering other women to prepare for successful careers and advancement into executive roles. Our board is also honored to include the student President of the Rice Business Women in Leadership Conference.
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Meet Your Professors
Yan Anthea Zhang
Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Professor of Management – Strategic Management
Daan van Knippenberg
Houston Endowed Professor of Management – Organizational Behavior\ Ph.D. Area Advisor - Organizational Behavior
Anastasiya Zavyalova
Associate Dean for Degree Programs\ Associate Professor of Strategic Management
John Wisneski
Executive Director of Student Experience and Career Development at Virani Undergraduate School of Business\ Assistant Clinical Professor of Organizational Behavior
Rice Business Wisdom
Rice Business Wisdom is our online ideas magazine that features faculty research.
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Creativity & Innovation | Peer-Reviewed Research
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Based on research by Professor Jing Zhou
Have a Question?
Lauren Maghsoudi
Assistant Director, Open Enrollment Programs
Zoran Perunovic
Senior Director, Executive Education