Career coach Roxanne Botman is a champion of learning and development in the workplace and finding new ways to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion.
“I am a Black, Queer, South African woman with a strong drive to build confidence and self-love in others. Growing up in the Coloured Culture of Cape Town and raised by parents who are active transformation leaders and educators, I found a natural inclination to learning and development and equity, diversity and inclusion. It excites me to influence the growth and development of others, and create spaces where people feel free to be themselves in a way that they are truly valued.”
After graduating with an Honours Degree in Human Resource Management at Stellenbosch University in 2012, Roxanne decided to specialise in the Learning and Development field of HR, which aligned with her enthusiasm for influencing growth and thinking creatively.
“Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time contemplating my future and what would feel meaningful to me. After taking a big risk and moving to London to complete my MBA, I began shifting my career path to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and overall employee experience. This includes providing People & Culture consultancy and one-to-one coaching for women and non-binary people who want to get a raise.”
What Roxanne enjoys most is actively influencing change on an organisational and individual level. “It is hard to explain how wonderful it is to see a coaching client begin to recognise their own value and develop a deep sense of love for themselves. This makes conversations around pay much easier, as is making the decision to move on if you are working with or for people who aren’t able to see how much you have to offer.”
The future Roxanne sees for herself includes supporting many more women and non-binary people on their own path of growth, self-love, and confidence.
“I want to influence more people to see the structural barriers that may exist against them and others like them, and still feel confident enough to disregard them and forge a path of success in their own right.”
The International Women’s Day theme for 2023, #EmbraceEquity, is quite significant to Roxanne, as it strongly aligns with her own drive to facilitate much needed change.
“To embrace equity, the first step is to educate yourself about experiences different to your own. It is easy to disregard the needs and experiences of others, when you are only surrounded by your own reality or that of people who are similar to you,” she says.
“This includes equity in terms of gender, race, sexuality, disability, neurodiversity, religion and the various identities people carry,” she adds. “It can be exhausting to constantly challenge gender stereotypes, and call out discrimination, especially when it is towards oneself, but it would be less draining if there were more voices that actually spoke up, and people don’t just hope or assume that someone else will. When that voice in the back of your head says ‘I should say something’, then listen and speak.”
Come listen to Roxanne on Tuesday 21 March in London as she discusses how we as women can celebrate and value our differences.
- To commemorate International Women’s Day that is celebrated across the globe on 8 March, the Stellenbosch Women Alumnae Network (SWAN) is shining the spotlight on our remarkable women, not just for a day, but for the entire month of March.
- Read more here:
https://console.vpaper.ca/stellenbosch-university/swan-iwd23_eng/
