WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO HIGH PERFORMANCE? MEET MADELEIN BARKHUIZEN By Koketso Mamabolo
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Madelein Barkhuizen has held various executive positions for over two decades. Her experience covers marketing, sales and business development, with some time spent in financial services and healthcare. This mix has allowed her to build up a wealth of corporate communication knowledge which she is applying at the largest self-administered medical schemes in the country. She began working in grade 10 and has barely stopped since. However, this never slowed down her learning as she’s gone to obtain four qualifications, three of which she studied towards while working. “My mother had to work extremely hard to raise us and, at times, had to juggle three jobs. She was my role model and had an important and profound impact on my life. She taught me to persevere, be resilient, work hard and appreciate the small things in life,” says the Executive Manager: Marketing and Sales for Bestmed Medical Scheme.
I believe that a healthy body and mind are two very important ingredients for a successful career. I try to follow a healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and healthy eating and make it a priority to build positive, constructive relationships with my peers and teams, with lots of laughter in between. To achieve high performance, you must also remain involved, driven, relevant and committed. You cannot be complacent. The marketplace and business world are competitive and ever-changing arenas. You
We find out from Madelein what the keys to high performance are, how to adapt to trends in corporate communication, and how to motivate your team. WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO HIGH PERFORMANCE? I think it is probably different for every person. For me, high performance is a mindset. I am disciplined, resilient and self-motivated, and this pushes me to achieve more.
178 STANDARD BANK TO P W O M EN LEADERS
have to remain very involved with your brand and your team and make sure that you adapt your strategies and approaches, where necessary, and again refine and improve it. It should be a continuous process. Importantly, I recognise that highperformance can rarely be achieved alone. A leader is only as good as their team, and everybody should be aligned. I surround myself with talented individuals who share my work ethic and energy. I prefer to appoint team members with a positive attitude, zest for life, cognitive ability and a kind heart and do not mind teaching and coaching them to learn the ropes. It is also important to understand that you need to set the example of the performance that you want and expect, without fail. If you expect high performance, you have to ensure that you set an example of high performance. I work with an incredible team of talented individuals, and I am very proud of them. They are skilled, committed, positive and we share a high work ethic. We engage constructively and regularly. I also enjoy working with the wider Bestmed team. We have a very special organisational culture. We believe that we are in the business of saving lives, and we take our responsibility very seriously. The team is also very committed to live our brand promise which is “Personally Yours” and we recently received external validation that members experience our service and products as “Personally Yours”, via the 2021 South African Customer
