Table 1.

EMPOWER Curriculum Overview³²

Learning modules	Description
Module 1: Leadership effectiveness	•Best practices and rules of engagement •Sharing personal stories to build rapport •Meeting observation exercise •Personal leadership action plan
Session 1	Faculty advisor/facilitator ensures that rules of engagement are set. Participants present their personal stories and articulate their expectations for the peer mentorship circle.
Session 2	Participants engage in reflective dialogue concerning women in leadership positions and their own leadership aspirations. They attend a meeting in their regular place of work, record their observations to inform their own leadership styles, and discuss with peers.
Session 3	Participants share their leadership action plan. They seek feedback from and offer support to their peers as they discuss their leadership development goals for the future.
	Assignment: Identify an important change to lead (e.g., organizational, national) and provide an actionable plan using a specific framework.
Module 2: Negotiation	•Discussion of past experiences with and plans for future negotiation •Review of negotiation tactics and skills described in the book, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It.25 •Simulated negotiation role-play activity •Outline of strategic approach for future negotiation
Session 1	Participants consider the importance of negotiation to career advancement in academia and reflect on their successes, challenges, and future aspirations, particularly as women in academic medicine.
Session 2	Participants meet as dyads to engage in a role-play negotiation activity of a package negotiation (dean and prospective department chair) and discuss lessons learned.
Session 3	Participants outline a strategic approach to negotiation, including specific tactics and strategies, to increase their chances of success.
	Assignment: Strategically plan and outline a negotiation to address an identified need.
Module 3: Strategic career advancement	•Sponsorship self-assessment •Leadership interviews •STAR (situation/challenge, target/task, action, results) statement
Session 1	Participants complete a self-assessment of the sponsorship they are currently receiving and discuss their plans to optimize sponsorship in their professional life.
Session 2	Participants interview an institutional leader to gain an insider’s view of organizational dynamics and share their observations with their peers. They consider how to incorporate what they have learned to further expand their social network and opportunities for professional development.
Session 3	Participants identify (and overcome) barriers that might contribute to discomfort with self-promotion. They practice presenting their STAR statement to their peers so that they are better prepared to share their accomplishments with others.
	Assignment: Prepare a STAR statement to promote accomplishments, capabilities, and impact with others.
Module 4: Leading in life	•Assessment of values, goals, and priorities in the four domains of life—work, family, self, and community •Review the exercises described in the book, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life,26 to learn how to achieve success across all four domains •Work–life integration promoting experiment
Session 1	Participants consider whether their work–life integration experiences are authentically aligned with their values and goals. They assess the relative importance of work, home, community, and self in comparison to how much time and attention is focused on each of these domains.
Session 2	Participants discuss key stakeholder expectations in the four domains of their life, reflecting on whether and how these relationships fit together as a whole. They consider how to produce a more unified system of work–life integration.
Session 3	Participants present their work–life integration promoting experiments and reflect on any early impact of their efforts. They debrief the peer mentorship intervention overall.
	Assignment: Outline a work–life integration promoting experiment to implement.