“We all won. We all got there.” An Ubuntu approach to leadership with Ashwaq Mohamed

Meet Ashwaq – Spectrum’s Integration & Family Support Team Leader.

Late last year, during the 16 Days of Activism Against Family Violence, I caught up with Spectrum Team Leader Ashwaq Mohamed [read more here]. We talked about representation, solidarity, and supporting victim-survivors from marginalised communities.

Against a current background of global conflict and political change, I was eager to find out more about the model of leadership that women like Ashwaq strive to embody – one that is inclusive, empathetic, and driven by lived experience: an approach that embodies Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an African philosophy meaning ‘I am, because we are’, placing importance on community, collaboration and shared responsibility. It envisions people not in isolation, but interconnected with each other, impactful upon each other, and reflected in each other’s outcomes. Learn more about Ubuntu here

Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre’s Integration & Family Support Team Leader, Ashwaq Mohamed

 

After arriving in New Zealand as a child refugee, Ashwaq recalled witnessing family violence happening in her neighbourhood. As a young girl, this came with a sense of powerlessness to intervene and change the outcome. It’s something that she seeks to rebalance through her work, to this day – focusing on empowering not only her clients, but her colleagues and team.

At work, she is ‘we’ in action – bustling from meeting to meeting, trying to find ways to ensure each voice gets heard. And in conversation, she is keen to highlight everybody’s contributions rather than her own, from community collaborators to team members to inspirational clients.

As we spoke about the 16 Days of Activism, and supporting clients from migrant and refugee backgrounds, the conversation turned to Spectrum’s team. Not only with an abundance of professional skills and qualifications, Spectrum has what Ashwaq describes as ‘a gift’ – our many staff from refugee and migrant backgrounds, whose lived experiences reflect those of our clients and communities.

This lived experience brings a deep and personal dimension to the work that we do each day. Each client is seen as someone’s family member; someone’s child, someone’s grandmother, a person with value.

The systems that we participate in, the processes we follow, the causes we stand up for and the stories that we share, impact each other and our loved ones as much as those we serve.

___

We’ve spoken about the importance of representation, and the difference that it makes for vulnerable members of our communities. I’d love to understand more about your own values – what drives you to show up in the way that you do.

Integrity! Collaboration.

Adaptability – Working in the Humanitarian Settlement program (HSP) space, there’s always a lot of uncertainty, so adaptability means kind of valuing the growth, valuing change. Being from a refugee background, [you learn] adaptability in terms of transitioning from one environment to another. That becomes of value itself.

Empathy… My empathy comes from my Mum. Especially as a leader. And also from my personal faith, being a Muslim. I know it’s not always a popular view to be a Muslim these days in the world, but it’s about the idea. It teaches you that you don’t know anyone’s tribulations. We all have our own tribulations, but we don’t know anyone else’s. It reminds me that, in terms of your audience or who you’re speaking to, you don’t know their stories, you don’t know the impact of your words.

Understanding that the thing we are most afraid of, is losing our loved ones. Everyone. So that puts things into a perspective.

Awhile ago we did an activity where we had to think of our favourite word. For me, was Alhamdullilah. It’s in Arabic, it means thank God – thankfulness, gratitude. I need to find gratitude in everything that I do. But that also sets me humble, like, the humility comes from gratitude. It’s an ongoing exercise and a hard practice.

And it doesn’t mean that you have to always be positive. Alhamdulillah is telling you, even during your very dark times – can you find something that is a blessing?

And Ubuntu – we’ll come back to that!

One of the things we’ve seen in Australia over the past few years, from the Multicultural Framework Review to Closing the Gap and the RISE Program, is that a top-down, paternal approach to supporting marginalised groups doesn’t work.
When the people impacted, are not the ones whose voices are heard at the decision-making table, the outcomes can have little benefit or even be harmful to them.
As a Team Leader, you’ve spoken about the Ubuntu approach, creating space for each person to be heard and valued. Why is this important to you?

I aspire to be a leader with empathy and integrity… fostering collaboration, developing others and creating an environment where everyone feels heard. Meaning, leadership is collaboration. And I don’t know if you’d call it integrity or authenticity, but it needs to be real. Because I think, in this space, disingenuousness can be seen. And those are the cracks of why some systems, designed to help or support people, fail.

I don’t need to be seen for me to lead. That’s not what it’s about. When we talk about the client outcomes, when we talk about psychological safety for clients and staff, when we talk about there now being diverse voices in the room – the results speak for themselves. That keeps my smile going!

And it’s important to know that Ubuntu isn’t just a staff way of thinking, it’s the communities that we serve that think that way as well. It’s not even just my value, it’s my people’s value.

It’s a hard one, because not everyone understands what the Ubuntu approach is – it’s not a weak point of view to be supportive of others. It’s about the outcome.

Which can be – we all won. We all got there. Getting there took some time, but we all did it.

It’s equity, right? In action.

Spectrum’s Lived Experience Advisory Group is a committee of staff with diverse and meaningful experiences as migrants and refugees, each with connection to their local community and personal insight into the process of arriving and settling in Australia. Their input helps ensure that Spectrum’s services can drive positive change through better understanding of the people that we serve, their needs and their hopes.

You played a key role in developing Spectrum’s Lived Experience Advisory Group. Can you tell us more about this, and what it means for organisations like ours?

The first sponsors of this idea were Kathy (Spectrum’s Head of People and Culture) and Paul (General Manager of Migration and Settlement). And leading the Group now are Gebru, Selam, and Mo – I’m very excited to be part of it now as a participant.

We know it can lead to more effective services, strong community relationships and systemic changes that address real barriers, right? And it means that organisations remain accountable, equitable and grounded in the realities of the people it serves. So the impact can be there.

We want to build that trust within the community, because we look like the community, we speak like the community. We all were a client once, in one way, shape or form, so we are relatable to our clients. And to drive change, we know we need a platform for authentic voices.

So now I feel like it’s about making sure when people talk about those barriers and those issues, that that is being listened to.

Then it’s a shared responsibility to act and achieve those outcomes. Not just for the people with the lived experience, but all of the decision makers.

It’s about hope. We want to empower individuals with lived experience to influence decision-making.

___

As our conversation wrapped up, Ashwaq was spirited away to more back-to-back meetings.

I reflected on the courage that it takes, to show up and be visible in this way – navigating leadership as a person with a community-first focus, representing unheard community members, and speaking on lived experience – on top of managing complex day-to-day work. In modern Australia, where leadership and power still often skews white, male, and individualist, there are few safety nets, or even clear pathways, for women looking to lead differently and share power with community.  It takes courage to embody another way in which, as Ashwaq said, ‘we all win’.

I considered it a relief, at last, to have current data and research that demonstrates that collaboration and community isn’t just a nice thing to have, but vital to improving outcomes for marginalised people.

In many ways, Spectrum’s strength is in the courageous, Ubuntu approach of our frontline staff and leaders like Ashwaq. To be able to create safer, healthier, happier outcomes for our clients and team members, informed by lived experience, truly is a gift.