Equipping leadership skills, creating positive changes for ethnic minority female entrepreneurs

In reality, ethnic minority female entrepreneurs often have to take on multiple roles at the same time, such as business owner, wife, mother, community member, and many other roles.

In the family, as wives and mothers, they also have to take on household chores such as cooking, cleaning, caring, picking up and dropping off, mediating, teaching children, confiding, managing and overseeing housework and countless other tasks. In business, they often take on production, packaging, marketing, information technology, accounting, trade negotiations, customer care, shipping, etc.

These pressures from many sides often leave ethnic minority women with an overwhelming workload and little time to develop the skills, knowledge, and relationships needed to grow their businesses.

Thanks to the support and companionship from many sides, including the Women's Union at all levels, ethnic minority female entrepreneurs have enhanced their business and leadership skills, thereby improving the efficiency of their business operations and helping them develop themselves to become pioneers bringing positive changes to the community.

Ms. Dinh Thi Tuyen

The story of Dinh Thi Tuyen (Muong ethnic group, Ban Soc, Muong Bang commune, Phu Yen district, Son La province) is a vivid demonstration of the positive impacts of business and leadership training.

Effectively applying new knowledge and skills has brought sweet fruits to Ms. Tuyen in her business and personal life.

Changing perceptions through courses

As the Director of Thanh Cong Community Agricultural and Forestry Service Cooperative, specializing in growing yellow passion fruit in Son La, Ms. Dinh Thi Tuyen clearly understands the difficulties of running a business while taking care of her family.

Ms. Tuyen shared that at first, she did all the work in the cooperative herself, from assigning labor, participating in planting and harvesting techniques, to packaging and selling, because she was always worried that if she delegated the work to others, the quality of the products would not be guaranteed. This made her overloaded, leaving her no time to take care of her family or plan strategies to develop the business.

The change came when Ms. Tuyen attended a leadership skills course coordinated by the Son La Provincial Women's Union. The training course is part of a series of leadership skills enhancement courses designed to help strengthen the capacity of female entrepreneurs, especially ethnic minority women, implemented within the framework of the GREAT Project's Business and Leadership Promotion for Women Entrepreneurs sub-project.

The aim of the course is to help women enhance their business and leadership skills, thereby improving business performance while helping them develop themselves to become pioneers to bring positive change to the community. The training content is built on direct feedback and real needs of female entrepreneurs, especially ethnic minorities through in-depth interviews and surveys.

The training helped Tuyen realize that trying to do everything is ineffective, unproductive and unsustainable. She understood that leadership is about helping others develop, guiding and empowering them and creating a work environment where employees can develop their full potential.

Applying the knowledge from the training course, Ms. Tuyen made decisions to manage more optimally, typically assigning packaging tasks to employees...

Ms. Tuyen in a class on enhancing leadership skills

Ms. Tuyen said that she has more time to focus on sales and product introduction, thereby contributing to increasing revenue for the cooperative. She also has more time for her family. She has learned how to allocate time reasonably, knowing how to balance family and work. She actively communicates with her husband more, discussing together before deciding on important issues such as finance or development direction of the cooperative. Her husband really supports her, becomes her companion, shares with her both difficulties and successes. This helps her feel more relieved, and at the same time can focus more on developing the cooperative in a sustainable way.

Now, Tuyen has not only improved her business but also created a positive impact for the community through appropriate leadership training courses. She also provides stable job opportunities for female workers, helping them earn income right at home instead of having to work far away. As a result, the quality of life of households and the sustainable development of the community have also been improved.

With plans to expand the cooperative’s cultivation area to more than 100 hectares in the next two years, Ms. Tuyen is confident in her ability to train more local people to participate and contribute to the success of the cooperative. She realized that, instead of just assigning work, she needed to create a working environment where local workers, especially women, could contribute ideas and develop themselves. She encouraged them to share more efficient working methods and recognized those contributions.

"With appropriate support and resources, ethnic minority female entrepreneurs like me will be equipped with more knowledge and skills, thereby being able to increase revenue, improve their own capacity and that of their staff, as well as create positive changes for the community," said Ms. Tuyen.

Applying technical knowledge of cultivation to effectively reduce poverty for ethnic minorities

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/trang-bi-ky-nang-lanh-dao-tao-ra-nhung-thay-doi-tich-cuc-cho-doanh-nhan-nu-dan-toc-thieu-so-2025050717121468.htm