Community Builder Kamilla Sultanova: Understanding the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion

Kamilla was born and raised in Karshi, Uzbekistan, and she has lived in the Nordics for the last 18 years. She gives us a global perspective on what it means to be a woman, and a mother in the Nordics, and how it may differ from other cultures. We discuss what are some of the things we also need to learn here at Nordics, for example, we need to understand why diversity, equity, and inclusion are important, and how we can bring communities together by sharing our stories and working on removing our unconscious biases. 

Interview with Kamilla Sultanova

Kamilla Sultanova is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and founder of the responsive consulting company ConnectUz in Helsinki, Finland. Kamilla’s background in corporate sales and purchasing helped her navigate through the complexity of global trade. 

Kamilla is the voice of immigrants and international students in Finland and she co-founded a non-profit for youth empowerment called Global Dignity Finland. Kamilla is the MySpeaker speaker of the year, and as a speaker, she offers immersive and impactful experiences, webinars, and online facilitation to engage and activate business and nonprofit professionals toward inclusive leadership, organizational growth, and development.

Tell us your story how you ended up in the Nordics and Finland and how do you reflect that with your background?

Kamilla: I've been 20 years actually already in the Nordics, I'm celebrating it this year.

I moved to Denmark when I was 18 years old but before I was an exchange student in the US in Texas, but I'm born and raised in Uzbekistan. So in that sense I still have the two cultures in me while I live in Finland.

My work is informed by all these experiences that I've gone through from being a girl, and I did share a story in my TED Talk where I say "I wish I was Julia Roberts or a man".

That kind of sums it up.

When growing up in - you know it was still the Soviet Union - but then after the Soviet Union broke down we were exposed to all these Hollywood movies - also Bollywood, which I also like - but in Julia Roberts you would see a white American woman who's self-assure and confident.

Or then as a man - I saw how my brothers were allowed more things than I was.

They were allowed to play late, and they were allowed to study, and they were given opportunities for growth, where we were just supposed to get married and make children, like in the Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Now I work as a consultant I do hosting, I do keynotes on social capital, diversity and inclusion and I do volunteering and mentoring, that's really essentially what brought me here where I am today.

What happened when you realized that things are different for women in the Nordics than in some other parts in the world like in Uzbekistan and Texas?

Kamilla: When I was in Aarhus, where I studied multimedia design, the first article that came up in the local news about Aarhus was where I said "wow girls on bikes".

So that sense of freedom of being able to ride a bike and not being frowned on or laughed at.

Because I did bike on my brother's bicycle in Uzbekistan, and it was just a really ridiculed all the time.

And also I didn't see Nordic women being dressed up and putting a kilo of makeup just to throw out garbage.

There was so much more ruthless understanding of beauty in our part of the world, that it was just so relaxing that you can just be as you are and you are taken seriously.

So the looks is one thing.

Then the other thing is that you were able to have conversation and opinions regardless of your age.

We have a huge age of power distances in our country.

And three, you could actually get a job even as a student and make money, and that was so liberating for me that I said to my dad "I make my money, and I'm gonna live by my own rules" and he cannot control me from afar.

That also gave me a stronger voice which I see essentially being politically active, social active, and making money. That's for me Nordic woman in a nutshell.

That empowered you, and now you empower other women globally. 

Many Nordic women don't see what you see, and many Nordic women take some things for granted. Let's talk how Nordic women could take the gender equality a little bit forward, but I think first we have to understand how we have things differently here in the Nordics. 

Kamilla: Now I'm crushing my latest project to become a mother to raise a child, and I am in the country where it's one of the best countries to be a mother.

Even though it was a very agonizing experience to go on my turn on the parental leave as an entrepreneur, because there is that insecurity and vulnerability.

Now I can relate to much more women across the planet and share the divine energy to be a mother - to create a human life and that's equally across the world.

But now I can see why there are such strong professional unions in the Nordics and legislation to promote maternity leave and parental leave policies that kind of close the gap to care-taking at home. Because we still have 90% of the parental leave is taken by mothers.

So we still have a lot of talk about gender equality. But we also need to understand what is gender equity and just in general equity programs in the society.

I promote mentoring and I have worked with Hanken and the School of Economics, and cities, and equity is understanding that not everyone starts at the same place, and I would argue that the Nordics are gender equal but not socially inclusive.

And that's where I'm trying to build that understanding of local and global: that you shape your community you bring your culture with you, but also share the culture being a Nordic, and coming from a welfare society and letting women understand - and also men - that decisions are made individually and that not everyone is going to fix it for you.

So that independent thinking while having that freedom,  that dignity-based approach: you have the dignity to be you to choose your lifestyle, and to work even if you're a young mother. 

If mirror your experience as a mom here in the Nordics where you have all of this societal help, like maternity leave, child allowance that the government pays every month, and we have excellent maternal and medical care here right -  but what about the sense of community? How do you mirror that back to some other cultures?

Kamilla: While I say that I will relate to many more women around the globe as a mother but I also see relate to vulnerability that still that you're given these benefits for the short period of time, and and you are a bit lacking the social infrastructure, the community.

You know how we say "it takes a village to raise a child" so now the downside of globalization that we can work and live anywhere, is that we need to create that community.

What I would bring to the Nordics is the ability to surround yourself with different age groups of people to expose your child to them, but also to ask for help.

Because we're always like "yes I'm gonna do it myself, I'm not gonna ask for help" and then we have people who are suffering pre-birth depression and postpartum depression etc.

I've been catching myself on saying  "I'm losing it! I'm losing it! I'm losing it!" and then things come up and pop up and feeling that inadequacy just shows that you can never have enough self-confidence.

And that's where you know having having a seat here and sharing that story it's also hugely empowering.

Let's talk about conscious bias and and how we have support on societal and even governmental level, but not on individual level.

