10 minute read
A STORY OF GRIT
Put your hands up
Transforming an uneven industry requires women to take every opportunity to succeed – and even fail – writes VERASHNI PILLAY.
Sometimes I look around and wonder … where are my female peers? I am a young-ish female media entrepreneur. I can count on one hand others like me in South Africa – heck, even in the region.
That’s understandable. It’s damn hard to be an entrepreneur in any field – especially journalism, where the business model is still in disarray. And with the added, invisible pressures of being a women? Ha.
In fact, just being a woman leader is difficult. The double standards are real.
You’ve probably heard a bit about the most infamous episode of my career: the HuffPost fake blog. I learned my lesson and resigned on principle. The experience heavily informed my current project: explain.co.za. As I said in my TEDx talk, thanks to my mistake I started earnestly researching and working on new models of news that are in-depth and thoroughly researched.
Looking back, it’s clear that I paid a much steeper price than other editors who made similar mistakes. For example, HuffPost and Soccer Laduma were both Media24 titles. Soccer Laduma once published fake quotes but the editor, Peter du Toit, didn’t face anywhere near the same heat I did from Media24’s bosses, nor consequences for his livelihood and reputation.
So how do we as women overcome these double standards, and the increased pressure we face in the public space as leaders, particularly in an area as tricky as media? And all this while usually assuming more of the domestic responsibilities at home.
I firmly believe in the levelling effect of support programmes and policy.
Verashni Pillay HOW MUCH PRIVILEGE IS ENOUGH?
I left full-time employment for the first time at the end of 2019, and started explain.co.za, after years of dreaming about it and preparing. I was 35.
I became an entrepreneur relatively late in life, after going the corporate career ladder route in my 20s and early 30s. This means that I have access to more social and financial capital than the average entrepreneur. This includes personal savings (now depleted, haha).
But here’s the thing: it’s been so hard for me. And I’m so privileged. For others, particularly black women, it’s insanely hard.
Getting one’s foot in the door as an entrepreneur requires so much support. There’s a reason many of those who make it in South Africa come from the upper middle class.
One solution is incubation/start-up programmes that actually work. This is a buzzing space with so much on offer but little of value. Personally
I have been blown away by the support offered by the South African Media Innovation Programme. Every industry needs something like this. The support surpasses anything else on offer to up-andcoming entrepreneurs.
Another incredibly valuable input on my journey was my selection as a Mandela Washington Fellow in 2018, following which I studied the basics of business in Austin, Texas. The experience of bonding with 27 other young entrepreneurs from across the continent and learning about business for the first time was incredible. It was like a mini MBA, and it gave me the skills I needed to start my business.
Women need to start putting their hands up and taking advantage of these opportunities. Why? Having the start-up space and media space in general dominated by male voices and leaders means we have distorted services, ones that often don’t properly comprehend the needs of half the world’s population.
THE COST
But what of the emotional cost of being a female leader?
The bullying that women in the industry face is obviously quite substantial, particularly on social media. We also know that insults aimed at women over their work very quickly turn sexualised and violent. There is also a more subtle challenge in terms of becoming senior quite young as a female newsroom leader. Challenges include being secondguessed and gaslit, and facing sheer aggression.
Women representation in the media space generally is getting better, for sure, but it still needs work. The latest State of the Newsroom report in South Africa shows that 33% of editors surveyed were female, as were 28% of board members. What’s concerning is the number of independent titles that don’t release this information and are clearly untransformed.
That’s just another reason women should put up their hands to lead, particularly at a young age: it leads to greater understanding and innovation later down the line. Scoring both huge successes and making big mistakes at both jobs really gave me enormous perspective and courage! Once you’ve done all that, it’s easier to do something crazy like quit your job, start a business and more.
FIXING A FAILING MODEL
Getting high-profile jobs like editorin-chief of the Mail & Guardian and HuffPost SA in my early 30s showed me first-hand how – and in some respects, why – our news model was so dramatically failing both audiences and journalists. It was a struggle to create work we could be proud of with newsroom budgets always shrinking and the very news model under threat as the digital ad model shifted towards behemoths like Google and Facebook, leaving just crumbs for publishers to fight over.
I also started to obsess about how to reach more people with the news they need to know – beyond the audiences mainstream news in South Africa reaches again and again. From my experience working on complicated investigative articles in the M&G, I knew from audience stats that too few people were reading and engaging with the details. I also know that news tends to reach the elite, marginalising younger audiences, women, non-English speakers and those outside urban centres. I started explain.co.za to address those issues.
