I’ve mastered the art of leading men

I am a born again Christian, so I wake up 4am for my morning devotion after which I prepare breakfast and then wake my daughter up. I leave the house at 5.30am to be at the office in time for breakfast with my other family – the team of 54 that I lead.

“My core business is ensuring smooth pick up and delivery of shipments.

When I took up this job a year and a half ago, after a 10-year stint in marketing, I just wanted to try my hand at something different. It took some time for me to get used to dressing down for the warehouse.

Ninety-nine percent of my staff are men and unlike those first few weeks, they have also gotten used to taking instructions from a woman.

“The first thing we did at work this morning was our daily half-hour debrief session where we socialised and looked into how we performed yesterday.

During this session aggrieved members of staff are allowed to vent. The hardest part of my job managing both the warehouse staff and the couriers, has been giving them candid feedback. Initially, most of them would take it badly and feel humiliated until I mastered a way around it.

CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO SHOW RESPECT

I make a conscious effort to show them respect and in turn I have earned their respect; it’s easier to correct someone who looks up to you. Men at work, I have noticed, tend to be single-minded and it’s usually a challenge to get a man to leave a task half-way to do something else that’s more urgent.

“Most of the day yesterday I was out on a coach ride with a courier. I do this once a month to bond with them, meet the clients  and also experience firsthand how they drive or ride their motorcycles.

Today I spent the day on the floor checking that the couriers were well-groomed for the clients; usually if he isn’t good enough for me, he isn’t good enough for the client. I also checked the shipments to see that none were leaking and that they were all well packaged.

“My scariest moment at work was my first experience with a courier having a freak accident. Having all of them looking up to me to reassure them was a huge responsibility. It’s not always smooth sailing as Nairobi traffic isn’t easy and customers aren’t always cooperative.

“I hardly have a lunch break as that is the hour the couriers come in to pick the afternoon shipments.

I was lucky this afternoon to manage to squeeze in an hour for the gym. My workday ended at 8pm and I was home by 8.30 in time to have dinner with my husband. I then read a few pages of  David Oyedepo’s Born to Win.

“The last thing on my mind as I dozed off was how lucky I am to have people that I inspire.”