By Frank Kamuntu
Fairway Hotel Kampala, which started in 1969 with a vision of leading the hospitality industry and creating a memorable experience for its clients, on Sunday hosted several women and youth in Uganda and from the Diaspora, who were empowered in their leadership positions with skills aimed at transforming their lives through entrepreneurship, Leadership, and other executive duties.
The event was organised under the theme: ” Unlock your power! A session for women empowerment in leadership roles” and had instructors who spearheaded the training.
One of the key instructors was Shelmina Babai Abji, who revealed to the audiences that women power is inherent and is in everyone, so it’s a matter of realizing it and implementing it.
Ms Babai said that “The biggest barrier to using your power and succeeding is fear.” She therefore asked every woman to always be confident and resist fear because it is the only way one can be celebrated as a champion. She added that fear is accompanied by anger, which arrests someone’s heart and deters them from showcasing their potential.
“The first thing to do is to have confidence in yourself because if you don’t trust your confidence no one will have confidence in you, meaning you might end up being invaluable ” Ms, Babai said.
Babai advised leaders in their respective positions that if one tries her best but things are not going on well and people start backbiting her or not valuing her power, she should not fight or quarrels but rather observe why they are mistreating her and copy what they love if it’s good.
She further assured them that if one meets challenges during her position of leadership, she should not regret but celebrate, since challenges are signs that there is growth and improvement. She noted that one overcomes a challenge, it’s an implication of a step to success and that if there is any problem in a company one shouldn’t wait for others to solve it, but instead take the initiative to find a solution.
“The power of woman is discovered in finding challenges and solving them unexpectedly, not just relaxing because of the little things you have succeeded in, so if there is any problem in a company you shouldn’t wait for others to solve it; rather stand up and solve the issue and leave others complaining, and that will tell your uniqueness,” said Babai.
“As a woman who is yearning for success, look for a way to expand your network since it’s the only way to let people share with you either what you lack from them or what they lack from you,” she added.
During the question and answer sessions, high court Judge Margaret Mutoni asked how to balance the power of the decision and instructions from the government, giving an example of some cases that need ample time for investigations whereas government instructs them to give judgments within a shorter time.
Babai responded by telling the Judge that she should know that government’s vision is to reduce the number of cases, so, as judges, they should learn how to balance the time given to them since time is ever limited, because even if they are given 100 years and they don’t balance time adequately they may end up with no expected result.
Concludingly the event organizer, Mr Azhar Jaffer, informed our reporter that this was the inaugural event but he hopes to make it a norm after every given period of time to keep organizing such events, with an aim of boosting confidence in women who have weak mindsets about a number of issues and those who think that it’s men who are capable of doing great things.
Mr Azhar appreciated entrepreneurs, leaders and other executives who attended the event. He promised them that they are not going to go away the way they had gone to the training and requested them to share the message delivered to them at the event.
“This was the first event and one of its kind but we hope to make it a norm to keep organising these events since women have been left behind, with a perception that men are the only ones capable of succeeding.”
