Who are the Professionals Applying to Lead F?
Lead F Basics
Lead F is our accelerator program for individuals who want to improve their leadership skills and develop their entrepreneurial mindset. At Female Founders we believe women in entrepreneurial roles are the key to creating positive economic and societal changes for the future. For us, entrepreneurship doesn’t always mean starting or running your own business. It can also be a state of mind or attitude to approach challenges with.
The Lead F program provides female employees with everything they need to become entrepreneurial leaders who will positively impact the world of tomorrow. Through personal development and leadership sessions with some of Europe’s most innovative minds, advice from C-level startup executives, insights into different industries plus access to Europe’s fastest-growing community for female entrepreneurial minds, participants of the program are equipped with all of the tools they need to manage teams and organisations in fast-paced environments.
Sounds like the perfect program to level up in your professional career? Your intuition is right 😉 Click here to apply for the next round of the program!
Not convinced yet? Keep reading to learn about the application process, the type of female entrepreneurs applying for the program, the diverse group of professionals selected for this round, the experts who are taking part, and what’s happening next in the Lead F program.
Applications
The application process is broken down into 4 stages: an online application, profile check, phone call, and lastly a profile fit. Throughout these four steps, we get to know our applicants pretty well and we have to admit this round of potential candidates was extremely impressive. We received over 60 applications from individuals coming from 14 countries across Europe as well as the United States, Russia, Uruguay, and Syria. All of the applicants fall within one of four employment categories.
Going deeper than just these base facts, we learned about the values, goals, and challenges that our applicants have. We found that the four most common values shared between the 60+ people who applied are:
- Being authentic
- Putting people first
- Having a good professional-personal life balance
- Taking responsibility
We also learned leaders applying for Lead F this round are facing common obstacles in their entrepreneurial paths. These challenges include:
- Scaling/Growth and Change Management Processes at the workplace
- Balancing growing in their career and having a family
- Feeling stuck in the corporate position
- Transitioning to an entrepreneurial life and the beginning of a new business
- No space for personal growth or education
The motivation that applicants expressed most often for wanting to join the program are:
- To gain entrepreneurial and leadership skills
- Networking, meeting like-minded people, and exchange of ideas
- To be inspired and grow personally
- To gain the tools to grow as a leader and pass them on to others
We were blown away by the caliber of all of the applications we received for round four of the program and this made the task of narrowing down the candidates to our group of official participants very difficult. When the whole application process was completed we decided on 24 entrepreneurial-minded people to start the program. This round, our new batch of leaders are coming from Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Columbia, Syria, the Netherlands, and Slovakia.
What’s Happening Now?
We are so excited that the participants have been selected and already completed the first session, Deep Dive into Entrepreneurial Leadership. The following Deep Dive sessions will cover a range of topics surrounding personal development, emotional intelligence, sustainable thinking, mindfulness, decision making, leveraging your network and leadership.
The experts we have lined up to lead these sessions are some of the most creative and successful people in the European entrepreneurial sphere. On top of Female Founders very own Nina Wöss and Lisa-Marie Fassl, our experts include:
Christina Richter a personal branding consultant
Nina Haidinger a mindful leadership coach
Dr. Dorothea von Wichert-Nick founder of Volate
Travis Pittman CEO of TourRadar
Nina Aichinger head of HR at Bitpanda
Cecilia McAleavey Director of Sustainable Eating and Public Affairs at Oatly
Over the course of the 10 sessions, these successful entrepreneurs will share their extensive experiences and knowledge with our participants. We want to provide everyone in the Lead F program with the tools they need to develop their leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and we are confident these experts will do just that!
Have more questions about the Lead F program and how you or your employees can get involved? Contact Vilyana!
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