WOMEN LEADERSHIP

InspireShift offers programs and executive coaching engagements specifically focused on the development of women leaders.

InspireShift’s founder, Arjan Eenkema van Dijk, believes deeply in the empowerment of women and has had a long commitment to this cause. She serves on the Advisory Committee for the Stanford University Clayman Institute for Gender Research and its Center for Women Leadership. She also partners with iRelaunch, the pioneer and leading national return-to-work organization, in a consulting capacity. She is a noted speaker at their conferences at Columbia University and Stanford University and facilitates groups for professionals returning to the workforce.

Our women leadership programs are centered on accelerating women leadership within companies and are co-created with the organizations we serve, taking on different formats and scopes depending on the company’s vision. This process starts with a series of conversations with senior leadership or the Human Resources Department within a company. We develop a clear understanding of the corporate culture, history and context, get to know the stakeholders, help identify learning objectives and select appropriate methodologies to design an effective program. The program design aims to create the greatest possible impact within the provided parameters. Ideas and initiatives are co-created through the above mentioned process to optimally meet the organization’s goals. Below is a sample of concepts.

Coaching Within Organizations

“Arjan is a gifted, intuitive and strategic executive coach, the kind of coach that is few and far between. She is a tremendous asset to IKEA and has supported many leaders in different areas of the organization. Arjan simultaneously challenges and deeply supports our leaders so they can achieve maximum growth. Her coaching is grounded in research, yet always practical and she uses her knowledge about neuroscience to educate our leaders on effective communication and a positive mindset, two elements crucial to sustained success. Drawing on her rich experience as an executive coach, she has a natural aptitude to combine both business and individual goals. Leaders tackle real-time problems with her, which she consistently ties back towards the greater journey they are on. Calm in crisis, she always stays focused on the bigger picture, understanding which levers to pull and how to empower her clients to advance. I can’t thank her enough for the impact she has created and can highly recommend her to any Chief HR Executive looking to grow their people and business results.”

Simon Lowes – Chief Human Resources – USA, IKEA

“Arjan has been a strong partner over many years. She combines her business and people skills into high level results for our company. She helps our leaders become more effective in their role and supports their personal development. Our executives very much appreciate working with her and consistently speak about her high business acumen and great understanding of leadership. They highlight her ability to build trust, listen effectively, educate and challenge them to create forward momentum towards their goals. They especially appreciate her integrity, confidentiality, and wisdom.”

Richard Mellor, EVP Global Chief Human Resources, R/GA

“Arjan brings professional rigor and emotional depth to each of our conversations. I’ve been coached by Arjan for about 2 years, through some very complex and challenging career events. She has an extraordinary ability to synthesize all important factors, bring clarity to opportunities and focus on how to approach them. Even though I’m a pretty lucid thinker, Arjan’s counsel always clears fog from the road ahead. Somehow, she retains (in shockingly vivid detail) each step in the long journey; but can zoom out at any time to see the shape of everything. It is refreshing to work with her, as she combines her strategic, results-oriented approach with a deep level of compassion and wonderful sense of humor. I continue to work with Arjan, and benefit immensely.”

Nick Law – Chief Creative Officer Publicis Groupe, President Publicis Communications at Publicis Groupe

“Arjan combines a high measure of gravitas, a refreshing straightforward approach and a deep level of compassion with an acute business sense. She provides sharp insights, practical advice and honest feedback, which was pivotal to rethinking and improving my communication style. Through her expert guidance, I evolved my leadership style and executive presence. Arjan is brilliant, but humble; visionary, but grounded; logical, but intuitive.”

Neil Hampshire – CIO, ModusLink

Rarely am I at a loss for words until I have to describe someone as brilliant as Arjan. She coached me through a complex merger that was fraught with challenges at every turn and level. Her ability to cut through the chaos, pinpoint the issues, and provide clarity, ensures that the best paths forward are always revealed. She delivers the unvarnished truth with equal parts empathy and compassion, providing actionable guidance at every step. And, at the most difficult moments, she remains in your corner with unrelenting encouragement, warmth and humor. For anyone seeking to grow or change, Arjan is your beacon.