It was incredibly validating when Our Weekly Wrap, which summarises the news of the week in a conversational and easy to understand way via WhatsApp, was recently named the best media literacy project in Africa by the World Association of Newspapers.
So my advice to future female leaders is simple: Put your hand up. Stop doubting yourself. Stop holding back.
I think we’re going to see more funding and support for journalism becoming available as the world recognises how fake news is threatening the very fabric of society. It won’t have to be this desperate hunt for money to produce the journalism that society needs to function.
When that funding becomes available, grab it with both hands. Put your hand up and lead. Too often it’s only men who take these opportunities. Women’s voices, issues and needs are too often left out of the conversation. It’s time to change that.
Verashni Pillay is the founder of the award-winning news platform and digital communications agency explain.co.za. She was editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian and HuffPost South Africa. She was named one of the BBC’s top 100 women in 2015 and is a recipient of the CNN African Journalism Award, an Open Society Foundation journalism fellowship and the 2018 Mandela Washington Fellowship. Follow her @verashni on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, or on Facebook: https://web. facebook.com/verashnipillay
Women in leadership: The secret is …
According to the Harvard Business Review, although most people at the top of organisations are men, it is women who have what it takes to lead effectively. So, rather than advising female executives to act more like men to get ahead, I think society would be better served by leaders who emulate women, writes BONI MCHUNU
Ihave learned that, generally, women still face many challenges in most leadership positions. Unfortunately, in South Africa today, race and gender equality are still not equitable. As a result,
I need to constantly be deliberate about believing in who I am and what I am about, and do so unapologetically.
I believe I bring value to many business conversations; this is evident from the non-executive director positions I hold at some blue-chip companies in South Africa.
As women, we need to take up the space and do so unashamedly once we get into leadership positions because if we don’t, nobody will. I strongly believe that I am
because we are – this is the spirit of Ubuntu. Fortunately, at Kagiso Media, the business believes in women empowerment and equal opportunities for all, so I feel supported.
RELATIONSHIPS, INFLUENCE AND TRUST
Being a female leader is fulfilling because I know I can positively impact others. I know my limitations; I know when to lean on other leaders because the ‘power of the pack’ is more powerful than being alone. My philosophy is about prioritising relationships with like-minded women who have my back. In business, I have learned that people do not do business with business; they do business with the people they like and trust. This is my daily mission: to make meaningful and sustainable friendships.
My experience of leadership is that it is about an ability to influence yourself and others. As a leader, you need to have a vision and be able to communicate it efficiently. During this unprecedented time, you need to show up, especially for your team. If my team wins, I shine a spotlight on them. If they lose, I take on the responsibility and accountability as the leader.
Also, I think women need to work well together because when they do, and when they support each other, incredible things happen and so much can be achieved. We must find our voice and build a circle of trust with one another (sisterhood/ power of pack). I have learned that our challenges are not unique (even though sometimes they feel alienating), so we need to constantly reach out because our hurdles are similar and we can learn so much from others.
RESILIENCE AND BEING YOURSELF
If I could share a trait that I think encapsulates women leadership, it would be resilience.
Resilience has become somewhat of a buzzword these days, but it’s a noun that is no stranger to the female being.
Resilience is my second name, and for me, it simply means the ability
to bounce back from any difficult life incident. The truth is, I didn’t get to this point in my professional career without stumbling blocks.
I got here because I fell, many times, but dusted myself off, stood up and emerged even stronger. That is what resilience means to me, and it’s a common thread I see in the women I meet today. Covid-19 has shown us flames; I have lost friends, relatives, and colleagues. When the pandemic started, it was about numbers, but as time progressed, Covid-19 became about the people we know and the business losses we have suffered.
As a working mother, I have had to juggle being a parent, a home-based school teacher and an executive of a leading media brand in KwaZulu-Natal, and I’ve had to do so successfully. I strengthen my resilience through these five things: self-care, mindfulness, being present in the moment, positive relationships – especially with my family, and living my purpose. Building a resilient team is one of the best defences any leader can have against adversity. Resilient organisations are those that successfully bounce back from all the adversity we have experienced as South Africans or global citizens at large.
So, my advice to young women is to be yourself. Then, you need to understand the corporate game. For me, that means understanding that there is no secret to success; it is the result of preparation, hard work and picking yourself up every time you fall. It is not about the moments when you feel that you’ve failed, but rather about the moments that shape you, the moments when you lift your head and smile in the face of adversity because you know who you are and that there is no one like you – and that is your distinctiveness. Remember, if you try to be somebody else, the universe will not be able to locate you.
As women leaders, we need to know our limitations and elevate those around us, but most importantly, remain humble and true to who we are.
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