teaching negotiation skills for leadership success
Dr. Deborah Kolb, the SOM's Deloitte Ellen Gabriel professor for women and leadership, claims that negotiation is a critical skill for women. "In the workplace today, it's up to you to create the conditions for your own success. At Simmons, we teach women to negotiate for the resources, the buy-in, and the backing they need to be successful in whatever role they chose."
Kolb delves into this topic in her new book, Her Place at the Table: A Woman's Guide to Negotiating - 5 Key Challenges to Leadership Success. A follow up to The Shadow Negotiation: How Women Can Master the Hidden Agendas That Determine Bargaining Success, which she co-authored in 2000, Her Place at the Table offers a practical guide for women navigating their way to the top rungs of their organizations.
On the faculty of the SOM since 1977 and the Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation since 1987, Kolb received her Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management and is a national leader in the field of gender dynamics and women and leadership. She is recognized internationally for her work on women and negotiations and she co-founded the research arm of the SOM - its Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO).
She says the SOM's mission has remained the same since its founding, but that its aspirations have evolved. "When the SOM was founded, middle management was the focus of what eluded women in business. Today, women are striving to gain executive levels of leadership and power. Our approach and our curriculum have evolved to meet those goals."
Kolb says that because the SOM is true to its mission of educating women for power and leadership, it offers more than other business schools that accept women into their programs but don't address the management styles and challenges to success specific to their gender. "The SOM has firmly established itself as THE center for women, leadership, and management. Industry leaders like Eli Lilly, Verizon, and Deloitte that are committed to moving women ahead in their organizations partner with Simmons to assist them in achieving their goals through leadership training. The Simmons School of Management garners great respect for its work in educating women for leadership and power and it's truly been my pleasure for more than 25 years to contribute to that mission."