Author: Hellen Githaiga

What I’ve Learnt About Success

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

By Jackson Biko

There is a little section in this Friday paper where I meet with CEOs, thought leaders and entrepreneurs in quiet unobtrusive spaces and chat. Mostly it’s early morning, over tea, before
the day gets its elbow dirty. I’ve done it weekly for the past 10 or so years now.

They started off as interviews, now they are conversations and those conversations are never about what these people do but rather who they are. The far-reaching agenda is that by them opening themselves up to close scrutiny we — the readers — hope to tap into what informs their success.

I remember my first few interviews soiled with awe and admiration for these subjects and great superfluousness (on my part). These were successful men and women I only saw on TV; now they were seated before me, legs folded looking like humans who brushed their teeth and engaged in other mundane activities just like the rest of us.

What surprised me was how they all looked different in the flesh. I wanted to touch their hair to confirm that indeed they were real. Initially, I thought I was taken by their presence but then I realised it’s their office/titles that enthralled me. I was young (31 or 32 years), wet behind the ears and impressionable. Of course, I didn’t know better. How could I? I asked pointless and
embarrassing questions like what’s your favourite car? What inspires you?

But then I grew up, as a man, yes but as a professional as well and soon I quickly realised what I had before me. This weekly task had essentially given me access to these successful people. Not only could I learn from them but also recalibrate and test my own idea of success.

So I started asking questions for myself, not for you, dear readers. Because I wanted to know and learn. I wanted to learn about money and marriage, success and failure, loss and hubris, fear and fatalism. If you have been reading that column you will notice that I almost always ask about success and about money. Because most of us were socialised to believe that success means things; a big German car that smells of almonds, a big house on a hill, children in decent schools, money in the bank, affluence.

And so over this decade I have written that column my idea of success has been moulded in more ways than one by most of these extremely brilliant women and men. I have learnt that success is so amorphous. It’s like an amoeba. Have you seen an amoeba under a microscope? You look at it and it looks like the shape of Australia. You step away, take a leak and come back and it looks
like a bottle opener. Success, like an amoeba, is an ugly word. It feels like a finality. The final whistle. A corridor that opens into a wall.

After a while, in the wake of these enlightening conversations, I threw out my own definition of success. This is because I realised that success is like a red coat. I’m never going to wear a red coat, no matter how much I’ve drunk. Well, unless I get a job in a casino and in these dicey economic times, who knows?

Am I successful as a 42-year-old writer? It’s easy to confuse comfort with success. However, I’ve been blessed abundantly for doing something I’m very passionate about, but I also realise that I’m still in the trenches. Which I happen to love. Writing — unlike other forms of quantifiable professions — isn’t a destination, a point of arrival. It’s an unending journey devoid of any romance and long  gratifications. I will write something that I love now, but by tomorrow it won’t matter because nobody cares about what you wrote yesterday. What have you written today?

It’s a ruthless pursuit, this profession which makes the idea of success a moving target. Novels lie about writers who write shirtless under a whirring fan, a glass of scotch by their elbow, seated at a table before a big yawning louvered window that overlooks the rumbling rooftops where birds perch to offer the soundtrack of their prose. Writing is akin to pursuing a love interest that blows hot and cold. It’s like filling a cracked pot. Like trying to light a wet cigarette. It’s pure masochism.

However, there is a deep inexplicable love that writing evokes in one. This unending seduction of words. You know you will never love another and you are aware that the love outweighs every wart that writing comes with. And because of this, success is shifty, like trying to step on your shadow.

I once interviewed a gentleman — I can’t remember who that was, it was five years ago— who I asked what success meant for him and he quoted something I found very interesting. He said that success for him was about hanging on after all others have let go.

I intend to hang on as long as it takes.

Outlier men whose secret of success is not so much hidden

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

Once, when I was on the verge of 35, I went to see my boss to ask for a promotion. I had just read a book which suggested that if one has not made it in their chosen profession by the age of 35, then 35 was an ideal point to consider trying an entirely new one. I duly quoted this book and my boss at the time asked me: “When are you turning 35?”

“In a month’s time,” I said, my voice shaking, my palms balmy with anxiety. “And what would you like to do in a new role?” he asked, and I duly answered to the best of my knowledge and self-assessment.

“But why do you want a retirement level job? Why not something more exciting?” he asked.

I considered the job I wanted left brain. What he was offering was right brain and I told him as much.

To cut a long story short, two weeks to my birthday, I received a letter informing me that I had been promoted — to the right brain job.

