18 - Harnessing Rage for Good with Hira Ali

Update: 2025-01-12

Description

Episode 18 - Harnessing Rage for Good with Hira Ali

Hira Ali is a leadership development and allyship specialist, executive career coach, and acclaimed writer and speaker. Her award-winning career is dedicated to helping others realise their potential. Her work has been featured in outlets such as The Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Telegraph, B.B.C., HuffPost, and Entrepreneur.

She is a Senior Advisory Team member for Benedictine University Illinois L.E.A.D.S., an IDEA Practitioner at NASA, and an advisor for the Women in Transport Intersectionality Advisory Group. Recognised as one of the top 50 influential Muslims in Europe in 2022, Hira is also highlighted by Diverse In as a global D&I voice to follow on LinkedIn.

As the founder of Advancing Your Potential, Hira champions allyship and inclusive talent initiatives. She is the award-winning author of Her Way To The Top: A Guide to Smashing the Glass Ceiling and Her Allies: A Practical Toolkit to Help Men Lead Through Advocacy.

What we talk about:

1:44 – Pressures of Good Girl Conditioning: Hira discusses the societal and cultural expectations that shaped her life growing up, including anecdotes about being told not to laugh loudly and the pressure to marry the “right person.”

2:50 – Good Girl Conditioning as a Global Issue: Hira explains how these challenges are universal, spanning borders and cultures, with professional and personal implications.

5:29 – Choosing Battles: They discuss the importance of picking battles for one’s sanity and recognising when to conform versus resist.

6:40 – Dealing with Pushback: Hira shares her strategies for handling backlash, including unashamedly owning her space, finding allies, and building a supportive network.

8:45 – Raising the Next Generation Differently: Hira emphasises the importance of teaching girls and boys to break free from outdated gender norms.

9:38 – Harnessing Rage for Good: Michelle and Hira explore how to transform frustration and anger into collaborative, positive action.

11:27 – The Power of Advocacy: Hira highlights the importance of balancing public advocacy with private efforts and the role of social media in influencing change.

13:17 – Leadership and Intersectionality: Hira talks about the additional pressures of being a Muslim, immigrant, female leader, and how intersectional identities amplify challenges.

16:05 – Navigating High Standards for Women: Discussing the disproportionate expectations women face, particularly in leadership roles.

19:46 – Processing Grief and Finding Strength: Hira shares the importance of grieving injustices but moving forward to create meaningful impact.

20:51 – Advocacy in Many Forms: Advocacy doesn’t always have to be public; small, private actions can be equally impactful.

24:04 – The Role of Male Allies: Hira discusses her book Her Allies and the importance of compassionate, informed male allyship.

27:21 – Global Policy for Workplace Equity: If Hira could implement one global policy, it would be an accountability framework to ensure equity across all levels of organisations.