She remembered some interesting things about me - the morning energy I brought into the office in Addis Ababa; the positive way in which I spoke about the power that Africans hold to drive change across the continent; the small, deliberate insistence on paying attention to details including taking visuals seriously as tools for storytellin. She remembered being treated as an equal despite being an intern with no prior experience working for the United Nations, and how that made her feel genuinely valued.

Nardos Girma Wolde gave as much as she received. I had watched her from the beginning with quiet admiration. Her intelligence was evident, but it was her curiosity that truly stood out. She immersed herself in every task with diligence and grace, asking questions without hesitation, embracing challenges without complaint. When the team entrusted her with translating the Mandela Rules into Amharic for training and supporting major criminal justice events, she brought a professionalism that felt far beyond her years.

Reading her reflections about me and her time as an intern, I realised she had absorbed not just the lessons of her internship, but the spirit behind them. Nardos ended her message with a generous suggestion to me: that I continue inspiring young African women, share more of my leadership journey, and perhaps one day build a structured platform to support the next generation of leaders. It is a suggestion I held closely and worked on and which has now emerged as the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme.

I want to say something she did not ask for, because it deserves to be said. The intern shapes the mentor just as profoundly as the mentor shapes the intern. Nardos’s willingness to grow, to show up fully, to bring her whole self into rooms that were still unfamiliar to her, reminded me why this work matters so deeply. As the African proverb goes, “However long the night, the dawn will break.” Sometimes, the dawn arrives in the form of a young woman who is quietly, courageously becoming herself, and taking you along with her.

Nardos is a lawyer from Ethiopia with a Master’s degree in Human Rights from Addis Ababa University. She is a Leadership and Advocacy for Women in Africa (LAWA) Fellow currently pursuing an LLM in Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown Law in Washington, DC.

Nardos is deeply committed to contributing to Ethiopia’s rapidly evolving technology law and policy landscape. Her passion lies in the intersection of technology and human rights, critical at this time when AI is reshaping governance, rights, and public life. Nardos aspires to play a meaningful leadership role in this space and help ensure that Ethiopia’s digital future is grounded in rights, equity, and accountability. Nardos previously worked at the National Election Board of Ethiopia and was an intern at UNODC Ethiopia.

What the midpoint check-in reveals now is a group of people who have had an aha moment and are beginning to see themselves differently. They are now reckoning, sometimes uncomfortably, with the gap between thinking and doing. This cohort is learning to close the distance and finally believing that the movement to their goal is a continuous process and theirs to make with the right guidance.

Beyond that, cohort connections are forming too, tentatively but genuinely, through virtual and in-person exchanges, shared reflections, and introductions to contacts beyond the group. The learning is therefore not only happening in the ‘mentee-mentor’ room. Halfway through, the picture emerging is one of people moving from knowing their value to showing the outputs they will have by the end of mentorship. That is the mindset to output shift of this programme. That journey is happening and I am holding the space for it.

These seven emerging leaders arrived with real capability and the programme has simply created the conditions for them to recognise it themselves and begin to act on it. That, to me, is what good mentorship shares with good leadership. Sometimes, you don’t need to build people from scratch. You just need to remove what is standing in their way.

Happy World Labour Day. 1 May 2026

From the outset, his style was intentional. He did not feel the need to manage every detail. Instead, he created space and encouraged me to step forward, take initiative, and trust my own judgement. When I made decisions, they were supported by his steady presence and insight. He was always available but never imposed himself. That autonomy, extended with genuine confidence, changed how I showed up. Leadership began to feel less like a role I was performing and more like a responsibility I was genuinely carrying.

The international context we operated in required diplomacy, cultural sensitivity, and restraint. What I observed in him went beyond professional competence. In complex, politically sensitive situations, he led with humility and deep listening. He ensured that local voices, particularly those of criminal justice officials we were there to support, remained central and not peripheral. He understood that being heard is not a courtesy. It is a condition for meaningful work. Watching him navigate those environments showed me that leadership can be both inclusive and decisive, and that empathy and rigour are not in tension.

There was also discipline in how my thinking was developed. Quick answers were rare. Instead, he asked questions that pushed me beyond surface-level responses, questions that required reflection, connection, and foresight. The discomfort was deliberate and purposeful.

It strengthened my ability to anticipate challenges, hold multiple perspectives, and engage stakeholders with greater intention and care. In meetings, my voice was consistently welcomed. Over time, that experience of being genuinely heard, rather than managed or redirected, built something durable. I became more strategic in my thinking, more considered in how I engaged others, and more attuned to the difference between occupying space and contributing to it. His example reshaped my understanding of what empathetic leadership actually looks like in practice: steady, measured, and grounded in real respect.

The most enduring lesson is this. Leadership is about service, trust, and the courage to believe in people before they fully believe in themselves. How you lead matters as much as what you deliver. When a leader demonstrates belief in your potential through the space they create rather than the control they retain, it changes not just how you perform. It changes how you see yourself and what you consider possible.

