Traci Hughes, Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s Global Head of People Success Services and a female leader with an African-American background, opened with an authentic and moving keynote. She explained the difference between equality – each individual is given the same resources or opportunities – and equity, which recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. Traci thanked the diverse audience for taking an interest in the topic, helping to build the bridges for those who are yet to come – like we are benefiting from those who succeeded before us. She also stated that if perfect equity had been reached, everyone would have a sense of belonging. “If we see people that look like us in leadership positions, it will encourage others to follow. We must never underestimate how much power our presence has.” She underlined the importance of listening and learning from each other, to overcome diversity-related perceptions through dialogue.

Genevieve Koolen, HR Director Â鶹ԭ´´ Africa and executive sponsor of BWN Africa, then moderated the inspiring panel discussion with a strong all female speaker line-up: Ruwayda Redfearn, CEO Deloitte Africa, as well as Monique Naidoo, Executive Procurement South Africa at BCX (an Â鶹ԭ´´ customer), and Kholiwe Makhohliso, the newly appointed MD for Â鶹ԭ´´ Southern Africa. In fact, Kholiwe was a speaker at last year’s Women’s Month panel, when she was still with her previous employer!

It was refreshing to listen to a new generation of strong, female leaders who know how to drive the business but also bring in qualities like empathy and kindness. “The CEO does not have to be the loudest in the room,” said Ruwayda and encouraged the audience to challenge traditional requirements for leaders. Diversity leads to better decisions and higher performance. “Things are moving in the right direction, but slowly. We need a greater sense of urgency”. She also remembered the role models of her youth – mothers, aunts, grandmothers who had powerful conversations whilst cooking and understood the importance of getting their kids into higher education.

Monique sees positive changes as well, like the existence of equity committees, policies, advocacy and mentorship. “We need more women having a seat at the table though, and it should be more than two women per table so that they uplift each other and don’t compete”. “Women are nurturers and drivers” but also “I have worked with great men”. Her recipe for success is to strive for more, but in a sustainable way balancing different priorities like job and family, even if it means not to have the biggest house during certain life phases.

Sacrifice, tenacity, and resilience are required to pursue a career, according to Kholiwe, who also remembers strong women in her family showing her that “nothing is impossible”. She encourages women to be curious and learn from others’ successes and failures. “Leadership requirements have changed … and women can drive change, not just look to the men to do it”. Kholiwe called on us to “raise your voice” and stated that passion put into work needs to be recognized. Also, “we need to put leaders up the stream that don’t look like the stereotype”.

Moderator Genevieve’s last question was if there is a price to pay when women are investing in their careers. There was consensus amongst the panelists that time with kids and family suffers, and this causes “mommy guilt”, even if their kids never complained about it and became quite independent. A benefit is also that children experience that women can be in top positions, which might have a positive impact on their own lives. However, there is a need for a strong support system, ideally within the family. What often falls short is me-time or time for hobbies – like hiking and biking in Kholiwe’s case. One needs to be very intentional to make time for these things, on top of a demanding job. She says it is important to understand that there are no superwomen or superhumans, we can only keep asking ourselves: “what is the best I can do today?”.

The session ended with a question from the audience, on how to approach a career once a goal has been defined. Ruwayda gave some clear and practical tips, based on her own experience: Become aware of which role you want, ask for support to get there, find mentors and allies to learn from, get involved and take on the complex clients and difficult tasks, take responsibility for your own career and challenge the norm.

The key take-away of the session is, that it will be more attractive for women to pursue a career in tech, if we continue to break traditional patterns of leadership traits. Promoting qualities like empathy and kindness will also lead to higher performance and better employee satisfaction.

The event also featured video messages from Manos Raptopoulos, Â鶹ԭ´´ Regional President EMEA South, and Tjaart Malan, Cloud Success Services Director Africa and BWN Executive Sponsor​, who sent greetings from his birthday vacation. Both promoted male allyship and underlined the importance of driving equity in the workplace which benefits all – women and men.

After this successful event, the Women’s Month program of BWN Africa will continue with three #IamRemarkable workshops where employees can learn about personal branding based on facts.

