Find your women's leadership pathway at the Yale School of Management

Explore a vibrant selection of executive development opportunities designed to help you lead yourself, your teams, and your organization with purpose and power.

Delivered in collaboration with online education provider, GetSmarter.

Self-paced weekly modules

with flexible, cohort-based learning

Global network of diverse women

along with personalized student support

95% average learner satisfaction

across our women's leadership programs

Earn a certificate

from the Yale School of Management

Choose the path that meets your goals

Whether you’re strengthening your personal leadership approach, navigating power dynamics, or elevating team performance, each pathway offers targeted development to meet your specific goals. All programs are available to both women and those who support them.

Take your leadership development further

Designed for women leaders and allies seeking greater influence, the Women’s Strategic Leadership Program delivers a specially curated, in-depth leadership journey across self, team, and organizational impact.

Learn alongside a dedicated cohort of ambitious women

Gain insights from diverse perspectives and forge lasting connections

Walk away with a supportive global network of empowered women leaders

Inspire the next generation of leaders to overcome barriers and become catalysts for change

Online program

Women’s Strategic Leadership Program

What to expect

Fast-track your leadership journey with a combination of all three leadership pillars (self, team, organization) into a sequential, 5-month executive experience.

Outcome

Develop a robust leadership toolkit to help you overcome barriers, transform workplaces, and maximize your leadership potential.

Who it's for

Mid-to-senior leaders and aspiring leaders seeking to enhance their capabilities with a comprehensive learning path.

Skills gained

Power and influence, Network leverage, Contextual leadership

Next start date

June 3, 2026

Course length

5 months

Hours per week

6–8 hours with live sessions

Program Curriculum

Section I: Women's Leadership

Week 1: Values-driven leadership
Week 2: Self-knowledge and self-mastery
Week 3: Leading growth through experimentation
Week 4: Emotionally intelligent feedback
Week 5: Networks and structures of innovation
Week 6: Positive leadership

Section II: Women’s Leadership Program: Leading Teams
Week 7: Program break and orientation for Section II
Week 8: Decision-making for team leaders
Week 9: Contextual leadership and decision-making for teams
Week 10: Understanding your network
Week 11: Leveraging your network
Week 12: Leadership in the everyday
Week 13: The future of leadership

Section III: Women’s Leadership Program: Leading With Power and Influence
Week 14: Program break and orientation for Section III
Week 15: Reframing power
Week 16: Leading with positive energy
Week 17: Harnessing your power
Week 18: Navigating structures of power
Week 19: Growth and power
Week 20: The power of the changemaker

An online education that sets you apart

These Yale SOM Executive Education online programs are delivered in collaboration with online education provider GetSmarter. Join a diverse cohort of ambitious women, build a supportive network, gain insights from different perspectives, and learn how to inspire the next generation of leaders.

Cohort-based

A premium, cohort-based experience featuring human instruction and support.

Online and global

These programs are available online to lifelong learners across the globe.

Flexible, but structured approach

Study at your own pace and in your own time with weekly modules and coursework.

Student support

Receive personalized support every step of the way.

Program Conveners

Emma Seppälä

Faculty Director, Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Programs; Lecturer in Management, Yale School of Management

Seppälä graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (PhD). She consults with Fortune 500 leaders and employees on building a positive organization and has spoken at TEDx Sacramento, TEDx Hayward, and at companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Bain & Company, Ernst & Young, as well as a United States Congressional Hearing. Seppälä is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Fulfillment Daily, a popular news site dedicated to the science of happiness, and author of The Happiness Track.

Heidi Brooks

Convener for Women's Strategic Leadership Program, Women's Leadership Program: Leading Teams, & Women's Leadership Program: Leading With Power and Influence; Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behavior, Yale School of Management

Brooks is a life-long experiential learner with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. She teaches and advises on the subject of everyday leadership, and is passionate about creating more courageous communities — especially within organizations. Brooks specializes in large-scale culture change projects that focus on individual and collective leadership effectiveness in business. Her MBA elective, Interpersonal Dynamics, is one of the most in-demand courses at the Yale School of Management.

Rodrigo Canales

Convener for Women's Strategic Leadership Program, Women's Leadership Program, & Women's Leadership Program: Leading With Power and Influence; Former Lecturer in Organizational Behavior, Yale School of Management

Canales graduated from Universidad Iberoamericana (BA) and MIT (MBA and PhD). He is the teacher of the Innovator’s Perspective at Yale SOM, and conducts research at the intersection of organizational theory and institutional theory, with a special focus on the role of institutions for economic development. Specifically, Canales studies how individuals’ backgrounds, professional identities, and organizational positions affect their relationships to existing structures and the strategies they pursue to change them. His work contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that allow institutions to operate and change. Canalas has acted as an adviser to the Mexican government on the US-Mexico bilateral relationship and sits on the board of the trustees of the Nature Conservancy, as well as on the advisory board of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT.

Marissa King

Convener for Women's Strategic Leadership Program & Women's Leadership Program: Leading Teams; Former Professor of Organizational Behavior, Yale School of Management

With a PhD from Columbia University, King is interested in social networks, social influence, and team dynamics. Her research has covered various topics from the role that networks play in addressing opioid abuse and the loneliness epidemic to the behaviors necessary for large-scale organizational change. She’s also the author of Social Chemistry: Decoding the Elements of Human Connection. Her research and book have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and National Public Radio.

Michael Kraus

Convener for Women's Strategic Leadership Program & Women's Leadership Program: Leading With Power and Influence; Former Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior, Yale School of Management

Kraus is a social psychologist and specialist in the study of inequality, with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His current work explores the behaviors and emotional states that maintain and perpetuate economic and social inequality in society. He also studies the emotional processes that allow individuals and teams to work together more effectively. Kraus’ research has appeared in Psychological Review, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

A powerful collaboration

About the Yale School of Management

The mission of the Yale School of Management is to educate leaders for business and society. The school’s learners and faculty are committed to understanding the complex forces transforming global markets and using that understanding to build organizations — in the for-profit, nonprofit, entrepreneurial, and government sectors — that contribute lasting value to society.

About GetSmarter

GetSmarter delivers online education from world-leading universities and institutions to transform the lives of thousands of students across the globe. GetSmarter’s online certificate courses are designed to advance your career and fit in with your busy lifestyle. Each course is expert-led, fully supported and community-based, helping you build career-critical skills. GetSmarter is owned by 2U.

Frequently Asked Questions

These courses are broken down into self-paced weekly modules designed to help you manage your time effectively and complete your certificate in six weeks for single leadership programs, and five months for the comprehensive strategic leadership program.

You'll engage with a combination of online resources, interactive content, peer discussions, real-world case studies, and practical assignments to accelerate your learning.

Gain industry-ready skills and earn an official certificate from Yale SOM Executive Education.

Assessment is continuous and based on a series of practical assignments completed online. In order to be issued with your digital certificate, you’ll need to meet the requirements outlined in the course handbook. The handbook will be made available to you as soon as you begin the program.

Your digital certificate will be issued in your legal name and sent to you upon successful completion of the program, as per the stipulated requirements.

You can pay your course fees before the course starts, or you may opt for a multi-part payment plan, with the first installment due prior to the course start date.

You can also opt for employer assistance with your course fees. Of our past students, 37 percent of our students have received employer assistance, and you can too. All you need to register is your sponsor’s name, email, and billing address. They’ll receive an email with instructions.

Need help asking your boss? Check out our guide here.

You'll learn more about payment options after you submit the short form on this page. Completion of this form does not commit you to the course.