With unemployment at a low 3.6%, American workers have been enjoying a candidate-friendly market, and many have used it to their advantage. According to a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/compensation-and-benefits/salary-negotiation-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">survey</a>&nbsp;by recruiting firm Robert Half, 54% of job seekers negotiated for a higher payout before accepting their most recent position. Of those who didn’t ask for more, nearly one fifth said it was because they felt uncomfortable doing so.



“Anyone who has the experience is in demand,” says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half. “Everybody should feel comfortable negotiating compensation today.”



Negotiating can be intimidating, but with a little preparation, job seekers can be better equipped to walk away with what they’re worth. Here are three keys to a successful salary negotiation, plus what to do if the hiring manager doesn’t budge.&nbsp;



1. Do Your Research



While hiring managers often discuss pay with candidates early on in the hiring process, with 35% of respondents reporting that the subject of salary came up in their first in-person interviews, McDonald advises against negotiating before an offer has been made. If salary range does come up, use that as the starting point to research industry averages for the role at hand, using online resources like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/know-your-worth.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Glassdoor’s salary tools</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.payscale.com/salary-calculator" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Payscale’s salary calculator</a>&nbsp;as your guide. Another form of compensation that’s worth considering is benefits. A flexible work arrangement or student loan reimbursement, for example, may not pad your paycheck, but they are perks that could boost your bank account. Whatever you do, don’t overshoot—that could be a turnoff. Flexibility and knowing your market worth is key, he says.&nbsp;



2. Establish Your Must-Haves And Your Nice-To-Haves



Before you go into a salary negotiation, determine what you need and what you can do without. “If you’re interviewing for a new role, or if you’re going to your current employer for the annual salary review, know what your priorities are,” McDonald says. “Take the emotion out of it and be really in tune with what’s important to you.” Not being able to articulate what matters most can cost you a few extra thousand dollars, or even the position itself. 



3. Practice Makes Perfect



There’s no better way to calm prenegotiation nerves than to practice. McDonald recommends role-playing with trusted colleagues, mentors or recruiters so that you can get feedback from those who have been on different sides of the table. As you craft your pitch, remember to make liberal use of the words “we” and “us.” “It’s always good to try and join the parties when you’re negotiating,” McDonald says. Something as simple as “There are a few things that I’d like us to discuss” can demonstrate to the hiring manager that you’re a team player. For instance:  



“I’m so thrilled that you’ve extended an offer and I’m really enthusiastic about the role! I know I’d be the right fit for the [co. name] team and based on what we’ve discussed during the interview process, my background and experience align really well with the expectations of the job. I’m hoping we can discuss the offer you presented because based on my research, the salaries in our area for [job title] are typically around [number]. I’m confident you’ll be pleased with what I’ll bring to the role and organization and I’m looking forward to contributing.”&nbsp;



Next Steps



It is unlikely that your negotiation will end with you receiving an immediate “yes,” so leave by offering to continue the conversation. If the hiring manager doesn’t follow up regarding your request or just won’t budge, ask yourself if you can still afford to take the opportunity. If the answer is no, tell the company right away. “Don’t ghost the opportunity,” McDonald says. “Regardless of how it all turns out, always be professional, always be courteous, always be objective.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthatodd/">Samantha Todd</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/leadership-strategy">Leadership Strategy</a>

Business handshake in glass reflection in office

How To Successfully Negotiate Your Salary

When everyone else is running away from danger, war reporters hurl their cameras and microphones in the opposite direction to ‘get the story’. Paula Slier, the writer of this piece, is one of them. 



War reporting is more a calling than a profession. Why else
would an otherwise sane adult throw himself or herself in harm’s way? When
everyone else is running away from danger, these men and women are hurling
their cameras and microphones in the opposite direction to ‘get the story’.&nbsp; 



This year alone, 19 journalists have been killed in the
field. It begs the question if the job is worth the risk? Especially in the age
of Twitter, virtual reality and 360 cameras, can – and will – technology
replace human coverage on the battlefield? 



Wars today make no distinction between combatants and
journalists. Long gone are the days that the reporter was perceived as a
‘neutral observer’. Today, increasingly, the media is seen as a
legitimate-target in the so-called ‘information war’ that can be as important –
if not more – in the fight for public perception, than the battle itself. 



During the bloodiest days of the not-so-long-ago
Russia-Ukraine conflict, I reported from the frontlines alongside pro-Russia
fighters. 



I wore a bullet-proof jacket with the word ‘PRESS’ emblazoned
across it. Instead of offering me some degree of protection as one would
expect, the soldiers asked me to remove the jacket as they believed the
Ukrainian military would deliberately target me because I was a journalist. I
was thus making it unsafe for them too. 



Award-winning Italian war reporter, Fausto Biloslavo, has
covered most of the conflicts of the last 35 years. He believes this shift in
how journalists are viewed came about after ‘September 11’. 



“Insurgents no longer considered us witnesses to be
respected but cannon fodder for propaganda or ransom. Nowadays, in any war,
they always think that you are a spy and not a real journalist,” he says.



