Photography by Tanya Weekes
Ash Ahmad is a versatile and accomplished DE&I Consultant with nearly 13 years’ experience in a breadth of functions including Diversity & Inclusion, Training & Development and HR. She helps organizations create an inclusive work environment through various training and strategic planning. D&I topics can be sensitive and triggering and Ash have been known for creating safe spaces where people feel comfortable sharing their experiences without judgement.
After 10 years of working within the automotive industry, Ash decided to set up her consultancy business Changing Mindsets and has worked with some leading brands including CIPD, NHS, Omnicom Media Group and Astra Zeneca and most recently has been the leading subject matter expert for leading professional HR body CIPD’s first Accredited Chartered Members level ED&I program.
Ash has also been featured in Metro.co.uk, The telegraph, Islam Channel as a DE&I expert and was recognized as an Emerging visionary leader as part of the global Vital Voices partnership with Estee Lauder Visionary leaders program which is a signature program supporting women visionaries who are shaping the future they wish to see: the perception of what defines a leader, and what it takes to become a leader- in their own way.
FWM: You are a global influencer in the area of DE&I consulting. Share your background.
If you asked me 13 years ago, did I see myself becoming an DE&I consultant, I would have said ‘What is DE&I?’ I started in the automotive industry 13 years ago and as you know even now; it is still heavily male-dominated and naïve me didn’t understand a thing about workplace politics. My parents didn’t work traditional 9-5 corporate jobs, my mum was a stay-at-home mum who doesn’t know much English and my dad dropped out of school at the age of 14 because of how badly he was bullied due to the color of his skin, so I didn’t have anyone to tell me what I needed to do to navigate the workplace politics. I genuinely believed that doing your best and being great at your job was all you needed to progress within the company, oh how wrong was I? I started of renting cars on a graduate management trainee program and was promoted to a management assistant and then assistant manager within a year. I remember being one of the few female branch managers within my area and also one of the few women of color. I remember at the time the regional head office was recruiting for members to join the DE&I committee, I applied and was chosen for the ‘Minorities in Leadership’ sub-committee, something which we know now as the Global majority. I did DE&I work alongside my various roles, including Branch manager, HR generalist and then chaired the DE&I committee at our corporate head office when I was in the role of training and development. After a decade of working within a company I loved, I no longer felt my values aligned with those of my manager and decided to move on. I had no idea about what I was going to do and I remember I spend a lot of days confused as to what I was going to do and then it was a conversation with a Linkedin connection at the time, now who is a dear friend of mine who said to me ‘You do realize you are good enough to do this on your own.’ For some reason I felt like that was the sign I was looking for and it was then I decided to start out on my own. I remember thinking I would work as a sole trader and see how things mapped out and if I was happy then I would officially set up my company in the second year which I did. Since then, I worked with some incredible brands, had the opportunity to learn and grow in ways I couldn’t have even imagined and had opportunities I know I would never had had if I decided to remain in corporate.
FWM: You work with companies in areas of Diversity & Inclusion, Training & Development, and HR to create an equitable work environment in particular for marginalized groups. Take us through working with you.
I’m very fortunate that my area of expertise lies in DE&I, training and development, HR and management as these are all skills which I bring into my day-to-day work. I work with organizations across all contexts to create inclusive and diverse spaces, with equal access to opportunities for all, particularly those from marginalized groups. This work includes DE&I strategies and direction for organizations, auditing of policies and procedures across departments, analyzing and interpreting data, I facilitate training and development on DE&I related topics and coach leaders and employees in engaging and taking action in DE&I work. In the last year I’ve been working with leading global HR professional body, CIPD, authoring their first DE&I accredited program at chartered members level which is due to launch globally in the next few months, which I am extremely excited about.
I believe the thing that makes me unique is my ability to create a safe space for people to be open and honest about topics which they may otherwise find a little uncomfortable talking about and the fact that my background in HR and training and development, coupled with my lived experiences allows me to provide guidance and advice which organizations really value.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with some global brands including Premier League Football, OMG Group, NHS, Astra Zeneca, Este Lauder, CIPD, Activision Blizzard.
