Forté Rise Helps a Waymaker Make Waves

Forté launched Rise, a leadership development program for mid-career women, in 2022. Since then, 69 women have completed the 11-week program. While many have lauded their cohorts and coaches, some women have also experienced huge career leaps that they say Rise helped them accomplish. Nana Acquah is one of those women. 

I learned the power of allyship.

Originally from Ghana, Nana was always a bright student, evidenced in her skipping three years of elementary school and graduating from high school at 16. She moved to the U.S. for college and studied accounting information systems, thinking it a safe choice. She still excelled, achieving a 4.0 GPA, but when the time came to interview for internships, she didn’t get any offers. When she asked her friends for advice, they suggested she change her braided hair or soften her accent to make herself more “acceptable” to her interviewers. Nana felt that she shouldn’t need to change herself for a job. Luckily, she found a program that advocated for and placed people of color in internships, and was offered a position in just two weeks.

“Through that program, I learned the power of allyship,” she said. 

Her career was set to begin when 9/11 happened, upending everything. Her offers were rescinded, and she took a job at a mall to support herself while she started interviewing for full-time roles all over again. She finally landed a role at a Big 5 accounting firm as a senior IT auditor, but she immediately knew it was not a fit because she wasn’t able to use her skills as a communicator. When she was transferred into an auditing role at a hotel brand, she felt more adept at the job since she could interact with more people and do more out of the box thinking. 

But one day, she found herself in an interesting dilemma. A hotel audit was failing, but not because of intentional neglect; the general manager was experiencing a load of personal trials, including divorce and the death of her child, which had distracted her from her compliance duties. Nana felt at a crossroads, wanting to do what was right in her job, but also as a human being, caring deeply for this woman who had lost so much. Instead of reporting the audit as a failure, Nana chose to go to her boss to get help for the woman. 

“I’m not cut out to be the person who enforces rules,” Nana said in reflection. “I have too much empathy.”

Seeking a role that required more use of her empathy and people skills, she reached out to the sales team and asked to shadow them. She found that she loved the job, and when an opening came available, she was hired. With her strong ability to relate to people and build trust, Nana reached the top 3% of sales in the company. She wound up spending 14 years at the company and felt she was hitting a ceiling by the time her role was eliminated because of the pandemic.

[Rise] was a safe space to walk through the complexities of leadership

After the deaths of Eric Garner and George Floyd, Nana said she felt called to be a “waymaker” for people, a reference to the meaning of her middle name, Achiaa. The pandemic was a time for her to reflect on how best to do that. 

“I wanted to be directly involved in removing hurdles for underrepresented people,” she said.

Then Amazon came calling. 

She started at the company as a Senior Business Coach, advising, mentoring, and directing a full launch life cycle for more than 25 of Amazon’s Delivery Service Providers. Then, as Senior Global Inclusion, Diversity, & Equity (ID&E) program manager, Nana managed the women’s leadership and men as allies programs. Through this role, she was introduced to Forté and the Rise program. It came at the perfect time, as she was considering her next career move and wanted to sharpen her leadership skills. 

Nana said the best part about Rise was the community she had in her cohort. Hearing other women’s experiences was uplifting and inspiring. Her cohort created a WhatsApp group and have continued to keep in touch. She also found the coaching sessions immensely valuable. 

“It was a safe space to walk through the complexities of leadership,” she said, including how to stay true to her values as a person of faith. 

I can’t lead others if I don’t lead myself well.

She said she felt so comfortable with her coach, she would have loved to continue working with her long after the program had ended. 

Nana said her biggest takeaway from Rise was in the notion of “lead yourself.” 

“I learned that I don’t have to put myself last,” she said. “I can’t lead others if I don’t lead myself well.” 

For Nana, that meant doing what was right by her values, not settling, and investing in herself. She said that if Rise had been available when she was a hotel auditor, she would have made a career transition into her current field about ten years earlier! 

Shortly after completing Rise, Nana was promoted to Global Head of ID&E for AWS Global Sales (AGS), where she is responsible for directing the global ID&E strategy for almost 25,000 AWS AGS employees spanning 53 countries across three continents. She is truly waymaking, bringing what she learned in the program to her organization.

“I want to make impactful change for other women,” she said.