It doesn’t help that wars themselves have become more
difficult to cover. The rise of non-state actors like paramilitary and terror
groups means that, for years, swathes of Syria and Iraq were off-limits to
reporters. 



The only way a journalist could reach there was by being
‘embedded’ – attached – to an army unit. No wonder then that we are seen by some
groups as unobjective and pushing a particular view. It is very hard to travel
with the Kurdish army, like I did in northern Iraq, and be perceived by those
fighting the Kurds as neutral.



Amitabh Revi, associate editor of Strategic News
International, a niche Indian online news service, has had his fair share of
warzones. He believes that some wars are simply too dangerous to cover.



“It’s always a calculated risk. When I ask myself why I do
it, it’s to be the eyes and ears for those who can’t be there and frankly, just
to be there myself. Social media and citizen reporting are important, but for
sustained, comprehensive coverage, one still needs a professional.”



Small-sized digital equipment has seen the rise of the
so-called ‘accidental journalist’. These often young, unqualified reporters
venture into danger zones and take risks that their more seasoned colleagues
never would. The trend became so prevalent that major news organizations took
the unprecedented step of announcing they would not buy footage from
freelancers reporting in areas they deemed too dangerous to send their own
staff reporters to. 



Biloslavo has lost five close friends to conflict. 



The first was Almerigo Grilz, a kind of older brother to
him. He was killed on May 19, 1987, in Mozambique. filming a battle between
Renamo rebels and Frelimo government troops. Grilz made the mistake to move
slightly from behind the protection of a termite mound to film the rebel
retreat and was likely shot in the neck by a sniper.



“Almost always a journalist dies because he has made a mistake, small or big, conscious or not, as he travels along a dangerous road, photographing a tank around a corner or trusting the local population too much,” believes Biloslavo. And all the training in the world cannot prepare one for that moment. Often it’s instinct that kicks in at the last moment, especially when one must make that critical decision to move forward, stay put, or pull back.



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<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Fausto-Biloslavo-672x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42522" width="464" height="706"/></figure></div>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;No article is worth the price of life, but someone has to go and report about wars, the dark side of humanity. <cite>&#8211; Fausto Biloslavo </cite></blockquote>



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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1024x576.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42521" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amitabh-Revi.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;It&#8217;s to be the eyes and ears for those who can&#8217;t be there and frankly, just to be there myself. <cite>&#8211; Amitabh Revi </cite></blockquote>



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



But despite all the risks, Biloslavo has no intention of laying down his microphone for good.



“I’ll only stop taking risks when I can no longer bear the
weight of the bullet-proof jacket, the helmet, the backpack and am unable to
run halfway through the whistle of the bullets,” he says. 



“No article is worth the price of life, but someone has to
go and report about wars, the dark side of humanity. This means accepting the
risks of being killed, injured or kidnapped.”



For Revi, he’ll only stop reporting when wars stop, which
implies never. 



“The most dangerous situation I was in was during a
so-called ‘double tap’ attack in Afghanistan,” he reflects. “The idea (of the
perpetrators) is to kill the first responders – medical, security forces and
journalists who rush to an attack. Instinct kept me away from the second of the
two blasts. So, in short, one needs loads of luck.” 



But what happens when that luck runs out? Sometimes, war
reporting can feel like a ticking bomb. I narrowly missed a suicide bombing at
the entrance to my hotel in Afghanistan. For three weeks, I had met the crew at
the same spot every day at 9AM. On the day of the explosion, we had an early
interview and left some 15 minutes before the bomb detonated – at the entrance,
exactly at 9AM.&nbsp;&nbsp; 



A mixture of faith and fate keeps me going. Faith in the importance of what I’m doing – writing the first draft of history – and fate that when my time comes, it’ll come, but not a second before.



As the US author, Horace Greeley, wrote: “Journalism may kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”



&#8211; Paula Slier

Fausto Biloslavo

Braving Bullets And Death To Write The First Draft Of History

Sanlam&#8217;s approach to its employees is the same as its approach to its clients, to enable them to live their best possible life.
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Making Work Rewarding For Generations To Come

