Attn: Women Leaders Seeking Sustainable Success

Leadership Retreats Help Women Navigate Past Risks for Executive Success offered by CDR Assessment Group and The Alexcel Group

Let’s face it - leadership isn’t easy. For women leaders, the challenges can be steep, while support may seem hit or miss - that is, until now.

CDR Assessment Group, Inc. and The Alexcel Group have announced a series of Women’s Leadership Retreats to offer a novel solution designed to help women get past the obstacles to success. They personalize development to hone in on what each woman leader needs most to maximize her potential, while neutralizing risks that could otherwise undermine her success.

"The facts are clear that women’s rise to senior executive positions has barely increased over the past decade so our plan to help to help women expedite and sustain their success," says Nancy Parsons,

Nancy Parsons

President of Tulsa- based CDR Assessment Group and Alexcel Group member. She adds, “you might be wondering -- why a ‘women’s only’ retreat? The reason is that while women and men both have the capability of being highly effective leaders and executives, women often have a different set of inherent risks and challenges than their male counterparts. This Retreat gives women participants the opportunity to focus on their unique strengths and risks."

Patricia Wheeler

According to Patricia Wheeler, Ph.D., a principal at Atlanta-based consultancy, The Levin Group, and Alexcel Group member, “this learning experience is to refresh, renew, and enhance a women’s leadership capability, performance, and satisfaction level.”

Wheeler explains, “this Women’s Leadership Retreat is not a generic or superficial leadership event. It is for women leaders who are ready to accelerate their success by focusing on their authentic leadership strengths, emotional intelligence, personal motivators, and risk factors. The learning process begins before the event with an assessment and a one-to-one 2.5 hour executive coaching session, followed by the 2-Day Retreat, with an additional coaching session after the workshop. So, in all, each women leader has 4 hours of coaching plus attends the customized Retreat.”

Our research shows that inherent risk factors that often impede women leaders are different from risk factors that impact men leaders. Under pressure, women tend to retreat, worry, and over-analyze; men don’t. Men become emboldened, fight harder, and use aggressive behaviors which, albeit may be inappropriate or even hostile, they are viewed as more leader-like and courageous. These behaviors and the impact of the perceptions are not easy to overcome. This Retreat helps women leaders focus directly on developing their own “leadership DNA,” and develop strategies to assure that these risk traits do not unhinge or derail success while building on strengths.

“By design, this Women’s Leadership Retreat provides women leaders with the dedicated time,

Barbara Mintzer
McMahon

essential insights, learning experiences, and executive coaching support needed to lift leadership success and fulfillment to levels currently not within reach. It is about creating opportunity for networking and building a supportive community for growth and sustainability,” adds San Francisco-based Barbara Mintzer McMahon, founder of The Center for Transitional Management and head of Women in Leadership for the Alexcel Group. Wheeler, Parsons, and Mintzer McMahon are the lead instructors and executive coaches for the Retreats.

Retreats are scheduled for August 20 & 21, 2014 near Tulsa, OK; October 29 – 30 in Atlanta, GA; and, on November 5 – 6 in San Francisco, CA. Keep in mind that assessment and the 2.5 hour coaching session are the pre-work for these sessions.

A full brochure can be found at: www.cdrassessmentgroup.com and please complete the online registration form. The August 20 - 21, 2014 workshop is scheduled for The Canebrake, an ideal setting, an eco-friendly spa resort location near Tulsa, Oklahoma. Group discounts are available and in-house sessions are available for larger organizations. Don't delay in registration because the assessment and coaching process begins right away.

The 8 Dumbest Career-Ending Mistakes that Smart People Make (Forbes)

When "Scary Smart People" Derail...

"We have seen it in our careers:  people who we thought would have gone on to be the tops in their company or industry end up shooting themselves in the foot." It could be a star sales executive, a top billing lawyer, or a rock star up-and-coming executive.  When we first met them, we might have said that they were 'scary smart.'  Their intelligence is intimidating."  (read full Forbes article by Eric Jackson)

This article is spot on.  However, what is really at work for those dumb mistakes that smart people make is that their inherent personality risk factors are running amok and are simply out of control.  Often this career peril is caused with a cocktail of the Egotist, Rule Breaker and Upstager risks that run rampant to the point that these shining stars begin to feel invincible.  Frequently, on the rise, the fall out of their bad behaviors are ignored due to the glowing project successes.  Then, they do the unforgivable and cross the line.  

To see a list of the eleven inherent risk factors, go here. If you know what your inherent risk factors are, you can manage them more productively or prevent them from taking a toll on your performance, relationships and career.  If you don't know what they are via an appropriate measurement instrument, they often run amok without you realizing it.   If you would like to take the assessments and have a coaching debrief, email:  cdrinfo@cdrassessmentgroup.com   

P.S. Don't let dumb mistakes derail your success! The good news is -- you can manage your risk factors productively so that your career doesn't tank and reaches the levels of your dreams.