Today, I carry that forward. I extend the same trust and space to others that was once extended to me, not as a technique, but as a practice rooted in genuine regard for the people I work with. Trust, when practised intentionally, does more than empower performance. It develops leaders. It moves people from waiting for direction to taking responsibility, from self-doubt to self-trust, from following to leading. It is not simply a quality of good leadership. It is a discipline and its effects are lasting.

As Erin Meyer says, “Trust is like insurance. It is an investment you make up front before the need arises.” The best leaders I have known understood this instinctively. They did not wait for trust to be earned through time alone. They chose to extend it early, and in doing so, they built something that no structure or title ever could.

At the mindset level, Margaret modelled a form of leadership I had rarely seen. Through empathetic listening, steady encouragement, and unwavering belief, she reinforced a truth that resonated with my being: leadership does not require aggression or dominance. It can be exercised through influence, service, and clarity.

I carefully observed her lead at national, regional, and global level. I asked her why she took certain decisions and learned her strategic approaches towards broader goals and impact.

She engaged my “what if” questions, reviewed my documents and presentations, and helped me understand organizational culture. She consistently brought me back to purpose and goals. Just as importantly, she affirmed my capability after each performance, reinforcing confidence that was built through action.

As my understanding grew, she entrusted me with more visible roles, such as leading national initiatives myself. Was I really ready? Self-doubt surfaced, as it often does. Margaret did not take over. She listened to my concerns. She stayed present. She guided me and assured me that I would do well.

Over time, this created something steady within me — an inner knowing that empathetic leadership could be exercised, even within imperfect systems.

At the process level, our mentorship deepened through shared work on culturally and organizationally complex challenges. Through long, honest conversations grounded in trust, we explored cultural competence not as theory, but as lived practice. We asked questions openly, learned as outsiders without defensiveness, and stayed curious.

The outcomes of Margaret’s steadfast guidance were tangible. I became more self-aware, particularly recognising my tendency to rush relentlessly through work. By observing the impact of empathetic listening, I learned to pause and set work aside to support colleagues in need. Professionally, I developed the courage to make bold decisions, including relocating to unfamiliar environments to deepen my understanding of the organisation. Strategically, I learned to balance technical expertise with humanity — never losing sight of the people behind the systems.

The most lasting impact, however, was philosophical. I learned that leadership is not about perfection, but responsibility to the people we serve and support. Margaret reminded me that organizations may replace roles quickly, but people remember how they were treated. So, protecting one’s humanity is not optional — it is essential.

Today, I appreciatively carry these life lessons forward. I mentor others, open doors, and advocate for those with competence and potential who are often overlooked.

This is the essence of the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme. It develops leaders who think clearly, act intentionally, and deliver results — without losing themselves in the process.

I was born into a generation that wrote letters by hand, sent job applications by post, and built professional relationships slowly, face to face — long before digital platforms shaped how we are seen. It was a professional world without digital infrastructure — where visibility depended on proximity, being known within institutions rather than digital profiles or public self-expression. The emerging leaders I mentor have grown up with the internet as infrastructure — and yet, paradoxically, many approach professional visibility with a level of caution and discomfort that is striking for a generation so digitally fluent.

These are generations highly fluent in digital tools and social platforms. Yet when asked to build a presence on platforms like LinkedIn, the quiet resistance is immediate and genuine. Some find it exposing, others call it “cringe”, some are uneasy about sharing their age, surname, or being publicly associated with their work. These responses are not trivial, as they reflect a shift in how identity, risk, and visibility are understood.

Gen Z and Millennials are navigating a digital environment shaped by permanence, algorithmic exposure, online harassment, and reputational risk at scale. Their caution is not reluctance without cause; it is informed behaviour.

From my experience, many young professionals experience a real disconnect between personal identity and professional identity constructed in public view. To them, the idea of presenting a curated professional self can feel performative — even inauthentic. At the same time, the labour market has evolved faster than this mindset.

Recruiters increasingly rely on digital presence as a first point of contact — with platforms like LinkedIn reporting that the majority of hiring managers use online profiles in candidate evaluation. Digital absence can therefore be interpreted — fairly or not — as a lack of readiness or engagement.

This is where the tension lies.

My role is not to override that concern. It is to reframe it. Professional visibility should not be viewed as performance, but as presence. In a digital and competitive labour market, presence is often the entry point to opportunity. It allows one’s work, thinking, and direction to be understood before you are in the room.

Platforms like Substack, LinkedIn and Instagram, when used with intention, can function as professional infrastructure. A profile, a portfolio, a piece of writing should not be viewed as acts of vanity. They are signals, and they communicate experience, clarity, capability, and trajectory.

What I encourage emerging leaders to understand is this: visibility does not require self-exposure without boundaries. It requires intentionality — and you decide what to share, how to frame it, and where to draw the line. The challenge, then, is not generational difference alone. It is alignment — between capability, identity, and visibility.