Dimension Data turns employee careers into worthwhile experiences with tools, technology and now robotics. 
Seventy two percent of our workforce today is made up of millennials. A generation looking to government, as well as to corporates to solve societal problems. Overwhelmed employees need work that inspires them and enables them to make a difference in society.
To be a Top Employer and to attract and retain our talent and that of the future, means we need to create an environment built on empathy, wellbeing, one that provides coaching and mentoring, where careers are transformed into experiences.
For too long we’ve had robotic expectations of human performance. It’s about time we hand over the mundane tasks to robots, so we can focus on work that inspires us. A successful organisation of the future must become a data-led social enterprise, treating employees fairly, transparently and in an unbiased manner – says Dimension Data Middle East and Africa HR Executive Michaela Voller.
Voller says they need to reimagine how they will operate and transform Dimension Data to be fit for the future, and have begun their journey of transformation. They have adopted a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) methodology to allow them to scale lean and agile work practices, and are moving towards agile workspaces to support this. ‘Our aim is to provide a more efficient service to our clients through this collaborative approach’.
We recently launched a new way of working through our global HRIS platform – Workday, continues Voller. We needed to improve the employee experience with tools that provide real-time transparent information, and enable employees to manage their own careers. Our employees can set performance objectives and get feedback on their progress from various peers at any time. They can in turn ‘give feedback’ and recognise their peers for great work. They can also showcase their careers by sharing their career history, competencies and aspirations, and can map their learning journey through our integrated learning platform, making them more accessible for promotional opportunities.
We also launched a new on-boarding experience – continues Voller. We decided to digitise induction as part of our broader digitisation journey, through a mobile application to ensure a social experience to on boarding. By digitising the knowledge transfer on the platform, we’ve managed to create time and space for human connections through conversations.
Dimension Data is also integrating robotics into their organisation. As one example, our bot ‘Pippa’ screens thousands of CV’s, cutting out the bias nature of candidate selection currently performed by HR departments – explains Voller.
These are massive mind set shifts and we are encouraging and empowering our people to consider these changes and make this a success in our business. Our transformation journey is not nearly over, as we look forward to further exciting challenges ahead.
In our world today, change after all is the only thing we can be sure of.
&nbsp;
&#8211; By Jenni Burgum, Dimension Data.

Michaela-forbes

Transforming For The Future

A marriage is made, in part, of compromises, and one of the biggest most women make straight off the altar is changing their name.
In a time where a strong digital footprint and good Google search results are part and parcel of the vetting process before hiring new employees, changing your name can have real career ramifications. According to a 2010 Dutch study quoted in Harvard Business Review, “A job applicant who took her partner’s name, in comparison with one with her own name, was less likely to be hired for a job and received nearly $500 less per month in salary.”
There’s no denying that many take their husband’s last names with joy, but for others, this patriarchal law became a tradition that hinders their career trajectory.
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This is especially true for modern marriages, where the median age for first-time marriages in South Africa (according to 2014 research by Statistics SA) is 30 for brides and 33 for grooms. As a study for the University of Nevada explains, “More common than ever before, women are earning more degrees than men and are taking on different roles than what was once expected of them. With this new freedom, women have shifted from playing a supportive role within society to branching out and creating their own established identity.”
By your 30s, most careers are well-established or are on a steady trajectory, and your name is your identity and brand.
This was not always the case. The custom of women taking their husband’s names started with the English common law practice called ‘coverture’, which essentially meant that for centuries – from the 1600s to the 1960s – women had no legal identity of their own.
“At birth, a female baby was covered by her father’s identity, and then, when she married, by her husband’s,” explains the National Women’s History Museum, “The husband and wife became one – and that one was the husband. As a symbol of this subsuming of identity, women took the last names of their husbands.”