Sherine Kazim, Chief Experience Officer, Wunderman Thompson

“Arjan is a fantastic executive coach, a great supporter, and has been invaluable for my career. She has an admirable capacity to bring clarity to complicated business situations, interpersonal relationships, thoughts and emotions. She creates simplicity by discovering the underlying challenges and opportunities and by always providing a practical and solution-oriented approach. Through collaborating with Arjan, I have developed a greater level of clarity in my work by prioritizing my most important business and individual leadership goals. I have become a better leader; my confidence has increased, we have exceeded our business goals, I have established an effective leadership style, and I have a much broader toolkit available for my own development and the development of my teams. Arjan’s exercises are simple, direct, and very effective. I love working with her and look forward to learning from her business insights, international perspective and general wisdom in every meeting.”

Paola Colombo, Google – Chief of Staff, SumUX

“Arjan is a bloody amazing human being, a gifted coach. She performed a 360 feedback, which was frankly, life-altering. I learned about strengths, I didn’t appreciate in myself before, and how to leverage them to increase my effectiveness. She helped me absorb my weaknesses, to see them objectively, tackle and minimize them. For the first time, in my career, I feel more in control, more empowered, and more self-assured of my abilities.”

Auge Reichenberg, Chief Creative Director, McCann HumanCare

“When I took the role of President at Wunderman NYC, I was clear that I wanted to work with an experienced and highly regarded Executive Coach. I selected Arjan as she came strongly recommended by industry leaders. It was the right decision, as working with Arjan greatly accelerated my integration as a new leader. She interviewed stakeholders, wrote a comprehensive report on the organization which fast-tracked my understanding of the environment, culture, the challenges and opportunities. She helped me develop a vision for the organization, build a cohesive and effective team. Arjan is direct and calls a spade a spade, but it is her warmth, care and great understanding of people and business, that makes her an outstanding coach. Her energy, natural courage, and positive outlook are contagious and I walk away from each meeting with new insights that I can immediately apply. Arjan truly goes the extra mile for her clients. She is a phenomenal partner for anyone who is starting in a new leadership role.”

Helder Santo, President Wunderman New York

“Arjan’s guidance is direct, insightful and clear. She has a wealth of experience and provides great wisdom navigating complex strategic situations. I was originally hired as CFO and within a year promoted to also take on the COO position. I can’t imagine being where I am today in my career without her guidance.”

Jennifer Solomon – COO & CFO, Arts Students League of New York

“Arjan is a phenomenal executive coach. She has profound expertise in leadership development, communication and emotional intelligence. Arjan helped me create successful frameworks for solving the most complex strategic and human resource challenges. She is insightful, articulate and has a deep commitment to excellence. I have become a better leader as a direct result of our work together.”

James Gomez – Division President, CalAtlantic Homes

“Arjan combines business knowledge with people insight. She possesses profound positive intelligence and superb communication skills. She walks the talk and lives by her principles. Arjan helped me evolve my thinking to successfully navigate complex situations presented by a rapidly growing and transforming business, leadership changes and a take-over. My team and I delivered superior results and I thank Arjan for her guidance.”

Terry Stack – VP Treasurer, Harman International

“I immediately thought of Arjan, when I needed to engage an inspirational speaker for an industry event on the topic of confidence and women leadership. Deeply knowledgeable about business, leadership, interpersonal relationships and communications, Arjan offers tremendous value to her audiences. With her unwavering positive demeanor and deep passion, she has an uncanny ability to inspire a room full of people. Her expertise, practical advice and goal-oriented focus ensure that every person leaves her presentations with clear tools and tips that they can immediately apply to enhance their leadership skills. Her charismatic style as well as her flair to truly connect make her a great presenter for a large audience and a powerful facilitator of workshops.”

