A - Ask for what you want
S - Stop waiting for permission
K - Know your greatness
ASK Leadership Framework: Stop Waiting, Ask, Lead
Leadership is trapped in permission culture. Too often, talented professionals wait to be chosen. They wait for validation. They wait for others to define their value.
But waiting is the slowest route to impact.
What Is Permission Culture?
The world is volatile. Your value isn’t, stop waiting and start asking.
Permission culture is a system that keeps knowledge experts and leaders silent, undervalued, and invisible. It’s reflected in:
Waiting for managers or institutions to validate your ideas
Hesitating to share insights or take opportunities without approval
Assuming you must follow someone else’s timeline to be “ready”
For diverse professionals, speakers, and leaders, this culture quietly erodes career growth, influence, and income potential.
What Is ASK Leadership?
That Framework that Moves the Needle
To tackle this, I developed the ASK Leadership Framework, a practical system that helps diverse professionals stop waiting, advocate for their value, and lead themselves visibly.
The framework is simple, actionable, and tested:
A — Ask to Lead
Step into opportunities instead of waiting to be invited. Speak, present, pitch, and claim your space.
S — Stop Waiting
Your expertise is valid now. You don’t need permission to be seen, heard, or recognised.
K — Know Your Greatness
Recognise your contribution and own your impact. Your skills and experience are unique and needed.
Why This Framework Exists
I first noticed permission culture in the speaking industry. I used to give workshops for free, believing the work would speak for itself. It didn’t. Even when feedback was good. I wasn’t positioned to be paid, and I was invisible to opportunities I deserved.
Then as a speaker the “there’s no budget” story, which the initial framework was built around to challenge speaker equity and the removal of speakers from event organiser’s budget lines. And on the part of diverse speakers not asking to be paid sparked the ASK Leadership framework.
Now, this isn’t just about speakers. Permission culture shows up everywhere: in corporate leadership, academics, entrepreneurs and experts who are undervaluing themselves and waiting to be chosen.
Who It Helps
ASK Leadership is for diverse professionals who are ready to:
Stop waiting for permission
Advocate for their value
Step into visible leadership
Take control of their careers
It applies to:
Corporate leaders
Speakers and consultants
Academics building portfolio careers
Experts seeking visibility and influence
Real-World Impact
ASK Leadership works. Signature moments include:
Accessing sold-out A-list event, Kamala Harris’ “107 Days” book tour in London in 72 hours
Asking for pitching advice and being booked to speak on that marketing conference stage the following year
Pitching for workshop training opportunities, which converted into paid opportunities for an executive leadership programme for Black Women and training at City and St. George’s University
These examples show that asking is leadership and visible action creates results that waiting to be invited never will.
The Permission-Based Leadership Connection
ASK Leadership builds on the principles of Permission-Based Leadership, a movement I founded to challenge outdated norms and empower professionals to claim their value.
The ASK Leadership Framework was developed by Ekua Cant to help diverse professionals escape permission culture and advocate for their value.
Ready to start ASKing?
Ready to stop waiting and start leading?
✅ Download the full guide: Leadership Is Trapped In Permission Culture your roadmap to ASK Leadership: HERE
✅ Book Ekua to speak: Transform your team or event with workshops, keynotes, and visible leadership coaching.
Stop waiting. Start asking. Be visible. Lead.
Ekua Cant, aka The LinkedIn Cheerleader - Let’s Connect! 🙌🏾💃🏾🎉
Meet Your Speaker & Trainer
Ekua Cant, aka The LinkedIn Cheerleader, Let’s Connect! 🙌🏾💃🏾🎉
Ekua Cant is a Leadership Visibility Expert a dynamic speaker, and the founder of Be Your No.1 Cheerleader, a consultancy helping professionals and businesses lead with confidence, clarity, and visibility.
A former UK Civil Servant turned entrepreneur, she has led multi-million-pound digital transformation programmes and founded startups including Layover Adventure and Hackathon Queen. As a neurodivergent leader with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia, Ekua champions inclusion and difference as a business strength.
Ekua delivers keynotes, masterclasses, and coaching across universities, leadership academies, and global organisations. Her upcoming book, Your Platform Power: How to Build a Profitable Speaker Brand in a Polarised World, will be released in September 2025.
Whether she’s coaching LinkedIn strategy or speaking on visible leadership in an AI-powered world, Ekua’s message is simple: Your voice is your brand. Show up, and lead boldly.
Testimonials
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"The CASH Formula is pure gold! Turning connections into opportunity with intentionality."
Matilda Ngissah, Fashion Designer
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"Ekua Cant is a dynamic career coach and a helpful LinkedIn guide. Her expertise is unmatched."
Evan Birkhead, Strategic Marketing & Communications, Evan Birkhead LLC
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"Ekua is a true cheerleader, and this shone through in the LinkedIn workshop she hosted. She showed us how to develop an A-star profile so that it works for us. What stood out was the hot seat section where Ekua did a live review with tips to improve as well as the working session to update profiles in real-time. Thank you, Ekua—I'm sure this workshop will be the first of many."
Nikki St Paul, Nervous System Regulation Coach for Female Entrepreneurs
