How Guitar Center’s Leadership Institute Is Helping Women Rock Their Careers

Guitar Center recently introduced Women Rise, an extension of Guitar Center University’s Leadership Institute, which aims to prepare our next-generation leaders to drive the culture, develop emerging talent, unlock innovation and make a strategic impact across our enterprise.

Leadership Institute is designed to be an open discussion between participants to foster the growth of cross-functional relationships and encourage personal reflection. The goal of the program is to provide insight into challenges leaders typically experience, as well as hone in on tools and practical approaches that enable greater career and personal success. 

The experience consists of leadership workshops: senior leader insights, 360-degree feedback from colleagues, one-on-one coaching, career success planning and peer coaching. The Women Rise cohort of Leadership Institute also specifically targets emerging leaders who are female in order to help promote greater gender balance among our future leaders. It acknowledges that women face some unique challenges in the workplace and provides a forum for discussion among the participants. 

“Fostering and enriching our culture is incredibly important to Guitar Center Enterprise and one of our strategic initiatives,” Anne Buchanan, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Guitar Center, said. “The Women Rise program is a great example of how we are working to grow women leaders within the organization and help them develop skills that will enable them to make a strategic impact across the enterprise.”

Female associates with at least two years’ tenure at Guitar Center, who were also people managers, were eligible for this year’s Women Rise cohort. The 17 participants were either self-nominated or nominated by their managers and were evaluated on a number of criteria before being selected for the cohort. 

The Leadership Institute program focuses on six key topics:

Your leadership journey: As the foundational cornerstone of the program, this session focuses on broader aspects of career success as well as on effective leadership styles and approaches. It also touches on how other associates in the organization experience the participant as a leader.

Owning your voice: This section of the program builds and enhances participants’ leadership brand and presence, including through effective communication skills.

Building meaningful networks and relationships: Participants develop and leverage social capital, strengthen relationships, and learn how to assess the value of professional relationships. 

Navigating work-life balance: This portion involves discussing strategies for making decisions when it comes to personal and professional commitments in order to maintain a healthy and productive work-life balance.

Negotiating for leadership success: Here, participants assess their influence and negotiation skills and tactics, including by using insights that help them develop a more confident approach and feel better prepared to ask for what they want and need in their personal and professional lives.

Leading high performing teams: Being an effective leader means building and maintaining high-performing teams. Participants identify key characteristics of high-performing teams, which leadership behaviors develop high-performing teams the most and what essential actions leaders can take to foster the growth of their teams.

Guitar Center is proud to help empower our associates as they grow and develop in their careers through the Guitar Center Leadership Institute and other initiatives, such as our career pathways and AMPLIFY initiatives. We love to help our associates find their sound. 

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