Lola Adeleye

“They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” - John‬ ‭12‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

It’s Palm Sunday!🌴🌴🙌🏽🙌🏽

A day that marks both celebration and reflection. As palm branches were laid down in honour, it was also the beginning of a journey that required courage, humility, and purpose.

A simple thought to carry today:

Not every moment of recognition is the destination. Sometimes, it’s the beginning of a deeper calling.

May today be a reminder to:
🙏🏽 Walk in purpose, even when the path ahead is uncertain
🙏🏽 Lead with humility, not just visibility
🙏🏽 Stay grounded in what truly matters

Happy Palm Sunday!🙌🏽🎉

Wishing you peace, clarity, and renewed strength for the week ahead.🙏🏽😇

“There are so many tools out there now. It’s moving so fast! How do I get my head around it?”

“I started looking at a tool, and felt l like I was going round and round…So much overwhelm!”

These were some of the comments at the beginning of our ‘AI for Enhanced Productivity’ workshop for ACUMEN a networking group for female founders hosted by Astrid Davies.

I was chatting with my nephew this morning and he said “I’m questioning if there’s any point learning anything with artificial intelligence”

Truth is AI is here to stay…the first question is how are you getting on board with it?

The second question is not which tool to use but understanding why you need AI in the first place.

What processes do you need it for?

Or maybe you don’t and you just need to automate a process.

Knowing this equips you to go out and look for the right tool to meet your need. That’s a portion of what we talk about in the AI Business Growth Academy AI for Leaders program.

This feedback sums it all up: “Lola gave a training session to our networking group which was both eye-opening and reassuring. In a rapid-fire session she conveyed the potential for AI AND our responsibilities with its use. Excellent!

This made my day and is why I do what I do…eliminating AI overwhelm!😊

If you’d like to take your team or group from confused to clarity and from AI cautious to AI confident, reach out to Emma Ellse or myself, we’d love to hear from you.

Special thanks to Zoryna O’Donnell MBA FIoL for the connection.

leadership

Today is International Women’s Day.

And I keep thinking about this year’s theme:
✨ Give to Gain

Because if you’re a woman, you probably already know how to give.

You give your time.
Your ideas.
Your energy.
Your care.
Your leadership.

Sometimes long before anyone even asks.

But here’s the question I keep coming back to today:

What are you allowing yourself to gain?

Because women were never meant to live in constant giving mode.

Not in our careers.
Not in leadership.
Not in the new worlds we’re building through AI, technology, and innovation.

True inclusion means women don’t just contribute, we shape the future.

And we gain:

✨ opportunity
✨ voice
✨ influence
✨ space to lead fully

That’s why I’ve been quietly building something close to my heart.

The Gain-Full Woman LeadHERship Programme, a space for women who are ready to stop shrinking and start gaining the leadership, life, and impact they were always meant for.

Doors open soon.

💬 Comment GAIN if you want to be the first to hear about it.

And today, send this to a woman who gives so much and deserves to gain just as much.

Happy International Women’s Day. 🤍

She knows she was built for more.

She feels it at 2am when the ideas arrive; vivid, urgent, and completely without a roadmap.

And then the morning comes...

The emails. The meetings. The expectations. The hundred things that belong to everyone else.

And that feeling gets buried again beneath the weight of being needed.

If this is you, I need you to hear this:

You are not stuck because you lack ambition.
You are not stuck because the timing is wrong.

You are standing in the middle of your own potential and you cannot see the wood for the trees.

That is not a personal failing but what happens when a gifted woman has never been given honest, precise language for how she is actually wired, what drives her, what drains her, where she leads brilliantly and where she quietly works against herself.

Without that self-knowledge, a woman of extraordinary potential can spend years moving fast and still feel like she’s standing still.

I know because I’ve watched it happen. And I’ve watched what changes when a woman finally gets that clarity.

She exhales for the first time in years.

She looks at the path that felt overwhelming a moment ago and something in her settles. Not because the journey got easier but because she finally knows it’s hers.

That moment is available to you.

It doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from knowing yourself more precisely, honestly, and without apology.

I am building a community for the woman who is ready for that moment.

It’s called The GainFull Woman Programme, and the doors are opening soon.

Drop🌳in the comments if this resonates with you and if it does, you can go a step further to help me shape the programme. Check story for link.

Know a woman who is circling her own potential right now? The most powerful thing you can do today is to share this with her.

leadershipdevelopment

You can be accomplished, capable, and respected…
and still feel invisible to yourself.

Today I want to speak directly to a woman I know is out there.

