10 Career Strengthening Insights from Yolanda Cuba, Group Regional Vice President at MTN

This Thursday, 01 February 2024, we'll be kicking off the Inno Yolo Leadership, Tech and Career Conversations Series 2.0. It's inspired by a leadership series I helped conceptualise and facilitate while a leader at the Black Management Forum in Gauteng. Credit to Mpho Moseki, then BMF Gauteng Chairperson, for giving that series immediate backing as well as Anelisiwe Gxumisa, Phuti Kgano, Thulani Ngubane and Nhlanhla Simelane for being the force behind its improvement and execution. To honor the previous conversation series, here are some career strengthening insights from a conversation we had in August 2020 with Yolanda Cuba, current Group Regional Vice President at MTN (the largest mobile network operator in Africa, and one of the largest in the world ). At the time, she held the role of Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer at MTN. They have and will continue to stand the test of time. Having experience in both, I can assure you that these recommendations apply to both entrepreneurs and career professionals. 

Career Fortifying Insight 1: Your environment matters. Yolanda credits her trailblazing career path, where she was made Deputy CEO in her mid-twenties to more than her competence and abilities. She believes it resulted from being surrounded by people who believed in her, supported her and trusted her enough to take chances on her. So, if you’ve got big ambitions then it’s worthwhile checking your environment to see if you have the support that you need to realise your goals, or at least make an attempt of it. If not, take the necessary steps to see if you can get that support. If there’s no appetite to provide you with an enabling environment, you may need to reshape your medium-term plans and rethink the company you keep.
 
Career Fortifying Insight 2: The importance of understanding your value and who you are when you choose a job is under-rated. Yolanda got a dose of reality at her first job, where she was told that they’d strategise everyday. Reality check: „You won’t strategise everyday“, but you should strategise enough, if you consider yourself a strategist. So make sure you ask this question when engaging about a new job: „What am I going to do everyday?“ Otherwise, you’ll be sold the highlights, but your reality on a daily basis could be much (too) different. I couldn’t agree with this piece of advice more!

Career Fortifying Insight 3: So you’re not “strategising” (replace with whatever you’re passionate about) enough? Then take action starting now. When you do not like the game you are in, change it (but please - no sudden moves). It is incumbent on you to make the changes that will lead you to a sustainable and successful career. Making that change may require sacrifice. Yolanda gave it a year in the new place and then went back to do her Bachelor of Commerce Honours in Accounting. She planned ahead, applying for a place at a university way before the year was over, because she knew that job “wasn’t it”. She gave up a decent starting salary at her first job, her car and her flat (A flat is an apartment, for those who speak another form of English;-)). She moved back in with her parents back home - giving up the independence she’d enjoyed at her flat. Her recommendation is: we need to be ready to walk a few steps back so that we propel ourselves effectively. Maybe your self-empowering move is not as dramatic, but it’s worth a think - what could you start doing today to align more strongly to your goals, ambitions and / or passions?

Career Fortifying Insight 4: Your success is a by-product of how much you apply yourself. Too many people want to start with relationships before mastering competence. You won’t be noticed if you aren’t delivering on the job you’re given exceptionally. Few people will have your back, if they have to sacrifice their reputation to do so. Competence comes before relationships. Prior to her Mvelaphanda roles following her articles, Yolanda volunteered her Finance Management Services to a number of organisations to build up her competence. Mvelapanda hired a „rookie“ on paper and got someone that could deliver exceptionally well. She was so good at her job, despite her level, that external clients gave feedback to the organisation’s leadership. She had never worked with Exco since there was another hierarchy level in between, but feedback from external clients, such as the CEO of large mining company calling Tokyo Sexwale directly to ask if he could employ Yolanda, opened the path to her becoming deputy CEO in her twenties. What investments do you need to make in your development to delight your clients and customers?

Career Fortifying Insight 5: Mentors and Sponsors are central to building a successful career and helping you solidify your leadership skills no matter your seniority. What’s the difference? Mentors are people you seek out and ask for guidance. They are good at something you want to be good at or have achieved something that you want to achieve. They help guide you along your career and give you perspective. Seek out mentors who think differently and who have achieved milestones that speak to your desired career path. Sponsors find you along your journey and are excited to help accelerate you along your journey. They typically seek you out because they admire something about you, e.g. your tenacity, competence, resilience, discipline, etc. or you remind them of their younger ambitious selves (you never really know why). They speak highly of you in spaces that you don’t have access to and wonder about you years after you’ve been out of touch with them. Yolanda has a sponsor that contacted her years after they last spoke to ask her where she was with an ambition she had once shared with him.

Career Fortifying Insight 6: Learn repeatable models of success. Anyone can be a shooting star, but you’ve got to get clear on what it is that’s going to make you sustainable. In the early 2000s, a mentor congratulated Yolanda on a milestone she had achieved, then asked her how she was planning to sustain her success. She didn’t have an immediate answer, but took the time to reflect. She decided that she wanted to learn repeatable models of success. So she wrote to a senior leader at MTN to let them know she wanted to join them because she believed she could realise her goal of learning repeatable models of success at the leading African mobile network operator. To solidify these lessons, she later contacted a leader at South African Breweries and asked for an opportunity to do the same thing there - learn repeatable models of success from people and organisations that have walked the path. 

Career Fortifying Insight 7: You have the power to actively shape your own career. So exercise your agency. Too many of us build our career in a reactive way. We wait for a job post to appear so we can apply or we wait to hear from a head hunter. If you’re an entrepreneur, you might wait for an RFP. You have to be deliberate about identifying what you need for sustainable success and actively seeking out the development and career opportunities you need. How many of us can say they have proactively contacted people in the organisations that they hope to work in, or with, to express their interest irrespective of what’s listed on the careers page?

Career Fortifying Insight 8: The ability to add value irrespective of where you find yourself requires adaptability. It’s imperative that we all take steps to actively increase our adaptability quotient. You’ve got to learn how to be adaptable - across industries, roles, geographies. Curiosity, the willingness to learn and willingness to adapt yourself to new environments are central to increasing your adaptability quotient. These practices will help you add value irrespective of where you find yourself along your career journey. 

Career Fortifying Insight 9: Cultivate a sense of curiosity. Curiosity is central to closing knowledge gaps when pivoting and for building adaptability. Yolanda joined the ABSA board at around 27 years of age. Walking into a meeting with colleagues that were +25 years more senior was a little intimidating. She was clear that should could not out-experience them nor could she outlearn them with their myriad of executive education and academic qualifications. So she had to identify her unique edge. She had already come to learn that people, irrespective of level, gravitate towards competence and so she invested in being super prepared for board meetings and sharpened the areas of strength she had brought with her, e.g. Financial Management Services. She probably worked through the full board packs more intensively than anyone else. She used experts in specific knowledge areas within ABSA and beyond and leveraged google as her best friends to support her learning in the areas that she did not possess prior knowledge. Soon her opinion on matters was actively sought. Her advice: build competence and be intellectually curious. 
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Career Fortifying Insight 10: Give people hope and be solution centric. Whether you’re interacting with the people who work with you at home, members of your team or even leaders in your organisation, seek to be someone who helps people see more in themselves, identify more opportunity in the world and seek out solutions rather than being the cynic in the room. Yolanda encouraged and supported a domestic employee get a Bachelor of Technology Degree while working at her home. Can you imagine the world we would live in if each of us helped one other person improve their lot in life?
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"Agency is a rather susceptible phenomenon. You’ve got to believe you have it, to exercise it. It’s also quite elastic - the more you exercise it, the more it becomes second nature. So, yet again - as is so often the case - exercise is the answer!" - Avela Gronemeyer 

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