‘I look at opportunities before looking at challenges’

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Head of Marketing and Communication, Eaton Africa, Sumaya Abdool

Head of Marketing and Communication, Eaton Africa, Sumaya Abdool assumed her post in June 2014, and has travelled across the continent talking about the company. The Guardian caught up with her recently in Lagos, and in this chat she talked about some of the challenges women face as top executives from her experience thus far. She said this and many more in this excerpt

Tell Us More About Yourself
In terms of my career, which has always been a nice starting point for me, it’s been a very exciting journey. I have had more than a decade experience in B2B marketing and I have worked with various global brands with Eaton being one of them, but the other being Xerox and my predominant focus has been about growing these brands in the emerging markets and how we are supporting these customers to take our brands into the market, and equipping them with the right tools as well as the right skills.

I am also very passionate about talent development. I think you are only as good as your team is. I have a team across key countries and aside from them growing in their roles, its also about future growth for them. Each one of my team members has a development plan; it’s really about making sure that they understand the role at the moment, but the future growth opportunity of what can I do for them is to better equip them to be able to meet that goals.

I have a Master’s degree in strategic marketing. Through the years, my qualification has probably been one of the biggest challenges that I’ve faced personally, because I faced some financial challenges in my career where I needed to make a decision between work and studying fulltime. And I opted to studying part-time and working fulltime so I could afford to pay for my qualifications and at every point when I did a qualification isn’t the level that needed to get me at where I want to be, I often answered that question with a NO until I got my Master’s qualification, which has been my greatest achievement thus far. I am glad I persevered

My role right now as the managing director has probably been one of the highlights in my career, it touches so many people to be able to develop talents as well as allows me to reach various regions within the African continent and I am very passionate about Africa and its development. So its very exciting to have the role that I have that allows me to enjoy what I’m doing and also making a difference. That’s ultimately what truly drives me as an individual.

As a female heading a huge global company, how does it feel like being a woman?
I feel very special; I feel I’m bringing a unique value proposition; women have very different views in terms of communication style as well as bringing some nurturing to the team and I think we under-estimate that kind of value in a global organisation. I have been able to add value on various platforms, not only in the marketing positions, but also in a strategic role within the company and the company has realised my expertise, capitalised on that, and given me more opportunities to be able to expand on and within the organization. So it feels really special but I think I really need to have shown them my valued proposition and shown them what my brand really entails as an individual and without that I don’t think that they would have seen what I can really bring to the table to be able to utilise it, the best way to make a difference within the organisation. Its also very exciting to know that we have a global company that really supports women development, and I think that makes my work a lot more easier. Until I joined Eaton, I never had the reason to worry about being a female in a predominantly male environment.

My previous company, which was Xerox, was also a predominantly male environment I think the industry is somehow that I’m attracted to. However, it’s never been something that’s been first of mind when I walked into a room, I would generally be sometimes the only woman in the room until someone pointed it out to me and asked me, ‘how does it make you feel?’ That was the only time I had to give it much thought and I noticed that this was how it was.

What are the challenges of being a female executive?
I don’t know if it is predominantly because you are a female or it’s generally just balancing it all out. I find out that in terms of being a female is not necessarily a challenge, but the work of an executive becomes more challenging as you move on. So balancing the work life, being able to travel and leave your family back at home and still keep the balance around that and looking after yourself, which I think is very important. Eaton helps in exercising, having a good state of mind, positive attitude, that to me is a challenge as opposed to just being a female in the executive role. The way that I look at it is that I look at the opportunities before looking at the challenges because the more opportunities I get to exposure to learn, the more I can be able to pass on to the youths because I believe our role is to make sure we constantly focus on the youth and development as well as the other females within the organization and share the experiences with them to skill them and give them the experiences to help them move forward, if they have not had that opportunity yet.

How would you describe the support you have received from your mentor and mentees?
My mentor has been amazing, though he is not based in Africa. I have a culture of constant learning. Eaton promotes this constant learning environment, but I have always been curious-minded and I think that’s what happened throughout these years as, growing in my development, I needed to learn with my colleagues and my mentor. Curiosity makes me go to them for support and it’s like constant learning, ensuring that I have the right answers to new things that I learn and understanding the new things that I’m learning. I think that has been the biggest support with my colleagues and my mentor. Feedback is something that I know is very important and I see feedback as a gift and you can always learn and grow from that.

With my colleagues I do 360 reviews and with my team I always do biannual review twice a year. I have been very blessed with the feedbacks; some have helped me in planning and development.

Based on your experience, would you say women are well represented in most of these companies, like Eaton for example?
I believe at Eaton we are doing an exceptional job, in our recent statistics, our female board members, most especially in the United States, have increased in number and I was appointed on one of the board members for the local business in South Africa. So the focus around it is something that Eaton is really driving quite heavily. I just think about the inclusion and diversity programme, they have been called Women Adding Values at Eaton (WAVES). At Eaton we get women to speak to every employee across the globe and it’s a scheduled seminar around their experience, what it feels like to be a woman at Eaton and anyone is allowed to join us, not just the females but men because it is also helping men understand the kind of challenges women face and to be a little more sensitive to it and that’s something that Eaton has developed and has been running up for few years.

What do you have to say to women who have the qualifications but are afraid to stand out?
We underestimate the value of ourselves as females and one thing that we should be doing is really investing in learning, not just formal education, but the constant learning that ensures you are relevant. One thing I would promote women to do is make sure that they understand an area that they would like to be and be part of. Now we are exposed to that in so many forms; there’s technology, forums, seminars and speaking events that we can go to.

And I think women need to support each other and for me that is something that is really important because its very easy for me to walk past you and not acknowledge you, even a simple compliment is something that would help a woman to be able to grow confidence and believe in herself. I really believe that supporting and helping each other is something that we women should be mindful of and look at to be able to move forward.