What if your biggest career barrier turned out to be completely different to what you thought? Azure Antoinette shares why your professional purpose is on the other side of a perspective shift.
The joy after the promotion is fleeting. The corner office feels hollow. The recognition leaves you feeling like something is missing.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many high-achieving women are hitting an invisible wall and not because they’re failing. They’re achieving someone else’s definition of success.
“When you're trying to meet a standard that was built without you in mind, you can get stuck,” explains Azure Antoinette, a global inclusivity thought leader. “You're running, running, running, you're doing the things, you're ticking all the boxes, and it still didn't work.”
Sadly, women typically blame themselves.
When reaching career goals feels empty, most women will look inward. They question their abilities and choices.
“But what if the problem isn’t with you,” Azure poses. “What if it’s structural?”
This shift in perspective cuts to the heart of the issue: women are working within a system that isn’t designed with them in mind. And it’s exhausting. But recognising that the problem is systemic is incredibly transformative.
"Once you truly understand this, you are powerful beyond measure. Because now, no matter what eventuates, you've removed the shock and the grieving and the shame that takes up so much space within our psychological make up of what we “thought” we should be achieving."
Born and raised in the US, Azure now calls Australia’s Gold Coast home. The contrast between the two countries has helped shaped her understanding of change and resistance.
“Australian society is compliant,” she observes. “It doesn’t mean everyone’s having a good time, but there’s trust. In the States, we’re constantly pushing back, we are ready to rally for zero reason at all, or for all the reasons.”
While Australia’s compliance breeds a society with social safety nets and order, disruption in the US has enabled the emergence of people like Ruth Bader Ginsburg whose work changed the lives off all American women.
So which system is better? Azure says it’s about balance. And when it comes to workplaces, they need enough order to function but enough passion to evolve.
Azure’s approach for challenging a system isn’t about burning it all down. It’s about strategic, sustained resistance that creates change in your immediate circle.
As a person living with multiple sclerosis (MS), Azure has to be strategic about where she spends her energy – what she calls her spoons. On a good day, she may have spoons left to direct her passion and energy into her next venture.
During a flare up, she’ll use them all just to sit up in the morning.
“With the fatigue of seeing how many atrocities are happening simultaneously, you have got to figure out again where your spoons are and where your baseline is,” she explains.
Not every battle is worth fighting. Before you engage, ask yourself:
"Don't try to take it all on,” she advises. “You will exhaust yourself. Focus on you in your own home, the people that are the closest to your village. Look out for one another and be purpose-led to deconstruct some of those ideals that are very problematic within our current systemic society.”
Small, consistent actions in your immediate circle can create ripple effects. Change your dinner table conversations. Correct bias in the staff kitchen. Challenge assumptions in the boardroom.
"When you model the behaviour you deserve, you receive it. When you model a stereotype, it remains," Azure says.
When faced with generalisations or assumptions, Azure relies on three words: “Can you clarify?”
"You can disarm pretty much anyone when you ask them to clarify. In that clarification, they too become aware."
When someone makes sweeping generalisations – “all women do this” or “that’s just how things are” – ask them to explain.
Try:
It’s not confrontation. It’s an invitation – you’re creating space for the other person to examine their systemic assumptions and instead asking for genuine dialogue.
“Do you know how many ways we finish the sentence without it even being communicated?” she poses. “People will base entire ideologies and decisions off of what they thought you meant and what they believed they inferred from your reasoning."
As long as organisations remain focused on “fixing individuals rather than examining the system”, psychological safety will remain elusive, Azure says.
"People need have the space to have conversations they won't be judged for, where they’re not going to then be persecuted or called out or cancelled.”
Azure’s approach? Call people in rather than out.
"As an educator, I'm here to help you get to where it feels comfortable for you. If, in fact, you say a thing that is unsafe and causes discomfort to another person, I still tactfully will walk with you. I don't call people out. I call them in."
This means:
Organisations that move beyond checkbox diversity see meaningful results. Metrics need to shift.
Organisations need to ask the tough questions: Whose voices are missing from decision-making? Who gets promoted and why? What barriers exist that we can’t see?
“Everything we have, everything we want, is just on the other side of a perspective shift," Azure proposes.
Real change requires early intervention. That’s why Azure will be part of UNSW Business School’s 2025 Girls in Business Camp, helping high school students spot systemic issues before they internalise them as personal failures.
The three-day collaborative program is designed for female-identifying students in years 10, 11 or 12 from across NSW, who want to explore a future in business. And this year, they’ll be tasked with solving some of the biggest systemic issues facing women today.
It’s the question Azure’s two-day workshop at UNSW Business School helped participants unpack in May.
The answer? You can either keep trying to fit into someone else’s system or create your own.
“If the definition doesn't suit, be the one to change it," Azure challenges.
Ask the question that can change everything: What do you want?
The answer is likely not behind another promotion or in a corner office. It’s on the other side of a perspective shift.
Azure Antoinette is a seasoned professional specialising in the art and craft of personal storytelling, creative writing, and poetry, with a distinctive talent for transforming written narratives into captivating live stage performances.
Hailed by Forbes as “The Maya Angelou of the Millennial Generation,” she blends artistry, candour, and insight into powerful reflections on leadership, identity, and resilience.
Starting her career in the corporate world of HR, Azure has made a name for herself as a woman of many talents. She is a global inclusivity thought leader, commissioned poet, TED Speaker, GRAMMY™ Considered recording artist, and creative entrepreneur.
Azure's extensive educational background began in 2006 within Los Angeles County high schools. It flourished through teaching creative writing and narrative essay recitation at private charter schools in Manhattan and Queens, New York, as well as at renowned private schools nationwide.
Her university experience includes collaborations with Yale University alongside the Born This Way Foundation, UCLA, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Queens College, NYU, and now UNSW Sydney, demonstrating a deep commitment to fostering narrative skills across diverse learning environments.