Signs and Conversations of Impact: What happened when We Spoke at the WELN Educational Leadership Summit in the UAE

Team Gridmoves
Sep 30
5 min read

At the Women in Educational Leadership Summit (WELN UAE 2025), something significant occurred during a short 15-minute segment. Anita Stewart, a respected principal and our UAE Ambassador, delivered a brief but powerful extract from our flagship workshop, Confront the Grey Voices.

The full workshop spans two and a half hours. What Anita shared that day was only a 10 to 15-minute window, a small excerpt from a larger framework designed to shift how people lead from within.

Small Signs of Impact

Although brief, the session created a distinct emotional connection with some members of the audience, and this was reflected in several ways:

Anita received a round of applause at the close of her presentation.
The presenter who followed her referenced our concept directly.
The final speaker in her segment also returned to the language we had introduced.
We received written reviews in which Grid Society was mentioned.
Private conversations with Anita after the session further confirmed the message had landed.

For many women in the room, what they heard gave shape to something they had long been feeling. What we brought was a clarity of language, and that language brought relief.

LinkedIn Conversations

Some of the most insightful reflections were shared publicly and privately through LinkedIn. The following responses capture how the message landed, both in the moment and after the session.

From the Leadership Floor

Nadia Low Ten Que, Head of Primary at Reach British School in Abu Dhabi, publicly reflected on LinkedIn:

“Anita Stewart’s session on our different ‘colour voices’ hit home hard. We all have that grey voice of doubt whispering in our heads sometimes, but I’m pledging to myself right now to strive for the orange voice, the voice of empowerment, the one that says ‘You belong in this space.’”

This comment was a clear, public response that showed the session had already translated into something personal and actionable.

From a Private Message

“I found your session on the three voices so comforting. A reminder that we all have these doubts, but we do not have to listen to them. It was really lovely meeting you yesterday!”

This private message affirmed the emotional intelligence of the session and reflected the quiet recognition many leaders feel when they are finally given language for what they have long suppressed.

From a Speaker on the Day - Live on Stage

Immediately after our session, the next presenter opened by saying:

“Thank you, Anita, for your session. All day I realised I had been in my grey voice, questioning my ability to do this workshop. However, just before I came on, I reminded myself of my green voice and now I can proudly say I am standing here in my orange voice.”

She received a huge round of applause from the audience. This moment further confirmed that what had been shared had already begun to shift the emotional tone of the room.

From a LinkedIn Post by Kemi Oluyinka

Author, Founder of Black Teachers Network

In her public reflection on the WELN Educational Leadership Summit 2025, Kemi shared:

“Anita Stewart offered a brilliant framework for understanding the voices in our heads: Grey voice – irrational, limiting Green voice – coaching, calm, reasonable Orange voice – affirming, powerful, validating: ‘You belong. You have value.’ This session helped me reframe self-talk and recognise how we internalise leadership, too.”

This feedback affirmed how clearly the Grid Society framework was communicated and understood. It also demonstrated the lasting internal impact of the language, offering attendees a new way to interpret self-leadership even after the event had ended.

Read the LinkedIn Conversations we appeared in

Emotional Language in Leadership Matters

When leaders cannot name their emotional patterns, those patterns lead in silence. Language gives leaders the clarity to act with intention. What you say to yourself shapes how you show up. Leadership clarity begins when you become conscious of your internal conversations.

Our Workshop Matters

The Confront the Grey Voices workshop is not a motivational talk, nor is it designed for surface encouragement. It is a structured framework that supports individuals in confronting the internal narratives that quietly shape their leadership and presence.

WELN UAE Leadership Summit Matters

We also want to acknowledge the WELN UAE Leadership Summit for creating the kind of environment where conversations like these can begin. Without platforms like WELN, this level of conversation might not take place. We are grateful to have been part of a summit that values not only leadership strategies, but the emotional clarity that must underpin them.

JOIN OUR

CONFRONT THE GREY VOICES

WORKSHOP. THIS IS DEFINITELY YOUR SIGN!

It’s time to take full control of your mind and silence the second-guessing once and for all.

🫵

This is the only workshop known for giving people the strength to face their critic, reduce the spirals, and turn up the volume on the stronger voice that didn’t disappear; you just stopped listening.

👊

You don’t need to be falling apart or in the middle of a meltdown. Your inner critic doesn’t need to be playing mind games with you. Sometimes, you just need a mindset check.

A motivational upgrade to strengthen your mind and add a new layer of clarity.

BOOK YOUR SPACE NOW!

ONLINE DUBAI

6 Reasons

this Workshop

is For You!

You appear confident on the outside, but you’re constantly second-guessing yourself in private. This truthfully keeps you up late at night and stops you from starting your day productively.
You’re productive, but your inner critic is still louder than your wins. Your successes feel short-lived to you.
You’ve tried affirmations, mantras, and mindset tips, but none of them help when the spiral starts.
You’re exhausted by how loud your mind gets. It’s just you in a mental battle with your own thoughts, and sometimes it can feel isolating, like nobody really gets you.
You’ve achieved a lot, but you still question if you're good enough. You want to reach the next level you’ve been working toward, but you know you can’t get there until you take control of the inner critic cycle you’ve been experiencing.
You don’t want another quote or another 30-second tip. You want something real. Tools and a system you can take hold of and activate daily in your life.

Book

Confront

the Grey Voices

ONLINE DUBAI

About

this Workshop

This is where you stop letting your inner critic decide who you are.

This workshop gives you practical tools to identify, challenge and shut down the inner critic that’s been running the show in your mind for far too long. You will learn how to recognise your thought spirals in real time and interrupt them before they drag your energy, confidence or clarity.

You’ll be guided back to what we call your Orange Voice. This is the part of you that speaks with clarity, steadiness and strength. For some, that voice has been buried. For others, it’s been drowned out by noise. And for many, it’s simply never been fed — their confidence, self-belief and inner authority were never given the space to grow. This is where you strengthen your voice and learn how to recognise when your inner critic is speaking, so you can use the strategy in real time.

This workshop includes our now-infamous 13-Step Defence, a highly practical tool that helps you confront negative thoughts the moment they show up. Not later. Not in theory. In real life. You’ll walk away with a structured strategy that helps you become more conscious of the thought habits and mental patterns that have been working against you, so you can interrupt the spiral and rewrite the algorithm.

Once you take back control of your mind, something softens and for the first time in a while, life starts to feel possible again...