Creating a safe space: Lerato Semenya.
Leader and speaker Lerato Semenya is adamant that being authentically you is an act of rebellion in a world that demands conformity.
As the managing director of Chromatic Consulting, Lerato aids businesses in creating safe, inclusive spaces where employees, especially women and members of the LGBTQI+ community, can contribute meaningfully to the development of SA’s economy.
After spending 17 years in corporate IT, a traditionally white, male-dominated space, Lerato occupied a specific space as the lone black, female, queer voice, and as she progressed in her career, she felt the need to address that gap so that other individuals wouldn’t have the same struggle as she did.
This is how the business of Chromatic Consulting was born.
“I thought to myself, I’m quite comfortable speaking with senior levels of organisations, and I’ve participated quite actively in them,” she begins.
“So, this was a logical next step for me. And coming from the world of data and analytics in IT, I thought it would be a unique offering to merge the two worlds. So when we talk about diversity and inclusion, move it away from being ‘kumbaya’ and do it because of the data, do it because the most diverse Fortune 500 companies are operating at around 25-27% at the revenue line.”
Having been at the helm of Chromatic Consulting for the last six years, Lerato is immensely proud to have made it past the treacherous five-year mark, where lots of businesses don’t survive, by securing long-standing customers as her base, while offering talks, training and consulting for new business that she procures.
Brain Design Studios is her other business, a boutique interior design company where, after having incredibly difficult conversations, she is able to use the other half of her brain and indulge in creative, design-based projects.
But at her core, Lerato is passionate about breaking moulds and stereotypes, and helping those who don’t fit into a particular box be their authentic selves and find their place and voice in their workspace.
“I’ve obviously got a very soft spot for women, and of course, members of the LGBTQI+ community where we can all participate meaningfully in the development of our country. That’s who I am, and I’ve managed to weave it carefully into what I do so that I don’t spend time at work thinking about a passion elsewhere,” she says.
Becoming a mother also changed her outlook on the definition of success.
Suddenly, she was asking herself questions like, did she have to be constantly climbing the corporate ladder to consider herself successful? What did success really look like to her?
“Well, success looks like being on a soccer pitch with seven-year-olds screaming entirely too loud,” she confesses. “So, when I realised that actually that’s the dream I want to pursue, that’s when I started challenging core definitions of things. What does being present look like?’
The decision to leave corporate and start her own business was made clear to her when her son was born.
“I think the decision to move out of corporate was probably one of the things that the motherhood journey kind of gave me clarity on. You know, giving up a high-powered, cushy job to be able to take on this challenge. I really struggled to fall pregnant and eventually we got pregnant using IVF. It really was a massive, massive struggle to fall pregnant. And once it happened, I kind of committed to myself to say, look, the only difference between the mother that my mother was, and the mother that I want to be, is I wanted to make time. I wanted to buy time,” she says.
Now, success means being able to run her meetings from home and participate in her business, and then teaching her daughter Sotho by labelling different parts of the body on the human figure she just drew.
“Does it deliver as much from a financial perspective? Does it deliver as much recognition from an ego standpoint? Probably not. Am I better for it? Absolutely, and I’ll choose it any day,” she smiles.
Lerato’s core belief is that the world needs the you that you are, and not the you that contorts yourself into the environment around you. Her advice is to feel the fear, because fear is not the absence of bravery, but rather the proof of bravery.
And breaking stereotypes in business is the proof of her bravery.