Finnish moms are among the most stressed moms in the world.

On one hand we do have governmental aid and legal and these type of establishments built, but it's we are still lacking something that I think we can learn from the global community.

Kamilla:  I think unconscious biases what we address in any basic work of diversity, equity and inclusion, largely it's the attitudes and our you known behaviors that fill into practices that are very discriminatory.

We all have that so I that's why I'm such a huge advocate for mentoring - both the normal mentoring and reverse mentoring, and bringing yourself always personally engaging with people who are not like you.

And I think that is my call to break this unconscious bias level both as a mother or a parent - how we actually treat each other at the workplace and then what's the handicap for me right now coming back to the work market and I would be punished to be a caretaker.

But how are we you know focusing on that and having those conversations both at home home but also you know sharing those experiences.

That's why I find it very important to honestly to say that motherhood is not all pink, but to expose yourself as much so that everyone else notices where is unconscious bias that you have and then build that local and global divine connection.

I went to Women Economic Forum in India and that's where I faced my first unconscious bias myself when they put us in a room with a random participant of the conference where 2000 women gathered in Delhi.

I thought I was going to share a room which someone I don't know or have anything in common, and she was a mother,  she was an amazing woman from South India, and now we're still in touch.

I was faced with that idea that do we always need to be by ourselves, and exposing yourself to uncertainty and that serendipity that really brings us closer to more sisterhood.

That trip to Delhi changed my life and hearing the variety of stories and how lucky we are in the Nordics and how we should pave way for others to keep hope.

How do we do that in today's world? How do we create these networks and how do we create these global communities and help each other out?

Kamilla:  I met you for a few years ago at the career festival and your message was very strong to me that I also promote now the storytelling.

So utilizing what's at your hands, storytelling to share who you are where you are, and how universal way of life and life design of how you live and what choices you make.

Second is that we build the communities but also join communities. We don't always have the resources to build one but joining those which are out there, like there are Nordic communities, She Community and just refiguring out where you which cause drives you.

And from a local community you grow to become part of the global community.

I'm part of European Young Leaders, a Global Dignity ambassador, and European Women on Boards ambassador, so that is so easy to engage in a way you are driven by a cause but also have that opportunity to build that connection with someone who is not like you.

And the third one is to have the opportunity to mentor, but also become a sponsor for someone.

I really like the idea of sponsorship, please go quickly through what are sponsors and what do you mean by that.

Kamilla: When we're talking about mentoring and I believe that the power of personal change through and  unconscious bias breaking through personal relationships.

Mentor is someone who talks with you and to give you that experience to give you that know-how and be that active ear.

But the sponsorship is that someone at the workplace or in the sector and industry promotes you as a protege, and allows you to get into the social capital but also shares their network.

I saw a bit clash in Finland when I promoted mentorship here in Helsinki region. It's not a Finnish thing to be a sponsor and I agree with that, because you need to be confident. It's your integrity.

In America lot of black female leaders are kept away due to lack of sponsorship. I think we can do that with immigrant women or people who are underrepresented in the Finnish job market.

So dare to be not only a mentor, because you got a lot to share, but also a sponsor.

Actually that's one of the reasons that we wanted to start this Crush Movement so we can help each others out. We can push people, ideas and each other up.

Why is understanding diversity and inclusion so important?

Kamilla: This is the area where I work in and I bring in three cases why it's so important.

First, diversity, equity and inclusion in leadership is a definitely business case. There's enough research proving it but it's also fundamental ethical concern.

Second is that as a company, the employer needs to be responsible and not only represent our customer base, but also treat our employees valuable in a way that they're heard and seen and they can rely on a psychologically safe workplace environment.

And thirdly, I love this idea that belonging is designed in the workplaces.

Our innate human sense is to belong, but also to stand out, and there is enough research showing how it will benefit us not only to be inclusive and expect to be included, but to increase that sense of belonging through inclusion practices and set of behaviors and policies enables us to be inclusive when you recognize that the other person has dignity.

I worked with a non-profit called Global Dignity for many years since I moved to Finland, but on one side it was for my own journey to find my own understanding that "yes my my dignity has been violated" but also to help others to understand that they do too have dignity.

And with that perspective I feel that seeing is believing and when someone has shown you.

I want to help and be that role model, and I want the Nordic women - be it in Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Finland - we can continue create those role models. 

I want to tell about Barack Obama, he said in Berlin - we were there to meet him in 2019 - he said that when you do a good job, and when you lead in your area or your community, you must share that story.

And here I want to highlight our role model Astrid Lingren who is the author of Pippi Longstocking, but also our Tove Jansson, who created the Little My - what a new role models those set how girls should be and how they can act.

There is a sense of activism in their books, but also in their work. It's never too late to be an advocate of change, regardless how privileged you are.

It's important that we also start teaching this to our children, because you can't talk about these only on the business context. We have to start it from from when we are young and with our children.

Kamilla: Yes, we need to foster that understanding that we need to work individually, but also in community, and that's why you always mention that "rise each other up", "name the other person", "sponsor the other person", and who helped you to become who you are. 

And that role model perspective -  we shouldn't think it's so putting yourself first, but we need to create those heroes of today that it's not just that we quote men figures - there's great enough of them. But I want to be able to grow up in this society, where my daughter will not have to feel excluded just because of her last name, or where she lives, and who she is.

I think this is where diversity and inclusion is daily part of our everyday life.

What would you like to crush?

Kamilla: I would like to crush this idea of how we create Finnish relatability, how we create the social capital exchange so that it doesn't become that someone else has to do it, but it becomes an innate sense empathy in action in Finland, because that will make Finnish welfare society prosper.

If we get that idea that people don't come and move here to feel excluded, Finland could be more socially inclusive.