- What inspired you to write Empowered: Leadership and Self-Awareness for Women, and what personal experiences shaped its message?
Empowered grew from something I have observed repeatedly: very capable people can have the knowledge, qualifications and potential to lead, yet still question whether they are ready, whether they belong in certain spaces, or whether their voice carries enough weight. For women, some of these questions can become even more complicated because of the expectations, stereotypes and additional challenges they may encounter.
My own experiences across different roles, responsibilities, leadership spaces and mentoring relationships have certainly shaped how I think about these things. But I consciously chose not to make Empowered autobiographical. I am a private person, and I never wanted my personal story to become the centre of the book.
In fact, I would rather someone finish Empowered knowing more about themselves than knowing more about me. I want readers to question their values, recognise their strengths, understand their patterns, examine their boundaries and think about the kind of leader and person they want to become.
For me, writing the book was less about documenting where I have been and more about leaving behind something useful — something people can return to at different stages of their own journey.
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- Why do you believe self-awareness is the foundation of effective and authentic leadership?
Because before you can lead other people effectively, you need some understanding of the person doing the leading — yourself.
You can learn frameworks, communication techniques and management strategies, but if you don’t understand what drives your decisions, what triggers you, what you value, where your blind spots are, or how your behaviour affects other people, even the best leadership tools have limitations.
And I don’t see self-awareness as simply knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It is also being willing to ask uncomfortable questions: Why did I react that way? Why am I avoiding this conversation? Am I making this decision because it is right, or because I want approval? What impact am I having on the people around me?
That is why I see self-awareness as a practice rather than a destination. You don’t “complete” it. As your responsibilities, relationships and circumstances change, you keep discovering new things about yourself.
And there is another part that matters enormously to me: self-awareness without action has limited value. Once you recognise something about yourself, the next question is, What are you going to do with that knowledge?
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- Many women experience self-doubt and imposter syndrome. What practical advice would you give them to overcome these barriers?
One thing I would say is: don’t make the disappearance of self-doubt a prerequisite for taking action.
We sometimes imagine that confident people act because they have no doubts. In reality, confidence can be built through action. You take the opportunity, contribute the idea, ask the question, apply for the role or have the difficult conversation — and every time you do, you create evidence for yourself that you are capable of doing difficult things.
It also helps to separate feelings from facts. Feeling underqualified doesn’t automatically mean you are underqualified. Look at the evidence: What have you accomplished? What skills have you developed? What problems have you solved? What feedback have you received? Keep a record of those things, particularly because we can be surprisingly quick to forget our own progress.
And when you don’t know something, allow yourself to say, “I don’t know yet.” Leadership isn’t about knowing everything. Sometimes confidence is simply trusting yourself enough to learn what you don’t know.
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- How can women remain authentic while working in environments where traditional leadership styles are still dominant?
I think we first need to separate authenticity from rigidity.
Being authentic doesn’t mean, “This is who I am, so I will never change.” We all adapt our communication depending on the situation, the people involved and what is required of us. Growth requires adaptation.
The important question is whether that adaptation requires you to abandon your core values or become a version of leadership that doesn’t feel like your own.
I have never believed leadership has to belong to the loudest person in the room. You can be thoughtful and still decisive. You can listen and still challenge. You can lead with empathy and still hold people accountable. You can be quiet and still have a voice.
That last idea is particularly important to me. Leadership isn’t about performing somebody else’s personality. It is about understanding what you naturally bring, developing the areas where you need to grow, and learning how to use your strengths effectively without constantly trying to imitate someone else’s way of leading.
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- Your book discusses setting boundaries. Why is this skill important for both personal growth and professional leadership?
I think boundaries are sometimes misunderstood as walls or as saying “no” to everything. To me, boundaries are really about clarity.
Clarity about what you can give, what you cannot, what you are responsible for, and what you are no longer willing to sacrifice simply to prove that you are capable.
Without boundaries, being dependable can slowly become being permanently available. Ambition can become exhaustion. Helping others can become taking responsibility for everything.
Good boundaries also make you a better leader because they force you to communicate expectations clearly. They help you respect not only your own capacity but other people’s capacity as well.
