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Women are getting recognized at the workplace but they can still position themselves better to ensure they break the bias by ensuring they unlearn the myths surrounding women at the workplace or even by embracing self-love.
Our experiences as women shape who we are, and our race, ethnicity, gender, height, weight, sexual orientation, place of birth, and other factors impact the lens with which we view the world.
This year as women sort to break the bias, at Nairobi Garage we held a networking cocktail event themed #celebratingunstoppablewomen within our ecosystem where we discussed a number of issues that we thought affected women in one way or another in line with the #IWD2022 theme.
The session, led by Wamuyu Kiragu, Managing Director – East Africa at Pulse, Kui Kinyanjui, Head of Regulatory and Public Policy at Safaricom PLC, Lizz Ntonjira, Global Communication Director at AMREF, Irene Miru and Nekesa Were, Director of Strategy – AfriLabs, the networking session revolved around a great discussion on bringing the femininity power in leadership and boardroom.
One of the attendees at the Nairobi Garage #IWD2022 Event that happened on 8th March 2022 at Our Spring Valley Location during the QnA session
We learned how important it is to recognize and acknowledge our own biases so that we can identify them when making decisions, and prevent ourselves from making calls based on a biased viewpoint.
The session also offered a safe space for women to bear their hearts out and tackle a number of topics including:
Women need to Create a Lasting Impact
On Creating an impact in the #boardroom, Lizz Ntonjira Global Communications Manager at AMREF shared insights that revolved around the areas of confidence, articulation, experience, building relationships and
On confidence, Liz told women to build their knowledge and credibility in a particular area to give them confidence and allow others to be confident in them.
She also emphasized the need for women to be more articulate when delivering their points, speaking clearly and concisely at their workplace.
On experience, Liz said, “Use your experience to triangulate information from varied sources, to demonstrate why you’ve come to your conclusion and also ensure you also invest in relationship building; build rapport with your peers and other networks. Women should strive to be open, honest, and transparent in their intentions.”
In line with this year’s #IWD theme on Breaking the bias, Liz said,” We need to #BreaktheBias that people who do not conform to status quo are difficult or hard-headed. Change can be a scary thing for many people, which is perhaps why many tend to prefer things to simply stay as they are- and instead, when considering decisions focus objectively on both the losses and gains.”
Nekesa Were, Director of Strategy at AfriLabs, speaking Emotional Intelligence: The Untold Super Power at the Nairobi Garage #IWD2022 Event
While speaking about Emotional Intelligence- The Untold Super Power- Nekesa Were Director of Strategy at Afrilabs stated that many times empathy, interpersonal relationships, and social responsibility come easy to women and women should use them to their advantage when shaping our leadership styles.
On Myths Kui Kinyanjui Head of Regulatory and Public Policy at Safaricom PLC while sharing on unlearning limiting myths that society has placed on women stated that still there are so many myths that limit women from taking up senior positions in the organizations.
She added that at times, even the most well-intentioned among us buy into myths that society has placed of women and perpetuate the biases we are working hard to eliminate. However, as women, we can always choose to reject beliefs and behaviors that we find personally limiting or detrimental to humanity as a whole.
Women need to Lean In more Into Vulnerability & Authenticity
Seth Godin legendary business thought leader once said, “everyone you interact with is changed forever. The only questions are, how will they be different, and how different will they be.” Think about how profound that statement is.
The way you choose to show up each and every day, regardless of the position you hold, impacts not only your life but also the lives of everyone you come into contact with.
This doesn’t mean that in order to be a good leader you have to have all the answers. Or even that you should pretend to. In fact, research suggests that great leaders do exactly the opposite, in fact one of the critical components for great leadership is the willingness to be vulnerable with others.
While speaking at #IWD2022 event Wamuyu Kiragu, Managing Director – East Africa at Pulse also added emphsis on leaning in to vulnerability and authenticity as women in leadership. “ Getting familiar and comfortable with vulnerability has the power to shift how we show up within ourselves, in our relationships, in our communities, and in our world,” said Wamuyu.
On Leaning into authenticity Wamuyu added that this is a superpower that women can leverage to help them know their values & showing their colleagues who you really are, finding & expressing your voice, bringing your whole self to work & not allowing fear, or others, to hold you back from being who you truly are.
“As a leader, if you won’t be open and vulnerable, then neither will your employees or colleagues. Being vulnerable is the birthplace of creativity and innovation and change,” she concluded.
