ELEVATING PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP

WE lead is the year long leadership experience for a cohort of 20 women environmental leaders in Africa each year. It includes tailored trainings, facilitated dialogues, one-on-one coaching and mentoring, community building, peer support, and increased visibility focused around the 5 pillars of personal leadership, wellbeing, relationship and collaboration, visibility for impact and radical imagination.

Women need to bring their emotions, compassion, empathy and their legacy mindset to the environmental space.

Dr Colleen Begg

FIVE FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS

As women leaders we can change the way conservation and environmental protection is done in Africa by taking our place at decision-making tables and using our influence to create a community of practise that builds our resilience, is inclusive and brings others along with us. This will ultimately lead to greater environmental impact. Through examining our own journeys and with the help of leadership experts, WE Africa has identified five pillars that form the foundation of the WE Africa leadership experience.

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP GROWTH

You will be able to clearly identify your leadership style, values, purpose and goals and lead with greater self-awareness, courage and influence.

WELLBEING AND WELLNESS

You will feel healthier and more energized through a focus on holistic wellbeing and stress management tools, no matter where you work or what challenges you face.

COLLABORATION AND PEACEBUILDING

You will be able to build and maintain more productive relationships and help create a culture of collaboration and inclusion, rather than competition.

VISIBILITY FOR IMPACT

You will be able to use your authentic visibility to build influence and collective impact within your communities, teams, organisations and countries.

RADICAL IMAGINATION

You will have a growth mindset and will be inspired and equipped to “pay it forward” by helping other women in your network on their own leadership journeys and growing the WE Africa community into a movement across Africa and beyond.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

We visualize the WE Africa leadership experience as a baobab tree grounded in the fertile soil of wellbeing and personal growth that culminates in strategic approaches to scale as a community of leaders. This is inspired and adapted from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, where the roots of the tree are WE’s five foundational leadership pillars, embedded in Maslow’s motivational pyramid.

Only when our basic needs are met (e.g., wellbeing), are we able to invest in our own leadership development and that of others. A strong root system keeps us grounded and gives us stability. As we grow as leaders, we need continual nutrients (energy and inspiration) so that we are healthy and resilient and can pay it forward while being flexible enough to withstand the winds of change that arise, but our roots stay grounded. The more “healthy” trees/leaders we have the more seeds we can produce, creating a movement towards a different way to do conservation, ultimately leading to more lasting environmental impact.

WE LEAD

ELEVATING PERSONAL AND COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP

FIVE FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

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