206. How Our Education Shapes Our Approach to Leading

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In this episode, Julia speaks with Mona about how education — formal, informal, cultural, and familial — quietly shapes the way we lead, often without us realising it. Together, they reflect on moments in their own leading where habits, preferences, and blind spots can be traced directly back to how they were educated — what was rewarded, what was discouraged, and what was never questioned. From structure and organisation to evidence, empowerment, and questioning authority, education sits deep in our Essence.

The conversation explores how early learning can both strengthen and limit us. Julia and Mona talk candidly about prejudice versus judgement, the impact of failure, and the importance of learning, unlearning, and relearning as we grow. They reflect on how questioning — something encouraged in some educations and punished in others — becomes central to trust, confidence, and psychological safety in teams.

Mona also shares how empathy and grace play a crucial role in leading across difference — recognising that people come with different capacities, experiences, and confidence, and that equality does not mean sameness. This episode is a reminder that leading is shaped long before our first job title — and that the work of leading well often begins with understanding, and questioning, the education that formed us.

About the Guest:

Mona-Lisa Danieli Mungure

Mona-Lisa Danieli Mungure is an Attorney in the High Courts of Botswana and the Regional Head of a division in one of Botswana’s government Ministries. Additionally, she plays a strategic role in Botswana’s human rights discourse where she has served and continues to serve as a national consultant and national legal team coordinator on different occasions. She has experience in various aspects of civil law and she has worked in pluralistic environments including private practice, the public sector and civil society organizations. She is the Executive Director of an award winning initiative called Molao Matters which sits on various regional and national networks to push for women’s rights holistically. Molao Matters also provides pro bono services to marginalized women and advances feminist approaches in civic governance and development spaces. Mona-Lisa is also a certified Data Protection Officer and a firm advocate for just practices in data management ecosystems.

About the Host

Julia Middleton

Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: “Leading beyond Authority” and “Cultural Intelligence”. She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading. In 2020, Julia launched Women Emerging and in 2022 she lead an expedition of 24 women to find ‘an approach to leading that resonates with women’. She now leads expeditions with women all over the world based on 4Es methodology, discovered in the first expedition.

Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.
Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now, which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan. Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.