TO LEAD IN AFRICA IS TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU LEAD A VILLAGE.

In African culture, especially in Botswana, your family is not just your nuclear unit, it is cousins, aunties, nephews, in-laws. This extended kinship system creates a culture of deep social obligation. When someone is in hospital, you are expected to be there. When a relative passes on, you travel even if it is across the border.

This affects leave policies, financial support structures, and emotional availability at work. Western style “bereavement leave for immediate family only” feels cold and inadequate.

Progressive companies are adapting because leadership in Africa is not a solo act. It is communal. It is ancestral. It is spiritual. You do not just manage employees you shepherd stories, legacies, and futures.

During my national service in Hukuntsi Kgalagadi Botswana serving at the “Kgotla” (traditional meeting place) I learnt we sit in circles, not rows. I learnt that wisdom is not just held in degrees, but in elders’ eyes and lived experience. I learnt that healing, celebration, discipline, and dreaming all happened together in the open, with botho (humanity), with song, with firelight.

Modern workplace culture cannot afford to lose this. In our leadership culture and change programme we recommend that we rebuild the village within our organizations. Where respect is not about hierarchy, but about being seen. Where decisions are not dictated, but discussed, as in the kgotla. Obviously not to the detriment of progress and efficiency. Where feedback is not a threat, but a gift like the elder’s gentle correction those days in Hukuntsi when he advised me to wait to speak only when another has had their time! Where we honour the whole person, not just the worker knowing that people carry families, burdens, and dreams into the office each day. Where Setho, Botho are not just slogans but part of strategy.

We think it is time to re-indigenize leadership. To design policies that reflect our people, not just the manual. To create cultures where African wisdom meets modern excellence. Because the future of work in Africa will not be built by copying Silicon Valley. It will be built by remembering who we are.

To all pioneers and emerging leaders, Lead like you are leading a village because you are.

For more information contact: SERVICE BRIDGES CONSULTING at

TEL: 75 879 111

Website: www.sbcbw.com

EMAIL: info@sbc-bw.com