Miranda: Learning and sharing opportunities key to success

Dar es Salaam. For Miranda Naiman, leadership entails constant learning and accepting criticism.

It is a non-conservative profession that demands the person in the position to absorb and comprehend some opinions.

Ms Naiman - the founder of ‘Empower,’ a human capital consultancy firm - talks to The Citizen Rising Woman as she takes us through her inspirational yet challenging journey in which she says learning is inevitable if one is to succeed.

According to her, had it not been for the strong foundation built by her parents, she would not have reached where she is at now. “My Mother was a teacher and my dad was a small business man who loved trying different things. So, I had the opportunity to learn from both of them,” says Ms Naiman.

She grew up in the mixed family, her mother was British and her dad Tanzanian, the way of doing things was more than one.

“I have the habit of justifying everything because I was moulded into thinking that everything need full authorisation from my family,” she says. Ms Naiman adds that time management and being a risk taker were aspects that propelled her to success.

She says in her leadership journey, she had to sacrifice many things, but her bold decision is already paying off.

“I took a leap of faith, from being employed to wanting being my own boss of a business. This opened me to the whole challenging yet interesting journey,” she says Ms Naiman adds: “I was vulnerable because I had no income, no security as I had no office for the first year after I established Empower, and I was a divorced single mother with a young child at that time.”

She says she relied on a borrowed laptop to enable her on reports and proposals writing when her son Micah slept.

“I often tell my team that I founded Empower while I was homeless and from a difficult place, I was not homeless living on the streets but because the divorce demanded me to move out of the house,” says Ms Naiman. She further details that ‘the difficult situation’ pushed her to achieve as she knew she had moved forward and to be a breadwinner for her son. “Sometimes being vulnerable pushes someone to greater achievements,” she says. Ms Naiman notes that as an entrepreneur, you cannot expect people to be supportive of your dream from the beginning.

“I never knew that one day I would be in the position that I’m in right now, because I had dreamt of being a pilot despite not performing well in science studies,” she says.

She narrates that even one of her science teachers whom she wholeheartedly trusted discouraged her to drop the pilot idea.

“As a 14-year old, I believed what my teacher told me, so that dream disappeared right from there,” details Ms Naiman.

“I am not surprised that life has led me to this profession because I come from a family of teachers, my mother, my aunt and my grandfather were all teachers,” she says. The ‘teachers gene’ influenced Ms Naiman to study education courses and this led her to founding Empower as she knew that education could be used differently, with programme that have gathered the youth, women and organisations.

She defines her leadership style as firm and fair due to the high standard character that even demands the ‘empower team’ to deliver their best work when given one.

Ms Naiman explains that whenever she leads a team, in a board role, a voluntary committee or as the managing partner of the consultancy firm, she wants her team to be recognised and valued as every purposeful leader must be defined by the strong role character. “Whoever I work with must know that treating a desperate job seeker should be the same way a professor and a government leader should be treated,” says Ms Naiman.

She further reveals that in the early years when she was employed, prior to founding Empower, she learned a lot of things that she did not know.

“When I established this business, I said to myself that I want to treat my team in a way I always dreamt to be treated, nurtured and respected,” says Ms Naiman.

She reveals that during her journey as the founder of Empower, she has met and served multiple male leaders in different occupations as clients whom she studied closely.

“I found out that male leaders think and make decisions differently that pushes them to reach the top positions, they remove emotions in their decision making processes,” Ms Naiman notes.

She adds: “Women must develop a habit that showcases their interest in the way men think, so as to also increase the pace for the occupation of the higher seats in all sectors.”

Ms Naiman was open to learning in the courses that led her to qualify as a board director as well as a member of Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO), for which she has been a member for almost five years.

Most recently, she had been approached by a male banker who requested her mentoring skills - and appraised her of the business she is running, and all her winnings.

“I usually have three conditions to mentees that must align with their characters, that is: commitment, humility and self-drive,” says Ms Naiman.

Ms Naiman details that she has had informal mentors including people she met at entrepreneurial gatherings who coached her through the exchange of experience. “I have several people I look up to. There is Philip Redman, Tanzanian Breweries Limited (TBL) managing director. He is very direct and decisive. Ruth Zaipuna, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NMB Bank Plc; and Doctor Ellen Mkodnya-Senkoro, CEO of the Mkapa Foundation,” says Ms Naiman.

She talks of the lack of the diversity in top leadership where the number of women in higher seats is still low despite the work of initiating equality between men and women.

“Women are rising fast, but not fast enough, there is the double burden issue whereas women fear to take on more responsibility associated with executive leadership because they are already entrusted with looking out for the family especially children,” explains Ms Naiman.

She details that Women in top leadership positions must at least try to push up the ones in lower positions.

“Women need to prepare to be pushed up, as we pull others up in terms of sharing opportunities and making referrals, even in sectors that are male dominated,” says Ms Naiman

Working in the recruiting firm, she says at times women have many excuses that block them from particular top positions

Ms Naiman says that women empowerment initiatives can be sustained when societies start to embrace and strengthen equality between men and women.

She concludes that the betterment to women matters starts at a society level, in terms of support and recognition.