My leadership opportunities
Hi please critic:
As a leader, one should be able to inspire others to do more and even mentor them to surpass their own achievements.
While I was still in my first year at xxx Kenya(big 4) I was appointed a team leader for a consultancy engagement that involved execution of enterprise risk management for an insurance company. As a consultancy that recruited in cohorts, it was rare that an associate in their first year got to lead engagements. The norm was that senior associates led. Being the youngest in the team of four, I encountered opposition from my mates who assumed I did not have adequate experience and the capacity to lead. I contacted the head of risk at the client company to build rapport and request her to brief the staff on the exercise to ensure staff cooperation when we got there. On the first project kick off meeting, the team were impressed by how I already knew key people. At the end of the engagement, we held a training and feedback session in which it was evident many had a good experience with us, the consultants. It was this experience that developed my liking for risk engagements. When the new cohort of consultants were recruited during my second year, I was assigned three new associates and through my influence, they developed a particular liking for enterprise risk management and even went further ahead to take up ERM certification training. At the end of their first year, during performance reviews, they were rated highly effective and continue to be among the best risk consultants even after I left the company.
I was recently appointed the chief point of contact for the implementation of the new business plan and three year strategy at XXX (current company). Working with the different teams involved to drive the project forward has developed my leadership skills further. The project involved engaging business leaders within the company as well as external stakeholders such as intermediaries, banks and the regulator. It was not easy getting especially the external stakeholders to collaborate with the consultants we had engaged to drive the project. Given that we had a month to deliver, I sent communication to ensure that all the parties involved understood the importance of the project. Managing people of different personalities and backgrounds who were not mandated by their job descriptions to cooperate with my project was a difficult task. However, by speaking to the heads of the companies and aligning them on the importance of the exercise to UAP and in turn to the customers, they were able to offer total cooperation. The project and business plan was ready in time and all stakeholders bought in and were excited for its implementation. This led to improved staff morale and customer experience. Revenues for the period improved by 20% as compared to the previous year.
My leadership opportunities have given me a chance to own projects, execute them efficiently by bringing together different parties involved and leave a mark.
