AWiB leadership understands that we discover our passions and strengths when we do things that take us out of our usual lives and challenge the status quo.

AWiB leadership understands that we discover our passions and strengths when we do things that take us out of our usual lives and challenge the status quo. AWiB is blessed by attracting those who are practitioners as our mission, developing women leaders of our nation, demanding us to be livewires. We ascertain that leadership is a greater responsibility as most whose passion is leadership attest to it; therefore we bring you this month, the dynamic and conscious and self-renewal AWiB leadership.

Conscious leadership is having an awareness of one’s environment, own existence, sensations, and thoughts. It means being truly aware of the impact of one’s leadership on others and on our organizations.  Do other people hear what we are saying and understand it in the way we intend when we deliver those words? Do we understand our impact on others?   Does our leadership have the best effect on others?  Conscious leadership requires us to be self-reflective of our impact on others—the way we communicate and the way we act—and prompts us to continuously take actions so that we are on the right road—however less travelled! It is about developing our emotional intelligence; and it is about branding ourselves and images constantly. It is valuing developmental feedback and consistently soliciting that feedback.

AWiB’s corporate culture is ‘Excellence’ – uses leadership style that embraces people and takes them along the journey; it is about inclusion, respect, transparency and trust. We want to be exemplary and show others how to become conscious leaders by being conscious about how we are seen by others.  This means we must be able to work with and integrate perspectives that vary from our own without alienating those who differ from ours.

By developing an ethical and social accountability towards ourselves and others, we strive for a practical, purpose-driven existence based on the values and principles of improving the social good and achieving lasting social change. How can we ensure that the next generation of leaders will work toward developing lasting social improvement? By recognizing and promoting examples of socially conscious leadership, we can encourage tomorrow’s leaders to engage in the principles of the social consciousness. As practical example, every October AWiB celebrates “Women of Excellence”, those women who have made themselves socially accountable and leading a purpose driven life. Every July, AWiB presents her Gems, a program where we bring our own members, those who are valuable, useful and beautiful. They share their triumphs and trials so that others learn from their life story. This, we believe is our contribution to developing young leaders by showing them how others have done it. As women, we have the opportunity to shape something great and achieve success, personally and professionally.  That is something we should celebrate and seize the opportunity to make it count for other women to recognize their worth and become committed to their development.

AWiB’s leadership must be strong, honest, self-respecting and extremely confident group. This leadership is one that others emulate. So, what does that mean? It means that we have to be accountable for every action we take and every word we utter. That will also help us stretch a little, hence the benefit of joining AWiB’s leadership–to stretch us a bit and take us from our comfort zone so we become comfortable anywhere we are and walk tall as a result.

The president as a driving force of this dynamic group serves one year, very intense but highly rewarding. This is a time for the president to put her mark in the history that is in the making. What makes AWiB interesting is the different styles each president brings and wisdom she imparts.  It is a fantastic place to be and worth all the sleepless nights to make the program and AWiB run smoothly like an oiled machine.

The bottom line is to keep our words and come through our assigned responsibilities. There are 13 members on the board and every one of them has a responsibility of spreading the good news of AWiB relentlessly. The board has so far 100% attendance rate 90% of the time. That is quite an achievement and a major factor for the success of the Association’s growth. What defines AWiB’s board members and also our basis for self-evaluation is how many women we sponsor and develop. The hallmark of leadership, is sharing and developing. Unless we share AWiB, we cannot uphold the major objective—to develop strong women leaders in Ethiopia.

Authentic communication, the foundation of conscious leadership, does not come easy and requires honest self-examination and reflection. AWiB leadership conducts twice a year authentic self and peer evaluation. This practice as painful as sometimes it can be requires a courageous act but supports the practitioners in their quest for seeking and speaking their truth. We feel AWiB’s leadership is a great school and we invite many aspiring women leaders to join us and make the Association and themselves grow up.

AWiB is also where one can shore their negotiation skills by dealing with partners, government officials, speakers, artists, promoters, media and members so they buy and own this idea of conscious leadership. It is also a place where we meet likeminded individuals and develop our intellect on subjects that matter to self, social and professional development. We believe women need to earn their place at the table and work tirelessly to motivate Ethiopian women to be ambitious and aspiring. Through all, we keep our sense of humor; in short we are a fun group where learning happens as a result. We invite you to know more about these individuals who chose courage to be conscious leaders by reading more of their profile on the home page under leadership.

It is our ambition we have you as the next group to lead AWiB as conscious leaders…what else is there?

AWiB Team

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