OOO for Q1 2023 (and other gratitudes!)

As we start 2023, the world is facing the largest food crisis in modern history – the threat of a global recession on the heels of C-19 is depressing incomes of many, climate shocks and conflict are impacting food supply, and ~830million people go to bed hungry every night. Many countries in Africa are amongst the most impacted. For the last five years, I’ve dedicated my work to improving the lives and livelihoods of farmers and consumers dealing with these shocks. And I am convinced that this is where I need to continue to be – we have a lot of work to do.

In this environment, I recognize how fortunate I am to have made it through 2022 with much to celebrate – I am now a Partner of the firm ( 麦肯锡 ). I continue to co-lead our Agriculture practice at McKinsey Africa in addition our new Global Food Security Initiative. New African Magazine has decided that Burna Boy and I can share the same (magazine) space as 100 Most Influential Africans of the year. I am surrounded with a lot of love and care from my communities. I am physically healthy, and have had access to incredible resources to support my mental health. #mindmatters

But 2022, has also been one of the hardest and most consequential years of my life. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all the people who cried with me, held my hand when I was sad, fed me through many many late nights, worked out and climbed mountains with me to keep my body strong, and turned up for me when I could not turn up for myself (the dinner party must go on!). It took a village. Today, I focus on the “outside work framily”, the friends who have been on this decade long journey, and showed me so much kindness and grace in the last lap where I felt like the wheels were coming off. Especially to Fabian Ahmadi ?? GDC , Akinyi W. Ooko-Ombaka , James-Mark Ooko-Ombaka , Ume, the Council and AmLizAm who let me breathe, and then push on the days when I couldn’t get out of bed due to severe anxiety.

Before I buckle up for the next couple of years, I am taking a 3-month sabbatical to rest and care-give for my person through April 1, 2023. It will be a season of letting go, as well as expanding space for the next season. I have a feeling the next decade is going to be quite the ride…

A couple of thoughts are helping me mark this period of transition. I hope that some of them resonate:

1. Pursue purpose – especially when it gets hard: If I keep asking for permission,?and?asking people for?directions?to places they have never been, I will never fulfil my purpose.?Having a strong conviction in what I want to do, and who I want to be, can and must co-exist with humility and open-mindedness. This is exactly the sort?of?leadership I aspire to everyday…what appears “stubborn” or “adventure seeking” today, can “make a lot of sense” in the future.
2. Representation matters: In the heat of performance reviews, it is so easy to focus on me, me, me, I. What has struck me most in the congratulatory notes on my recent promotion, are those from women – many of whom I haven’t met or interacted with before – telling me they felt seen in my journey. I SEE YOU, and my victory is ours - especially my fellow black women operating in spaces where we are an "only".
3. Not everywhere you fit (and have historically thrived) is where you belong: It was hard to say no to comfortable opportunities that I knew I could deliver, even knock out the park. But looking back, getting out of situations where my values and ways of working clashed with others, was essential for my growth and sanity. This was not always possible when I started my career, but I have to keep reminding myself that was a long time ago. I have the privilege of choice.
4. Growth can hurt: I suppose that is why they are called growing pains? I had to make some trade-offs this year that felt like leaving parts of myself behind. I faced some crushing disappointments. I’d written my resignation letter – twice. ?But, in the process of metamorphosis, a caterpillar must die to become a butterfly. I want to fly!
5. Constant change is the new ‘normal’: The latent anticipation of the ‘new’ normal has weighed heavy on many of us. My biggest wish at my lowest times was a desire to have 4-weeks of average – no highs or lows. Just boring. But it hasn’t come yet. I am *slowly* learning to embrace an ability to rapidly assess and navigate uncertainty as an everyday superpower vs. a lever to pull only in times of emergency. The big question is how to keep the tank reasonably full and sustainably replenished for the bumpy ride ahead…and continue to distinguish urgent from important.

As I head on this break, I will be slow to respond to all channels – but when I do, it will come from a place of abundance, rest and gratitude to (re)connect with you.

Wishing you and your loved ones a healthy and prosperous start to 2023!

Onwards, Amandla

CC. the O.G. framily: Adedana Ashebir , Archie Matheson , Amandine Lobelle , Catherine Ayugi , Chika Ekeji , Chelsea Barabas , Daisy Nyaronge , David Moinina Sengeh , Divya Dhar Cohen, MD, MBA, MPA , Ellah Muimi , Elizabeth (Lizzie) Biney-Amissah , Faeza Afzal (M.Innov) , George Owuor , Gemma Swinglehurst , Iris Braun , Kate Krontiris , Lina Getachew Ayenew , Margaret Gathungu , Mugwe Manga , Natalie Manga , Nour Sharara , Osman Siddiqi , Dr Pete Odera , Polycarp Otieno , Teresa Mbagaya , Theodore Sutherland , Rachel Phillips , Raphael Agung' , Rebecca Ume Crook , Rubin Mukkam-Owuor , Stan Getui, CFA , Victoria Peill , Yaw Boateng , Yoeal Haile , Zachary Abrahamson , Zwelijongile Oyena Gwebityala