Over the course of my life, I have wanted to be many things. As a boy, when I read about Ronald Reagan, my ambition was to be president of the United States. Reagan, in my view, lived a
charmed life as president and an actor in movies. In those days, the best actors rode on large brown horses, smoked Marlboro, had a damsel to die for, a gun that never missed its target and a bad
guy running from them in the rugged terrains of America’s wild west. That was the job of the future for us.

Later, when I learnt about Javier Perez de Cuellar, I thought that being US president was nothing and becoming UN Secretary-General was more powerful because you practically had a say about
any country on earth. I thought that these were jobs that boys moved into when they turned 40. Nine years ago, I was reminded of these childhood fantasies when David Cameron became UK Prime Minister at the age of 44 and I remembered the joke about the man who told his underperforming son: “When I was your age, I was the best in my class.” And the boy said to him in all earnestness, “When Bill Clinton was your age, he was president of the United States”.

Why am I telling all these stories? For two reasons. One: The jobs of the future have already started taking shape today. For years, trading in derivatives was the preserve of a few. Today, that market is slowly democratising. When we’re struggling with MS-Dos in campus in the mid-90s, we had no idea what range of jobs we could do with computers. Today, we are talking about Artificial Intelligence, cashless payments, Internet of Things; innovations that not even Jules Vernes could contemplate. Yet, some of today’s Top40 Under40 winners are doing these very things.

Second; When we talked to many of the winners, they said they followed their hearts, made commitment their second name and invested time and effort to get to where they are, becoming
outliers in their chosen fields, from hockey to inventing computer games and e-commerce businesses. And many of them had an older man prompting them, nudging them on which direction
to take and what choices to make. This basically means that their secret of success is actually not so much of a secret anymore. We have unpacked the ingredients in the hope that for every
winner, we can encourage ten more.

It is not every day that you find, say, a neurosurgeon or kidney expert who is under 40 and who has chosen to work in a backwater hospital on the slopes of Mt Kenya or the floor of the Rift Valley,
reaching out to desperate patients in remote villages and giving them back the gift of life. Your standard medical expert will be in a big hospital in Nairobi, charging an arm and a leg just for consultation.

That is why all these 40 guys are outliers. Their life stories challenge the myth that you have to be in politics to make a difference; or the only way to flood your bank account is through overquoted
tenders to a government agency.

See for yourself what these young men have done, then go ye and do likewise.

– Ng’ang’a Mbugua

Are You Worth The Investment?

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

By Smurti Patel

How many times have you received unsolicited advice or heard, “Women need …” fill in the blank? Let’s add to that, “Women need to get a coach.”

Scepticism is high. Rightly so, when anyone can call themselves a coach and it feels near-impossible to differentiate between life coaches, mentor coaches, leadership coaches et al.

Actually, anyone interested in excelling and rising to their fullest potential MUST have a leadership coach.

A high quality one with the requisite skill set otherwise, as one of my bosses used to say, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!”

Due diligence is imperative before deciding to work with a coach and by the way, a high-powered executive with a lot to learn from might make an excellent mentor but they don’t necessarily have coaching skills!

The merits and results of working with a high quality leadership coach have been evident for a number of years and some of the most high profile business leaders have one.

Coaching engagements customised to a client’s needs are the most effective and yield the best results.

In my experience, women benefit greatly from two areas, in particular.

The first is influencing which I refer to as the master skill and because our professional growth is vastly dependent on our network, it is imperative that we learn how to influence others.

While women are often well skilled at maintaining and influencing their personal networks, they can fall short with their professional networks and it is a different skill set that is required for the latter.

The result is a series of missed opportunities ranging from profits to professional development leading to salary raises.

Whether you are starting out, in the C-suite, an entrepreneur or a professional, how rapidly you build relationships and the extent to which you influence your network, (inside and outside of the organisation), is critical to how quickly you can get things done.

In other words, performance. And high performance is a calling card that opens doors — fast.

A leadership coach can help you understand your network better and strategically map out how to influence it.

Additionally, you would be able to better understand your personal communication preference and style so influencing would stay authentic and natural.

A high quality coach will also hand-pick relevant resources from their own canon of materials to broaden your perspective, help build the skill set and most importantly, raise self-awareness.

The second area is conflict management and this is often where the greatest self-awareness work is done.

How often, in conflict, do we immediately blame the other person? It is extraordinarily difficult to take a neutral stand let alone examine our role in conflicts.

A leadership coach specialising in this area helps you understand your conflict profile and stance. What provokes? What is the history behind common triggers?

