The ascent to corporate success is slowly starting to be conquered by women in most industries, but it still can be a very slippery slope. Women may already find themselves in middle management, but the climb from that position up to the summit is often difficult and painstakingly slow with a lot of women hitting a "glass ceiling" and finding they can scale no further heights.
However, with broader global business instigating more diversity in the Board Room, women can be more successful than they think, and those tackling an MBA Programme clearly have the courage to believe that they can do whatever they want to do in their career - because they can! They just need to become skilled at accumulating the right people in their networks, trusting each other and gaining the confidence to reach the top.
In the words of one RSM EMBA alumna, Ide Beijersbergen-Evren, "Perhaps as women we have to do a bit more to reach and achieve what we want, and so we have to be very competent and confident about ourselves. We've got to stop hesitating and start growing. If a woman really wants to achieve something, the glass ceiling doesn't exist."
Women in management face many specific challenges but at RSM we believe that accomplished women from a wide range of disciplines and industries can build meaningful relationships with each other, exchange ideas, and openly share their collective wisdom.
The RSM MBA Kilimanjaro Project is designed to be a transformative experience where participants will master key leadership competencies, including understanding and using power, team building and communication.
By bringing a group of intelligent and passionate women together for a week, under the sometimes grim circumstances of climbing one of the world's most formidable mountains, the experience is expected to facilitate a behavioural transformation and teach the women that, in order to succeed, they need to work together and help one another - giving them an experience that is also likely to change their attitude to collaboration in the work place.
The women on the mountain will certainly be challenged, but where the climb is likely to challenge their physical wellbeing it will undoubtedly also develop their fortitude to stand up to life's challenges.
With concentration focused on the climbing, they will furthermore have to develop team working skills, compassion for the weaker team members, strategies for getting the whole team to the top, and face logistical questions as well as confronting health issues.
We believe each participant will learn to collaborate, challenge, encourage and empower others whilst developing their network, being proud of their achievements, gaining in self confidence and learning to lead as well as follow.
The value of this transformation is that they will be equipped to revolutionise the face of business in the future, bringing their own special brand of leadership into the Board Rooms of the world, making diversity a reality.
REBECCA STEPHENS WILL BE SUPPORTING THE RSM MBA KILIMANJARO PROJECT
Rebecca is the first British woman to have climbed Everest - an achievement recognised around the world. She then went on to become the first English-speaking woman in the world to climb the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.
As a journalist, she accompanied an Anglo-American expedition on Everest's North East Ridge and was bitten by the mountaineering bug. She decided she wanted to climb. Not only that, she wanted to climb the highest mountain in the world. Four years later she fulfilled this ambition and has subsequently continued to break records and barriers. But how did she do it? ‘Simple,' she says, with the benefit of hindsight. ‘I wanted to climb these mountains more than anything else in the world, and that was half the battle won. A burning desire meant I just pushed that much harder to acquire the requisite skills and make sure it happened.'
Rebecca believes that everyone has their ‘Everest'; something they badly want to do. The secret is to have the self-awareness to listen to your inner voice and follow a path that is true for you. With a passionate belief that every individual can achieve goals far beyond their wildest dreams, Rebecca lectures to corporate audiences and schools around the world. We all talk the language of the mountains: of reaching for the summit, peak performance and climbing high: Rebecca doesn't only talk it, she lives it, drawing from her experiences on the loftiest peaks in the world to deliver inspirational talks to audiences on how to achieve absolutely the best performance. She speaks on personal development - defining one's passions and goals, self-belief, growth through management of fear, calculated risk, tenacity and commitment - and crucially for businesses today, the subject of leadership and effective teamwork. Again and again she inspires people to seek new horizons and achieve goals beyond their wildest dreams and we know she will be a strong catalyst for the climbers from RSM as they develop their leadership skills.
RSM prides itself on admitting only the best MBA candidates from around the globe and the profile of our female contingent just proves that our pride is not misplaced. A quick glimpse at the profiles of the participants of our Full-time and Executive programmes shows women from diverse backgrounds such as: a Brazilian Global Special Asset Manager with a renowned international bank; a Taiwanese Senior Consultant with a consulting company of some status; an Indian Module Leader with a major techno-logy corporation; a Russian Brand Manager with a top brand cosmetics company; a Dutch Portfolio Manager with a global real estate organisation; - to name just a few and all already leaders in their own right.
We have the confidence that the Kilimanjaro project will stimulate candidates such as these to learn from each other through the close encounters in pursuit of the summit.
Follow our climbers on www.rsm.nl/kili
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RSM is challenging a team of MBA women to stretch themselves beyong their leadership perceptions and reach new heights.
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