My responsibility as a Mentor is not to tell emerging leaders how things were done. It is to help them navigate how things are — without losing who they are. This is because professional visibility, on their own terms, is not a compromise of personal identity. It is a strategic extension of it. As a Gen X mentor, this has required growth on my part. It has challenged my assumptions about visibility and professionalism, and pushed me to understand a generation navigating a fundamentally different reality. Mentorship, in this context, is not one-directional — it becomes an exchange.

At its core, the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme is designed to build alignment.

Moumi Awudu carries a phrase with her everywhere: “mindset to output.” She first heard it from her mentor, Margaret Akullo, and it has quietly reshaped how she moves through the world. “Whenever things feel uncertain or overwhelming, I remind myself that the mindset I bring into a situation will influence what I’m able to create from it,” she says.

The two women met at a pivotal moment. Moumi had just launched a project she had been building for six months, and doubt was beginning to creep in. “I never intended to give up completely, but I did start questioning whether it should become much smaller than I originally planned,” she recalls. What steadied her was Margaret’s ability to see the vision clearly even when Moumi could not. “She encouraged me to think bigger.” The guidance was practical — sometimes as simple as “Just reach out to this person” — but always impactful.

Beyond the project, Moumi was wrestling imposter syndrome and the guilt of asserting boundaries in leadership. Margaret’s affirmation changed that. “She is incredibly down to earth, and what stands out most is how sincerely she takes people’s ideas seriously. When she supports something, it feels real.” That has inspired Moumi to show up the same way for other women — to open doors, encourage boldly, and take their visions seriously.

Margaret Akullo has spent over three decades working across Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, strengthening justice systems with global institutions including the United Nations. But her reason for mentoring is personal. “I know how powerful it is when someone recognises your potential before you fully see it yourself,” she says. “I navigated spaces where African women were routinely underrepresented — those experiences were formative.” Through her Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme, she has seen what becomes possible when women are given the tools to lead. “Lived experience only becomes meaningful when shared,” she says, “and that is where my purpose lives.”

For Margaret, the exchange has always been mutual. “Each mentee brings perspectives that challenge me to keep evolving — they mentor me too,” she reflects. “The gain is generational. The discipline and courage are entirely theirs — I simply helped them see what was already there.”

A surprise nomination that said everything

What Margaret did not know — until the announcement was made — was that Moumi had quietly submitted her nomination for the Leading Ladies Africa feature, which had received applications from across Africa. From a competitive pool of nominations, Margaret and Moumi were selected alongside others for the International Women’s Day 2026 feature. It was a gift given in silence — a quiet act that perfectly embodied the values their mentorship had been built upon.

“What an incredible honour to be part of this powerful feature alongside such remarkable women. To every mentor and mentee featured — your stories are a testament to the transformative power of women investing in one another. I am deeply inspired by each of you.

Moumi, I am deeply moved and truly honoured by your kind and surprise nomination. What you may not fully realise is that you have given me just as much as I have given you. Your dedication, your courage in pushing through doubt, and the boldness with which you stepped into your own leadership have been a source of inspiration for me too. Watching you grow from a moment of uncertainty into the confident, visionary leader you are today is the very ‘gain’ I speak about in my Mindset-to-Output Programme. I am so proud of you — not just for what you have built, but for who you have become. Thank you for trusting me, for showing up with openness, and for now doing the same for other women. That ripple effect is everything. Thank you, dear Moumi.” — Margaret Akullo

This story was originally featured in “What Women Gain by Giving to Women: Five Stories of Mentorship and Legacy” — a special feature by Leading Ladies Africa in commemoration of International Women’s Day 2026.

At 22, I had just completed my degree and was searching for my first role in International Relations. I knew this was the field I cared about—particularly International Relations and Human Rights—but after repeated job rejections, my confidence began to weaken. I started questioning whether I was truly competitive, whether I was articulating myself well enough, and whether I was ready.

I joined the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme because I needed guidance. More specifically, I needed to strengthen my confidence in communication and learn how to navigate the challenges of job hunting in a more structured way.

Mindset

The first shift happened internally. Through the mentorship, I began to recognise my skills as strengths rather than things to minimise or overlook. Instead of focusing on what I lacked, I learned to identify the value of my academic training, my cross-cultural background, and my genuine commitment to International Relations and Human Rights.

The repeated rejections had dimmed my passion. Working through my mindset helped me reconnect with why I chose this field in the first place. I rebuilt my self-confidence and started to see myself as someone with potential—not someone falling short.

Process

From there, the work became practical. I explored how to articulate my experience more effectively, how to structure my applications with clarity, and how to present myself confidently in interviews. I learned to communicate my ideas in a way that was focused and professional, rather than apologetic or uncertain. Instead of approaching applications with anxiety, I began approaching them with strategy.