The post BWN Africa Flagship Event: Equality vs. Equity – How Do We Create Fair Opportunities in the Workplace? appeared first on Â鶹ԭ´´ Africa News Center.

°Őłó±đĚý program enables this by giving diverse teams of employees opportunities to dedicate their skills and professional expertise to benefit social enterprises in other countries and their surrounding communities, opening participants’ minds to different cultures which, in turn, promotes diversity at home and in the workplace.

Launched in 2012, Â鶹ԭ´´ Social Sabbatical has positively impacted the lives of more than six million people, with Â鶹ԭ´´ employees contributing in excess of 359,000 volunteer hours to help over 450 non-profits and social enterprises across 52 countries address critical business challenges.

“Self-empowerment is seeking the solution rather than fixating on the problem,” says Gina McNamara, regional chief financial officer for Asia Pacific & Japan at Â鶹ԭ´´. During her Â鶹ԭ´´ Social Sabbatical in Kenya in 2014, she encountered a phenomenon that she hadn’t witnessed in her native Australia: women outnumbering men in their quest for professional and personal growth.

While volunteering her time and expertise at the African Management Institute (AMI), which delivers workplace learning to equip entrepreneurs and managers with the tools and training they need to succeed, she met female AMI program participants who refused to sit back and let anyone or anything stop them from being successful.

“After speaking with these women, I realized that despite, or maybe even in response to, the poverty plaguing the country they are determined to further their careers and personal development. Many said that they were doing the courses to progress themselves, their families, and their businesses,” shares McNamara.

Inspiration Has a Knock-On Effect

At the time of her sabbatical, McNamara held a position in commercial finance for Â鶹ԭ´´ Australia and New Zealand. However, these women encouraged her to make a massive shift in her career trajectory. “In the Australian business world, there aren’t as many confident women as there are in Kenya. It is due to these women that I applied for the position of Chief Financial Officer for ANZ and later Regional Chief Financial Officer for Asia Pacific & Japan. They got me thinking about my career and my dream of making an impact in the boardroom and helped me find the confidence to pursue this.”

Additionally, McNamara saw how the Kenyan women she worked with wanted to improve themselves to better serve their communities. This motivated her to think about what more she could do back home. “It got me to consider the bigger picture and how we could do good things in the community and not just do business. I believe that if you do good, then the business will flourish as well.” This led to her supporting some very passionate colleagues and the Australian management team in developing the Â鶹ԭ´´ Australia Reconciliation Action Plan, which aims to help support the economic prosperity of First Nations peoples.

Equipping Females of the Future

Her journey also spurred her to join the Future Female Leaders mentoring program for females working in finance both as a mentor and mentee. “The program entails mentoring multiple women across the global finance community and sponsoring their careers. I get as much out of it as the women I mentor do. We have to help each other and so I encourage my mentees to mentor other women, especially with more and more women joining Â鶹ԭ´´ and the  – the largest employee-driven network globally,” shares McNamara.

As for AMI, McNamara and her fellow Â鶹ԭ´´ volunteers pooled their skills to support the company in developing a franchise model to deliver training to African managers and leaders, ranging from small business owners to CEOs and CFOs. Together, they developed a handbook to help the company scale and recommended various processes and procedures that could be implemented to achieve this. Now, the program is more accessible to more people, particularly women.

With AMI being co-founded by a woman, McNamara says that there is a need for greater investment in women’s entrepreneurial ideas, emotionally and financially. “Men naturally create their own networks and sponsor each other. As women, we help each other emotionally. We need to open our networks and be more focused about doing so.”

She concludes by saying, “My Â鶹ԭ´´ Social Sabbatical experience enabled me to reflect on what more I could do beyond being a finance leader and, for me, that was to help other women and drive diversity and inclusion to make Â鶹ԭ´´ an even better place for everybody.”

Feeling inspired? For more information about the Â鶹ԭ´´ Social Sabbatical program visit:

Hemang Desai is global program director of Â鶹ԭ´´ Corporate Social Responsibility.

This article first appeared on the Â鶹ԭ´´ News Center.

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