Championing Women Leaders: Beyond Sponsorship

Championship is the key differentiator between women who achieve leadership roles and those who don't. This book examines the reasons why championing works and why it is so important for female executive development in particular, and provides a user-friendly guide to develop workplace champions for female leaders in any organization.

About the Authors

Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj, FRSA is an expert in applying entrepreneurial behavior to leadership development and change across different companies across the world. She is a co-founder Director of Boardwalk Leadership a research and training consultancy focusing on developing women for leadership roles and supporting organisations keen on Gender diversity. Shaheena is an Associate Professor at Henley Business School, University of Reading, where she established the Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship. This was one of the first academic centres in the UK offering cross-faculty entrepreneurship teaching. She currently lectures on the Masters Global Entrepreneurship programme. She has worked extensively in the areas of Gender leadership in family businesses, entrepreneurial forms, corporates and public sector organisations. Shaheena has published widely in the field of leadership, including her book on Succession in South Asian Family Firms (2005) published by Palgrave MacMillan. Her work on policy research in the development of women leaders has contributed significantly to policy for the EU and the Commonwealth. Recent advisory engagements have included providing expert EU opinion on Quotas for Women on Boards. In 2013 she co-authored a groundbreaking report on 'Women in Leadership Across the Commonwealth' presented at the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting and a follow up report for the 2015 Meeting benchmarking women in leadership roles. Shaheena holds a PhD in Family Business Succession from Brunel Business School and she has attended programmes at Harvard Business School and Manchester Business School. Shaheena sits on the advisory boards for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship, House of Lords and is a Fellow of the RSA.

Lady (Kitty) Chisholm, FRSA is a professional coach who has worked in education, training and development since 1972. She is a founder Director of Boardwalk, formed in 2011 to support able, aspiring women in achieving their full leadership potential at Board level. Kitty has been involved with pioneering work in learning, from the first major application of AI to the creation of the Knowledge Media Institute and was involved in pioneering work in corporate learning through the Open University. She has been on the advisory boards of the BT Corporate University, VTES and Board Intelligence. Kitty has served as a Trustee of the Science Museum Group, on the Advisory Board of the National Media Museum, the Audit and Remuneration Committees, and the Railway Heritage Advisory Board. She Chairs the Advisory Board of the School of Management of Royal Holloway. She has an MA from Cambridge, a BSc (majoring in Psychology) from the OU and her interest in the neurological bases of behaviour change led to an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change from Henley. She is a Fellow of Brunel University, the RSA, and the Knowledge Media Institute. Kitty is married to Sir John Chisholm, Chairman of NESTA and Genomics England. Her book: Neuroscience for Leadership was published by Palgrave Macmillan in January 2015.