How can you manage yourself through conflicts and choose your response to others versus reacting?

A coach can help develop a skill set to manage difficult conversations that align with your values and even create a conflict philosophy.

How can you ask for what you want? How do you draw boundaries? Incidentally, it is a folly to think that conflict only means a blow out argument.

The most insidious kind is the slow, simmering, passive aggressive type that contributes to a toxic culture and paralyses organisations. Ignoring unhealthy conflict bleeds profits.

So, if we know that working with a leadership coach is transformative for professional growth why don’t more women work with one?

In my experience, I’ve watched how men will overwhelmingly prioritise their professional development and make the decision to do so almost instantaneously.

They will take the leap. The exceptions among women also do the same but largely, someone else decides for them as part of a strategic women’s initiative or perhaps it’s a visionary leader.

They won’t do it for themselves or ask for a coach.

A potential client engaged in conversations about working with me for two years.

In the same time frame, I completed an engagement with another client, a man, who practised his learning on the job, closed his gaps and got promoted with a hefty salary increase. She still calls to talk about an engagement on the same growth areas.

I give this example because I am left to wonder if the gender pay gap might narrow faster if women assumed a greater personal responsibility in taking charge of their own development.

Simply translated: invest in yourself and choose the best. You determine your worth.

Smruti is a seasoned leadership coach and facilitator specialising in conflict coaching. She has a career spanning corporate consulting and law. E-mail: [email protected].

Dear Women, The World is Your Oyster

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

By Dr Cathy Mputhia

In the history of Israel, there once lived a woman known as Deborah. Deborah was fondly referred to as the mother of Israel.

“She was a prophetess (highest spiritual leader), a judge, a song writer, a mother and a wife. Of all her famous leadership successes was counselling the army commander Barrack on battle strategy.

The general was afraid to go to battle and begged the “Mother of Israel” to accompany him.

She told him that due to his hesitance, the victory in that particular battle would be attributed to a woman, that is, Jael. Jael was a woman who managed to kill Israel’s enemy using “soft skills.”

She convinced the fleeing enemy to take a rest in her tent and went as far as serving him milk to rejuvenate him. While the enemy was sleeping, she finished him off.

This is an interesting account of how the cultural and social environment at the time was very supportive of women in leadership. It also shows how a woman used her soft skills to attain goals and implement strategy.

From this story, we see how diverse personalities can work together to achieve same goal. While Deborah seemed firmer and more authoritative, Jael’s strength seemed to be good people skills. Therefore, the perception that women have to embrace a soft or weaker leadership style is misleading.

Time is now

The current global trend is shifting in favour of supporting rather than stifling women in leadership. This is not to say that men in leadership have lost their ground, the shifting trend is cognisant of the fact that capable women ought to be equally supported to take up leadership roles.

The global trend is shaping women leadership in Kenya.

Congratulations to the 40 winners of this year’s Top 40 under 40 women. These are young women who are making a mark in their circles of influence.

The 40 women are top performers in each of their sectors, whose successes as women can be emulated.

This is especially relevant to women as the legal environment is very supportive of women in business and leadership. This is not to say that it is unsupportive of men. If there is a time and season that capable women in Kenya can grow their careers, businesses and horn their leadership skill, the time is now.

This all started with the new Constitution 2010. Article 27 provides for equal opportunities between men and women. While this provision does not favour either of the sexes as they key standard is equality, a lot of corporates have since 2010, provided more opportunities for women.
Corporates are taking a cautious approach to be gender sensitive as gender policy can affect a corporate’s image and brand.

Therefore, when recruiting staff, many corporates ensure there is gender balance by ensuring the recruitment in not too skewed to favour one gender.

There has been a huge policy shift supporting women and youth owned businesses in access to procurement opportunities and finance.

At least 30 percent of all Government tenders are reserved for this group and at least 30 percent of the budgetary allocation is for this group. This means it is easier for women owned enterprises to supply goods and services in the requisite category.

There are many financial institutions that provide access to credit for women. This is because some women lacked collateral to use as security for a loan because of cultural hindrances. Before the shift in the legal environment, married women were challenged in inheriting a portion of their parents ‘property because the assumption was she would enjoy her husband’s portion.
The law allows all children whether women or men, married or single to inherit.

The specialist women finance institutions sought to address this challenge.

There are more mentorship and training opportunities for women-led businesses. I have benefited from such initiatives that support networking, mentorship, training and placement. This is because the demand for women led suppliers has gone up.

