Yolanda Uriyo: Always be ready to tackle any challenge

Yolanda Uriyo serves as the Head of Customer Experience and Co-Chair of SHE. She has more than 20 years of experience working across multiple business sectors including telecommunications, banking and retail institutions.
She plays a key role in outlining and achieving how customers perceive the brand while driving higher customer satisfaction, net promoter scores, customer retention, new business growth and profitable turnovers.
She drives service transformation agenda and cultural change, set up and implementation of contact centres, customer relationship management, complaints handling systems, customer satisfaction survey tools and designed controls for risk management.
She recently spearheaded and implemented the Customer Service Curriculum and New Revolutionized Customer feedback tools through the use of both QR code and USSD short code.

Joy: Tell us about yourself and how you got to where you are today us a leader?
Yolanda: I have been in the industry over 20 years now, working in telecoms, banking  and retail industries; with  key roles  involved in pushing for   higher customer satisfaction, net promoter scores, customer retention, new business  growth and profitable turnovers. I am passionate about producing exceptional service to customers and it makes me feel accelerated and energized to deliver more.
Q: Have you always known where you want to be?
A: Definitely! When I was about 22-years-old, I realized that service is the best  thing you can which help understand both myself and those I serve.
Q: What is your understanding on women empowerment?
A: For me woman  empowerment is a feeling of freedom that has no border, limits, and means  being able to do and make things  happen, to dream, to act, to be able to challenge  and achieve it.
It goes beyond having the freedom of expression, freedom to making decision, freedom to be inspired and to live a full life, to be happy and an assurance that voices will be heard. Women empowerment is about realizing that we are more than our gender.
Q: Does CRDB have any programs aimed at promoting gender equality at the work place?
A: Yes we do have a program or platform in place named SHE which was revamped in 2019 to spearhead the diversity and inclusion agenda across the group. SHE aims to empower women and girls everyway so that they realize their own potential in our society and country economies.
Q: What do you think is the reason as to why the number of women in leadership is still low despite the efforts that have been made to empower them?
A: Looking at the society  now, there a many women who have and are taking good and prominent positions of responsibilities that where not given to them or taken in the past
There is a lot more enlightenement now but what matters in leadership is the ability to deliver, regardles of the gender.
Q: In your opinion what can be done to bring more women to the top and how can men be involved.
A: I believe that women should prepare themselves to compete for leadership positions whenever they become available.
Q: Do you believe that a good leader has to be educated or they are just born with the ability to lead?
A: Leadership traits can be taught and therefore development and education are an integral part of leadership. If one is born a leader, it would be an added advantage.
Q: How did you deal with challenges in your career?
A: Whenever I encountered a challenge, I found more reasons to work harder and overcome the challenge. I found more reasons to work hader and overcome the challenges than to let them put me down.
Q: Where do you see your career in 10 years?
A: In ten years time I work to become an excecutive in theservices industry
Q: What would you say is your biggest achievement career-wise?
A: Promoting and empowering other females who now hold good positions in the market is one achievement I am proud of.
Q: In 10 years time, how do you percieve the number of women in managerial positions in Tanzania to be?
A: Given the increasing number of women having and taking positions in the society, I see a good progressive increase.
Q: What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
A: I would advise the next generation to firstly believe in  themselves, work hard to attain results, set ambitions, objectives and work towards them.
Seeing that gender equality is an issue that spans across every imaginable sector, empowering the coming generation of female leaders to serve and enrich should be a continuous chain.
Everyone must strive to pull those coming after them up for any hope of sustainability.