For women working in packaging and processing, walking into a meeting and finding they are the only woman in the room is still a common experience. SheLeads, a two-day leadership workshop developed in partnership with PMMI’s Packaging and Processing Women’s Leadership Network (PPWLN), was built to help them not just navigate that reality but also lead within it.
The program is facilitated by Kristi Dooley, a leadership coach for PMMI who originally coached participants in PMMI’s broader leadership development program. Around the same time, the Women’s Leadership Network was floating a parallel idea.
“The Women’s Leadership Network had proposed the idea of putting on a leadership program specifically geared toward women in the manufacturing space among PMMI members,” Dooley explained. The PPWLN had been hosting networking events and webinars, but members wanted a program designed for women who want to step up more effectively.
To build it, Dooley and PMMI went straight to the source. “We reached out to members of PPWLN and got feedback on what they would want the components to be,” she said. After ground-truthing with member input, the team piloted the program with a group of women leaders, adjusted it, and has been offering SheLeads as an annual program.
Katarina Nikolic, Automation Solutions Consultant – Food & Commodities/Logistics at Omron, first learned about the SheLeads program through a PMMI presentation for Omron's Industry Sales team. The program immediately stood out to her as a great opportunity to continue growing both professionally and personally within the packaging and processing industry.
“As a young professional, I saw it as a valuable opportunity to connect with experienced women in the industry, gain new perspectives, and further develop my communication and leadership skills,” Nikolic said.
Day One: Defining your leadership brand
The first day of SheLeads is built around a single question: What do you uniquely bring to your organization? Dooley spends most of day one helping participants articulate their leadership brand and explore the components of leadership presence—what it means, what it looks like, and how to live it more fully.
A coaching assessment grounded in archetypes anchors the work. Participants explore which archetypes resonate most with them as a doorway into identifying their distinct strengths and contributions. The intent, Dooley emphasized, is not to fit into a template.
“It’s not about being some cookie-cutter version of ‘leadership looks this way,’” she said. “It’s really bringing what’s unique for me and amplifying and bringing more of it.”
By the end of day one, participants have to speak their brand to the class—naming it out loud and, as Dooley put it, having it “in their bones.”
Day Two: Speaking up with confidence
Day two pivots from self-awareness to skill building. Dooley walks participants through models for having more confident, assertive, and effective conversations at work—including how to give feedback up, across, and down the organization.
It is a particularly relevant focus given the audiences SheLeads serves. When asked how the program helps women who realize, through the day-one work, that assertiveness isn’t yet a strength, Dooley pointed back to the foundation.
“Part of successfully being more assertive and speaking out is really about knowing who you are and what strengths you bring,” she said. From there, the second day equips participants with the skills and, therefore, the confidence to speak up, push back, engage in conflict productively, and give feedback.
That includes a simple, repeatable model for delivering feedback without triggering defensiveness. This is a tool participants frequently cite as one of their favorite takeaways. “A lot of times that’s something people feel uncomfortable with or shy away from,” Dooley said. “They don’t want to be in conflict with someone or risk damaging the relationship, so they just don’t say anything.”
Nikolic absolutely feels the program was a confidence booster in more ways than one.
“The program helped strengthen my confidence in professional settings by encouraging me to speak up, contribute ideas, and approach conversations with more clarity and confidence,” she said.
A cross-generational cohort
SheLeads was initially marketed to mid-level managers, but Dooley said it quickly became clear the program’s value reaches well beyond that group. The most recent cohort, held in Chicago last October, ranged from women in their early 20s in their first or second jobs out of college to senior leaders such as HR directors and operations managers.
“What we noticed was that the conversations we had in the group were so cool because some of the people with more experience were learning so much from the Gen Zers or millennials,” Dooley said. Stereotypes about generational work styles got challenged in the room, and participants of every level walked away having learned from one another.
As a young professional, Nikolic’s favorite part of the program was its diverse group of attendees and the connections it enabled with women from different backgrounds and areas of the industry.
“Hearing their experiences, challenges, and leadership journeys created an environment that was both motivating and empowering,” she said.
The network effect
While there isn’t a formal networking track, the connections built during the two days are a major part of the experience. Dooley deliberately mixes participants into pairs, trios, and small groups throughout the workshop, and PMMI typically sponsors a relaxed group dinner on the first evening. Because cohorts almost never include two attendees from the same company, participants build cross-organizational relationships across the industry.
“That is one of the things people say is one of their favorite parts of the program, just making contacts with other women,” Dooley said.
Click here to register for SheLeads upcoming workshop Sept. 29-30 in Chicago.
