– by Samantha Higgins
To celebrate Women’s month, August 2018, an international waste management company, elected a group of women employees from across South Africa to attend the Impactful Leadership for Women programme at UKZN Extended Learning (UEL). After an initial orientation day in August the group attended a 5-day customised programme, launched on the 15th October 2018.
Impactful Leadership for Women is one of the seven Management and Leadership programmes available at UEL and is offered as an open programme or can be customised for an organisation. The objective of the programme is to assess and build on an individual’s leadership capacity, a predominant focus being to establish influence and authority and how this can transform into value for an organisation. The development of leadership competencies include self-leadership, leadership at home, leadership at work, and leadership in the community. The fundamental theme for this customised offering was female leaders in waste management.
The core features of the programme included exploring different types of leadership and how this leads to personal branding. Natasha Phatela-Williams, founder of Grow Training & Advisory Services cc, a firm specialising in Human Resources and Organisational Development, headed up the week facilitating an inward journey of self-analysis for each delegate where paradigms and concepts were discussed. Leadership styles were assessed, and development areas within individual leadership characteristics were deliberated, revolving back to the question What kind of Leader do I want to be known for?
Dr Preeya Daya, Academic and Consultant in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, expanded on this with “Who am I?”, self-mastery and how you need to know yourself before you can lead others. This was further amplified with the study of the Enneagram of Personality. Dr Rosemary Sibanda, lecturer at the Graduate School of Business and Leadership at UKZN, examined managing interpersonal relationships and conflict management as well as how to go about building better relations with clients. Dr Surabhi Srivastava, BSc (Sciences), MSc (Environmental Sciences) and M.Tech (Environmental Engineering), investigated waste management within the automotive sector and what this entails. In conclusion the week was closed out by Dr Sandile Mbokazi, Lecturer in Community Development and Academic Leader: Teaching and Learning School of Built Environment and Development Studies. He discussed community engagement and how delegates can make an impactful change within the waste management sector. Overall the 5-day programme addressed delegates’ skills and competencies in order to enable them to develop a strong foundation for effective leadership.
The group of women witnessed a journey within themselves and within their colleague group, as personal challenges, accomplishments and insights were shared throughout the week.
Phumi Msimang, QHSE Officer, gave her view on the programme:
“To everyone from UKZN Extended Learning who has accommodated us, the world is a better place because there is always someone out there willing to help and groom others. Someone who is always trying to make this world a better place to live, whether it’s through their actions, comments, advice or teachings. UKZN Extended Learning showed us exactly that. You guys deserve a big thank you from all of the Ladies who have attended the Impactful Leadership for Women. We are now walking tall and wearing the smile that you gave us.”
The next open programme for Impactful Leadership for Women starts on the 15th April 2019.
To find out more and register for this programme please click here.