Melody, who loves HR for helping people grow, thrives in challenging roles, and values lifelong learning.
Telkom CHRO Melody Lekota has a love of learning and a passion for enabling people and supporting them in their growth trajectories – seeing them develop and transition from one position to another.
A key theme over the course of Melody’s career journey and something that stands out for her is that she has grown the most significantly when she has been thrown in the deep end; faced with large problems to solve, crises and opportunities to stretch herself.
Transforming challenges into opportunities
Melody has always wanted to work with people, and this is how she landed her first job after completing her schooling, in a church doing administrative work. She then joined Standard Bank in the customer orientation environment through an informal internship programme. During her internship, her curiosity for learning and want of stretch assignments, caught the eye of a mentor, who provided her with an opportunity to transition into the learning space.
In the learning space at Standard Bank, Melody was involved with writing learning material as well as travelling around the country to different branches and parts of the business to implement the programme. From here, she was introduced to the full spectrum of the HR function, fell in love with this career path and decided that this is where she wanted to go with her work life.
Her career has taken her to many companies, from Bidvest’s Frozen Division, to Primedia, Cell C, and then Telkom. Melody was appointed as CHRO at Telkom in March 2017 and is also a member of the group executive committee.
At Telkom, she was also presented with an opportunity to stretch beyond HR when she was appointed to oversee the Social Impact portfolio and ESG and Shared value recently, “I thrive in an environment where I’m able to do something I’ve never done before,” she says.
Melody didn’t start her career with an official HR degree. However, she is a keen learner and has a MSc in HR in addition to an MBA from De Montfort University, Leicester, which helps her understand business and company strategies, enabling her to grow people in line with where the business is going.
Building future leaders
Her love of learning tracks well with her involvement in telecoms because it is a fast-paced sector that is always changing and enables other people to connect to each other and the internet, as well as opening up opportunities to grow themselves through entrepreneurship and learning.
Telecoms has a particular role to play in Africa, which Melody says is a vast continent with tremendous potential for talent development. “We have one of the youngest populations across the globe. With this demographic, we have a large potential for innovation as well as great energy.”
Many countries in Africa are experiencing rapid urbanisation, which creates many opportunities for education and development of skills which will, hopefully, lead to opportunities for employment in the formal and informal sectors, or entrepreneurship, she says.
Melody adds that Africa also brings with it many different cultures and voices that allows for cross-collaboration and a different approach to developing solutions to Africa’s unique challenges.
Telkom, in partnership with the relevant stakeholders, makes investments across the organisation to help its employees learn, and encourages staff to take responsibility for their own learning. “All these investments are going to equip our workforce with the skills and competencies that will help make sure that we thrive in this really competitive, evolving global marketplace.”
Telkom has several training initiatives that range from a year to two years, which includes an online learning platform, a Future Focus Programme that enables staff to delve into digital and innovation skills, as well as bursaries which support employees to study outside of the company.
Melody adds that the telecoms company also has leadership development programmes, specifically with a focus on women all the way from junior, middle levels through to executive levels. These programmes help people enhance their growth and development within the company, and also enhance our ESG focus on women in leadership.
“This is so important for me, because female leadership development is critical for a business like Telkom and from a sustainability mindset perspective,” says Melody.
“You want people to take ownership of what they do and to feel that they are really contributing to the business and, as a result, that they are growing.”
Career lessons and leadership insights
When asked what guidance Melody can share with others on curating their careers, she outlined three lessons from her own journey. “Cultivating a life-long learning mindset is key” says Melody. This mindset will ensure that you stay abreast of changes in your field, industry and continuously learn new skills, ensuring you are future ready.
The second lesson is to embrace the love of reading. “I enjoy picking up research articles, reading, and talking with different people so I can get different perspectives on things. One thing I always tell my family and colleagues is to just embrace the love of reading. One of the biggest things that propels growth is your ability to learn and listening with the lens of wanting to absorb instead of just for the sake of listening.”
The last lesson is to own your own journey. “During your career you will be presented with opportunities, and they will only become a reality if you grab these opportunities and participate”.
