The Everyday Leader podcast features inspiring individuals building and leading teams across Africa. Listen to episodes on your preferred podcast platform here.
About our Guest
This episode’s conversation is with Doris Chelegat Muigei, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Doris has over 13 years of experience in learning and development, leadership development, talent acquisition, and employability strategies across a number of companies including Jumeirah Group in Dubai, the Aga Khan University Hospital in Kenya, Career Connections, and Shortlist. She now serves as the Chief Growth Officer at Yusudi, an award-winning company that trains unemployed youth in B2B sales and matches them with companies. She has a deep passion and desire to be part of preparing and leading the next generation of African leaders to navigate the future of work.
Everyday Leadership in Action
Here are a few highlights from the conversation with Doris:
You tend to learn the most during the role in which you struggle the most: When Doris joined Shortlist, she initially found it challenging to adapt and thrive in a startup environment, as she had previously worked in an older company with more established processes. It also shaped how she approaches building teams and companies now.
Use strategic pauses throughout your career to realign your career with your purpose: After working for a number of years, Doris decided to pursue a 1-year Master’s in the UK to upskill herself in management. She also used this time to reflect on the direction of her career. She thought about the problems she had come across herself when she was just starting her career and realized that she wanted to help solve those problems for others like herself. This led her to take a role with Shortlist.
Sometimes slowing down can help you move forward: Doris reflected on times when she did not have the awareness that she should take more time to pause. She didn’t realize that her “fuel tank was empty” until it was too late. At one point, her team had to forcibly tell her to take time off. She eventually took their guidance to heart and decided to take a year off from working to really reset.
Transitioning from a specialist track to general management requires planning: Doris came from an HR and Training background but made sure to expose herself to the business side of operations in her roles. In addition to earning a Master’s in management, she also won promotions and positioned herself as a leader at the companies where she worked. In her roles today, she still finds herself using HR experience on a day-to-day basis.
Allow yourself and your team to design their own jobs to drive motivation: Doris picked up on the concept of “job crafting” during her Master’s program, and was able to apply it in the workplace thereafter. Allowing individuals to merge their own individual interests with the goals of the company can be a win-win. Doris has found that it can be helpful for staff to explore and spend time with other department teams and pursue pilot projects to explore how to take on new responsibilities.
The Everyday Leader is a podcast featuring conversations with leaders from across Africa’s companies, organizations, and governments about their experience managing teams and projects throughout their careers.
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Doris Muigei: Chief Growth Officer, Yusudi