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For Lize Sadie, content marketer, taking her husband’s extremely identifiable name (he is well-known within his industry, with a unique surname) would have hindered her career ambitions, and she chose not to take his name after marriage. She told us, “Having set up two businesses in my name and having built a reputation in the media and advertising industry over time, I didn’t want to jeopardize that in any way.”
She adds: “From a business point of view, the disruption for women who change their surname compared to men who do not is – in my opinion – quite unfair and rather unnecessary.”
For others, a changed surname proved a formidable hurdle. This was the case with Cindy-Lee Minnaar, a PR agency account director, who had trouble setting up her business in her maiden name after her divorce. Because of a legal ‘hangover’ in the South African legal system, Minnaar had her name automatically changed to her husband’s without her consent by Home Affairs. She only found this out when trying to register her business and says, “I went to Home Affairs to correct this and it literally took months! This deterred my business ventures and prospects. Now that my maiden surname is reinstated means that I can open a business bank account and trade with peace of mind.”
Aside from the potential career implications, changing a name also takes up a lot of administrative time, which is why sites like <a href="https://www.missnowmrs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MissNowMrs.com</a> and <a href="https://www.hitchswitch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">HitchSwitch.com</a> popped up in the US.
Unfortunately, South Africans don’t have this online freedom and need to physically go to Home Affairs to change all the necessary documents.
In the end, changing, or keeping, your name is an intensely personal decision that women make for a variety of reasons. Depending on your industry, and if managed correctly, a name change doesn’t have to hinder your career. Unfortunately, for many women, it does.
<h3>What South Africa’s female professionals say:</h3>
Lesego Marimo, Public Relations Industry (she changed her name): “Put yourself first when making such a decision. If you have already established a brand associated with your name, think about what will happen when you have to change it and if you will be able to handle what follows.”
Lize Sadie, Content Marketing (she kept her name): “It has made absolutely no difference to us that we do not share a surname. My husband is quite proud that we are slightly ‘different’ in that way, though the ignorance from some people is quite astounding; I remember a woman (with a corporate job, living in Cape Town) asking me why we got married if I didn’t want to take his surname. Then asking him if he is okay with it (as if I needed his permission)! Haha!”
Cindy-Lee Minnaar, PR Agency account director (she kept her name): “I think it&#8217;s less of a mission to keep your own surname personally and professionally. Mind you, my five year old daughter has asked me not so long ago why my surname is different to hers and I very politely told her that she has her dad&#8217;s surname, and I have my dad&#8217;s surname. She seemed satisfied with that answer.”
Jerusha Sukhdeo-Raath, Head of Video at News24 (she double-barrelled her name): “Changing my surname was one of the toughest decisions I had to make. I consulted every woman I respected on the issue. Some said they changed their names as a symbol of the start of their new family unit, others said they’d kept their name because a new family doesn’t require a new name. I made the best decision I could for my situation – I double-barrelled my surname creating a mouthful of a name that feels true to me.”
Kelli A. Hayes, Director of Corporate Strategy and Business Development (she kept her name): “My views on gender equality were a huge factor in my decision around keeping my surname. It is incredibly unfair that changing surnames is a woman&#8217;s burden – no one even asked my spouse about it. Also, I&#8217;ve moved a lot, which has resulted in friends all over the world, and I don&#8217;t want it to be hard for them to find me in the future. Everyone seems to have an opinion about this. Ignore them and concentrate on what works for you, your spouse, and your relationship. Societal pressure and expectations shouldn&#8217;t determine such a personal identity decision.”
Suhaifa Naidoo, Founder of Mashup Marketing, Digital Marketing Strategist (she kept her name): “Because my husband is a different race to me, many people think we are not married or not married legally. Our family has been amazing; no one has ever questioned this. I am lucky that we both come from very liberal and open-minded backgrounds.”
Helpful Tip: Use an intermediary surname
Says TIME magazine:  “Use both surnames, either by making your maiden name your middle name, using both last names, or creating a hyphenated last name. Kim [Kardashian] took this approach initially. Shortly after exchanging vows with Kanye [West], she changed the name on her social media accounts to Kim Kardashian West. And just as Kim has done, you can use both surnames for a brief transition period to help people get used to your new identity before dropping your maiden name.”
&#8211; Written by Samantha Steele

