Empowering Immigrant Women to Excel in Leadership — Chinwe Esimai

She's Talking Back

Chinwe Esimai, an award-winning lawyer and the first person to hold the title of Chief Anti-Bribery Officer at Citigroup, has achieved many great things throughout her career. Her story will inspire you and help you overcome any challenges you might be facing today! This podcast episode highlights why leadership is critical to your success as a woman, the importance of mentorship, and coming to the U.S. as an immigrant!

Key Takeaways

• Chinwe right now is trying to figure out the best ways to navigate the uncertainty that we’re dealing with right now.
• Chinwe had to take a step back and ask herself, ‘What am I being called to do today? To be today?’
• There are always events in our lives that are calling us to act, but we need to be intentional on how to act and if it’s true to how we want to show up in the world.
• Chinwe’s path as a lawyer wasn’t exactly ‘traditional.’ She tried out different things to find her passion.
• Chinwe compares her experience at Goldman Sachs vs. Citigroup.
• Chinwe explains how she transitioned from basically operating as a solo-women to all of a sudden having a global team to back her up. It comes down to empowering and mentoring your people to do good work!
• Ask yourself proactive questions like, ‘What have I learned from that?’ or ‘What could I have done differently?’ and take those lessons and move forward.
• It’s a delicate balance when it comes to social media. You want to promote what you’re doing, but you also want to be authentic and true to yourself.
• Chinwe was teaching a class and noticed that out of the 2 women in a 15-person class, they never spoke up during class!
• What can immigrant women leaders do better to support other immigrant women?
• What were some of the challenges that Chinwe experienced when she first came to the United States?
• At the most senior levels, women are not breaking through!

Resources

Chinweesimai.com

Chinwe on LinkedIn

“How immigrant professionals can make a perceived disadvantage their biggest strength”

Quotes

Michelle’s quote: “It’s bringing up the emotions of how proud I feel about this woman and how thankful I am that I now get to call her a colleague, friend, and guest of the show.”

“Leadership is always relevant.”

“Part of the transition is trusting and being able to empower people to make decisions.”

“The men spoke all the time. They always had an opinion and were incredibly confident. And then, here’s this woman with the best ideas but was not speaking up.”