Output

The shift did not happen overnight. It happened session by session, draft by draft, until one day I realised I was no longer the same person who had first shown up uncertain and diminished by rejection. With strengthened confidence and a clear approach, I secured my first professional role. The job itself was important—but what mattered just as much was how I arrived there. I was no longer applying from a place of insecurity. I was applying with clarity, intention, and a structured plan.

The Result

I regained clarity about who I am professionally and reinforced my identity as someone committed to international affairs and human rights. I developed practical communication skills that I will carry into every future opportunity.

The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship programme empowered me to turn my insecurity into confidence and uncertainty into a tangible career milestone. It gave me a foundation—not just for my first role, but for my long-term growth. My conversations with Margaret not only boosted my confidence in my career progression but also my passion for the academic side of things. I am now clear about what Master’s degree courses I am looking into and plan to take in the near future.

Through my mentorship with Margaret, that shift became clear. Margaret challenged me to examine how I was showing up — not only in what I delivered, but in how I brought others along. She modelled a form of leadership that was both strategic and grounded, and she consistently reinforced the importance of coordination, shared ownership, and clarity of purpose.

The principle I internalised most deeply was simple: replace “I” with “We.”

In later years, this became central when I moved on to lead a team of 10 professionals across seven countries in Latin America. I was responsible for project delivery, but I also focussed equally on cohesion. Instead of positioning myself at the centre, I prioritised unity and belonging. I ensured that each team member understood not only their task, but the shared purpose behind it. The result was not only successful programme implementation, but a culture rooted in solidarity and trust.

In mentoring me, Margaret always emphasised the importance of preparation beyond logistics. Planning, she would say, is not simply about timelines or workplans. It is about building team capacity, aligning on key messages, and ensuring a unified voice grounded in human rights principles.

With that guidance, I became more deliberate with my team. I paid closer attention to how we communicated, how we engaged local contexts, and how we honoured the diversity within our team. By recognising and leveraging those differences, I ensured our projects remained ethically grounded and culturally sensitive.

The impact was tangible. We executed complex initiatives across multiple countries with clarity and coherence. More importantly, the team felt connected and purposeful. Margaret’s mentorship ensured that I became more intentional in my leadership. More strategic in planning. More empathetic in execution. More anchored in values. I learned that collaboration is a discipline and that leading with purpose requires preparation, humility, and coordination.

Margaret’s mentorship reinforced that leadership is both strategic and human — and that when “We” replaces “I,” impact becomes stronger and more sustainable.

At the start of our first cohort meeting, I asked them a simple question: in one to three words, where are you right now in your career or life? Their answers were immediate and honest.

Early stage. Season of planting. Building. Positioning. Pivoting. Developing.

In those few words, an entire room told the truth about where they were — not where they hoped to be, not where they felt they should be, but where they actually were. That honesty told me everything I needed to know about who I was working with. When I read their applications for mentorship and met each of them in our first conversations, I found the same thread running through every single one. They were all more capable than they believed themselves to be.

Across every application and every answer to the question of what they are good at and what they can offer the world, I saw people who had the evidence of their own capability but had not yet fully claimed it. I recognise this pattern because it is not unique to this cohort. It is one of the most consistent things I encounter in emerging leaders, particularly those navigating career transitions, and those who are, for the first time, trying to make themselves recognised in a world that has not always valued what they bring.

The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme is not a coaching series or a personal development course. It is a structured, deliverable-focused engagement that begins with a goal and ends with something finished — a portfolio, a presentation, a proposal, a personal statement, a strategy document, a research abstract, a professional identity that is ready for the world. The internal work — the mindset, the clarity, the confidence — happens through the act of producing something real. Not through talking about it but through doing it.

What moves me most about this particular cohort is the diversity of thought and purpose they carry. One is building a research voice that advocates for victims within criminal justice systems. Another is translating a decade of humanitarian data work into a portfolio that speaks to a new market. One is committed to creating platforms and visibility for African creatives who have been systematically overlooked. There is a creative communications professional who turns complex ideas into stories that resonate and is now seeking to build a platform that reflects her talent. Another is a bank clerk with ambitions to move into international relations and human rights. One is learning how to find their footing within corporate environments while building the strategic confidence to navigate them on their own terms. And there is an undergraduate student of politics and international relations who delivered a speech on climate change at sixteen and is only now beginning to appreciate the reach of her voice.

Some are meeting for the first time but they share something that matters more than geography or field of work or career stage. They share the willingness to show up, do the work, and be intellectually honest about where they are. In my experience, that combination — willingness, work ethic, and honesty — is more valuable than almost any technical skill.

The first cohort of the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme has begun. Seven people. Five countries. One thread. By the end of their mentorship, each of them will have something finished in their hands - the output. Something they built. Something that proves the gap between intention and output is not as wide as it once felt. Whether you are in an early stage, a season of planting, building, positioning, pivoting or developing — the work begins where you are, and for this cohort, it has already begun.

