Justina Mutale
Justina Mutable is a Zambian born author, philanthropist and advocate for gender equality and quality education.She is best known for her work in advancing gender equality, especially in areas of women's political participation and the economic empowerment of women and girls by providing leadership and entrepreneurship training and mentorship. In 2012, she was named as African Woman of the Year by the African Achievers Awards and Africa's Best Female Philanthropist by Tropics Magazine in 2018.Avance Media named Mutale as one of the 100 Most Influential African Women in 2019. Reputation Poll also named her in the list of the 100 Most Reputable Africans in 2018 and 2025.
Quotes
[edit]- I come from a background of very powerful, strong and assertive women. Women who have defied gender dynamics for centuries. On my mother’s side of the family, a woman rules the kingdom. Although a man rules the kingdom on my father’s side of the family, this did not stop one strong, assertive and powerful woman to rise up and form a movement that shook the political foundations of my country, Zambia. Also, women from my mother’s tribe are given their own feminine names at birth, which they carry throughout their life and they never assume the husband’s name nor the father’s name. This gives women from my mother’s family ownership of the self as woman, without having to walk in the shadows of a husband or father. Prior to founding my own organisation, I worked in the Gender Section of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
- I was surprised to find that there was a fight for gender equality and that women were considered to be second to men in many spheres of life. My degree in International Relations and Politics had enhanced my understanding of power politics and the role it plays in shaping the gender dynamics in leadership. My further engagements with forums that address gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls such as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; the African Union’s High Level Panel on Gender Equality; the Commonwealth Women’s Forum and several others, made me realise there was a disconnect between the policies aimed at enhancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and what was actually obtaining in reality on the ground.
- My further engagements with forums that address gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls such as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; the African Union’s High Level Panel on Gender Equality; the Commonwealth Women’s Forum and several others, made me realise there was a disconnect between the policies aimed at enhancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls and what was actually obtaining in reality on the ground. I then decided to do something about this by creating my own Foundation, focused on women’s leadership and the role women play in the economy, politics and society to help change mindsets and make women their own drivers of the gender agenda. I decided to bring in a different dialogue, different language, different approach and different perspective.
- I was invited to a conference to talk about my organization and what we do. The conference had several speakers. I arrived there with a carefully prepared and typed up speech, which I was going to read from. Before it was my turn to speak, a speaker ahead of me stood up and talked about all the things I had in my written speech. I ended up having to speak from the heart. From that day on, I decided not to depend on written speeches at events that have more than one speaker. This made me realize that whenever I speak from the heart, the delivery and reception of the speech is more authentic, because the words come out directly from the heart and I connect with the audience, the moment and the energy in the room.
- It has been said that teamwork makes the dream work and that it takes a whole village to raise a child. I therefore cannot point out one particular person as the only one who is responsible for my success, as I have had different players, who are multi-generational, that have contributed to my success. I am blessed to have amazing mentors and a great team that come from a variety of backgrounds, knowledge base, experience and expertise, that I need to do my work effectively. I am grateful and blessed to have a great team around me that keeps me grounded and helps to drive my mission to succeed and to be of help to those that I intend to help.
Justina Mutale On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
[edit]- Ensure everyone has a voice: Allow different voices and perspectives to be heard and to be taken into account in decision and policy making. Each person brings something different to the table, depending on their life experiences and educational background. It is important to take different experiences and perspectives into account in designing policy or taking decisions in order to build a truly inclusive, representative, and equitable society.
- Recruit from a diverse group of people. There are multiple ways in which people experience the world and therefore, measures should be put in place to enforce job recruitment from a diverse group of people. Limiting a business or organization to one group of people, who have the same experiences in life, who think the same way, and who believe in the same things in life takes away the creativity, innovation and diversity of thought required in the operations of a business or organist for its success.
- Identify Diverse Talents: Consider different genders, backgrounds, ethnicities, race, religion, creeds, sexual orientation, etc. Identify talents from a diverse group of people and accordingly match them to opportunities, roles and responsibilities. An organization or business has a greater chance of succeeding if they have an executive team that represents the true diversity of the world. Each person brings to the table a different perspective, different talents and a different way of doing things, that if brought together can complement one another and make the team thrive to serve the world better.
- Ensure Diversity of thought: Bring together people with different perspectives and different educational backgrounds by building an intergenerational team and multicultural team, which consists of people who went to different universities, have different levels of education, different genders, race, creed, language, ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation, etc to get a full picture of the spectrum that gives a full understanding of the world we live in.