The Real Cost Of Changing Your Surname When You Turn Mrs

It was a tragic moment. Strong and robust Cameroonian international football star, Marc-Vivien Foé, collapsed and died on the pitch. The cause of death – hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the thickening of the muscle wall of the heart, caused by a change in genes, which makes it harder to pump blood. The heart simply stopped.
It is this kind of sporting damage and danger that the growing DNA industry is trying to fight. South African entrepreneur, Avi Lasarow, claims his DNA testing company, DNAFit, can save sporting careers.
“DNAFit at this point do not test anything that is diagnostic or negative. Our mission is to provide positive information for better health,” says Lasarow.
The company uses a mouth swab to test 50 gene variants linked to a body’s ability to respond to training and nutrition. Key genes linked to sporting performance, such as power, endurance, speed of recovery, susceptibility to injury and tolerance to food, like carbohydrates or saturated fats, are also researched. DNAFit then provides detailed reports on how to alter diet and exercise to fit genetic make-up.
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“If you train to your genotype you can double your power and become better in what you do because you understand your body better. My vision is to work with African [sportsmen] to increase their medal count. I want to put Africa in a better position in terms of professional sport,” he says.
Although unaware of DNAFit, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Sports Scientist, Marc Booysen, says specific genes that regulate the structure of collagen (protein made up of amino acids) can be linked to an increased risk of injury, such as an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture.
“Genetics can also determine how one responds to training loads, responders versus non-responders, or how an individual handles the acute effects of hypoxia (a condition where body tissues are not oxygenated adequately) when ascending to altitude,” says Booysen.
Lasarow says many careers have been lost to wrong diet or training.
Take former South African cricketer, Mfuneko Ngam, one of the most promising players to emerge from the dusty Eastern Cape province in South Africa. His career was cut short by injury.
“I did all the wrong things that had a huge negative impact on my career. I would train five times a week on a tar road. Because of my disadvantaged background, I had never gone to the gym or had a proper training program. I had so much passion but I overworked myself, which got me injured,” says Ngam.
“If I had the opportunity, I would have used a product like [DNAFit]. It would have given [us] direction on how to handle my training.”
Ngam now works as a development coach for Cricket South Africa, at the University of Fort Hare.
“We are given programs to train the kids with and just hope that everyone will get the same results from it but that is not always the case,” he says.
According to Lasarow, there is no one-size-fits-all in fitness and sporting prowess. The secret, he says, lies in DNA.
“All these hyped up media diets do not always work. If you train to your genotype, with our algorithm, you can double your performance. This helps teams to put up measures in place to protect members who have higher injury scores, take longer to heal or need specialized support to maximize their potential. This makes not just the athlete stronger but the whole team because they have the knowledge,” says Lasarow.
Zimbabwean born, British heavyweight boxer, Dereck Chisora, is one of Lasarow’s customers. He had a 29-second win over Beqa Lobjanidze last year. This marked his return to the ring after an eight-month absence, following a defeat by current heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, in 2013.
“I had tried so many things and different trainings but when I did the DNA test and started working out and eating according to my genes, I started seeing a difference. My strength has massively increased. I have more hand speed and more power than I used to,” says Chisora.
Many others subscribe to this philosophy. Lasarow works with players at football clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool and Fulham; as well as 800-meter athlete Jenny Meadows; Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford; 400-meter runner Andrew Steele and 100-meter sprinter Craig Pickering.
DNAFit is also being used in a pilot project to help obese people shed weight after studies revealed those who go on a diet matched to their genes can lose up to 33%.
“One lady came to us because she couldn’t lose weight. She would go to the gym, lose a bit of weight but then pick it up again. When we did the test, we found that she had 95% power. Based on that, we put her on a weights training programme which is a lot more power based and she lost weight and it stayed that way,” says Lasarow.
Johannesburg dietician, Nathalie Mat, sounds a note of caution.
“I do not feel that it is appropriate to test every person that wants to start working out. The untrained body will benefit from population guidelines with regard to exercise and diet – these are designed to be appropriate for most of the population of a country. There are some people that may require additional changes to their training and/or diets but this should only be explored when the conventional approach fails and should be done under medical supervision,” says Mat.
Wits University’s Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Director, Demitri Constantinou, says DNAFit’s claims are overstated.
“Genes may be linked to muscles that are used for speed more than for endurance… So not all people with a ‘speed’ gene will be fast athletes, and not all athletes without it will be slow. We learn more as time goes on, and applying the true science of genetics is premature in predicting performance or as talent identification. Perhaps in time it will be one factor, among others, that will assist, but certainly not the one and be all,” says Constantinou.
Lasarow works in Greece, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, the UAE as well as South Africa.
According to Lasarow, sport is for entrepreneurs. He invested  around $430,000 into his company and in two years it has become $14 million.
Lasarow was the first South African to be inducted into the City of London’s esteemed Guild of Entrepreneurs; the youngest Honorary Consul for South Africa in the UK; has won the Innovation of the Year award at the 2015 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards. In 2014, he was awarded the African Entrepreneur of the Year award at the African Enterprise Awards.
No guts no glory; people say about sport. Lasarow believes it is all in the genes.

