The case for women entrepreneurs who refuse to play small, according to Melissa Nava of Zendease by 1Export

Nava also takes a different view of what strong leadership needs to look like.

She describes her approach as feminine leadership, but not in the sense of softening decisions or avoiding difficult conversations. Empathy, honesty and attentiveness sit alongside a willingness to make hard calls.

“You can always do both,” she says.

That balance shows up in how she manages people. Nava says she has never laid off an employee across her markets, choosing instead to be transparent with her teams when the business is under pressure and work through the problem with them.

She also takes a deliberately hands-on approach to culture. “You can’t build culture in a team if you’re mute,” she says. “You’re not respected. You can’t build culture if you’re not hands-on.”

It is a useful distinction for founders whose businesses are growing faster than their ability to stay close to the organisation. Delegation is necessary, but distance does not automatically make a leader more effective.

Nava’s preference is to stay close enough to understand what is happening, spot problems early and have difficult conversations before they become crises.

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The bigger leadership lesson, however, may be the one Nava applies to herself.

She argues that women entrepreneurs are still often encouraged to measure their success through other people’s comfort, whether that means downplaying achievements or worrying about how professional ambition might affect their relationships.

“If a man is emasculated, that’s his problem, not mine,” she says. “Why is it my problem that I am successful and I have to play small?”

Her point is not that women should adopt a more aggressive version of traditionally male leadership. Quite the opposite. She believes women should recognise the strengths they already bring to a business, from empathy and attention to detail to a more holistic view of people and systems.

That does require confronting self-doubt. Nava describes negative self-talk as one of the biggest obstacles women need to address, particularly when their own achievements become so familiar that they stop recognising them.

“Sometimes we don’t recognise how much we have already done, and how much we’ve already achieved,” she says.

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There is also a practical dimension to Nava’s idea of ambition.

Building a larger company, expanding into new markets and increasing revenue matter, but they are not the endpoint. She sees businesses as a way to solve larger problems, particularly around employment, financial independence and opportunities for small businesses.

Her own work with women entrepreneurs extends beyond formal business initiatives. She mentors women personally and wants more women to build independent sources of income and make decisions about their own futures from a position of greater financial security.

She also wants women founders to think beyond the usual startup conversation. AI and its effect on jobs, income inequality, workforce skills and the barriers facing small businesses are all problems she believes women can help tackle because they bring perspectives that may otherwise be overlooked.

That makes ambition less about accumulating status and more about increasing what a business can do.

The same thinking informs her view of Philippine companies going regional. There is no reason, she argues, for founders to assume that a business has to remain within the Philippines simply because it started here.

The question is not whether women should want more. It is what they choose to do with the opportunity once they have it.

“The limits should not exist,” Nava says. “We normally put the limits to ourselves.”

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