First Kenyan PAPE Series Cohort Completes

Jade Communication’s Centre For Applied Human Communications has partnered with US-based PAPE to offer a unique programme to empower women professionals in Africa. 

The Personal Agency in Professional Environment (PAPE) Series is designed to equip women with diverse capabilities to build their professional effectiveness through skills development, practice, and support from a generative community. It is structured as a three-month series of ten weekly virtual sessions via Zoom, during which two executive coaches meet with a cohort of six to ten participants.

The PAPE Series combines skill-building lectures with facilitated discussions and recommended homework. In addition, participants can access curated resources, videos, white papers and studies, and one-on-one coaching calls if desired.

First Cohort

The first Kenya cohort, comprising ten women professional leaders from diverse fields, completed the programme from October to December 2023 and culminated in a completion celebration on 20 January 2024. 

Jade’s CEO, Paul Achar, said that the PAPE Series is a unique concept that provides a safe space for professional women leaders that enhances their personal growth while creating communities for a more significant impact. 

“ The reality is that PAPE provides an opportunity for leading African professional women from diverse fields, whose paths might have never crossed, to come together and form an empowered support community that will impact them and other women and create a ripple effect in society.” 

PAPE founders Juliet Erickson, an executive coach, high stakes communication specialist, and author, and Maeve Richard, a diversity, equity, and Inclusion expert and an organisational effectiveness coach, developed and serve as programme facilitators. Ms Erickson said they designed the programme to create a space where women could flourish, transform and benefit from a stronger sense of self, clarity of purpose, and confidence.

Lauding the success of the first Cohort, Ms Richard said: “We hope that this first Kenyan PAPE community continues to grow, thrive, and serve one another individually and collectively. After all, where two or three gather together, so much good can result!” 

She urged the participants to continue investing in themselves and prioritise their commitment to the community that has formed. She encouraged them to support, be supported by, care about, and be cared for, challenge, and be challenged to achieve what matters: taking better care, advancing career goals, balancing what’s important, and succeeding in crafting an ideal life.

Skills building 

Some of the skills-building content includes a listener-centred approach to planning for high-stakes engagement, communication, presentations, negotiations, and conversations. Also, PAPE provides ways to “read” and respond to others and effectively understand your and their emotional and communication styles.

Individuals are also taught techniques to enhance leadership effectiveness and “presence” when leading an effort, running a meeting, or giving and receiving feedback. Also addressed is how to handle confrontation to achieve better outcomes, reduce friction, and overcome resistance.

Inner resilience development 

During the sessions, participants discuss their strengths, awareness of their sensitivity, and what they experience in the professional environments where they want to excel. Participants explore their internal capacities to remain calm and confident, and to engage in credible, competent, and composed ways.

The primary goals are to recognise what is in their best interests and to develop inner resilience. The focus on building up inner resourcefulness and resilience is to produce more constructive, positive, and purposeful responses.

Participants form dyads. The dyad conversations and the sessions enable the participants to build a community of mutual encouragement, insight, and lasting support.

Participants share strategies to leverage mentors, sponsors, allies, and cheerleaders. There is exposure to practices such as affirmations, self-compassion, calming techniques, and grounding techniques. The programme culminates with an opportunity to step into the Spotlight to work on a live issue and receive ideas, feedback, and support from the Cohort. 

Real transformation 

Indeed, based on the testimonials around the table, PAPE Cohort One participants are already experiencing transformation in their personal and professional lives. Media, communication, and International PR expert Patience Nyange said she has become a more confident leader and learned to own her voice.

“Leadership is a tough journey, especially for women, and there is a constant need for women to be taken through training, coaching, and mentorship because the journey becomes easy when women are granted an opportunity to share. Listening to everyone share during the sessions was very helpful, she said.

Ambassador Dr Josephine Ojiambo describes the programme as a dynamic experience that builds a sense of community within the Cohort, helping them clarify their purpose and sharpen their decision-making.

“The course content is relevant, transcending generations, and provides feedback and experiential training. It delves beyond regular definitions of self-esteem, leadership, and other terms to engage the psyche and person of each trainee.” 

To her, each session transforms the individual from indecisive to forward-looking and resilient, from unable or reluctant to negotiate to an excellent presenter who can “read the room.”

More importantly, the training strengthens each woman’s ability by carefully identifying how to act in her b areas of doubt, conflict, and inertia.

Second PAPE cohort registration

Urging professional women leaders to enrol in the life-changing programme, Patience is hopeful that the PAPE Series will help women advance their leadership and enhance their professional effectiveness and impact. 

Dr Ojiambo highly recommends the PAPE experience to women seeking to expand their agency at the early, mid, senior, C-suite, and beyond stages of their careers. It is a “must do” and a “must have” for every employer and employee, woman mentor and mentee, young girl, middle-aged and senior woman, she said.