Long before Mevan Babakar was building AI tools to tackle misinformation, working at Google, or being recognised as an Obama Leader for Europe, she was translating.
As the daughter of Kurdish refugee parents navigating new countries and unfamiliar systems, she quickly became the bridge between worlds. She translated conversations, paperwork, appointments, and official processes. It was practical work, necessary work, but not something she thought of as leadership.
Leadership Isn’t Always About Authority
Throughout the conversation, Mevan challenges traditional assumptions about what leadership looks like. In many of the communities she grew up around, leadership was not necessarily attached to status or hierarchy. It emerged when people identified a need and stepped in to help. Someone translated. Someone organised. Someone advocated. Someone connected people to resources or support.
Looking back, Mevan recognises these moments as acts of leadership, even though nobody would have described them that way at the time. Her experiences remind us that influence often begins long before formal recognition arrives. Leadership is not always about authority. Sometimes it is about responsibility. Sometimes it is about helping others find a way forward when circumstances are uncertain.
Why Belonging Matters
Another powerful theme running through the conversation is belonging. Growing up across different countries and cultures meant constantly adapting to new environments. Like many people who move between worlds, Mevan became skilled at fitting in. She learned how to understand expectations, read situations, and adapt accordingly.
Yet over time she began to question whether fitting in was really the goal. Belonging, she suggests, is something different. Fitting in often requires us to change ourselves to meet the expectations of others. Belonging allows us to show up more fully as who we are. It allows us to bring our experiences, perspectives, and ideas into a space without feeling the need to edit them first.
For many women, this distinction is particularly important. We spend years learning how to navigate systems and environments that were not necessarily designed with us in mind. The challenge eventually becomes not simply how to fit in, but how to remain connected to ourselves while doing so.
Choosing the Right Mountain
One of the most memorable ideas from the conversation is Mevan’s challenge to conventional ambition. Many of us are taught to focus on climbing. The next opportunity, the next promotion, the next achievement. Success becomes a question of how far and how fast we can go.
Mevan offers a different perspective. Before deciding how to climb, she suggests we ask whether we are climbing the right mountain in the first place. It is a deceptively simple idea, yet it changes the way we think about success. The question is no longer whether we can achieve something. The question becomes whether the thing we are pursuing aligns with our values, our purpose, and the contribution we want to make.
Throughout her own journey, this search for alignment has shaped important decisions. It has influenced where she has chosen to invest her energy and the problems she has chosen to tackle. The result is an approach to leadership that feels less concerned with status and more concerned with impact.
Listening to More Than Your Intellect
As a technologist, Mevan has spent much of her career relying on evidence, information, and critical thinking. Yet one of the most thought-provoking parts of the conversation centres on something less measurable: intuition.
She reflects on moments when her body recognised misalignment before her mind could fully explain it. Moments when something looked right on paper but felt wrong in practice. These experiences taught her that not every important decision can be made through logic alone.
Her reflections are not about abandoning reason. Instead, they point towards a different kind of wisdom—one that recognises the value of analysis while also acknowledging the importance of instinct, values, and self-awareness. The strongest decisions are often made when intellect and intuition are working together rather than competing for attention.
Learning to Be Seen
The conversation also explores visibility, a challenge that resonates with many women. It is possible to spend years contributing, supporting others, and creating meaningful impact while remaining uncomfortable with being seen. Mevan reflects on the importance of becoming more comfortable with visibility, not because recognition is the goal, but because ideas cannot create change if they remain hidden.
Being seen is not about self-promotion. It is about allowing your voice, perspective, and contribution to reach the people who may benefit from them. For many women, learning to be seen is part of learning to influence. It is about recognising that taking up space does not diminish anyone else. Instead, it creates opportunities for new ideas, experiences, and perspectives to shape the conversation.
What Mevan Leaves Us Thinking About
- Leadership often begins long before formal authority.Â
- Creating understanding between people is a powerful form of influence.Â
- Belonging allows us to contribute more fully and authentically.Â
- Choosing the right challenge matters more than pursuing status alone.Â
- Intuition can be an important companion to logic and analysis.Â
- Learning to be seen is often part of creating meaningful change.Â
Perhaps the most powerful lesson from Mevan’s story is that leadership is not always found in the moments that attract attention. Sometimes it begins in quieter acts of service. Helping someone navigate uncertainty. Building understanding between different worlds. Stepping into a gap because something needs doing.
And sometimes, long before anyone calls it leadership, it begins with a young girl translating for the people around her.
To hear Mevan Babakar reflect on belonging, visibility, purpose, and the experiences that shaped her journey from translator to changemaker, listen to the full episode of the Women Emerging podcast.
About the Guest:
Mevan Babakar is a writer and technologist born in Baghdad to Kurdish refugee parents. She built award-winning AI fact-checking tools as Deputy CEO of Full Fact and later led information quality work at Google. In 2023, she was named an Obama Leader for Europe. Her debut children’s book, The Bicycle, was inspired by reuniting with the aid worker who gave her a bike as a refugee 25 years earlier.