Could Your Son Be  A World Champion? Ask Me

Depression and anxiety are highly stigmatized in the boardroom and top executives have become masters at keeping it locked down, going to extreme lengths to hide such problems.
In the fast-paced corporate world, if you are falling apart, you dare not show it. But is that a good thing?
Recent research has shown many successful women are victims of stress as they strive to balance work and family. But even as children and careers collide, women need to prioritize their wellbeing.
Take 40-year-old successful corporate woman and mother of two, Nicci (surname withheld for confidentiality), who says she experienced “a ridiculously heightened sense of anxiety” possibly linked to post-natal depression after the birth of her first child.
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“I was 36, I was trying to run a business, a home and look after my baby. I remember feeling isolated, alone and incompetent, and being an established business woman, that was a terrible feeling,” she says, echoing the thoughts of many like her.
“I have learned there is no such thing as the perfect balance between a career and motherhood. This is a myth propagated by the media and there is no way women are achieving this holy grail. There are times when you have more time for your career, then something happens and bang, you have to pay more attention to your family. It’s also important to note that a man who has a successful wife often simply assumes he will also have the perfect wife and mother and it is our complicity in this which adds to the pressure. We, as women, try and do it all,” says Nicci.
Dr Colinda Linde, Chair of the Advisory Board at the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), and a practicing clinical psychologist, feels modern working women have no role models when it comes to managing the demands of a career and family life.
“Even if our mothers worked, few had careers which resembled those of today and the demands of parenting have also changed, with children’s schedules often as busy as those of their parents. In a dual income household, it mainly still falls to the woman to run the home. This leads to feeling divided and not really being present in the moment – when you are at a school event, your phone is still beeping and when you are at work, your home or issues with your children may also be on your mind,” says Linde.
Over time, this leads to stress and burnout. She says while women learn to rely on other women such as housekeepers or mothers to help with child-rearing, they tend not to expect their partners to take on domestic responsibilities.
“There is a trend emerging where men are doing more to help in the home than their fathers did, by a significant amount, but it is still a relatively small part compared to the typical female portfolio of duties,” says Linde.
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Falling Off The Cliff
Richard Hawkey from Equilibrium Solutions, who has worked with Linde and has conducted substantial research, reveals findings where anxiety, depression or burnout, while highly stigmatized as a sign of weakness, are more than common, with women more affected than men.
Hawkey, who calls himself ‘the recovering banker’, says he slipped into severe clinical depression in 2010 after 15 years in a top position in the finance sector.
“As a senior manager, I had no idea how damaging stress was, or that if you are a Type-A personality (achiever, driver, controller), there isn’t necessarily a slow decline to warn you the cliff is approaching – you simply fall off the end one day. I was happily married, with great children and a house in the suburbs, along with all the trappings of success, so how could I have a breakdown and become depressed?”
Since then, he has recovered and is finishing a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology, and also set up his company Equilibrium Solutions, which in partnership with several doctors, has designed Vitals Software, a confidential online stress self-awareness and management tool.
He gathered and analyzed data from 2,500 respondents surveyed via this online resource. Most were white-collar workers, 98% from South Africa.
Hawkey says key findings, such as 37% complaining of unexplained chest pains were “worryingly high”, as was the 50% of respondents ‘living for Fridays’, highlighting high levels of apathy
and demotivation.
He adds women consistently scored higher than men in the manifestation of various symptoms.
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Hawkey says the situation may well be worse than indicated by the findings, as anecdotal evidence reveals executives are self-medicating, won’t use Employee Assistance Programs and will take two weeks of leave pretending they are ‘going on holiday’, but in fact are booking into a psychiatric unit.
“This anecdotal evidence is quite terrifying. Executives will pay for such treatment with cash and will not use their medical aid in order to keep the problem hidden,” he says.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 350 million people across the globe suffer from depression, with less than half receiving treatment due to a number of barriers, a prime one being the social stigma attached to mental disorders.
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More Pressure For The Top Brass
While women trying to balance a career and family are expected not to show any weakness, Hawkey adds that women in the upper echelons of management are particularly under pressure, as they have to appear tough and if from a historically-disadvantaged background, have to prove themselves beyond tokenism, while at the same time shoulder the burden of family.
“My advice to women who are feeling overwhelmed is to speak to someone you trust. It’s important to know you are not alone,” he says.