Chloe Gottlieb, Director Product Design, Google Aps, NY – Former Chief Creative Officer R/GA

“Arjan is an extremely skilled executive coach and organizational strategist. She presents to hundreds of attendees at our iRelaunch Return to Work Conferences and consistently gets top ratings. She has also been a popular and well-regarded coach of our group coaching program. More recently she has taken on an important role with our corporate initiatives. Arjan demonstrates integrity, excellence and an energy level matched by few.”

Carol Fishman Cohen – CEO, iRelaunch

“An exceptional organizational consultant, Arjan supported the scaling of our organization.  She increased alignment within the management team positively impacting company culture. She enhanced collaboration between my Head of Operations and myself, while we were managing a major change, creating greater understanding for each other’s point of view, work approach and communication style, resulting in better outcomes. Our staff calls her the “engineer whisperer.”

Jamie D’Agostino, Founder of Netology

Gain Insight in Diversity and Inclusion

InspireShift develops broad assessments for companies, based on a program of data collection and interviews to gain greater insight in the work environment, employee experiences and perspectives on diversity within the company.  Data is gathered through a comprehensive series of interviews and/or surveys with a broader group of employees at all levels within the company or with a selective smaller group of key stakeholders. The information from the interviews will be analyzed, reported and presented to senior leadership and, in collaboration with the Human Resources Department, recommendations will be offered.

Enhance leadership effectiveness through coaching engagement for women leaders

Executive coaching empowers women leaders to maximize their potential and to deliver results with more ease. The process promotes self-awareness, includes customized assessments and develops action-oriented planning, along with constructive feedback and accountability to ensure the most effective results. Clients develop a more authentic leadership style and increase their leadership effectiveness as well as the effectiveness of the teams they manage.  Topics can include personal branding, visibility, conversational intelligence, executive presence, confidence, mindset, delegating, leaning in, influencing, negotiation, dealing with conflict and decision making. Also review our executive coaching methodologies for more information. A confidential 360 feedback process helps increase a leader’s understanding of how she is perceived in the organization.

Coaching engagement can be enhanced by:

A confidential 360 feedback process helps increase a leader’s understanding of how she is perceived in the organization. Managers, peers, direct reports and others in the organization are interviewed to discern strengths and areas of development for the participant. Typically certain themes emerge. The 360 feedback will highlight unique strengths to leverage as well as areas of development that a leader may not be aware of, or may not appreciate the consequences of. A 360 can be a catalyst for positive change and coaching on the results of the 360 helps the leader use this information to accelerate advancement.

Workshops

Workshops can be stand-on- its-own learning environments ranging from a 2 – 3 hour session, a full day, or spread out overall several consecutive days. It could also be beneficial to develop a series of workshops interspersed over a broader time interval.

Topics for workshops may include the following 

  • Communicating with Impact
  • Leaning In
  • Developing a Powerful Mindset
  • Enhancing Executive Presence
  • Conversational Intelligence
  • Championing Ideas
  • Establishing a Personal Brand
  • Managing Up and Leading Down
  • Making Successful Transitions

Group Coaching

Group coaching provides an effective and cost-efficient methodology to further women leadership capabilities within an organization. Group Coaching typically consists of a small number of participants who meet on a regular basis to engage in and learn about a diverse range of topics.

Group coaching brings the coaching conversation into a small group context, which delivers an intimate conversation space focused on goal setting, deepening awareness around key issues, taking action and accountability. Participants benefit from peer learning and the “collective wisdom” of the group. It provides time to reflect and integrate insights.

Organizations may find benefit due to the scalable nature of the process, opening up communication between silos or group members in different parts of the organization. Engaging in constructive dialogue about leadership, challenges and opportunities will encourage collaboration among women leaders and further the development of productive peer connections and support within the company. Over time, these relationships create a valuable network across an organization, benefiting both the organization and individual participants.