Women of Colour Rise

What if your advantage lies in your ethnically diverse women staff?

Ni hao, kia ora and hello! Have you imagined what it would be like if all your ethnically diverse staff have the safety and confidence to speak their minds and contribute like they have never done before? Have you dreamed of the days when you no longer need to compete for diverse staff because your organisation is well known for being an inclusive and empowering employer?

My name is Suki Xiao. I am an ICF credentialed coach (Associate Certified Coach) based in Aotearoa New Zealand. As a woman of colour, I know what is like, always trying to fit in, to be better, to meet family’s, cultural and societal expectations. I have experienced the loneliness of being the only woman, or the only person or woman of colour in a room and at a leadership table. I want this experience to change for the next generation and we need you, the employers, to be on board!

I can give you a whole bunch of reasons that you hear time and time again about why you need to invest in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

• the financial reason of organisations with the most ethnically diverse executive teams outperform their peers

• having more diversity in staff lead to more diversity of thoughts and innovation

• having more diversity in senior levels of the organisation attract and retain more diverse staff

• having diverse staff that actually represent the diverse customer and community base you have is simply the smart thing to do.

However, the prime reason that I am passionate about this work is that it is the RIGHT thing to do. Why should ethnically diverse staff and women of colour’s representation statistics drop as we move up the levels of any organisation? Why should one group of people be disadvantaged due to their gender or race?

I look forward to the day when we truly understand that equity and equality is not synonymous and we seek to understand and listen with empathy to the stories of those who are different to us.

Organisations we work with

Allyship for Managers

Want to become a more conscious manager who is an ally for ethnically diverse staff?
As managers and leaders, you are in great positions of power as you often are in charge of how recruitment is done and determine who gets promoted. Sure, we would all like to think we are not biased. However, we all know unconscious bias exists and if we do nothing about it, then we are going to get what we have always gotten.
This programme welcomes all managers and leaders who are open to learning and being challenged in their mindset and practices.

Accentuated for WoC

Want to deliberately grow your women of colour staff? You are well aware that the representation of diverse staff at the top of your organisation’s leadership table is minimal. Not only do you want to change that, you want to use a different approach than sending your staff to the run-of-the-mill leadership programmes.
Accentuated is a 6-month in-person leadership programme designed by women of colour for women of colour. It focuses on providing a safe space for women of colour to talk about their specific leadership challenges and supports them in discovering and owning their unique backgrounds and perspectives.
This programme welcomes all who identify themselves as women of colour.