Our community recently celebrated the Investec Jewish Achievers Awards. It’s an energetic, high-profile event that puts a spotlight on leadership. But it also forces us to ask: what is leadership, really?
After being nominated in the categories of Business Leadership and Woman in Leadership, I didn’t walk away with a trophy, but I did walk away with something lasting: perspective.
Going through the process, the forms, the panels, the questions, forced me to slow down and reflect on what leadership really means, beyond the spotlight and the title.
I realised leadership isn’t a glamorous title or a dazzling role. Most days, I stare at a problem, a budget, an overpriced resource, or a challenging project that’s deviating off its original plan, and just say, “Okay, now what?”
It’s the hard calls that rarely make headlines; telling a school we can’t supply computers because they haven’t met project requirements. It’s explaining to funders why the robotics kits cost more than planned, or sitting with a staff member and giving feedback that’s uncomfortable but necessary.
It’s acknowledging the realities we face: that some young people turn down opportunities because they expect stipends, not seeing that our programmes offer far greater long-term opportunity than a short-term pay check. It’s continuing to show up anyway, believing that with the right exposure, mentorship, and persistence, lives can change.
Most of all, leadership isn’t about having the right answers. Often, it’s about asking the hard questions. The most difficult one is always: “How do I keep my promise to our mission and our calling?”
Leadership is about keeping a promise- a promise to South Africa’s youth and communities.
It’s a promise that a young girl in a rural school can discover she loves coding, and all she needed was a computer and the chance to learn.
It’s a promise to the talented young men and women who can’t find a job despite all their certificates, degrees, and diplomas. It’s the promise that we will build the bridge to take them from unemployment to a real career.
And it’s the promise to the small business owner, just trying to build a life of dignity, that they won’t have to do it alone, that we will provide the support, mentorship, and network to help them succeed.
Leading ORT SA has been my way to keep that promise. It’s my personal mission to connect opportunity with potential across South Africa’s diverse communities.
Leadership, I’ve learned, isn’t about standing at the front. It’s about standing with people, in uncertainty, in hard decisions, in the work that doesn’t make headlines. It’s about staying committed when it’s complicated and finding a way forward; it’s about the daily “now what?” It’s the hard “no” and the hopeful “yes.” It’s the messy, difficult, and deeply rewarding process of turning a promise into a reality.
That is what truly matters, not the title but our work, one kept promise at a time.
