Accentuated Leadership Coaching - Auckland Graduation

Words cannot describe the excitement, the sense of achievement and pride we all felt yesterday. The first ever cohort of Accentuated in Aotearoa New Zealand graduated! We celebrated, shared our reflections and held a workshop with our supporters and allies on how to better support women of colour in the workplace.

Over the last six months, the four participants, Amber Dong (Management Accountant at AUT), Aroha Merilees (Quality Practice Lead at Flux), Emily Peng (Consultant at PwC), Yekti Crowe (Student Experience Manager at Summer of Tech), had four in-person full day workshops in Auckland and online group coaching sessions. They defined their authentic leadership identity and vision, embraced their cultural backgrounds as unique strengths, cultivated a confident mindset and habits, and learnt to influence fearlessly. By working on themselves, influencing others and showcasing their progress, they are paving the way for the next generation of ethnically diverse women leaders. So that ethnically diverse girls and women have role models. So that ethnically diverse girls and women feel that they are not alone, they are seen and understood, they are not underestimated and are valued.

Aroha shared how an unexpected redundancy in the middle of Accentuated provided the hard but optimal challenge for her to test her newly cultivated leadership identity and confidence. Amber reflected on the importance of and the immense benefits to her leadership from gaining clarity of who she is and reflecting on what makes her and this women of colour group unique.

Emily told the story of how growing up she didn't have a space where she felt she truly belonged. Now she has learnt to grant herself the sense of belonging because she no longer tries to assimilate instead she knows deep down that she is needed because of the value she brings. Yekti highlighted the transformation she felt on the second day of Accentuated where she turned her self-talk around and has found the power in her voice.

We couldn't have been more proud to witness the journeys of these amazing wahine toa and to see them taking the stage, taking up space!

We then had questions from the audience about what follows from here for the participants and how do we continue to create system changes. Participants have said they will continue to live the leadership vision they have set for themselves, make use of the tools they have learnt and spread their influence. As for system changes, we encouraged everyone to be a change agent and we will continue to grow this community of change agents.

Afternoon tea was made up of Chinese dumplings and buns which propelled us well into our workshop on how to better support women of colour better in the workplace. The group came up with great ideas of tracking average time to promotion across ethnicity and levels, providing internal mentorship and sponsorship for women of colour, doing the work to educate ourselves on women of colour challenges and not asking marginalised groups to do the work. We then wrapped up the workshop with an accountability circle where everyone voiced an action inspired by today that they are going to take within the next week. We had managers who will look into getting the pay gap data and start to track time to promotion and women of colour who will have conversations with their managers about what they want to achieve next year.

It was a whirlwind of a day with close to tears moments, gratitude and honour. We would like to thank Rewired at Xero for sponsoring the venue throughout the Auckland Accentuated programme and Xero for sponsoring the afternoon tea of our celebration and workshop event. I would also like to express a huge thank you to all of you who have believed and supported me along the way, whether that was through funding, connecting me with people, co-designing the Accentuated programme, lending a hand at our events or telling me to keep going. Thank you!

About Accentuated

Unlike other leadership programmes, Accentuated is designed for ethnically diverse women leaders, because we recognise the unique challenges you face and the value you bring.

Over four in-person full-day workshops and online coaching sessions over six months, you'll:

Define your authentic leadership and purpose, explore what makes you unique as a leader, and how cultural backgrounds are an asset.
Cultivate a confident mindset so that you are no longer battling with the imposter syndrome or any minimising self-talks and work habits
Shine brighter by learning to communicate your value clearly, influence fearlessly and handle stereotyping and racism
Expand your network and lead by example to build up the next generation of diverse leaders.

The Accentuated in-person workshop dates

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Tues 7 November, Tues 12 December, Tues 13 February and Tues 12 March

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington
Wed 15 November, Thurs 14 December, Thurs 8 February and Thurs 7 March

Ōtautahi Christchurch
Fri 20 October, Fri 1 December, Thurs 15 February, Fri 15 March

Tauranga
Tues 21 November, Tues 19 December, Tues 20 February and Tues 19 March

Kirikiriroa Hamilton
Taking Expressions of Interest.

One partial scholarship available now in each region.

suki xiaoDecember 1, 2022