For Brigitte, management is all about empathetic leadership

Dar es Salaam. Brigitte Alfred, the director of marketing and communication at the Johari Rotana, a five-star hotel located in the centre of Dar es Salaam, says that good leadership starts with an empathetic leader.

She explains that an empathetic leader cares about the people he or she leads and pays attention to what motivates them and how they feel.

In other words, a good manager is the kind of person who recognises and is prepared to provide what others lack in terms of leadership.

“There is a need to have an empathetic leader who helps teammates feel valued and respected for their personal and professional worth,” explains Brigitte.

At Johari Rotana Hotel, she’s responsible for developing and executing the overall marketing and communications strategy, which includes advertising, public relations, social media, and content creation.

With over six years of experience in developing and executing strategic campaigns, she’s a professional in marketing and communication.

Brigitte brought a unique perspective to her work, where she promotes diversity and inclusion in all aspects of her career.

She previously volunteered for UNICEF as a children’s changemaker but also got involved in advocacy for the rights of people with albinism in Tanzania through her NGO, the ‘Brigitte Alfred Foundation’.

She explains that her career journey started when she founded the NGO.

“Through the NGO, I did a little advocacy, creating communications campaigns, and that’s really where I started. So when I took a break from NGO work and decided to pursue a career in communication, I started at a financial tech company as a marketing manager, and then I came to Rotana as director of marketing,” she explains.

Her enjoyment of storytelling and compelling campaigns play a big role in her life and have led her to become the person who narrates about her life while empowering other women.

“To do marketing or communications, it’s not something that you can force out of someone. You have to be creative, passionate about telling stories, and passionate about what you’re doing. So, I really enjoy doing that because it’s a natural fit for me as a career,” says Brigitte.

When it comes to dreams, Brigitte explains that she didn’t know what she wanted to be until she started taking an interest in developing campaigns for her NGO.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do until college. I kind of developed my interest in doing campaigns, and that’s why I ended up discovering my passion for communicating and marketing,” she says joyfully.

While she was striving for success in her career, her mother did phenomenal things that inspired Brigitte to become the person she is today.

“She gives me the opportunities to be myself and discover myself. After university, I spent two years staying at home deciding what I wanted to do with my life,” says Brigitte.

In addition, she has supportive family and friends.

Beyond marketing and communications, Brigitte is also a former beauty queen. In 2012, she won the Miss Tanzania title.

According to her, earning the title opened many doors for her to develop a lot of skills.

“You learn diplomacy, and you learn how to speak with different people, from political leaders to peers. You develop a lot of skills. I would say that the responsibilities of being Miss Tanzania help you develop leadership skills. When I started as director, I used a lot of what I learned as Miss Tanzania, especially how to communicate with people,” Brigitte says.

Her achievements in the field of marketing and communications enabled her to receive the Top 50 Marketing Managers Award from the Tanzania Marketing Science Association.

She was able to introduce the Johari Rotana brand to the point where people are aware of it despite the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Establishing a hotel is difficult, and when the Covid-19 pandemic hit a year later, we had to shut down for a while. When we reopened two years later, we had to do an extra job to market it. As a result, I was awarded the prize for my efforts,” she explains.

Her most successful project, however, was when she built a dormitory for sixty albinism students who did not have a place to stay while also playing a major role in helping people with albinism.

“That was my most successful project because it had a lot of support from various public and private institutions,” she says.

“We also started a fashion show for people with albinism; at that time the campaign was known as ‘My Skin, My Pride’,” she says, adding, “Our aim was to show that people with albinism also have talents, so we gave them a stage and a spotlight to show what they had.”

Her organisation also provided entrepreneurship training to albino youth who were unable to attend university or secondary school. They were taught how to start and run a business, basic accounting, and life skills. At the end of the programme, they were given seed capital.

As regards her management style, Brigitte points out that she loves to give people the freedom to show and develop their talents.

“I’m not the type of leader who micromanages; I prefer to give people space to do what they can. I have an open-door policy for anyone who comes to ask me about anything,” she confides.

She allows people to make mistakes because that’s how they learn. She was able to grow herself because she made a lot of mistakes and had somebody to teach her, she narrates.

For women who are just embarking on their career journey, Brigitte encourages them not to be afraid to dream big.

“Things have changed now. Women are getting more seats at the high table. So don’t be afraid of where your dream can take you; there are endless opportunities nowadays; we are in a totally different world where women really have the access that we never used to, and we were able to get the opportunities that we couldn’t before, so I would say go for what you dream for; don’t be afraid to dream big,” says Brigitte.