Thinking about your role as a leader, what do you see as the next challenges for your organization?

I think leaders have to grow and develop over time. Self-awareness is very important. It’s critical that when you first start managing you know who you are and what makes you tick. It is very important for leaders to have empathy for those they lead; you must know how to put yourself in someone else’s shoes when necessary. It’s also very important to be able to drive performance, which means that you have to have passion and conviction to really motivate great performances from your staff. You must also have compassion for those you work with and you need to be able to communicate that compassion. Effective communication is very important to leadership.

What do you see as the Center’s role in microfinance and what would you like to see it contribute to the sector?

Being a woman that has led from the front and built my organization as well as contributed to other institutions, I strongly believe in peer learning and the importance of role models who can encourage you to grow and succeed. Mentoring for women who come from traditional societies that don’t necessarily support women in business is very important. I see the Center helping to mentor and build leaders through a strong network of information sharing. The Center must also be a laboratory to learn about general management strategies, regardless of gender. It should also provide technical expertise that will help leaders build strong and efficient institutions.

Thinking back, is there something that you wish a mentor had told you at the beginning?

Well, I was lucky because I had great mentors – my mentor for microfinance was Professor Muhammad Yunus. He said something to me very early on that really stuck. He told me that if I made mistakes, not to dwell on them. When you’re pioneering something and trying to build it, you are going to make mistakes. It’s learning from these mistakes that’s the most important thing. It is lonely being at the top of something and leading an institution, so you need to accept that. As a leader, what I advise others is that if you make a mistake, treat it like a learning opportunity.

What advice do you have for other CEOs in the microfinance sector?

Really invest in your human resources. As microfinance providers, I think we forget sometimes how important it is to have a strong human resources function. We need to run our institutions more professionally in this way.