thinking aloud

felt it gave her credibility in the market, and she was more mature focusing on an MBA at her age. “This is knowledge that really elevates how you think, your status, helps you think outside the box, look at things differently. As a leader you are more exposed.” Up next, she is thinking of enrolling for coach leadership to ramp up her soft skills beyond academic exposure. When you are working for an organisation that has more than 20 individuals, many things come up. Politics, relevance, governance at every level – and then, soft skills. How do I manage my boss? How do I ensure my growth? How do I balance my life? Soft skills, she says, need to be continuously grown and understood because the dynamics always change and learning never stops. Soft skills include people management, negotiations, meeting customers, C-level management, how to dress. “There are countries I go to, and I know I can’t go with natural hair. They would rather see me in a wig. There are all sorts of soft skills. They become even more intense when you introduce culture. And I run 10 territories. With dynamic culture, the soft skills learning never stops. My context is broader.” Describing her leadership style as “very intuitive, almost spontaneous, but also very inward-looking. I’m always reflect on who I am. It is sub conscious.” Leadership, for her, starts with what you have such as children, parents, and siblings. “When it comes down to it, it’s almost expected of you to always ask yourself, ‘am I doing this right?’ Having children means they always check you. It must be very intentional. As a leader, when in a certain leadership position, you want your attitude, your way of doing things and your presence felt. It is very important to check, what do I want that will have a ripple effect? That will resonate. Am I a good example? I know it sounds cliché, but it is the case. Am I demonstrating what I am demanding of my team? Do I respect myself as a leader for the team to respect me?” This is critical because Everline manages

dx nova

10 territories. Planning, data, facts, and numbers matter. “Intelligence counts. You must be very well informed and market aware. Always support your feedback with facts otherwise your boss calls your bluff, and you can’t manage him. Sometimes, you need to push back with data. When your boss trusts you, then you can manage him.” Managing her team requires trust too, yes, but more so, authenticity. Authentic leadership may have been around since the 1960s, it roared to life in 2003 with Bill George’s book, Authentic Leadership. Defined as “A style of leadership that focuses on transparent and ethical leader behaviour and encourages open sharing of information needed to make decisions while accepting followers’ inputs.” With a team as diverse as hers, Everline says “I believe in letting them see me for who I am. It goes back to authenticity. A team will respect you when you are real. I encourage them to dance, and they know I will be in the office by 8 am. Don’t do things to fit in with the crowd. A team cares that you deliver. If you can step in when they really need you to step in and you can save their behinds. I learn a lot from the team.”

Everline Kamau was a well-known brand before marriage. And, when she got married, she tried to change her maiden name and incorporate her husband’s name. Documentation was crazy. “It was easy for our parents to build their brand using their husband’s name. They did not have to contend with IDs, driving licenses, and passports in their maiden names.”

They married young, straight out of campus before their careers begun. Now, you’ve been here hustling, earning, doing your job, then you get married. “Then you tell me, let’s go back in time to change your documents: ID, passport, LinkedIn. The thing is, he found me accomplished. I had to tell him - babe, this is my brand. Look at every Kamau appearance as you would Kimbo. It also takes time for people to get used to a new marital name. Being selfish, I did not want to leave Kamau. You still have that ego, pride, memory, and customers. All those dynamics are part of your name that people underrate. So, I hyphenated it.” With a career that demands constant travel, Everline is fortunate to have a husband who holds it down. “If you find a man is not supportive, then he either lied to you before you got married, or you got to your success when you were already married. This plays back to my ex. He met me before I started working. When I started working, things changed because he was used to seeing me in a particular way. I’d rather a man who sees me the way I am.” Someone, she points out, who accommodates their women’s growth. “Women are very resourceful. A man will make his first coin, and go out, and buy his car. Or a suit. A woman will put Kshs 2,000 somewhere in a SACCO or chama and keep increasing it. I am telling you this is fact. Women who are exposed are more powerful in a marriage. For instance, have you noticed your own mother has never run out of money. My mum is retired but she will always have money.” Religion is her anchor “100%.” It makes her believe she can move mountains. “I pray with my children every night before they sleep. I strongly believe every human needs to have something like God. It gives me a sense of not being the only one carrying a burden. It’s like the Wheel of Life. God is the reason I am where I am.”

Any last words? “You must be very open minded, a constant learner and put aside your pride. Be aware of change that is not planned for. And be ready to embrace it. That is usually the downfall of many leaders. Be willing to adopt and learn. Younger than is even better than older to learn from. We glean wisdom from those who are ages 60 to 80 and forget you have a lot of wisdom behind you. My (then) nine-year-old son challenged me over iPhone versus Samsung, right down to the processor. Of course, at, 10 he picked the iPhone. Tell me, what can I not learn from this boy?”

Leading provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, VMware, held the vFORUM 2022 at Villa Rosa Kempinski that mainly highlighted the next step for the tech company and for multi-cloud in the tech world. The event featured an array of experienced speakers both from VMware and its partners and sponsors with topics revolving around the Multi-cloud and VMware’s journey of taking multi-cloud to the next level. The speakers included Lorna Hardie (Regional Director at VMware, Sub-Saharan Africa), Ian Jansen van Rensburg – Chief Lead Technologist VMware Sub-Saharan Africa, Boudewijn Aelbers – SE Director VMware Benelux, Norberto Carrascal – Intel EMEA Business Consumption Director among others.

vForum 2022

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