- Equal Opportunities on Merit: Job opportunities should be based on merit and not on race or gender bias. A world that operates on half its human capital, half its economic potential and half its talents, is one that is bound to fail. The world is diverse for a reason. This is because as humans, we have to compliment one another. We ought to embrace the world in its full diversity in all our activities. Focusing on one gender or race takes away the potential for growth in an ever changing world. Providing equal opportunities builds better families and communities, thereby creating a truly representative and equitable society.
- A Chief Executive provides strategic direction and has overall responsibility for the success of the business or organization and is responsible for devising policies and strategies to meet company goals, by directing, planning, and coordinating operational activities for their organization or company, while developing and managing key stakeholder relationships. In a nutshell, the Chief Executive drives the overall vision and leadership of the organization including organization strategy, mission and values, while a manager or other leaders are responsible for the activities of a team or group of employees in the business or organization. A Chief Executive is constantly on the move undertaking a lot of high stake client relationship management, meeting stakeholders, negotiating and seeking common ground to sustain the business or organization.
- I strongly identify with and support the statement from US General, Norman Schwarzkopf when he said,
“Leadership is a potent combination of character and strategy. But if you must be without one, be without strategy”. We live in a world where all too often leadership is focused on strategy, and where expediency and pragmatism are considered essential to getting the job done. You therefore, find that a lot people often make the mistake of thinking those with the highest educational degrees or the most admirable intellectual or academic qualifications can be the best leaders.To the contrary, I believe leadership is about wisdom and something that has to come from the heart, because leadership is about people. The ability to inspire others to give themselves unreservedly to the mission is not a management technique, but a leadership one – management is positional, while leadership is personal.
- For decades women have been involved in civil society and international development efforts serving
as participants, professional, volunteers, and activists. Yet within these efforts, women continue to be denied access to leadership positions. As indicated earlier, I believe every woman has the potential to lead. However, women often lack opportunities, skills and resources for realising their full potential. Some of the challenges hindering women include the lack of appropriate education, training, knowledge transfer and leadership development. In addition, leadership has been viewed through gender-biased lenses and you therefore, find that much of women’s leadership over the centuries has been invisible. A big challenge for us is to become aware that we need new lenses that will make us see things differently. Other challenges include the lack of mentors and support networks.
- I believe women need mentorship programmes and support networks to provide them with the much needed psychological and social
support to enable them to effectively manage their leadership roles. Unlike their male counterparts, women often find themselves having to navigate societal and organizational landscapes. They also have to deal with ambivalent reactions that are deeply rooted in gender stereotypes. There is therefore, an urgent need to remove the barriers that confine women to places already defined for them in particular prescribed roles. As women of the 21st century, we need to have that unshakeable self-belief that it is politically correct to compete on equal footing with our male counterparts without feeling that we are overstepping our boundaries or undermining men’s masculinity.
- I believe my biggest strength is that I have a great passion for the work that I do. When one is focused
on getting the work done and not the reward, there is no limit to how far one can go. I am also a born enterprising person and a highly ambitious person with an insatiable drive to succeed. I therefore, work very hard to get things done. I also believe that if one wants to see one’s dreams come true, one must never go to sleep! For anyone to succeed one has to work hard and put in 110% in everything they do. Once I have a vision in my head I will do whatever it takes that vision to become reality, despite all the obstacles that might stand in my way. I am also a very resilient person, a trait that is very important in this industry and which has been very beneficial to me in terms the area that I work in.My determination and focus for reaching and achieving my goals are some of the qualities that have driven me to be the person that I am today, and to accomplish what I have accomplished thus far. I also work in an industry for which I have great passion and because of that, everything I do in my work just come naturally to me. My work is almost my hobby, as I get immense pleasure from doing my work.
- As an African, we believe in extended families and therefore, relationships are very important to me. The
African philosophy of Ubuntu teaches us that a ‘person is a person because of other persons – I am therefore you are’ and that we learn to be human by learning from other humans. The greatest relationship I have ever had, and which has had the greatest impact on me is the relationship with my parents and my brothers and sisters. One literally meets the whole world within my family with its different characteristics and sibling love, competition, fights and rivalries. I therefore, learnt through growing up in a large family and with guidance from my parents that humility, tact, self-affirmation, faith, being meticulous, self and social awareness are some of the traits that enable one to influence others.