I am Lujam Okello, Ugandan-British. I was 16 when I was appointed Head Girl at my school of 1,000 girls. Whilst it was a major achievement, my conversation with my mentor Ms. Margaret took on a deeper meaning. She told me it was more than a school title — it was preparation for stepping into visibility and learning to use my voice.

Soon after my appointment as Head Girl, I delivered a speech on COP26 for the Rt Hon. the Lord Deben, Chairman of the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee. When Ms. Margaret told me how proud she felt seeing me, a Ugandan-British schoolgirl speak confidently on such an important issue, I began to understand the reach of my voice. Leadership was no longer about holding the Head Girl title. It became about responsibility — and about inspiring others, especially those from underrepresented communities. Through Ms. Margaret’s mentorship, I begun to gain confidence and perspective.

I am now an undergraduate student studying Politics and International Relations. This degree has given me a language for the things I have always felt deeply - global cooperation; how governments make decisions; why some communities are heard and others are not. These are not abstract concepts to me but rather, they are questions I carry personally, as someone who sits at the intersection of two cultures and has had to learn, from a young age, how to navigate spaces that were not always designed with someone like me in mind.

I will be honest. There have been moments in my journey where I have doubted whether my voice belongs in certain rooms. Moments where I have qualified my own knowledge before I have even been questioned. Where I have said “I am still developing” so many times that it became a habit rather than a truth. Ms. Margaret helped me see that pattern clearly — and helped me understand that humility and confidence are not opposites. You can be at the beginning of something and still have something worth saying.

I am building something — a career, a voice, a body of knowledge — and I know that every leader was once exactly where I am now. My ambitions are clear, even if the path is still unfolding. I want to work in policy and public service. I want to contribute to the kinds of decisions and institutions that shape how societies function and how people are protected or failed by the systems meant to serve them. Eventually, I want to pursue postgraduate study — a PhD — that allows me to contribute not just as a practitioner but as a scholar. I want to be someone who does not only respond to the world’s challenges but helps to define how we understand them.

I think about the young girls in schools right now who are watching to see whether someone who shares their background can step into these spaces with confidence and belong there. I want to be evidence that they can. Ms. Margaret’s mentorship has been part of shaping that understanding.

As an undergraduate student, I am at the beginning but I no longer experience that as a limitation. I experience it as a position of possibility. I am part of the next generation of women leaders not waiting in the wings. We are already here, finding our footing, building our voices, and learning — as I did at 16, standing in front of a school of a thousand girls. That visibility was foundational and it is something I use, purposefully, and in service of something larger than me. That is the lesson I carry. That is the leader I am becoming.

That question surfaced during a focused conversation with Margaret about career satisfaction — and the possibility of early retirement. It was not framed as an exit from work, but as a discussion about long-term ownership: of time, energy, financial independence, and sustained impact.

That conversation marked a shift in my mindset. I began to challenge assumptions I had long taken for granted: that success meant constant upward movement, that fulfilment would arrive later, and that stepping beyond conventional paths was risky. Instead, I strengthened my understanding of success as alignment, long-term intentionality, and strategic value creation — not external validation.

Rather than offering prescriptive advice, the mentorship created space for high-level reflection. I examined what genuinely mattered to me: how I wanted to lead, what kind of work energised me, and what I wanted my future to feel like — not just look like. That reframing did not reduce my ambition; it sharpened it. It reinforced that my career should deliver measurable impact while remaining sustainable and well-positioned for the long term.

The shift continued at a practical level. Reflection moved into deliberate, strategic choice. I did not abandon ambition; I refined it. Success became less about speed or title and more about sustainability, autonomy, influence, and scale. I strengthened my confidence in my own judgement, trusting that intentional decisions — made early — would shape a powerful professional trajectory.

The outcome was both practical and personal. I emerged with sharper clarity and a stronger sense of direction. I felt empowered to define success on my own terms and equipped with a strategic framework to plan accordingly. Rather than feeling confined by conventional expectations, I could see clear, viable pathways that balance professional growth, leadership impact, and long-term optionality.

Perhaps most importantly, I reinforced my role as the author of my career. What once felt like uncertainty became opportunity. I now operate with a clear decision-making framework that honours both my ambition and my values — and strengthens the impact I aim to deliver.

This is what the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme made possible for me.

It supported deep reflection, intentional strategy, and values-led action. It helped me move beyond inherited definitions of success and strengthen a career that truly fits — not by reducing ambition, but by aligning it with long-term leadership, value creation, and choice.

Start with reflection. Move with intention. Build a career that serves your life — and creates impact at scale.

What Doinita needed was not advice, but clarity.

Through her mentorship with Margaret, the work began with deliberate reflection. Rather than being told what to do, Doinita was guided through thoughtful questioning that helped her reconnect with what she was genuinely good at, what energised her, and where her strengths were being underused. One of the most important realisations was confronting the fact that she had outgrown her role, and that staying without reflection was keeping her stuck in frustration.

