A Colleague’s Achievement and The Historical Normality of Women Leadership

This past week I was asked to give a few words in a small celebration we had to honour a female colleague who had received a promotion to lead a particular sector of our business in South Africa. Significant in particular because in our environment, and noting the historic conditions in South Africa, it is not usual to find African, let alone African women, leading such a sector in financial services. This we were conscious of as we reflected on the transformation journey, and how such achievements give us hope noting the words we find in the song “Inde lendlela…” (“ the route is long…”). And noting her position, and how she represents the hopes of many, we were not just happy with her achievement, but ecstatic.

I indicated that we are being made to see as normal what the world in general and South Africa in particular wanted us to believe is not normal. I indicated that if we spend a little bit of our time thinking of other women who have made similar achievements, and we learn from their journey, we should not be surprised. I thought I should share some examples, some of which surprised my colleagues.

I started by mentioning the name of Dr Thandi Ndlovu, founder of Motheo Construction, a former freedom fighter in our country who went to exile after 1976, joined uMkhonto we Sizwe, studied medicine in Zambia, and after working as a doctor on her return to South Africa, established this company and has become a leader in a male-dominated sector. I mentioned Daphne Mashile-Nkosi, who has single-mindedly overcome all sorts of obstacles, and a painful family loss, to advance a manganese project in our country that is the biggest manganese sinter plant in the world. I noted Indra Nooyi, who has grown from her humble beginnings in Madras (Chennai) in India to become the Chairman and CEO of the world’s second biggest food and beverage company, PepsiCo. I mentioned the name of Kathryn Bigelow, filmmaker who became the first and currently only woman to win an Academy Award  for Best Director. I mentioned the names of Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi, best friends and amongst the four leaders of the historic 1956 Women’s March in South Africa, who gave the best example of character, courage and non-racialism, and are buried in the same grave at the Avalon Cemetery in Soweto.

I also decided to share some names from centuries ago. Like Cleopatra (69-30BC), the last Pharoah of Ptolemaic Egypt, who we read about more for her love affairs with Roman leaders like Julius Ceaser and Marc Anthony, but in fact was also known for her superior intelligence and her work to improve her country and its economy as leader, naval commander, linguist, and medical author. I thought the example of Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780), the Hapsburg Empress and only female rule of the Hapsburg dominions, whose 40-year reign over large parts of Europe including Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia and parts of Italy, saw reforms such as making education mandatory including permitting non-Catholics to attend university, establishing the Royal Academy of Science and Literature in Brussels, promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and supported scientific research. My historical examples ended with Hatshepsut (1508 – 1458BC), the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, regarded as one of the most successful Egyptian rulers, who oversaw major military campaigns unto Nubia, Syria and the Levant, launched major building projects and rebuilt trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt.

I reflected how what we were celebrating was a representation of the triumph of the human spirit, the value of resilience and an example of the meaning of commitment. I noted how our colleague had shown success in her previous assignment that gave real credibility to the promotion. But I noted that she was moving to a new territory where her past successes provide the foundation but not necessarily the assurance of future success. And I noted that all of us, knowing what was required in her new assignment, know that she will face numerous and different challenges.

I reflected that we were not really worried as she possesses these beautiful qualities of character, commitment and integrity. In order to emphases our confidence in her being able to meet the enormity of the forthcoming challenges, I decided to borrow from a statement that OR Tambo made in January 1985, addressing a people yearning for freedom at the height of repression by the apartheid state, expressing confidence in the people as they “…not only have the resilience that defies defeat, but also the capacity to rise to the challenge of the hour and move on to the offensive, a people with a glorious future to fight for… an assured and epoch-making victory to win”. I felt those words were an apt description of how we thought about our colleague.

I noted that the progress our colleague had made represents a gradual change in the character of a previous period and the emergence of another. In such a period of change, I highlighted that the key in going in the right direction is that those given a responsibility should be acutely aware of their place in history. I noted that they need to realise that, in the context of a transforming country and society like ours, their achievement is less about them but rather the continued opening up of opportunities for others, and ensure that there is no reversal to a previous epoch. In such people, I highlighted, faith and trust is placed that they will represent the best efforts, the most selfless attitudes, the best leadership, to defeat entrenched behaviours that result in the unacceptable discrimination that women in particular face in the workplace. I noted the words of former Wits historian, Arthur Keppel-Jones, referring to the situation in apartheid South Africa, whose conclusion was that “…the salvation of the country can only lie in the reversal of historic tendencies, a reversal so thorough as to constitute a revolution”. I thus emphasised that my colleague’s appointment in the sector she was asked to leaded was in our case a reversal of existing historical tendencies and we should see it as revolutionary.

I ended by highlighting that our colleague represents the best amongst us. In our world there would be lots of questions about business achievements in the form of new revenues gained et al, but I highlighted that these should be seen as only one part of the human achievement. I noted how in our celebration we know that our colleague’s appointment means to the current generation and the ones that follow, and our wish for more to happen for women.

I challenged my colleague to ensure she takes many along in this journey.