Defy your gravity. Rise!

Fear is my gravity! Spiders, snakes, rejection, failure – I’m afraid of it all. Yet I rise. Let me tell you how I do it.

I know that snake venom can seriously interfere with my longevity. Despite this, hiking in the mountains and forests of South Africa, which are full of creepy spiders and snakes, is one of my favourite pastimes. In comparison, fear of failure is intangible and largely irrational. It lives in my head. Does it stop me from scaling professional heights? Nope!

I remind myself every day that these fears are stepping stones (instead of stumbling blocks) to the stars. My journey is a very individual one, and my strength to rise above what holds me back—like yours—lies within. What buoys me? Personal knowledge that courage pays off.

Here is what I have learnt:

• I remain a work in progress. It was in those moments that I let go of what I had or what I was (through taking on new roles and new challenges), that I allowed learning and growth to mould me into what I could become.
• Like paying it forward, I should fail forward. I now share my stories in the hope that my experiences help others believe that they too can achieve corporate success in whichever way they define it.
• I have my personal board of directors. They are a small chosen group of sponsors, mentors, guides and role models who I trust to guide me constructively, authentically and truthfully when the path ahead is not clear to me. These same people are also my safety net in case I do fall.
• Don’t be too strong to be weak. You will remain trapped by your fear of failure if you cannot be humble enough to allow failure to be your teacher.
• “Forget impossible—remember, I’m possible.” A young girl with disabilities taught me this. As a black woman in a leadership position at a company that leads in its industry (born and raised in Apartheid South Africa where the colour of my skin determined my worth), I remind myself most days: It is possible. I’m possible.

 Like Accenture, I believe the future workforce is an equal workforce.

I believe that with the right support and a gender equality workplace policy that is more than skindeep, women everywhere can rise to play a bigger role in business and the economy.

This year, Accenture announced that it will achieve a gender-balanced workforce, with 50 percent women and 50 percent men, by 2025. This is a global commitment and, in South Africa, we have already overachieved on it: Accenture in South Africa consist of 1,357 females and 886 males. In Getting to Equal, Accenture chairman and CEO Pierre Nanterme articulates the company’s position thus: “We believe strongly that gender equality is essential for a high-performing, innovation-led organisation. Diversity makes our business stronger and more innovative and, most importantly, it makes the world better.”

The mentoring, training, career guidance, and personal and leadership development that Accenture has provided, has helped me overcome many gender, societal and self-imposed limitations to defy gravity. Thanks to Accenture’s #GettingToEqual strategy, I know what it means to be recognised for the very specific and individual value I bring to the organisation, and to be given the opportunity to grow my ‘self’ and my career in parallel.

But, to ‘get to equal’, personal effort is also required from each of us.

Here’s my pledge:

As a beneficiary of Accenture’s #GettingToEqual strategy, it is my responsibility as a woman leader to do my part in furthering this goal. To this end, I pledge to lift as I rise. I will defy my gravity and rise beyond my fears. And, as I rise, I will support and lift others until there are more of us looking down from the glass ceiling than looking up at it.

I challenge you to do the same.

In fact, as August brings Women’s Month in South Africa to a close, I’d like to challenge every woman—and man—out there: defy your gravity and RISE!

And I have a personal dare for you: inspire us!

• What does #DefyYourGravity mean to you?
• How do you/ have you overcome your ‘gravity’?
• Encourage or nominate your #DefyYourGravity hero to tell his/her story.