A woman who is:

Accomplished on paper.
Capable in every room.
Reliable for everyone around her.

But somehow… invisible to herself.

She pours into everyone else:
her team
her family
her organisation
her relationships

And when someone finally asks,

“What do you want?”

She goes quiet.

Not because she has nothing to say.

But because she has spent so long making herself smaller that she has forgotten her voice matters.

I know this woman.

Because I have been her.

And I have sat across from many women like her in my coaching and mentoring sessions.

Women who say:

“I don’t think I have anything to offer.”

And every time I hear that, I think: You have no idea what I see.

I don’t see a woman with nothing to give.

I see a woman who has given so much for so long that she lost the thread back to herself.

A woman who mistakes exhaustion for inadequacy.
Who confuses being overlooked with being unworthy.

So let me say this clearly:

✨ Your value is not measured by how much you produce.
✨ Your worth is not determined by how little space you take.
✨ And your time to grow is not something you earn.

It is something you claim.

That is why I am building something for this woman.

The Gain-Full Woman LeadHERship Programme.

Not gain as in accumulation.

Gain as in reclamation.

A space for women to remember who they are, reclaim their voice, and lead with clarity, purpose, and power.

If this is you or you know a woman like this, a seat is being saved.

Drop a ✨ in the comments if you want to hear when the doors open.

And if this spoke to you, share it.
Another woman may need to hear this today.

personalgrowth

Welcome to March: The Month of “Give to Gain”

It is the first day of the third month of the year.

March…a month that calls us forward!

The month we celebrate women: We honour mothers on Mother’s Day and
we recognise global impact on International Women’s Day.

And this year’s theme: Give to Gain.

Pause there.

Not take to gain.

Not compete to gain.

But GIVE.

Giving is not depletion. It is positioning.

In leadership.

In business.

In family.

In faith.

The women who rise are rarely the ones waiting.

They are the ones investing even before they see immediate return.

Woman! Yes you; I’m talking to you reading this…Rise and Shine For Your Light Has Come!!

There is a temptation, two months into the year, to quietly retreat. You may be thinking:

“January momentum has gone.”

“Maybe this year isn’t my year.”

“I should have started earlier.”

Let me be clear: It is not too late to start again!

Not too late to:

✅ Revisit your goals

✅ Relaunch the idea

✅ Reapply for the role

✅ Speak up in the room

✅ Set the boundary

✅ Forgive yourself

March is not just a celebration month. It is a reset month.

Rise and shine not because everything is perfect, but because your light is needed.

✅ Your experience.

✅ Your perspective.

✅ Your resilience.

✅ Your wisdom.

Someone gains because you decide to show up fully.

Let’s make this a conversation. Drop one word below: What are you choosing to give this month?

March is here.

Let’s rise accordingly!

🔥HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!🔥🔥

Here’s a question I keep returning to…

How is my leadership actually being experienced especially by those with less power than me?

Not what I meant. But the lived impact.

It requires insight. And insight has to be designed for.

I’ve written about why this intent–impact gap persists in leadership and why it can’t be closed by goodwill or training alone. Read the full article below.

I’m curious:

Where have you seen intent and impact diverge most clearly in leadership?

🔥🔥HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!🔥🔥

Have you ever felt that your organisation keeps talking about inclusion but nothing really shifts?

Trust me, it’s not your imagination!

I have noticed a pattern across organisations: inclusion becomes something we talk about, endorse, and train on, while the underlying decision-making structures remain intact.

That gap is where frustration grows.

Not because people do not care, but because effort is not translating into lived experience.

Real inclusion shows up in how decisions are shaped, who has influence early, and how challenge is handled when it is inconvenient. Without that, conversation loses credibility and people quietly disengage.

I unpack this tension between intention and design in this week’s newsletter, and what leaders can do differently if they want inclusion to stop feeling exhausting and start feeling real.

If you are leading change, I would be interested in your perspective:
Where do you see the biggest disconnect between values and systems?

🔥🔥HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!🔥🔥

This time of year always brings a gentle pause, a moment to look at how we’ve been showing up as leaders, humans, and professionals.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several coaching and mentoring conversations that all circled back to the same insight. I was surprised by how universal it was, and how many of us quietly struggle with it.

So I decided to make it the focus of our final newsletter for the year.

If you’re a leader, executive, business owner or emerging leader feeling the weight of expectations, this edition is one I’d really encourage you to read.

It’s a simple message but one that can transform how you lead in 2026.
And you’ll be pleased to know it’s something I’m choosing to practise myself for the rest of the year!

Click link in bio to read the final edition of 2025!😊