March 15 and 16, 2024, The Guardian will host the inaugural Guardian Woman Festival in recognition of International Women’s Month, with the theme Inspiring Inclusion. This flagship event will highlight women who stand out in their various fields and continue to inspire all women – and the men – who support them.
In the run-up to the event, we’re talking to some of the most inspiring women we know, learning about their success, understanding what ‘Inspiring Inclusion’ means to them, and what life lessons they live by.
Our first featured woman is leadership development strategist Kemi Ogunkoya. She is the co-founder of LeaderX, a mobile application that helps leaders develop their leadership skills in real-time; author of the best-selling book The Leadership Guardian and sits on the board of The PowerWoman Network, Lead Africa Now and Young Leaders Council.
Tell us about LeaderX and why you co-founded it.
In 2020, it became increasingly obvious that there were challenges the traditional leadership development model couldn’t fully fix, especially the challenges of time, finance, and return on investment for most traditional interventions. In 2022, we created a one-stop centre where individuals can build capacity for skills needed in the workplace, especially African professionals, where there seems to be a lot of talent shortage and an exodus of skills and talents across the Atlantic.
How does your work as a leadership development strategist influence your work on the PowerWoman Network?
I do many things that focus on leadership development, and one expression is the PowerWoman Network, which I founded in 2020. I founded the PowerWoman Network as a community, a safe space for women to actually empower each other, grow together, and be able to achieve greater heights in every area of life. I believe in integration for women.
The theme of the upcoming Guardian Woman Festival is Inspiring Inclusion. What does inclusivity mean for you?
For me, inclusivity is about ensuring everyone finds a place and everyone truly belongs. They can get their voices heard. They can feel like their opinions matter and that their dreams are alive irrespective of their gender.
What does success look like to you in the programmes you have run?
For me, success is waking up in the morning and getting a message from someone sharing great news saying, ‘Thanks to being a part of this programme, I was able to do this’. I wake up to quite a number of those messages and calls. What success looks like to me is where you’re not just living for yourself anymore, but a life of meaning that can fully impact your world and create a ripple effect of success for other people.
Is there a kind of an overriding message that you tell women?
I probably sound like a broken record on this, but I always say: You can’t become better at what you do unless you become better at who you are. So irrespective of whether you are a woman or man, from a privileged home or from a humble background, ‘who are you?’ that’s really what determines what you become.