Globally, board diversity is an emerging trend. A good board is one that is diverse in terms of expertise, age, location and gender.

In closing, do not forget the environment is supportive, therefore you have no excuse not to excel.

The Books That Mould Us

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

By Daisy Okoiti

Dr Laila Macharia, Director at Africa Digital Media Group, Absa Kenya , and Centum Investments

What are you currently reading?
“Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved, “Factfulness” and “The Great Stagnation”.

How many books do you read in a year?
I usually have three different ones open at a time, so perhaps 20 or 30 a year.

How would you describe your library?

Eclectic. There’s lots on the state of our planet. Old favourite books like “Guns, Germs & Steel” sit next to more recent tomes like “Get Better at Getting Better” and “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.” I cherished the late Hans Rosling so I’ve just started “Factfulness”. I have a policy to buy and read anything my friends write or recommend so I have Amy Chua and Anand Giridharadas’ books.

I have many biographies from Wangari Maathai and Margaret Thatcher to Lee Kuan Yew and Prathap Chandra Reddy. As I mature, I find myself drawn to more complicated, pensive memoirs by authors like Anne Lamott and Nancy Mairs who writes on faith, disability and mortality.

Similarly, I love technical and management books that straddle French, law and business but lean to the practical, covering scaling and turnarounds, like “Built to Sell”, “No Man’s Land” and contrarian ones like the “Illusions of Entrepreneurship.” Also, religious debate like “The Meaning of Jesus”, “The Thinking Person’s Guide to God” and “A Big-Enough God”. And I have books on religious politics, “The Future of Islam,” “God’s Politics” and “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” I also have the inevitable section on marriage, parenting, housekeeping and health. And children’s books and puzzles seem to be taking more shelves each year.

And at work?
Management has a standard reading list that includes “Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best … and Learn from the Worst”, “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”, “The Checklist Manifesto”, “The Founder’s Mentality” and “Radical Candor.”

How many books do you have?
Over 700.

When did your love for reading begin?

Probably in the womb! My parents are great readers. My mother still completes the crossword every day and beats everyone at Scrabble. Pressure. (Laughs) We were taught that each book was a treasure. You never write in a book, highlight or dog-ear it. A book was to be preserved and passed down.

What is that one thing young people ought to understand about the importance of reading?

Reading is liberation, mentorship, adventure, perspective… and you become a better writer by reading.

Softcopy or hard copy?
Hard copy. The smell and look of any library takes me back to childhood.

It’s a visceral connection to hearth and home and to everything I treasure most.

Where do get your books?
Books are borrowed and shared. Some are bought used or new online or from shiny or dusty bookstores.

——

Dr Nancy Muriuki, Chairman at Kasneb, CEO Africa Success Enhancement Lab

What are you currently reading?
I am a polygamous reader. So, I have three books open before me; “Courageous Leaders: Transforming Their World” which was birthday gift I got from my children, “Boards That Deliver: Advancing Corporate Governance From Compliance to Competitive Advantage” which I got at an award ceremony in 2017, “Reinvention: Accelerating Results in the Age of Disruption” which was recommended by a colleague.

Which books have influenced your leadership style?
The Bible,“The Power of Servant-Leadership”, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and many others by John Maxwell. Earlier on, Ben Carson’s writings were a destiny changer for me

You are heavy on non-fiction …
Absolutely. I am drawn to literature that embodies actual life. I also search for knowledge in whatever area I am involved in. For example, I am reading many books on youth and marriage because I mentor them. We learn through mistakes but we may not always live long enough to make all the mistakes ourselves before we can learn. So reading other people’s experiences is an opportunity to learn.

When did reading become serious business for you?
In college. I read many books on dating then.

How many books do you read in a year?
Three to five, depending on how busy a year is. The number was bigger before because I had more time in salons or when travelling.

One advice to young women professionals?
Learning is a lifelong journey. If you’d like to remain progressive and relevant, you must cultivate a reading culture. In life, you learn and unlearn as you grow. If you are depending on knowledge acquired 10 years ago, you are in trouble. Also, as you get older, life gets busier, so seize all the time you have now to read.

Hard copy or soft copy?
I did my PhD online so that introduced me to reading online. However, I still prefer hard copy, to buy and keep my books.

——-

Rose Kimotho, MD and founder of Three Stones, a board member at Stanbic Bank, PSI Kenya, and Cytonn Investments

When did your love for reading begin?
When I was a little girl. My father emphasised reading a lot. His rule was that when he returns from work, everyone was expected to be reading. This grew on us. He would come home with book series in several volumes, sometimes up to 12 such as “Reader’s Digest”, “Uncle Ben’s Story”, “Uncle Arthur’s bedtime stories.

