Janeth: Determination and gender balance a potent mix

Janeth Shango is NMB Bank’s southern zone manager. She is the only woman out leading a zone out of 7 in Tanzania.

With 21 years of experience in banking, she has been working in ensuring the set corporate goals are achieved by forming winning teams, pushing for innovative sales and designing marketing strategies to reach and recruit new customers.

She started working as a management trainee, later elevated to supervisor then customer service manager before she was promoted branch manager in different branches.

Reflecting on her career journey, she says, she enjoys every process of her tasks and promised herself to achieve her higher personal goals.

“I worked hard to ensure I achieve this. It was through determination and strict discipline,” she explains.

She couldn’t get government sponsorship. Filling the sponsorship forms, was a very grueling experience. After missing it, her parents decided to foot her university expenses from tuition fees to other needs. She says, she didn’t want to disappoint them.

She says that soon after joining the bank, she realised that for her to reach her dreams, she had to work smart and stay focused on her goals. It was through teamwork and her readiness to learn and receive feedback positively that all helped her to grow.

“In my 21 years of experience with NMB, I have learned that to become a good leader, one must have a vision and know how one is going to support that vision. One has to map out how she spends his or her time on a daily basis,” says Janeth.

Commenting on being the only female zonal manager, she says, she acknowledges other women who have been in this position before her. And she is glad that NMB offers equal opportunities for all. This gives her more energy and confidence to move forward. She hopes more female colleagues will be trusted with that responsibility in future. Finding herself in a panel of men, what she does is push for more positive results.

“It is important for one to understand their strong sides and see how those capabilities help one face the challenges coming his or her way and focus on one’s goals,” says Janeth.

Commenting on issues that at times hold women back from taking up leadership roles, she says, women need to understand their strengths and set up their own visions.

They must become confident in what they do and be ready to face challenges, smartly. Cultural barriers are some of the challenges. But families must support women so that they would overcome these barriers.

As for the male involvment question on women’s career development, she says, it is important because gender issues start at home.

“Men must be taught to respect women from a very young age, at home. So, if I’m a leader, then men must accept and respect my leadership,” Janeth argues.

She further observes that gender balace is crucial for sustainable development of an organisation or society. Hence, gender equality is the key.

In 2014, the UN launched a solidarity programme aime at involving men and boys on supporting women agenda and beyond. Janeth says that she is proud of several milestones in her leadership, particularly within NMB Bank.

She started as a management trainee but climbed through the ladder, at times winning the best performing worker prizes, and reaching where she is now.

“NMB has given me an opportunity to grow and I’m proud that for the past 21 years with them, I have been able to grow with the help of my colleagues here,” says Janeth with a big smile.

She is grateful to the bank for all the opportunities it gave her building her professionally. Being in a position of authority, she says, she is dedicated in seeing that her colleagues also grow their potentials to achieve their life dreams in and outside the organistion.

Commenting on the importance of training in a leadership journey, she says, authority is like jungle, and there is plenty to learn from everyday. She is happy that she has been exposed to a lot of training that contributed to her growth over the years.

“You will find yourself being shaped in how to communicate, how to delegate, coaching people to cope with various work environments, there are some training that are specifically for women and are really amazing that help women to keep growing,” she says.

From the various training opportunities, she managed to equip herself with leadership expertise using different experiences in business development, relationship management, credit management, and risk management.

She says, her three guiding principles that she can never compromise are: maintaining her integrity, being productive even under minimum supervision, as well as having manageable plans.

The motivation behind her advancement is managing greater responsibilities and delivering positive results. Excelling has always been her pursuit and an essential component of her work life. She says taht she developed strength in leadership and became a highly effective leader able to plan and lead larger groups of people into achieving set objectives.

She holds a BBA double major in Accounting and Finance from the Zanzibar University in 2000 and MBA from the University of Dar es Salaam in 2009.

For more on this interview watch MwananchiDigital