At the mindset level, the shift was profound. Doinita learned to step back from constant urgency and exhaustion, to listen to her own voice, and to trust her internal compass. Confidence followed—not as bravado, but as grounded self-belief. She began to understand that as her skills and experience grew, her career path needed to grow with them.

At the process level, reflection translated into action. With Margaret’s guidance, Doinita reframed how she approached opportunities. She moved beyond relying solely on online applications and began engaging more intentionally through networking, in-person conversations, and direct outreach. She attended events, connected with people working in fields she was curious about, and allowed herself to explore without pressure. Importantly, she learned that progress is not always immediate—it is built through consistency, clarity, and disciplined follow-through.

The outputs were tangible. Doinita successfully negotiated a salary increase and over several months, she completed more than twenty interviews, strengthening her confidence, communication, and professional presence. Alongside this, she began testing work aligned with her natural talents—hosting events, enrolling in acting classes, and creating space for creativity while remaining grounded and intentional.

The most meaningful deliverable, however, went deeper than any single outcome.

With clarity and confidence, Doinita made the bold decision to step away from a role that no longer aligned with who she was becoming. Choosing alignment over inertia created space for purpose-driven work and renewed energy. The constant pressure of the rat race gave way to intention, self-trust, and direction.

Doinita moved from noise to clarity. From staying stuck to moving forward—deliberately.

The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme supports emerging leaders to pause, reflect, and act with intention. Through structured guidance, honest reflection, and disciplined execution, mentees build clarity, confidence, and real-world outcomes that are earned—not imagined.

Video credit: Moon Ting Li

Leadership does not begin with a title. It begins with what you decide to build from your experience.

Before you understand a leader, you must understand the child.

More than fifty years ago, I was a little girl in Uganda living through conflict. Soldiers patrolled the streets. Executions were broadcast on television. Schools were closed. There was no water, no electricity, no certainty. At night, my siblings and I would hide in a dark corridor or under the bed when we heard gunfire. We were told to be quiet — not as guidance, but as protection.

In that darkness, I asked myself three questions:

Who knows we are here? Who will hear us? Who will rescue us?

Those questions shaped me more than I realised at the time.

Even then, something quiet was forming. Not strength in the heroic sense. Something steadier. A refusal to accept fear as normal. A belief that life could be better than survival.

In 1976, our family moved to Ghana. For the first time in years, I slept without listening for gunfire. Peace felt unfamiliar, but it also felt possible. I did not yet have the language of leadership, but I carried a vision. I wanted to help shape a world that was safer for children.

That vision guided me from Uganda to Ghana, then to the UK, and eventually to the global stage with the United Nations, working across four continents. I believed in the organisations I served because they spoke directly to the child who once lay awake in the dark, wondering who would hear her. Yet the hardest challenges in my professional life were not operational. They were institutional. Invisible barriers. Closed networks. Expectations of conformity.

As a woman in the diaspora, I often felt the tension of navigating systems that did not always recognise the value of lived experience.

Over time, I came to see that lived experience is not something to minimise. It is an asset. It sharpens judgement. It deepens empathy. It strengthens cultural intelligence. For women in the diaspora especially, our layered identities equip us to lead across difference with insight and credibility.

At 55, I chose early retirement from the United Nations. It was not simply a career decision; it was an identity shift. Walking away from a title and institutional authority was confronting. Without the structure of an organisation behind me, I had to ask: who am I now? In that uncertainty, I found clarity.

That decision became the foundation of my Mindset-to-Output Mentorship programme — leadership shaped from the inside out. After decades working within bureaucratic systems, I realised that sustainable leadership does not begin with position. It begins with internal alignment. Clarity of values. Emotional discipline. The courage to act with discernment.

The theme of EmpowerHer2026, ‘From Resilience to Renaissance’ that took place in Vienna, Austria, resonated deeply with me. I shared that resilience kept me alive. It helped me navigate complexity and endure pressure. But renaissance required something more. It required choice. Resilience is survival. Renaissance is creation. Renaissance is choosing what you become after the storm. It is knowing when to stay and contribute, and when to step away with integrity. It is understanding that leadership is not about endurance alone, but about impact.

Through my mentorship, I have watched young women — and some men — move from hesitation to action. I have seen doubt turn into decision. The transformation is rarely dramatic. It is built through small, deliberate choices made consistently. Leadership shaped from the inside out begins with a single question:

Who are you choosing to become?

As Carl Jung wrote, “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” For me, that has meant this:

I am not what happened to me. I am what I chose to build from my lived experience.

That choice remains ours — at every stage of life.

Video credit: Moon Ting Li

Subscribe now

Margaret Akullo
EmpowerHer 2026, Women Powerhouse Hour
Palais Wenkheim, Webster University
Vienna, Austria
27 February 2026

At the mindset level, the conversation that stayed with Jaden was not about strategy, networking, or productivity. It was about patience—and learning to stay present.