I don’t know if they are sold the same way these days. Each time we completed a volume, we went back to my father for more and he would be so pleased. So even at that age, I could not understand why people would not want to read.

Any preference in genres?
I’m into fiction. But I’m getting into the non-fiction space, autobiographies. I also like spy books and comedy. “The Complete Henry Root Letters” is a favourite.

How important is reading to a corporate leader?
Reading broadens your mind about people. Books teach you about different personalities, characters and what motivates people. If you limit your world to the people you know, you will not understand the broad spectrum that is human nature and what triggers people.

Part of the lesson in management is understanding why people behave the way they do. And as a leader, I have to get people to produce — because you do not produce yourself. To get people to produce, you must know them.

When I launched Kameme FM, there was a shame about vernacular. People in rural areas spoke vernacular and it identified the uneducated. I knew people loved their mother tongues so I had to look for insights on the shame and what could draw people back in.

What are you reading?
I want to start reading “Satya Nadella’s first book: Hit Refresh.” I want to understand how companies transform and restrategise.

What do you prefer, hard or soft copy?
I’m still attached to hard copies — smelling and turning the pages. I like to sit with a book.

I buy my books mostly from Amazon. But I have a Kindle, I’m trying to force myself into the 21st Century. It will be a loss for me when all books are gone.

When do you read?
When I go to bed. It is a nice way to switch off. I also read over the weekends.

How many books do you have?
I have no idea! The older I get the more books I get.

Too Much? No, Outliers All!

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

By Caroline Mutoko

You will probably be out of breath after you read through this year’s shortlist of Top 40 Under40. It is also totally understandable if you may want to lock yourself up in a room and devour each story. As you read through their accomplishments, your pulse rate will be a little heightened. That is exactly how you should feel because, these women quicken the pace of anything they encounter. All of them, every single one of them are outliers. Put it another way, the kind of women who are ‘too much’. The ones the world needs.

In a world where the prevailing narrative, the false narrative will have you believe that “our women have lost their way”; that we aspire to be nothing; that we want to coast through life and add no value to humanity. These ‘too much’ women, stand 40 to the power of 40 to the power of 40 and stare that narrative down.

We, the ‘too much women’ are the norm, not the exception. I am not the original ‘too much woman’ but I know my people and they know me and I say, welcome to the tribe. How do you know us? We smile too freely, laugh too loudly, speak too fast. We are too intense, too strong-willed. We have too many dreams and too high standards. We are too passionate, too ambitious, too strong and the best of all we are too honest about our ‘muchness’.

We were never made to fit into a box that is too small for the magnificence that we hold inside. I embrace being ‘too much’ because I have learned that when you expect less and demand less, you get less.

Surely, the 40 women we celebrate here today are not too much for a world in need of hope, answers, solutions and women and girls in search of inspiration and role models. Not too much, in fact not near enough.

Ladies, as you got through the day and the next year (you carry the torch for a year), take note and marvel at the number of people who celebrate you. You are exactly what we need. The world is fickle, and for every five “slay queen” narrative spinners, there are hundreds of us quietly appreciating your panache. You inspire and you delight and yes, you are too much and that is exactly what the world needs. Don’t you dare change. Thank you very much for being ‘too much’! Congratulations!

Women who have dared to be champions of disruption

Posted on by Hellen Githaiga

For most women, climbing the career ladder in a field few or none has ascended is hard enough. However, when they find someone who has reached the top and who tells them that it is safe to climb; that they can keep coming on up; that the view is breathtaking at the peak, then the way becomes easier and dreams look more achievable.

For more than 10 years, Business Daily has been singling out outstanding women who have dared to turn their dreams in million-shilling enterprises, who have made groundbreaking medical discoveries, who have escaped poverty to head multinationals, to those who became the ‘firsts’ in different fields.

However, what has lacked is a network of these women to help grow each other’s businesses or mentor young professionals, especially those seeking a hand-up to grow. Mentorship and coaching hold the key to growing the numbers of female immunologists, quantum physicists, computer programmers, neurologists or even chief finance officers; fields where women are woefully underrepresented.

As we unveil this year’s Top40 Under40 Women, I dare you to be champions of disruption. Let’s move away from traditional businesses which are flooded, and which limit our chances of succeeding. Let’s scale our businesses that we will no longer play small. No one finds passion by playing small!

Diana Mwango