Positioning Women for Transformational Leadership

L-R: CEO Terrakulture, Bolanle Austen Peters, Chief Executive IO Furniture, Muni Shonibare,  CEO MainOne Cable, Funke Opeke, Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Adebule, Founder of Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR), Mrs. Amina Oyagbola and Managing Partner Biola Alabi Media,  Biola Alabi, during the 2016 W.I.N with WISCAR induction of new mentees

Since its establishment, a group, Women in Successful Careers, has been developing the capacity of women in leadership though mentoring and the provision of other skills. At the 2016 induction of new mentees, women were urged to play a vital role in bringing transformational leadership in the society, write Ugo Aliogo and Ibukunoluwa Salami

“The WISCAR programme was very challenging, a little more than we expected. It was well-structured and tailored to the needs of the entrepreneurs, non-entrepreneurs and growing women in their careers. It was a spectrum of carefully designed programme where everyone will find something to key into, irrespective of where their careers and skills sets are. In getting into WISCAR, it was an eye opening event and an opportunity to leverage on the existing sets they have.”

Ogechi Obiodun narrated the above experience with joy and enthusiasm. The narration was meant at serving two objectives; first to share her success story at the Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR) in the last one year of her mentoring programme. Also, to challenge career driven women and spinsters to maximise their potential not only in their chosen careers, but also in other endeavours which they have the skills and ability for. She was part of the 12 mentees who were recently inducted into WISCAR and who will in turn mentor others.

Obiodun has carved out a niche for herself on two fronts; first as a customer experience officer at Diamond Bank Plc, and a project trainer for companies. The WISCAR programme was the platform to hone her communication skills. The experience has put her one step ahead of her contemporaries and at equal pedestal with her male counterpart in staff training.

The trainings at WISCAR were designed to teach mentees communication skills, networking, interpersonal skills and negotiation skills, while helping them to sharpen these skills and channel them in the right direction.

She added: “I work with customer experience centre in Diamond Bank, and we are part of those who carry out on-board training for staff, this year, I have anchored 17 trainings. This will not have been possible, if that visibility from WISCAR had not come, because before now I could put together a few speeches, now I handle trainings back-to-back with an average of 25 persons in each session, it’s a whole package.

“Sometimes, people consult me to organise trainings for them. It has become something interesting for me and I know there is a lot more. WISCAR has taught me that I can still keep my career at customer experience and still do other things which I need to do. The training was for 12 months duration.

“The challenge I had was the timing of the programme. It was not good enough for me, especially joggling it with my work. It is a programme that teaches an individual discipline. It was challenging in the right direction. In business and career, networking is very vital, because it provides a kind of leverage which hard work cannot give. The training has provided me opportunity to reach many people in the banking sector and beyond.”

When the Founder of WISCAR, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola stepped on to the podium to deliver her welcome address at the 2016 W.I.N with WISCAR induction of new mentees, the audience was in great awe for this great woman who having accomplished so much in her career yet decided to create a platform for other women to grow their potential. Her track records in the telecommunication and banking sectors are an indication that women stand a chance of excelling in a male society despite the odds.

She began her presentation not ready to go straight to the point and focus on the theme: ‘Women Rising: Transforming Leadership.’ She remarked that the theme was chosen to highlight the great strides made by women in 2016 in shaping world leadership. A worthy reference mentioned by Oyagbola to buttress her point was the second Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May who rose to the much coveted position after the chaos that followed the Brexit referendum result. Another example she highlighted was Hillary Clinton, who lost in the presidential election in the United States.

She challenged women to be energised by the pioneering and enterprising spirits of these women, adding that through their great exploits they have carved out a path for other women to follow.
Oyagbola noted that transformational leadership is one that involves creating an inspiring vision for the future, motivating and inspiring people to engage with that vision, managing delivery of the vision and building a team that is effective at achieving the vision.

She further stated that WISCAR was committed to addressing the under-representation of women in the upper reaches of both corporate and government institutions, lamenting that most women are frustrated in their organisations by several factors such as child birth, consequent loss of institutional seniority, lack of domestic support, and other factors.

She added: “The W.I.N with WISCAR mentoring programme is a structured and practical one-on-one 12-month mentoring programme based on a focused selection and matching of mentors with mentees. The significant feature of the programme is the interplay between mentors and mentees. We have always believed the matching process to be the lynchpin of the programme.

“However, other features of each year’s programme are: the 12-month structured mentoring programme, career seminars (WINSAR school of excellence – HBS series), A minimum of four face-to-face meeting between mentor and mentees, several book reviews, two book reading facilitated by subject matter experts, three mentoring circles (including our meet-a-WISCAR and speed mentoring events), a mid-programme review, an end of programme evaluation, this annual End of Year event.”

“The WISCAR programme has been an unqualified success and has had a tremendous impact on the mentees. Many of them begin to see it impact of their career and indeed, their overall lives within a few months of their commencing the one year mentorship programme. Many have been promoted, some given significantly higher responsibilities or they found a more fulfilling new job within a few months of beginning the programme.

“Employers have also felt the positive impact of the programme in the marked improvement in performance of employees who have graduated from the WISCAR mentorship programme. We have noted the increasing interest in the WISCAR programme of the staff of certain multi-national companies. Although that is not part of our plans for attracting candidates for mentorship, it is testament to the impact and effectiveness of the WISCAR mentorship programme.

“The fulfillment for me is the difference WISCAR has made in the lives of these mentees. You see somebody that was frustrated when they came in, they are blossoming now with confidence when they are leaving. They learnt about etiquette, values and real skills. You must be politically conscious to know what is happening around you.

“You must be aware of what is at play and know how to navigate, know where the landmines are and how to avoid them in order not to get yourself into trouble. Women have so many attributes that men don’t have. If women need to take their rightful position in governance, it starts from the home.”
In her address, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Adebule, said any society that promotes the dignity of women and gives them opportunity to thrive will experience rapid development, stating that women more often than not, are family-centric which is the foremost frontier for national development.

She called on women to rise up to emerging challenges of leadership especially at this critical moment where the nation is at crossroads in its social-economic development and the decline in national value system.

Adebule further stated that the rise of women professionals especially in financial sector has promoted healthy corporate culture which has kept the banking sector stable in the face of harsh economic realities.

She added: “As agents of change, women’s inherent leadership qualities should come to provoke real change. Women must have self-awareness and be conscious of their abilities and potential. Women have what it takes to lead the process of change. Therefore, transformational leadership is not an exclusive right of a particular gender. Women are doing well in the various legislative houses.

“Meanwhile, the WISCAR’s annual leadership programme has inadvertently become an incubator of a sort where any serious woman professional could get the right mentorship and encouragement to thrive. Becoming an effective leader involves much more than just role labelling, but there must be deliberate preparations to lead with knowledge, experience, psychological, emotional and physical balance as well being decisive.”

According to a study conducted by Mckinsey and Company (Mckinsey) on women in leadership roles in 2007, three main findings were established. First, although Africa has more women in executive committee of private sector companies than the worldwide average, women are still under represented at every level and only five per cent of women make it to the very top.

The study also discovered that though the number of women in government, including cabinet positions and the legislature has doubled over the last 15 years, women are nevertheless under-represented and their numbers would have to double to achieve gender equality.

The study added that despite some increases in the number of women leadership positions, women don’t necessarily have more power or influence since they tend to be pushed into the less impactful positions.