His mentor Margaret offered a simple but grounding perspective: progress does not require constant urgency. Staying present means allowing yourself to experience what is happening without being overwhelmed by highs or discouraged by setbacks. It means focusing on what is in front of you, while still holding your longer-term vision.

At the time, Jaden was deep in the demands of his final academic year. The advice landed exactly when he needed it—and it changed how he related to pressure, ambition, and progress.

At the process level and with Margaret’s guidance, Jaden began to approach his studies and early career decisions differently. Instead of rushing outcomes or measuring himself against external timelines, he focused on consistency, attention, and intention.

He learned to stay steady—neither overly discouraged by challenges nor distracted by small wins. By remaining present, he was able to fully engage with his studies while continuing to move deliberately toward his goals of graduating and securing a job.

That shift shaped how he showed up every day.

On an outcome level, his final year became more enjoyable and more productive. Jaden felt grounded, focused, and clear and graduated with an Economics degree. Professionally, that same presence and patience helped him cultivate opportunities deliberately—culminating in securing a paid internship in the sector he had been working toward, followed by full-time employment as a Junior Analyst working with AI in Financial Services.

The success did not come from pressure. It came from alignment.

For Jaden, the result went deeper than a single achievement. He developed confidence rooted in self-trust, emotional regulation, and clarity of purpose. The good moments felt richer, the challenges more manageable, and his goals more attainable—not because they became easier, but because he became more grounded in how he pursued them.

For Margaret, this moment reaffirmed a core truth behind the programme: mentorship is not always about pushing harder. Sometimes, it is about slowing down just enough to lead yourself well.

The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme exists for moments like this. It supports emerging leaders—including young men—to build focus, discipline, and emotional maturity alongside ambition. It creates space for honest conversations, grounded guidance, and practical outcomes that reflect real growth.

Jaden’s story is a reminder that leadership does not always announce itself loudly.

Sometimes it shows up as patience, presence, and quiet consistency—and when supported by the right mentorship, those qualities lead to real results.

My dialogue with Moon Ting Li on the Fem Renaissance Podcast was one of those moments. What began as an exploration of women’s leadership in institutions like the United Nations became something deeper — a reflection on what it means to lead when authority and impact no longer align.

From the outside, institutions such as the United Nations can appear prestigious and purposeful. Yet those of us who have worked within them understand the tension that arises when ideals and institutional realities diverge. On the podcast, I spoke openly about my decision to take early retirement from the United Nations — a decision rooted not in disengagement, but in alignment. Leaving authority behind was not stepping away from leadership. It was redefining it.

During our conversation, Moon Ting’s curiosity extended far beyond hosting an episode. She interrogated the very systems she had worked within. Our discussion moved beyond titles and positions to questions of purpose, integrity, and the cost of remaining silent when values are compromised.

Leadership, in that moment, required modelling vulnerability without losing clarity. I demonstrated that influence does not depend on institutional power.

After the episode aired, our exchanges continued, and what I witnessed was the evolution of something more intentional. Through our reflection and strategic dialogue, Moon Ting began to recognize that our leadership conversations were laying the foundation for a brand. That evolution became Moon Ting Studio. She did not abandon her lived experience within global institutions; she transformed it into her own creative practice, now offering strategic communications service to leaders and projects. She evolved from questioning systems to strategically shaping purpose-driven narratives and brands that influence them. That is leadership in action.

From my lived experience, leadership is about helping others see that they can build what does not yet exist. The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme is grounded in this belief: lived experience is an asset. When reflection is paired with structure, conversation becomes direction and direction becomes output.

As a leader, my mentorship is not about giving answers. It is about creating the conditions for emergence. Moon Ting’s journey — from our dialogue on the Fem Renaissance Podcast to the launch of Moon Ting Studio — demonstrates that when women trust their voice, align with their values, and act with intention, they do not simply pivot. They build.

Her goal was ambitious. She wanted to deliver a cross-continental Moot Court in Ghana, bringing together law students from Austria and Ghana for an immersive legal and cultural exchange. It was a vision grounded in values, but one that demanded far more than passion alone. It required clarity, disciplined leadership, and the ability to translate an idea into a complex, real-world outcome.

This is where mentorship became pivotal.

Through the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme, Moumi did not simply learn how to organise an event. She improved her leadership skills.

At the mindset level, she strengthened her strategic thinking and stepped fully into ownership of the project. She learned to trust her judgment, hold the bigger picture, and lead with confidence across cultural and institutional boundaries.

At the process level, she mapped the initiative from start to finish. She coordinated teams across two countries, managed timelines and responsibilities, engaged multiple stakeholders, integrated feedback, and held herself and others to high professional standards. The work was deliberate, structured, and demanding—and she met it with discipline.

The outcome spoke for itself. The Moot Court was delivered successfully. Students collaborated across borders, presented legal arguments at a professional level, and participants gained not only academic experience but also leadership, confidence, and cross-cultural competence. What began as a bold idea became a tangible, high-quality deliverable with real impact.

