Overview
According to Women and Gender Equality Canada, women make up nearly half of the Canadian federal public service — but hold less than 29% of senior management and legislative positions. Despite decades of progress, barriers to the highest levels of leadership remain: limited mentorship, institutional bias, and pipelines that quietly narrow at every rung.
Meanwhile, the environment those leaders are navigating has never moved faster. AI is already reshaping how government services are designed, delivered, and governed — and it's doing so faster than the policies and structures meant to guide it.
This one-day, high-impact training is designed exclusively for women in the Canadian federal government who are ready to lead through that complexity: not by being technical experts, but by developing the judgment, influence, and strategic clarity that effective leadership requires.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for women in government who want to lead with more confidence in a landscape that's changing faster than the guidance meant to support them. Whether you're a mid-level professional preparing for senior leadership, a director navigating the realities of AI procurement and shadow tool use on your team, or a specialist building the capacity to influence beyond your role — this day is designed for you.
Mid-level IT professionals in government aiming for senior roles
New and aspiring female leaders seeking confidence and strategic insight
Women in technology policy and digital transformation roles
Women in government roles navigating AI-related change
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Lead with judgment, not just authority. Develop the clarity, conviction, and courage to make decisions in complex, uncertain environments.
Influence without formal power. Build trust across silos, navigate the policy-delivery divide, and create the conditions for your teams to do their best work.
Ask the questions that reveal truth. Move from passive approval to active leadership by developing fluency in the questions that expose whether your teams are doing accountable, evidence-based work — or just performing it.
Build a resilient leadership practice. Leave with a concrete 90-day experiment grounded in your actual work.
Online Training
Empowering the Next Generation of Female Government Leaders
Session details
Location: Virtual
If you are an early to mid-career woman looking to move from an individual contributor role to management, or a mid to late career leader looking to move into senior management, you will benefit from this training.
- Empower Leadership: Develop executive presence, strategic thinking, and decision-making skills tailored to IT roles in the public sector.
- Enhance Technical and Strategic Acumen: Understand current government IT trends and learn how to leverage emerging technologies for effective public service.
- Foster Professional Growth: Gain practical advice on career progression, networking, and mentorship to support long-term leadership goals.
- Promote Inclusive Practices: Learn best practices for building diverse and inclusive teams that drive innovation.
No previous experience necessary
Key Sessions
This interactive, two-day session provides a comprehensive overview of the future of IT leadership in government. Participants will explore key trends shaping the public sector, develop executive presence and strategic thinking, and learn how to lead digital transformation with confidence. Through real-world case studies and expert insights, attendees will gain practical skills in change management, crisis response, inclusive team leadership, and career advancement. The session also includes a dynamic Q&A and action planning segment to help participants apply learnings, overcome gender-specific barriers, and grow their impact as emerging IT leaders.
- Reframing confidence: leading without perfect information
- Communicating for alignment in complex systems
- Culture signals that build trust and psychological safety
- Activity: Leadership Purpose Statement + 2-minute pitch
- Frameworks for strategic thinking
- Decision-making in systems designed for stability, not outcomes
- Applying an AI lens: how do you make decisions about systems you can’t fully audit
- Questions for honest evaluation
- Activity: Real-world case scenario—reducing uncertainty
- Mapping influence vs. formal authority
- The policy/delivery dyad: shaping outcomes
- Collaboration and coalition-building
- Activity: Influence-mapping exercise
Assigned teams forA system constraint I’ve learned to navigate effectively.”
Table prompts:
- "A system constraint I’ve learned to navigate effectively”
- "An AI-related decision I've been asked to make that I didn't feel equipped for"
- “A cultural signal I want to normalize on my team”
- “A leadership moment I’m proud of — big or small”
- Live demo: working a real problem out loud with AI tools
- Hands-on: participants tackle a shared scenario with AI, laptops open
- Debrief: what to trust, what to question, and who is accountable when AI touches the work
- Using your Leadership Purpose Statement as a foundation
- Self-assessment: strengths, development areas, and areas of underused authority
- Four commitments: governance gap, team conversation, public model, condition for success
- Activity: designing your 90-day experiment
Next Steps: Resources, peer check-ins, follow-up call option
- Group share: one action I’ll take in the next 30 days
- Ask me anything — 15min
- Book club: podcasts & book suggestions
- Next steps: resources, peer check-ins, follow-up call option
Meet Your Facilitator
Hillary Hartley
Former Chief Digital and Data Officer and Deputy Minister for Digital Government, Government of Ontario
Hillary Hartley spent 25 years navigating government as a woman in technology, and she ended up running it. She was Ontario's first Chief Digital and Data Officer and its Deputy Minister for Digital Government from 2017 to 2023 — the person responsible for the Ontario Digital Service and for rethinking how an entire province builds and delivers services to the public.
What makes Hillary worth listening to isn't the title, though. It's that she changed how a big, hierarchical institution actually works — pushing user-centred design and agile delivery into places that had done things the same way for decades, and winning over senior leaders who needed to hear it in plain terms, not tech jargon. Her remit went past digital, too: she oversaw ServiceOntario and consumer protection as Deputy Minister of Consumer Services. Before Ontario, she co-founded 18F in the U.S. federal government. She's now a Fellow of the Future Government Institute.
So when Hillary talks about getting ahead as a woman in government tech, it's not theory. She's done it.
Register Today
Join this training for professionals working within the Public Sector
Super Early Bird
Ends 10 Jul
$795
per person + tax Save $500 savingEarly Bird
Ends 7 Aug
$995
per person + tax Save $300 savingRegular
Ends 17 Sep
$1,295
per person + taxFor group or payment enquiries or custom training solutions, please contact [email protected]
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