Ever wondered which books top finance leaders draw life lessons from? Beiersdorf FD Funlola Pearce, M-Pesa Africa CFO Amr Atef, AAR group CFO Hosea Kiprop, and HEVA Fund FD Dr Karimi Ngeera talk about the books that have shifted their perspective on life.
Funlola is all about happiness. She has read Egyptian entrepreneur Mo Gawdat’s 2017 book Solve For Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy twice and even has it on Audible. Mo dedicated the book to his son Ali, who died after an appendectomy in 2014.
“I think I would say that there were five key areas that came through strongly for me in that book. We need to learn to embrace uncertainty. It won't always be perfect. There will be uncertainty, embrace it and move on. Otherwise, you won't be happy. Right. And then the other thing is we need to learn to live in the moment. Be present when you're with people. Try to avoid distractions so that you leave people feeling heard in that moment,” Funlola says.
The book also deals with mortality, a subject Funlola thinks about a lot. She feels sad sometimes when she notices that her father had a few more grey hairs that last time she saw him, a thought that makes her appreciate the present and her relationships a bit more.
“The last thing was recognising the beauty in life's design. If you look deeper, there's some beauty in the design, there's perfection in the design,” she says.
Amr, also an Egyptian native, highlights that the 1998 bestseller Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson was revelatory. In the book, two mice - Sniff and Scurry - and two little people - Hem, and Haw - live in a maze where they search for cheese each day. The mice adapt quickly when they do not find cheese at the usual spot, but the little people linger, frustrated that they can no longer find cheese there. Eventually, Haw begins to imitate the mice and finds cheese at a new station, but Hem remains stuck in his ways.
“The book does not tell you the lesson directly. It uses the story of the mice looking for cheese to show you that you cannot run away from change. It is inevitable,” he says.
The lesson is apt, as Amr is settling into his new role at M-pesa Africa after six years at Vodafone Egypt. Having worked in different markets across Africa, he is taking the changes in stride as he navigates the cultural nuances of the Kenyan market.
Hosea enjoys the writings of American author and speaker John Maxwell, and in particular, his 1998 book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
“According to Maxwell, the essence of leadership lies not in self-advancement but in advancing others. In his book, Law 5 emphasises the importance of leaders serving others. Maxwell asserts that true leadership is gauged by the value added through service to others, rather than personal advancement. By prioritising service to employees and customers, profits naturally follow,” he says.
Hosea defines a leader as “someone who not only knows the way but also leads by example and guides others along the path”. He believes everyone should practise the principles of the book.
Although Karimi is an avid reader, she singles out one book for its impact on her leadership journey: American researcher and speaker Brené Brown’s Dare To Lead. Every time she reads it, she is reminded that even leaders do not have all the answers.
“I will have a meeting with my team and tell them ‘share your ideas’. And it’s about being in an environment where you can be vulnerable and say ‘I think you think I know the answers, but I don't, so let's work on this together’. It's okay to say you don't know,” she says.
Karimi believes this approach has helped her team members grow, as they feel their input is valued
“Most leaders are not vulnerable. They'll act like they have everything figured out, but they don't. So it’s important to be able to say that,” she says.