Don’t Worry,  The CEO Gets Depressed Too

Taiwo Otiti and his twin brother had plans of settling and pursuing their careers in Canada, after completing their studies. Their father, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, had other plans in mind—that his sons would return to Nigeria. Otiti embraced the advice and left his brother behind: a decision he does not regret.
Otiti is now the country general manager of International Business Machines (IBM), in West Africa. He joined the technology and solutions provider in August 2010, four months before the firm’s centennial celebration. It was also the time when the firm was experiencing a decade of slow growth. The firm traces its roots to the 1880s, when a group of inventors who designed and patented breakthrough tabulating machines and punch clocks came together to form IBM. The firm’s success was accelerated by the construction of the legendary Watson Research Center. This marked the start of research labs throughout the globe that churned world-changing products in the technology space. For years IBM became synonymous with innovation. However, the emergence of venture capital backed entrepreneurs, such Bill Gates, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, in the past two decades, overshadowed the post-World War Two success of IBM.
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However, there is a dramatic shift today. Evidence is increasingly showing the dwindling growth of the venture capital-backed start-ups and the comeback of former technology giants. Scott Anthony, contributor to the Harvard Business Review, wrote, “…Apple’s inventiveness is no anomaly; it indicates a dramatic shift in the world of innovation. The revolution spurred by venture capitalists decades ago has created the conditions in which scale enables big companies to stop shackling innovation and start unleashing it.”
Because of its resources, IBM is able to embark on projects that many venture capital-backed startups cannot afford. Leveraging on past innovations, IBM strategists (or catalysts) are taking over were the blue chip start-ups have left off. IBM’s master inventor, Colin Harrison, is a pioneer strategist who recalibrated the company’s philosophy. He and fellow catalysts in the company conceptualized ‘Smarter Cities’ which is part of IBM’s ‘Smarter Planet’ initiative. The ‘Smarter Cities’ initiative saw IBM providing solutions in Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Beijing, Dublin, Singapore and New York.
“…the company would offer infrastructure and services that will help cities save money and improve lives by managing energy, water, traffic, parking, public transit and other resources,” wrote Scott Anthony.
The Smarter Cities concept has become the hallmark of IBM. In 2011, the company invested $50 million in the three-year Smarter City Challenge, as part of its commitment to its expansion strategy in growth markets. In July, the technology and solutions provider dispatched a team of top employees from around the world to Accra, under its Corporate Citizen Corps program. The team spent a month with the Accra municipality officials consulting on making Accra a smarter city. A white paper report, based on the recommendations of the service core team for a smarter city, will be released in the first quarter of this year. Lagos and Cape Town were the only cities in Africa selected for the 2013 Smarter Cities Challenge grant.
Beyond these initiatives the firm is continuing to invest significantly in growth markets to expand capacity, develop talent and deepen its research and development.
“IBM spends just over $6 billion in R&amp;D every year [excluding other expenditures such as marketing] and there is nobody that spends that kind of money,” says Otiti.
This investment is driven by a strong cash flow, which stood at $16.6 billion in 2011. Part of the research and development expenditure was allocated to Africa and the first IBM research lab was built in Kenya. It is expected that this lab will support the science and technology skills base in Sub-Saharan Africa. This investment is justified by the constant revenue increase from growth markets. Cumulatively, these markets have contributed 22% of IBM’s geographic revenue in 2011, up from 11% in 2000 and company is expecting a further 30% growth by 2015.
In Nigeria, Otiti has expanded IBM’s market share through the diversification of company’s brands, which include services, software, information technology system, and research except finance services.
“Today, we control 70% of the high-end servers that run all the banking hosts in Nigeria, which gives us control of 80% of the transaction volume in banks. We have basically taken out SUN. There is only one bank remaining on SUN and four are running on HP,” says the optimistic IT expert.
The firm also partnered with Bharti Airtel to provide mobile services across 18 Sub-Saharan countries. In this partnership IBM runs the IT system of which Nigeria accounts close to a third.
IBM’s success is being buttressed by the decentralized structure that embodies creative leadership.
“IBM is a matrix organization. Under me, I have the four main brands, which is hardware, system and technology group (STG), software group, global technology services (GTS), which run things like strategic outsourcing and managing services and lastly the consulting group GBS (global business services). They report to me and they also report to verticals. The strength of IBM is the cross brand placement. We can actually provide solutions across board from consultancy down to delivery,” says Otiti.
Otiti is not a newcomer to the IT industry, having plied his trade with many banks in Nigeria. When he returned to Nigeria in the mid ’80s, the banking sector was going through major transformation. Over three decades, he moved from bank to bank. He first worked in the IT department for Citi Group. During his four-year stay, he started the software development work as part of the group’s localization program. He joined Fidelity Bank for three years and later Society General for a brief period.
The highlight of his career came with his appointment at First Bank: the oldest and one of the largest banks in Nigeria. His first task was to put in place a real-time online plan to centralize the bank’s 300 branches operations.
“One of the reasons they recruited me was because I was the first to do the first online ATMs at Society General. I was thus requested to give direction on how to do their channels infrastructure, which included things such as ATMs, Point of Sales (POS) and bankcards,” says Otiti who spent almost a decade at First Bank working on various projects that forever changed the Nigerian banking sector.
The efforts of his team led to the birth of Interswitch, which has enabled organizations and individuals to access their funds across 20 banks in Nigeria and across a variety of payment channels.
In his eight-year stay at First Bank he established an ATM consortium, which licensed Master Card to use its switch, and was also part of the team that negotiated Visa’s 20% acquisition of Valucard (now Unified Payment Services Ltd) and worked with the Central Bank of Nigeria on the vision 2012 payment system. He joined Afribank in 2009 for a short period before the bank’s closure.
Otiti wants the West African region to develop into an independent region like South Africa or Egypt.
“For West Africa to be an independent region, we should be able to generate over $200 million in revenues in the next five year,” says Otiti.

