Dunstan Stober has spent years leading finance teams across different markets. He has navigated the pressures of delivering results in complex environments. Speaking at the CFO East Africa leadership summit, he reflected on the courage leadership requires when pressure builds.
Dunstan Stober, acting CFO of MTN Rwanda, opened his remarks at CFO East Africa leadership summit by describing the reality of the past two weeks at work. The company had just released its results. The process had pushed both him and his team to their limits.
“I think it's the toughest time I've ever had in my career. No doubt, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Everything from the mundane to the monumental. One page will have that number, it doesn't have that number, and my staff was under immense pressure,” he said.
As the deadline approached, tension inside the finance team continued to rise. Meetings stretched on as colleagues worked through discrepancies and corrections. They knew every number would be scrutinised once the results were released.
Leading under pressure
“In one meeting, I wondered how I was going to lead my team in a meeting with such tension and anxiety. We have to deliver results. I need to lead them, make them calm and focus on what we need to do to achieve what we want to achieve,” he said.
Moments like this, Dunstan explained, are when leadership is truly tested. It is easy to speak about leadership in comfortable circumstances. However, he believes the real measure appears when things start going wrong.
In the middle of the pressure, Dunstan realised his reactions were shaping the mood of the entire team. His first instinct had been frustration.
“When one of the issues started, that was the first test for me. I was furious, I was screaming, I was calling people,” he said.
He stopped and reconsidered how he wanted to respond during a moment of reflection. The experience reinforced the importance of self-awareness in leadership.
“I thought to myself, this is not the leader I want to be in the moment of stress. The best thing for a leader is to know yourself, step back and say how do I take this forward,” he said. “Instead of directing the frustration towards my team, I chose to take responsibility for the problems that had surfaced during the reporting process. I had to stand up and say this happened under my watch. I'm accountable. If you want to check my team, talk to me first.”
That decision quickly shifted the atmosphere around him.
“If I start panicking, if I start shouting, everybody falls apart. Nothing gets done. I had to be calm under pressure,” he said.
One member of the team sent him a message reflecting on the past weeks after the results were finally released. The comment stayed with him. It perfectly captured the effect of his leadership behaviour on the group.
“She said to me, sorry for all the craziness these past two weeks. You dealt with it with such calm and grace,” he said.
Learning in moments of stress
Another challenge he raised concerned honesty in leadership. Dunstan believes many leaders struggle to have difficult conversations with their teams. This is especially true during performance reviews.
“The most difficult thing you do to your team is not tell them the truth. Avoiding those conversations ultimately prevents people from improving and growing in their careers. If you want to be kind to your team, you have to build them. You have to be able to tell them, I don't think you did well here,” he said.
Dunstan tried to use the stressful results process as a learning opportunity for the people around him. He believes the most valuable lessons often emerge during challenging situations.
“In the height of all those challenges I found every opportunity to teach them something, because that's where you learn the most,” he said.
Those moments help shape stronger teams and more capable leaders over time, he explained.
The experience also highlighted the importance of reflection once the pressure has passed. Difficult periods should lead to careful reviews and sometimes tough decisions about how teams operate.
“When things are tough you need to step back and do what you call the lessons learned. You need to review and sometimes you have to make certain decisions,” he said.
Finance leaders often focus on results and performance metrics. However, Dunstan believes the true measure of leadership lies in something more lasting.
“Numbers will go, but are you building somebody?” he said. “The lasting thing for me is when people call and say because of the development you gave me, my career is moving forward.”
In the end, the intense weeks leading up to MTN Rwanda’s results release became more than just a demanding reporting cycle. The experience reinforced a simple leadership principle for Dunstan that applies in any organisation.
“Everything rises and falls with leadership, and that leadership starts with you,” he said
