By: Maria Williams
The professional world can be challenging, especially for women navigating the intricate balance between career aspirations and personal responsibilities. The need for empowerment, guidance, and a growth mindset has become increasingly crucial in this ever-evolving landscape. Enter Dr. Adebola Ajao, a trailblazer in the field of public health and a beacon of inspiration for professional women worldwide.
With a distinguished career spanning over two decades as a senior epidemiologist, accomplished author, and dynamic keynote speaker, Dr. Ajao’s journey is a testament to the power of resilience, personal development, and an unwavering commitment to empowering others. She has advanced women’s health research through her work and inspired countless individuals to unlock their full potential and maximize their impact.
Dr. Adebola Ajao, founder of Empowering Initiatives, created a platform for professional women to pursue their passions and personal development and serve with purpose. Her book, Empowered Woman, offers practical insights to help women thrive in their careers and personal lives. Today, we are honored to introduce Dr. Adebola Ajao and delve into her remarkable journey, exploring the principles that have shaped her success and the invaluable wisdom she imparts to professional women around the globe.
You wear many hats as a senior epidemiologist, keynote speaker, author, and coach empowering professional women. What inspired your transition from a purely scientific career into these other personal development and empowerment domains?
Dr. Ajao: My journey into personal development started many years into my career as an epidemiologist. After my doctoral training, I landed my dream job as an epidemiologist at a highly prestigious federal agency doing essential public health work serving the US public. However, many years into my career, I felt stretched, stagnant, stuck, and unfulfilled. I was no stranger to hard work, so as a minority female scientist in a large organization, I thought I just needed to do more work to be seen, heard, and valued. Unfortunately, I got burned out just doing more, and I realized I needed a different strategy and set of tools than I possessed to move to the next levels in my career. With no training or understanding of navigating my career growth, as well as being a wife and mother of three school-age children, I sought out female mentors in my professional space. Still, I was unable to find such a female mentor. This period of internal struggle led me on a personal development journey where I had to discover my unique strengths and skills and align them with my professional goals. This period of navigating and advancing my career was pivotal. It taught me the power of personal leadership, leaning into my strengths, redefining mentorship, growing my community, and focusing on service to reach my potential, maximize my impact, and ultimately find fulfillment. My journey also inspired my book and work, which is focused on empowering professional women. As female professionals, we have many responsibilities and unique challenges for which we need unique tools. I believe women need a community of empowered women to mentor, support, and keep them accountable. It is also imperative for women to see other women excelling in positions they aspire for and for women who have attained leadership positions in their organizations to be accessible and available as mentors to younger professional women.
As a dynamic keynote speaker, what are some of the most common mindset challenges you see holding professional women back from reaching their full potential? How do you help them overcome these through your speeches and coaching?
Dr. Ajao: There are many mindset challenges that hold professional women back from reaching their full potential. One is that many women believe they must be 100% ready before they reach their next level of professional or business opportunity. They allow their fear of the unknown and self-limiting beliefs to hold them back. While one must be qualified to take on any opportunity, one does not have to know everything needed to succeed before taking it on. Another is that professional women believe that they would be overwhelmed by taking on their next-level opportunities while maintaining their familial responsibilities as a wife, mother, and/or daughter. Many women fear taking on higher-level opportunities may compromise their work-life balance. I teach women that moving to their next-level positions requires taking some risks, facing their fears, and moving outside their comfort zone. In my talks and workshops, I provide women with practical tools to shift their mindset so they can take the necessary actions to step into their next-level opportunity. A third mindset challenge I see is that professional women do not ask for their worth. Women need to believe in their strengths and the skills they bring to the table and not compromise their value. I teach women to discover their strengths, trust themselves, and align their strengths with their professional goals. These mindset challenges underscore the importance of finding female mentors and a community of female leaders taking risks and excelling in their fields for guidance, support, opportunities, visibility, and accountability.
You emphasize the importance of finding the right mentors. What role have mentors played in your multifaceted journey, and what advice do you give professional women on identifying and cultivating impactful mentorship relationships?
