Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the challenges to women’s authentic leadership identities contribute to their decisions to abandon leadership positions mid-career. It examines the critical career moments and underlying themes behind these women’s decisions to leave. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on semi-structured interviews (n = 9) with women between the ages of 32-53 who had opted-out of mid-level corporate leadership positions. Findings The study found that work–life balance was not the primary factor in women’s decisions to leave. Instead, the women in the study reflected on their inability to be themselves and contribute perceived value to the organization as triggering their decisions to leave. Research limitations/implications There are limitations in using a small sample of women selected through the researchers’ social media networks resulting in limited cultural and racial diversity. Practical implications Misconceptions about women’s decisions to leave corporate leadership mid-career misleads human resource (HR) practices and initiatives focused on retaining female talent. Organizations need to recognize and reshape the organizational environment to support women to be their authentic self and make the value of their contributions more transparent. Originality/value The paper is original in that it examines opt-out from the lens of women’s leadership identities in corporate contexts. There are limited studies that have examined the connections between identity and women’s career decisions beyond work–ife balance. It provides practical value to HR practitioners and organizations focused on retaining female talent.

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Women's leadership development programs (WLDPs) have been suggested as programmatic additions for achieving gender-equity in organizational contexts.  These programs are conceptualized as transformative learning spaces affording women the opportunity to explore uncritically examined assumptions and create new perspectives of themselves as leaders.  This paper explains how these types of transformative learning environments are predicated on dialogue that encourages critical reflection in the context of caring relationships.  Recognizing that women may arrive in leadership programs with varied capacities for both relational learning and critical reflection, this paper seeks to explore the communication practices needed to create the dialogic conditions of care and critical reflection.  It outlines the results of a qualitative study that examined critical incidents of dialogue in a women's leadership development program to demonstrate the ways in which facilitators communicate to create these conditions.  The results suggest how taking a communication perspective on dialogue may increase a facilitator's capacity to integrate care and critical reflection.

Research methodology Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to test the effectiveness of the case exercise process as it relates to increasing student participation and engagement. Surveys were used as a data collection method where students self-reported their participation. Case overview/synopsis This research paper argues that class engagement and participation is a process that must be learned by students. To this end, it presents a case exercise process designed particularly for the introduction to management class that helps students to learn and apply management theory while increasing their engagement. While each element of the process is not new, the integration of the elements into a process that is structured and repeated throughout the semester adds value to student participation. Empirical data demonstrated that students increased their participation in classes that used the case exercise process over traditional lecture classes. Complexity academic level This paper is relevant for faculty members seeking to use case exercises in teaching undergraduate management courses, particularly introductory management courses.