And boundaries will look different during different seasons of life. The goal isn’t to create one perfect system. It is to recognise when something is no longer sustainable and have the courage to adjust it.
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- How can women balance ambition, responsibilities, and personal well-being without feeling guilty or overwhelmed?
I would actually challenge the idea that balance always means giving everything equal attention at the same time.
Life doesn’t usually work that neatly.
There will be seasons when your career requires more from you, seasons when your family or personal responsibilities need more attention, and seasons when you need to prioritise yourself. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are failing somewhere else.
One thing I have learned from wearing multiple hats is that you cannot always give 100 percent to every role simultaneously. What you can do is become more intentional about where your energy needs to go right now.
I also think we need to stop treating rest as something we earn only after everything else is finished — because everything is rarely finished.
Ambition and well-being shouldn’t have to be enemies. Sustainable ambition means building a life in which your goals matter, but you matter too.
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- What role do emotional intelligence and vulnerability play in building trust and becoming a stronger leader?
Emotional intelligence changes the way we understand both ourselves and the people around us.
It allows us to recognise what we are feeling without automatically reacting from that emotion. It also helps us notice what someone else might be experiencing, listen beyond the words being spoken, and respond with greater awareness.
Vulnerability is equally important, but I don’t think vulnerability means telling everyone everything about yourself. You can be vulnerable and still have privacy. For me, vulnerability in leadership can be as simple as saying, “I don’t know,” “I got that wrong,” “I need help,” or “You had a better idea.”
Those statements can require more strength than pretending to have every answer.
Trust grows when people experience consistency between what a leader says and how that leader behaves. Emotional intelligence helps us understand our impact; vulnerability allows us to acknowledge when that impact isn’t what we intended.
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- How can organisations create more inclusive workplaces where women feel confident, respected, and empowered to lead?
Inclusion has to go beyond representation.
It is not enough to bring different people into the room if some of them still have to work significantly harder to be heard, recognised or given the same opportunities.
Organisations need to look at the systems around leadership: Who gets visible opportunities? Who gets sponsorship as well as mentorship? Whose ideas are heard? How is potential identified? Who receives constructive feedback? Are people evaluated against consistent standards?
Mentorship has been especially meaningful in the way I think about growth. A good mentor doesn’t simply give you answers. Sometimes they ask the question you weren’t asking yourself, help you see a strength you were overlooking, or challenge you to step into something before you feel completely ready.
But inclusion cannot depend solely on individual mentors or supportive managers. It has to become part of the culture and the systems of an organisation. People should not have to be exceptional simply to receive an equitable opportunity to contribute and lead.
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- Which chapter or lesson from Empowered is closest to your heart, and why?
It is difficult to choose one because the chapters build on one another, but self-awareness is probably closest to my heart because so much of the rest of the book begins there.
Self-awareness has changed the way I understand growth. It isn’t about having yourself completely figured out. Sometimes it is simply recognising a pattern you didn’t see before, understanding why something affects you, noticing how you respond under pressure, or admitting that something about the way you’ve been operating needs to change.
But there is another theme that is equally meaningful to me: legacy.
That is part of why Empowered exists. Legacy doesn’t have to mean doing something enormous or being remembered by thousands of people. Sometimes it is what another person carries forward because you taught them something, encouraged them, mentored them, challenged them or simply made them believe something different was possible.
In a way, Empowered connects those two ideas for me: know yourself deeply enough to grow intentionally, and then use that growth to create something that extends beyond yourself.
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- What is the most important action you hope readers will take after completing this book?
I hope they do something with what they discover about themselves.
I don’t want someone to close Empowered, feel inspired for a few hours and then continue exactly as before. Maybe they finally set a boundary. Maybe they apply for something they have been talking themselves out of. Maybe they ask for a mentor. Maybe they have a conversation they’ve been avoiding. Maybe they recognise a pattern that has been holding them back. Or maybe they simply begin trusting their own voice a little more.
The action doesn’t have to be dramatic.
That’s probably one of the biggest messages I want people to take from the book: self-awareness becomes powerful when it turns into action.
My name may be on the cover, but Empowered was never written so that readers could discover me. I hope they read it, question themselves, challenge themselves and eventually close it having discovered something meaningful about who they are and who they want to become.
That, to me, would be the real success of the book.
