Organisational culture pivotal to building engaged workforce

As celebrations in honour of South African women in all sectors of society gains momentum ahead of Women’s Month in August, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Development and Alumni Department (DAD) got a head start on the festivities.

On Thursday, 18 July, DAD hosted a group of young professional women (mainly UCT alumni) for an evening of engaging dialogue and networking under the theme: “The importance of impactful and inclusive leadership”.

The panel discussion was moderated by UCT’s president of convocation, Naadiya Moosajee, and formed part of the UCT alumni and friends global thought-leadership series, designed to facilitate necessary conversations about the role inclusive leadership plays in shifting organisational culture. It included input from three successful UCT alumni women in executive leadership positions before the floor was opened to the audience for questions and reflections. The panel discussion was held at WomHub – a boutique incubator for women-led innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Green Point.

“I have got the tough task to have an incredible conversation with three absolutely amazing leaders. I think it’s so apt that it happens today on Nelson Mandela Day,” Moosajee told the audience.

UCT News captured some of the panellists’ views.

Advaita Naidoo – the Africa managing director for Jack Hammer Global, a female-founded executive search firm, dually headquartered in Cape Town and Los Angeles.

“I graduated from UCT with a master’s degree in research psychology, following an undergraduate degree in law and psychology. Now I run a recruitment company. For a long time, I asked myself: Where did I go wrong? I was supposed to be a lawyer [or a] world-renowned researcher. I spent a long time downplaying what I do because I was making myself small. I was just not comfortable with who I was and what I was doing. But the comfort I’ve developed is: I didn’t do anything wrong. I am who I was meant to be.

“My tagline for life is … ‘My blood is green’. I am a passionate South African. This country has forged me, and I will always be here to contribute to what we have. I am fully aware that this is an imperfect system. But I would rather be here fixing my own country’s problems than complaining and living a half-life anywhere else [and] it would be difficult to replicate the lives we have here, elsewhere.

“To my younger self [I’d like to say]: you didn’t make mistakes; you are going to end up where you are supposed to be.”

“To my younger self [I’d like to say]: you didn’t make mistakes; you are going to end up where you are supposed to be; and to my future self [I’d like to say]: always take up the space – don’t make yourself small. You are where you are meant to be.”

Tracy Chambers – the co-founder of Taking Care of Business (previously known as the Clothing Bank), a social enterprise aimed at empowering unemployed mothers to start their own retail businesses. Chambers is also the former head of finance at Woolworths.

“I absolutely loved my job [at Woolworths]. I got amazing opportunities. I had it all. But I just had this deep feeling in my gut, and I knew I was put on this earth to do something meaningful. And making money for shareholders wasn’t meaningful for me. I spent two years with a doctor, who was at the forefront of bringing mindfulness to South Africa because he was tired of administering medication for stress. He was relentless. He gave me the tools to give myself permission to jump off the corporate ladder. I had no plan; I just knew I wanted to do something meaningful. I allowed myself the space of one year to feel 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 came together and birthed this idea over a cup of coffee. It was really two parts [coming together]. I knew retail really well and I had a very good network; and the woman who raised my children while I was out there earning an income. She was a single mother who had five children to raise and who used to sell my second-hand clothing once I cleaned up my wardrobe and made a significant amount of money out of it.

“You don’t always know where you are going. But everything along your path and if you listen to the signs, they join up eventually. Now, we work with thousands of women. We also work with men and that’s been a profound awakening because we’re not going to solve things like gender-based violence by working with women [alone]. You have to do that work with men. And it’s only when we started that work with men that we realised that men are overlooked in so many cases and there’s deep trauma; deep work needs to happen. And when you do that work, what happens [then] is incredible.

“I was on a fast-moving 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 practising mindfulness just calmed me down and awakened me to what I want from life.

My advice to young people: Don’t rush. If you’re bright and you’re hardworking, the opportunities will come your way. Chase the things that you’re passionate about and surround yourself with people who can teach you a lot and who are there to develop you and work with you, and who have the same values as you.”

Nazmeera Moola – the chief sustainability officer at Ninety One (formerly known as Investec Asset Management)

“The thread throughout my career is the relationships I’ve built; [they’ve] been so valuable. I think one of the things I brought into the later stages of my career is: How do I help others 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 everyone on my investment team gets to bring their A game? Because I’ve had lots of people help me do that along the way.

“Real happiness in the environment [you] work in is so important to me.”

“Real happiness in the environment [you] work in is so important to me. I spend too much of my time working. We [Ninety One] have a very direct culture; feedback is direct. But it’s not backstabbing, it’s not undermining and that is important to me. A consideration for family is [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 young people is: Give yourself a break.