Organizational culture is key to building an engaged workforce

As celebrations of South African women across all sectors of society gather pace ahead of Women’s Month in August, the Department of Development and Alumni (DAD) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) has begun preparations for the festivities.

On Thursday 18th July, DAD hosted a group of young female professionals (mainly UCT graduates) for an evening of engaging dialogue and networking under the theme: ‘The Importance of Effective and Inclusive Leadership’.

The panel discussion was moderated by UCT Convocation Chair Naadiya Moosajee and was part of a series of global thought leadership from UCT alumni and friends, designed to facilitate essential conversations about the role of inclusive leadership in changing organisational culture. It featured contributions from three successful UCT female alumni in leadership positions before opening the floor to the audience for questions and reflections. The panel discussion took place at WomHub – a boutique incubator for women-led innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Green Point.

“I have the difficult task of having an incredible conversation with three absolutely incredible leaders. I think it’s very appropriate that it’s happening today, on Nelson Mandela Day,” Moosajee told the audience.

UCT News gathered the views of some of the panelists.

Advaita Naidoo is Managing Director of Jack Hammer Global in Africa, a female-founded executive recruiting firm headquartered in Cape Town and Los Angeles.

“I graduated from UCT with a Masters in Research Psychology, after doing a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Psychology. Now I run a recruitment company. For a long time I asked myself: Where did I go wrong? I was going to be a lawyer (or) a world-famous researcher. For a long time I downplayed what I was doing because I was making myself small. I just wasn’t comfortable with who I was and what I was doing. But the comfort I developed was: I didn’t do anything wrong. I am who I was supposed to be.

“My life motto is… ‘My blood is green’. I am a staunch South African. This country has shaped me and I will always be here to contribute to what we have. I am fully aware that it is an imperfect system. But I would rather be here, solving the problems of my country, than complaining and living half-living anywhere else (and) it would be difficult to replicate the life we ​​have here, anywhere else.”

“To my younger self, I’d like to say: You didn’t make any mistakes; you’ll end up where you were supposed to be.”

“To my younger self (I wish I could say): You made no mistakes; you will end up where you are supposed to be; and to my future self (I wish I could say): Always take up space – don’t make a fool of yourself. You are where you are supposed to be.”

Tracy Chambers – Co-founder of Taking Care of Business (formerly known as Clothing Bank), a social enterprise that empowers unemployed mothers to start their own retail businesses. Chambers is also a former head of finance at Woolworths.

“I absolutely loved my job (at Woolworths). I had incredible opportunities. I had everything. But I knew deep in my heart that I was put on this earth to do something meaningful. And making money for shareholders wasn’t meaningful to me. I spent two years with a doctor who was at the forefront of bringing mindfulness to South Africa because he was tired of giving meds for stress. He was relentless. He gave me the tools to get off the corporate ladder. I didn’t have a plan; I just knew I wanted to do something meaningful. I gave myself a year to get a feel for what that was. The world and my creativity opened up and I saw the world through a completely different lens. In that process, (my co-founders) and I met and hatched the idea over a cup of coffee. It was really two parts (joining forces). I knew retail really well and had a really good network; and a woman who was raising my kids while I was there making money. She was a single mother raising five children who sold my used clothes whenever I cleaned out my closet and made a lot of money doing so.

“You don’t always know where you’re going. But everything in your path and if you listen to the signs, eventually they come together. Now we work with thousands of women. We work with men as well, and it was a profound awakening because we’re not going to solve issues like gender-based violence by working with women (alone). You have to do that work with men. And it wasn’t until we started doing that work with men that we realized that men are being left out in so many cases and there’s deep trauma; deep work that has to happen. And when you do that work, what happens (then) is amazing.”

“I’ve been on a fast train my whole life. I was always chasing the next opportunity, and the doors kept opening. You can get addicted to that. (But) slowing down and practicing mindfulness just calmed me down and made me realize what I wanted out of life.

My advice to young people: Don’t rush. If you’re smart and hard-working, opportunities will come to you. Pursue the things you’re passionate about and surround yourself with people who can teach you a lot, who are there to develop you and work with you, and who share the same values ​​as you.”

Nazmeera Moola – Sustainability Director at Ninety One (formerly Investec Asset Management)

“The thread that runs through my career is the relationships that I’ve built; (they’ve) been so valuable. I think one of the things that I’ve carried over into my later career is, How do I help people build relationships? Because so much of business happens through relationships. As a manager, one of the things I always say is, How do I make sure that everyone on my investment team is playing at their best? Because so many people have helped me do that along the way.

“True happiness in the environment in which you work is extremely important to me.”

“Real happiness in the environment (where you work) is very important to me. I spend too much time at work. We (Ninety One) have a very direct culture; the feedback is direct. But it’s not backstabbing, it’s not undermining, and that’s important to me. Family considerations are (also) important.”

My advice to my younger self is: Your career is a marathon, not a sprint. I spent a lot of my early 30s not understanding that. My advice to younger people is: Give it a rest.

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