Leanne Robers is here to support leaders and founders

The fourth edition of the Her World Mentorship Programme champions women who are just stepping into leadership. This year, 13 hand-picked mentees will spend six months journeying with accomplished women leaders.

If you ever needed proof that entrepreneurs are always evolving, take Leanne Robers as a prime example. After 10 years of growing She Loves Tech, Leanne has shifted gears and embraced her initial training as a psychotherapist, working with her father Harold Robers to run retreats that focus on leaders and founders who need a reset.

It’s a full circle moment for her, having practiced psychotherapy early on in her career to pay the bills while getting She Loves Tech off the ground. At the same time, she clearly sees the benefits of combining the two skill sets.

“Founders are always so stretched, so overwhelmed. They have to navigate really difficult challenges, and I saw them struggling with so many of the same things that I saw clients in the clinic struggle with,” she recalls. “So I thought, how can I bring some of the tools that my dad has created, and help them overcome a lot of that overwhelm?”

In many ways, her father was her first, informal mentor. Leanne recalls moving to the US as a child so that he could pursue his masters and PhD. To support himself and the family, he worked as a janitor while studying. “He’s somebody who has proven over and over again that you don’t have to be loud to be powerful,” she says.

Her father has been practising for decades with a full schedule, largely by word-of-mouth and no marketing, but as an entrepreneur, Leanne believed there was more that he could offer.

“As a psychologist, you can do a lot on a one-to-one basis. But for me, especially having co-founded and grown She Loves Tech, it’s all about scale,” she says with a laugh. Together, the father and daughter duo have run a number of retreats for leaders, each bringing their own unique but complementary skill sets to the equation.

After giving all of her 30s to She Loves Tech, Leanne is now exploring her other areas of interests. In addition to working with her father, she has been an angel investor to different start-ups through Cocoon Capital. “I’ve seen how well they’ve done, not by following what is flashy or shiny, but by sticking to what makes start-ups successful – which is being founder-centric,” she says.

With her workload currently varied and dynamic, Leanne is comfortable not having all the answers about where everything is headed. “The one thing I know is that I want to continue my father’s legacy of transforming lives, of helping others by bringing more people his tools, combined with my own unique strengths,” she shares.

Why do you think mentorship is important, especially for women who are new to leadership roles?

To me, mentorship is almost a way to hack learning. It is a shortcut where you can learn from other people who have been there, done that, who have made mistakes and learnt from those mistakes, so that you don’t have to.

What’s a leadership lesson you’ve had to learn the hard way?

There have been so many. When I was a young leader, I thought I had to set the tone and style of the team—from strategy to communication. But I’ve learnt that leadership is about identifying and understanding everybody’s different communication styles, not forcing them to communicate the way you want to communicate.

How do you handle moments when you feel uncertain or out of your depth as a leader?

As a leader, I’m always doing things that haven’t been done before, so I’m constantly feeling uncertain. But I’ve learnt how to sit with that discomfort. To me, growth requires discomfort—true growth is never comfortable. So if you’re able to embrace that discomfort and see that you are learning and growing, then your discomfort isn’t holding you back, but helping you build.

Her World Mentorship Programme 2026 is made possible with the support of official beauty partner Cle de Peau Beaute and official network partner Singtel.

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