For Moumi, the result was transformational. She demonstrated exceptional leadership, facilitated international collaboration, and delivered a fully executed, professional initiative that reflected both her values and her capability.

For me, as her mentor, this journey reaffirmed why this programme exists. Alongside practical leadership guidance, the mentorship created access to networks in Ghana, Austria and the Netherlands, increased visibility for the initiative, and amplified its impact across local and international communities. Most importantly, it supported a young leader to move from vision to execution without losing herself in the process.

Moumi’s story is not unique in its ambition—but it is distinctive in its outcome.

Too many emerging leaders carry powerful ideas that never reach completion. Not because they lack talent, but because they need structured guidance, accountability, and the confidence that comes from finishing meaningful work.

The Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme was created precisely for this reason. It is designed to help emerging leaders clarify what they want to do, structure how they will do it, and deliver work that meets real-world standards. The confidence that follows is earned—not imagined.

If you are an emerging leader with a clear goal that you are ready to complete, this programme is an invitation to do the work properly, with intention, discipline, and support.

Start with a goal. Finish with a deliverable.

Applications for the Mindset-to-Output Mentorship Programme are now open via magaretakullo.com.

Subscribe now

Values-led and empathetic leadership

Leadership grounded in integrity, care, and quiet strength.

• “Margaret modelled a style of leadership grounded in integrity, discretion, and the quiet but deliberate empowerment of others.”

• “Her empathy is steady and powerful — she leads with empathy, even under pressure.”

• “She inspires without trying to impress.”

• “It’s how she makes people feel — respected, capable, and important — that stays with us.”

• “She leads with empathy, even under pressure. She asks questions that create clarity.”

Empowerment, trust and autonomy

Helping mentees grow by trusting them and standing beside them.

• “She gave me autonomy to own several work processes and provided quiet support from the sidelines.”

• “She believes in people before they believe in themselves.”

• “She opens doors — and shares her platform.”

• “She mentors through action, not just words.”

Personal growth, reflection and self-awareness

Creating space for insight, clarity, and inner growth.

• “She helped me begin the essential process of self-reflection and self-inquiry.”

• “Encouraging me to think more deeply about my vision, strategy, and aspirations.”

• “You used words to describe me such as kind… which made me wonder if that’s how everyone else sees me.”

• “She helped me redefine success on my own terms.”

Strategic thinking and professional excellence

Raising standards while building confidence and capability.

• “Her sincerity and commitment… coupled with very strong work ethics made me rise to the desired standards.”

• “Conversations with Margaret have given me insights into the importance of strategic thinking and cultural competence.”

• “Her guidance transformed how I lead.”

Presence, patience and life wisdom

Mentorship that extends beyond work into life.

• “The power of intentionality and protecting one’s peace… determining who is in your circle.”

• “Patience and allowing yourself to stay present in the moment.”

• “That advice helped me focus more with regards to study and cultivating the origin of my career.”

Confidence, purpose and belief

Igniting belief, courage, and purpose.

• “She automatically instils tenacity and confidence in you, to follow your dreams.”

• “Propels you to seek and fulfil your purpose.”

• “Leadership isn’t just about the role or the title… it’s about using your platform to elevate others.”

Leadership reflections:

- Mentorship is presence: Being there for others (even the quiet check-ins).

- Empowerment is trust: Believing in their abilities.

- Networks are key: Surrounding mentees with a community that lifts them up.

When we invest in others, we are also shaping individual success stories, strengthening communities, inspiring courage, and building bridges across borders. That, to me, is visionary leadership in action.

Margaret emphasized that it is important to:

• Lead with cultural intelligence and empathy

• Embrace adaptability and learn from challenges

• Foster inclusivity by making space for all voices

• Commit to continuous growth

Through these reflections, Margaret shares insights on courage, collaboration, cultural humility, and purposeful action — offering emerging leaders tools to grow, lead with empathy, and create meaningful impact. Her writing honours the communities and experiences that have shaped her while inviting others to lead with intention, connection, and purpose.

Her series is a practice of intention: pausing, noticing, learning, and offering insights back to a wider community. It encourages reflection, relational connection, and the act of uplifting others as the foundation for meaningful, lasting leadership. Leadership, she reminds us, is not about influence over others but stewardship with others — and everyone deserves a seat at the table.

Margaret weaves lived experience, cultural identity, and global perspectives into a tapestry of insights that explore how leaders grow — not through perfection, but through reflection, courage, and purposeful action. Her reflections encourage emerging leaders to lead with empathy, cultural humility, and integrity.

Ultimately, Margaret’s series speaks to leaders grounded in purpose, shaped by community, and committed to growth. If this resonates with your own leadership journey, consider subscribing to the Leadership Reflections series. You’ll receive new essays directly in your inbox — thoughtful, grounded, and designed to support your growth as a purposeful, culturally aware, and community-rooted leader.