The best experience in this journey is evident through the effort and dedication invested throughout the process of impartation of generational wisdom. It’s exciting to observe how the mentors intentionally help develop and enable future leaders who are destined to take the baton forth and continue to raise the Insurance Industry flag high. The Roots & Wings is not just a programme, we call it a journey; but one without an end. It’s real and has been designed to solve real insurance market challenges by effectively creating a chain of thought leadership today through intense collaboration, knowledge impartation and networking. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with believing that leaders are born, however, we are increasing this cohort by creating future industry leaders who will solve tomorrow’s conundrums.
The Roots & Wings platform continues to bridge the gap between great young minds and wealth of wisdom gained over the years. Transformation is one of our IIG pillars and for that reason, the Roots & Wings programme is intentional about delivering tangible and meaningful transformational changes within the Insurance industry. So, the real work has officially begun.
In the month of April, mentors and mentees spent much needed time unpacking the mentees’ professional development areas and agreed on solid plans to empower their growth journey. Amid formalities, some found more humorous ways of showing commitment to the course by taking interesting selfies and snaps.
One of our mentees Lwazi Matha, shared how he has an appreciation of his mentor’s strictness and how he’s held accountable. He further added that each time they engage, it always seems like his mentor keeps offloading wealth of wisdom which will empowers him to pursue his goals with tenacity. He looks forward to seeing himself grow into a more sculpted future leader who will continue to refine his skills and create a ripple effect of positive change in the world as he passes on this new acquired knowledge onto the next generation.
Equally so, his mentor Gerhard Genis’s enthusiasm stems from the opportunities available to offer advice and guidance of new skills and agrees to holding him accountable. Talk about joint effort to ensure what has been planned goes ahead. He emphasized the importance of how certain traits like trust, honest communication, respect amongst others must take priority in his growth path.
What we take away from these engagements is how collaborative the relationship between the mentor and mentee is and importantly, how they consciously uphold the values of the IIG by ensuring all our four pillars; education, transformation, networking and affiliation remain the core of why we do what we do.
The Roots and Wings programme will eternally be grateful to our long-standing great partners; Insurance Institute of Gauteng (IIG), Discovery Limited, Sasria SOC Limited, Chubb, Emerald Risk Transfer (Pty) Ltd and Howden Broking (Insurance)
Article written by: Thuso Mafumo