The Return Of The Technocrat

At the Careers in Africa Summit in London this May, the queues alongside recruiting stands wound around the Hilton Canary Wharf within minutes of opening, as 1,500 pre-selected, high-quality African candidates gathered for a matchmaking event with global companies looking to source African talent from the Diaspora.
Over the road, the Wharf itself was unusually busy for a Saturday afternoon, as global banks desperately worked through their scenario planning after the carnage on European markets. Once, the UK financial services industry in Canary Wharf and the Square Mile would have hoovered up many of these candidates. The city has been a magnet for global talent for decades, picking up not only the best from British universities, but those in Asia and Africa as well.
Now, that seems to be changing as resurgent African markets attract global businesses desperate to find new sources of growth, and as entrepreneurial members of the Diaspora look to return to capitalize on opportunities back home.
“The general atmosphere [in Africa] is much more optimistic,” says Wynand Smit who left a risk management job in a UK bank to return to South Africa to work for Rand Merchant Bank earlier this year.
“This is in stark contrast to the gloomy atmosphere in the UK where the focus, in my experience, was much more on the uncertain EU situation and potential future impacts,” he says.
The opportunities on the continent, as well as family considerations, led him to return after a successful few years in London and the Netherlands. However, for others the conditions in developed markets are a compelling reason to head back home. London’s slide—and the slowdowns across the rest of Europe and the United States—has come at a time when African economies have proved their resilience in the face of global economic turmoil.
The UK banking boom in the early part of the new millennium saw the sector expand from just over 5% of the country’s GDPin 2000 to more than 10% in 2009, when the country’s recession began in earnest. A royal flush of new, strict regulations, economic downturns in almost all developed markets and the existential threat to the Eurozone, which makes up the UK’s largest trading bloc, drove many institutions to the wall. The bloodletting that followed has been brutal.
According to figures compiled by Bloomberg, there were 58,000 job cuts in London’s financial services industry in 2011 alone. 2012 has seen that pace maintained, with bank after bank responding to the continuing pressure from regulators to build capital by cutting costs and headcount. Trading firms have seen losses mount as stock indices continue to be battered by the ongoing turmoil in the Eurozone; and corporate finance houses have seen their client base retrench in fear of a second recession. The Royal Bank of Scotland alone has slashed 30,000 jobs since its nationalization in 2008, and more cuts are still to come as the slim hopes of an economic recovery in the near-term fade away.
Hugo Lambrecht, who manages the African finance and banking practice at CA Global Headhunters, says that he has seen both the number and the profile of candidates change over the past few years of recruiting. Whereas before, the company’s focus was on finding expatriates for roles on the continent, the last two years have seen an upsurge in returnees—of the 280 people his team have placed in that period, around half are returnees. With a lack of experts in transaction banking, corporate finance specialists, investment professionals and chartered accountants, it is a good time to be in the executive search space in Africa, Lambrecht says.
It is not just finance that is benefitting. The compelling demographics of the continent continue to underpin growth in the fast-moving consumer goods and the financial services sectors across most economies. One major constraint for these businesses, historically, has been their ability to source executive talent with the financial and management skills required to operate in global companies, and the understanding of the complexities of relatively unstructured African markets.
The economic downturn in the West, combined with a growing understanding amongst multinationals and businesspeople that African markets are now a far cry from their mid-90s gloom, has created what Richard Putley, managing director of Executives in Africa, calls “a perfect storm”.
Putley’s company specializes in sourcing executive talent for international companies operating in Africa, particularly the retail sector, where knowledge of local market conditions is of paramount importance. What most companies are looking for, he says, is somebody that you would call ‘business bilingual’.
“This is a person who has the ability to work for an international company to ensure that the global policies and procedures that are in place for an emerged market are translated into a language that can be understood and delivered on a local level.”
These are individuals like Olu Kolawole. After spending the bulk of his career in the US, Kolawole had risen to become director of construction at Pathmark Stores, a supermarket chain. But just over a year ago he decided to abandon the relative sanity of the West Coast to head back to his native Nigeria and the chaos of Lagos. He admits that he was driven in part by a “nationalist instinct” and a feeling that “it was time to give back”, but equally the strong and visible opportunities in his home country were an attraction.
“You also see the challenges of being back in Nigeria—challenges in terms of constant utilities, challenges in terms of security, both of life and property. But then you decide that at some point, with the growing uncertainties in the economy and job security in the US, you start to really consider the opportunities in Africa,” he told FORBES AFRICA.
“When the opportunity came to come back, I really sat down and thought about it, but you know, you look at my career path over the last 10 years, which was rapid in the States, and you see that you’ve kind of peaked.”
With mergers and acquisitions trimming workforces in the US retail sector and growth in the industry slumping from 7-10% pre-crisis to just 2-3% in recent years, the chance to reboot his career with a move to a fast-moving market was too much to turn down.
“You realize a lot of these global brands see the African continent as the next frontier and you want to take a pioneer role. You know the lay of the land, you know what modern retail is supposed to be like,” he says.
Kolawole is now chief operating officer of CoolWorld Electrical Retail Stores, a subsidiary of international consumer goods giant PZ Cussons. It has not been all plain sailing. Business processes can be frustratingly slow or nonexistent and corruption “is at a level that you’ve never understood before”. The city has its inconveniences including interrupted power and security concerns. But even so, Kolawole has no regrets—yet. His role allows him to make changes to the way things are done and bring in his own best practices, and his remuneration package allows for a good quality of life, despite Lagos’ reputation for exorbitant prices.
“You have to negotiate your terms properly before you take the plunge. Nigeria is an expensive place but there are companies here willing to pay top dollar for talent. When you are negotiating a salary, you have to really negotiate properly and make sure you have everything taken care of. If you miss your utility payments or something, and you miscalculate, it really affects your overall income,” he says.
After three months, he brought his family over, including his two children, aged 10 and 12.
“It’s probably been tougher on the kids because they’ve lived their whole lives in the States. They still ask me when we’re going to go back,” he says.
The answer is: no time soon.
For some returnees, however, the motive is altogether more altruistic. OB Sisay spent 15 years in London working as an analyst in political risk consultancies and investment funds until September last year when he left his job and began the process of moving back to Sierra Leone.
Currently flitting back and forth between the UK and the country of his birth, Sisay is setting up a number of small enterprises, including a farm and a transport business and taking over his family’s holdings. Salaried jobs are hard to come by but once he has established a domestic cash flow he and his wife will up sticks and head to Freetown. Most of his family fled the country during Sierra Leone’s civil war but after years of stability and a new government that has put development top of its agenda, they are beginning to come home.
“We have a country to develop. You can’t all sit in the UK, earn huge wages and come on holiday for three weeks. The country has a huge shortage of human capital and so a few of us kind of think that the pocket has to take second place to the country. One of my cousins has quit his post as a gynaecologist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and he’s back here, he’s got a clinic. Another one is back here to work for the procurement department. The attitude is that we want to develop our country.”
The move is proving incredibly rewarding.
“Every morning before I get out to do my running, I’ve made a difference to one to three people’s lives, whether that’s someone who has come to me with a problem with their children’s education, somebody comes in sick, they’re in hospital and they need money. It’s not that much money, but I feel as if I’m making a difference. Whereas in the UK I get up, put my suit on, make big speeches, get congratulated, get paid very well and come back home. Meanwhile, Africa is still where it is. Somebody needs to fix it,” he says.
There is commercial opportunity, he acknowledges, as Sierra Leone builds from scratch during its post-war reconstruction and as international money finds its way into the country. But being a part of that development is far more compelling and exciting.
“Everything means a lot more. The elections mean a lot more; policymakers’ decisions mean a lot more. I don’t want to come back here in 10 years with kids who barely speak the local language, who only claim they’re Sierra Leonean because their parents are and I find myself a stranger in my own country,” says Sisay.

Tag: Careers

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