The Center for Microfinance Leadership brings the best of leadership development and organizational diversity initiatives to the microfinance sector through workshops, coaching and support for organizational change. The Center helps CEOs and senior managers hone the skills needed to steer their institutions through this period of rapid change and commercialization. It also supports high-performing microfinance providers (MFPs) in improving the gender diversity of their leadership team and staff to optimize performance. The Center’s partners—The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Creative Metier Limited—are leaders in executive development and reinforce the excellence and best practice of the program offerings.

Individual Leadership Programs

Management Development Training of Trainers
Building managerial skills in MFPs is critical for high performance. The capacity of strong leaders at the top must be reinforced with the managerial skills of those throughout the organization. The Center’s Management Development Training of Trainers is designed to help middle managers clarify roles and responsibilities, broaden their perspectives and improve strategic thinking through real-life exercises that build on their technical skills in finance, credit and human resource management.

Women in Leadership Workshop
The Women in Leadership Workshop, co-designed with Wharton, is targeted at women in mid- and senior-level management at MFPs who seek to build their leadership skills and position themselves for top jobs in their organizations. Participants develop their own road map to leadership and leave with an individualized action plan, as well as peer support, to help them achieve their goals. In the three years since the program began, 80 women from 30 institutions in 21 countries have completed the program.

Advanced Leadership Workshop
The Advanced Leadership Workshop, also co-designed with Wharton, addresses the needs of microfinance executives as they prepare for new levels of responsibility in their careers and build the skills they need to succeed in a competitive, rapidly evolving industry. This advanced course is for men and women who have significant leadership experience and addresses themes such as building top management teams, advanced negotiation skill-building, effective governance, and succession planning.

Coaching Program
WWB’s coaching program includes a three-day training program delivered by Creative Metier, access to a professional coach from the Creative Metier Team for six months, and a one-year personal license to Creative Metier’s online development software and workbooks. These interactive tools are designed to help leaders develop their personal and organizational visions and track their progress.

Leadership Exchanges
WWB has extensive experience in designing exchanges for our network members and other MFPs to share knowledge on a practitioner-to-practitioner basis. Exchanges are directly related to participants’ learning goals, exposing them to technical knowledge and innovation, as well as opportunities to meet with inspiring leaders in the field of microfinance and beyond.

Institutional Programs

Organizational Support for Gender Diversity
Select institutions have access to a suite of organizational development services that are designed to improve gender diversity in high-performing MFPs. The first phase of the offering is a diagnostic —Organizational Gender Assessment—designed to identify where barriers may exist that prevent men and women employees from having equal opportunities to excel. Following the diagnostic, the Center staff work with MFPs to design solutions that maximize employee satisfaction, professional development and gender diversity at all levels.

Partners

Aresty Institute of Executive Education, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School, recognized as one of the top three business schools in the United States, provides the most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, and has experience in partnering with other foundations and academic institutions to co-create educational programs designed for the microfinance industry. The Aresty Institute runs leadership and other business programs in more than 27 countries. Wharton’s Advanced Management Program attracts 120 business leaders annually, primarily from outside of the U.S.

Web site: http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu

Creative Metier Limited
Creative Metier Limited is a leading player in supporting organizational and individual leadership development. The company specializes in Remote International Coaching Delivery systems that give their programs global coverage. Creative Metier works internationally with clients from a wide range of industries and sectors, and has a strong background working with leaders in the financial sector—members of the microfinance team have collectively coached more than 100 CEOs and senior leaders.

Web site: http://www.creativemetier.com

Founding Sponsor: MasterCard Foundation
The MasterCard Foundation is a founding sponsor of the WWB Center for Microfinance Leadership. The Foundation’s mission is to advance effective and innovative programs in microfinance and youth education worldwide. The Foundation’s goal is to help create opportunities for people to harness their own skills and resources to improve their quality of life.