Recharging for peak performance

Ihave run 100 miles nonstop and hiked up the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro. My next project, in February 2020, is to run seven marathons in seven continents in seven consecutive days — the World Marathon Challenge.

Running provides a space where I recharge myself, and I believe that as a leader you always need to be recharged. You need to pour from a cup that is overflowing.

I am a psychologist by profession and started working as an occupational psychologist at a brewery. I then moved to a mining company to work in human resources, which is still the study of people in the world of work — how do we attract the right talent, develop them and retain them?

My background as a psychologist has an impact on everything I do today, especially my ability to advise on how to effectively engage and motivate people by studying the human mind and emotions.

By the time I came to Richards Bay Coal Terminal [ in South Africa], where I now work, I was a manager in organisational development. My career aspiration was to become the next general manager of human resources.

As I am a South African, and did most of my studies in South Africa, I felt I needed a global perspective on leadership. I had previously done an exchange programme in the US and wanted something different, so I went to Europe. During my research, I found the Executive Transition Program at ESMT Berlin and thought: “This is the programme that will give me a competitive advantage.”

Most executive development

programmes are about developing people in executive roles, but the one at ESMT caters specifically to senior managers who are preparing to transition into executive positions, and to newly appointed executives. With that programme and the full scholarship I received from ESMT, the school became an obvious choice.

The course consisted of three non-consecutive weeks of studies. When we were not attending classes in Berlin, we would go back to our countries to continue working while we read the coursework material for the next chapter.

We started in October 2016 and finished in May 2017. The first block looked at the different pillars of general management — we covered human resources, finance and operations. During the second block, we focused mostly on strategy and innovation, then during the last block we combined all topics, looking at an integrated approach to general management.

There were about 25 of us in class, slightly more men than women, but with people from Russia, China, Malaysia and India, and different parts of Germany, of course. I was the only person from an African country.

I love travelling, so my studies were also a chance to explore other European countries. I took the chance to visit cities such as Paris, Rome and Venice before stopping in Berlin for my classes, where I would stay wanted. The course heightened my emotional intelligence and I became much more aware of individual colleagues around me, the customers that I service and our partners.

I also got to know my own leadership style better. In a for a few days after classes had ended.

The tools I developed on how to lead myself and others helped when I came back to work. Within a few months I was promoted to the general management position that I had nutshell, my approach is to be collaborative, charismatic and to lead by inspiration. I believe actions create a culture. As a leader, you are a brand. You are always in the spotlight, and need to be aware of that, without it leading to a state of panic of always having to be perfect.

In the future, I want more global exposure either from a global advisory role or from gigs in public speaking. I might even consider moving to Berlin in the future. It would definitely take me out of my comfort zone — the very relaxed and slow-paced town of Richards Bay where I live, which is the opposite of Berlin.

But what drives me now is the question of how I can give back. With the World Marathon Challenge, which my employer is funding, the goal is to raise roughly $330,000 for a school with 657 children between the ages of five and 15, one hour’s drive from Richards Bay.