I think a lot of organizations struggle with including faith in their DE&I strategy and being a Muslim myself I’ve had too many individuals reach out about the lack of inclusion they have felt as a Muslim person and organizations are afraid of doing or saying the wrong this. This program helps leaders understand the challenges of Muslims within the workplace as well as equipping organizations on what they can do to create a culture of inclusion for their Muslim employees which goes beyond the performative things which we often see. This includes inclusive language, inclusive behaviors, listening sessions for Muslim employees to share their experiences within the workplace and then working with organizations to provide solutions to these challenges and coaching Muslims within the organization to navigate their careers without feeling like they have to compromise their faith.
FWM: Changing Mindsets is your mantra. Explain
The reason why I called my consultancy business changing mindsets was because I believe the way we have currently been seeing and doing things hasn’t been working in terms of creating A diverse and inclusive society for all and therefore in order for us to create a culture of belonging we need to look to change our mindsets about biases and stereotypes we hold and not seeing DE&I as a zero-sum game but actually an opportunity for society to grow and innovate and be more profitable which is exactly what all the data suggests.
FWM: Tell us about your coaching and how you are transforming lives.
I feel like I accidently fell into the role as a coach, it’s not something I intended to do from the start. When I was building my brand on social media and sharing about workplace experiences so many people started reaching out and talking about the challenges they were currently facing, and I found myself talking to people for hours on social media coaching them on what they were going through. I think the one that really stuck out for me was when a woman messaged me 6 months later and said to me that she managed to leave her abusive relationship because of the conversations I had with her. I also had a lot of people telling me I should take up coaching and so nervously I stepped into it and honestly it became one of the most fulfilling things I did, watching people lives change over the course of 6 months and then when they’d reach out to me months later and some even over a year later, they were still in that positive headspace I left them in. I also have seen women up their salaries by thousands through coaching with me, with one upping her salary by £15,000 within the year.
FWM: Many describe you as passionate, dedicated, and knowledgeable. What do you enjoy the most about coaching?
I love watching people’s lives change for the better. I believe when you pay it forward, it comes back to you 10 folds greater. I also look at the younger me not having access to coaches and feeling lost about the direction I was going in and when you’ve been through it and you’ve come out stronger the other side, you want to make sure others have the opportunity to do the same. The story that really sticks out to me was one woman who reached out to me via my website. She scheduled some time in with me on a Friday for the following Monday and she mentioned how she was struggling at work and how she’d had to go off sick because of her being in such a bad place. I ended up pushing the call early, we had a chat and she looked so burnt out and exhausted. She was so afraid and in tears because she didn’t know how to tell her manager that she had been signed off sick. I talked her through it, she managed to do it without breaking down in tears and then after that we scheduled some time in for her to start her coaching journey with me. Watching her transformation was the most incredible thing, she made the decision she was going to move on from her job and managed to secure herself a job she really wanted at a higher pay, she put boundaries in place both in her personal and professional life in order to take better care of herself and towards the end everytime we spoke she was ready to take on anything that was coming her way. Watching her go from someone who was extremely vulnerable and experiencing high levels of anxiety to completely taking control of her life was just one of the most incredible things I’d witnessed.
FWM: You were named as an Emerging visionary leader as part of the global Vital Voices partnership with Estee Lauder Visionary Leaders program. What does this mean to you? What does a leader mean to you?
This was such an honor for me as the likes of Malala Yousefzai and Amanda Gorman were alumni from their program, therefore being recognized as a leader was huge for me especially when you are your biggest critique and can find yourself doubting yourself. I was even selected in the top 20 to attend an in-person summit in Washington, which unfortunately I was unable to attend but I still celebrated being selected in the top 20 out of nearly 100 women that had applied. A leader to me is someone that is not afraid to question the status quo for the fight of greater good, they act as role models for others to follow and are not afraid to be vulnerable or honest about when they are feeling challenged because they then give others to do the same and to know that its ok to make mistakes, it’s what we learn from the mistake that is important.
FWM: Can you share the proudest moment of your career?
I have two now to date. The first has to be seeing my name as an author to an accredited DE&I program for a leading professional HR body and the second has to be not quitting my business yet. People really underestimate what it takes to run a business and keep a business going especially when you are a one person band. Being a business owner can be very lonely because you don’t have people to advise at hand when you are needing to make a big decision regarding your business, like you would have when working in a team, you are your sales and marketing, legal, admin, finance person and when your trying to build your brand and attract and retain clients you still have to learn new skills which you’ve never had to do before.
The fact that I’m still in business is a proud moment for me every day.