Dr. Ajao: In my experience, mentors play a very important role in one’s professional or business journey. Mentors can guide, advise, advocate, sponsor, and provide growth opportunities. Although most of my professional mentors have been men, more recently, in the personal development and empowerment space, I have been lucky to meet some phenomenal women who have been great mentors to me. It is important that women first identify the areas where they want to grow and find mentors who have the expertise and are willing to support their growth. A mentoring relationship can be short or long-term, formal, regularly scheduled meetings, or informal/casual meet-ups. Whatever the form, style, or length of mentorship is desired, mentors and mentees must be appropriately matched, and expectations and deliverables must be clearly communicated upfront. Beyond mentors, there is also a role for peers and the community. Peers are women on the same professional or business level with similar goals. Peers can support, motivate, and serve as accountability partners. A community is a larger organized group or network of professional or businesswomen who can provide new opportunities for visibility and growth. Mentors, peers, and the community all play important roles in the journey of professional women, and these relationships should be intentionally cultivated and nurtured.
Many women struggle to balance career, business, family, and self. Based on your experiences juggling many roles, what strategies do you recommend for professional women to find that elusive work-life balance?
Dr. Ajao: Balancing career or business aspirations with family responsibility and self-care is a huge and ongoing challenge for professional women. As women, we have many responsibilities in our careers, businesses, and families, and we must be cognizant of our limits and incorporate healthy strategies to help us manage them. One helpful strategy is to know your values and prioritize what is important to you as an individual, including family, career, business, and self-care. As professional women, we need to understand that although we can do it all, we may not be able to do it all at the same time, and there are different seasons in life for various goals. Therefore, prioritizing and setting realistic goals with timelines, planning, and scheduling are essential so the different areas of our lives can be nurtured to the extent necessary and desired. Another helpful strategy is to create a daily routine. Healthy daily routines create good habits, improve predictability, prevent chaos, and help with effective time management. Having a clear understanding of what we must accomplish daily and moving through our tasks seamlessly becomes vital in accomplishing our goals without burning out. A third helpful strategy is to delegate responsibilities that can be outsourced to free up time to focus on the most critical tasks a woman wants to prioritize for growth. In all of these, it is crucial to prioritize self-care. Self-care is personal, so every woman must define what self-care means to her and incorporate some rejuvenating activities like walking, gardening, yoga, reading, music, meditation, and resting into her daily routine. These activities will allow us to replenish periodically and stay healthy in our body and mind to continue to advance in our careers and business while playing our other essential roles as wives, mothers, and caretakers.
In your book “Empowered Woman,” you outline five growth principles. Could you briefly summarize one of those principles and how you’ve applied it in your own life and work?
Dr. Ajao: All five growth principles are equally important, and they work together to form an empowerment feedback loop once they are consistently practiced. However, my favorite principle is probably “conquering your fears,” probably because this is the area I am most challenged by. The principle that I practice more regularly is to step out of my comfort zone continuously. The two fears that I battle with the most are the fear of rejection and the fear of responsibility. Both types of fear paralyze us and prevent us from implementing our ideas and reaching our full potential. On my life journey, I have learned that fear is real and should be acknowledged, but fear should not be allowed to take over or stop us from achieving our goals. A few tools that I use and teach to conquer fear are:
- Commit to your goals and your success by confronting and stepping into your fears daily.
- Break your goals down into a stepwise plan, focus on the process, and execute the plan by taking daily consistent action.
- Practice gratitude daily and replace self-limiting beliefs with positive self-talk and affirmations.
- Stay focused on your goals; do not compare yourself to others or seek external approval.
- Surround yourself with others with similar goals who can support and hold you accountable on your journey. Consistently practicing this advice will allow women to confront and conquer any fear and self-limiting beliefs.
You started coaching and empowerment initiatives later in your professional journey. What made you realize the need for this work to empower women rather than general career coaching?
Dr. Ajao: In my professional career, I have worked alongside many highly educated women, many of whom are from different racial backgrounds. In my interactions, I have heard a lot of frustration around not having the right tools to navigate career and life. Among women of color, I have heard dissatisfaction with finding minority female mentors and sponsors to support their career growth. Having been through this experience, I understand the problem of working hard but still feeling stuck and unfulfilled with no guidance, and I realize that many women are in the same situation. My challenges led me on a personal development journey that culminated in my book and founding empowering initiatives, an organization focused on empowering professional women to find their passion and walk in their purpose to have more impact, maximize their potential, and find fulfillment. Our goal is to continue supporting women with the right tools to maximize their strengths and advance their careers or businesses while successfully navigating all other life responsibilities.
Published by: Holy Minoza