The Importance of Relationships and a Learning Spirit in your Career Journey

Introduction

My name is Wanjiru Mburu. I am a sister, a daughter, a leader, and a finance professional. I am passionate about social impact, finance, women, and education. Family and close friendships are very close to my heart. I currently work for KPMG in the London office as part of the transactions team, where we do due diligence on companies. 

Why and how did you join Lapid?

I joined a two-day seminar. One of my closest friends who was in Cohort 2 knew I was big on leadership and lobbied me to join the seminar. I had taken various leadership roles since I was born, to be honest. The minute your parents decide to have another child, you become an automatic leader by being an elder sibling. I came for the seminar, listened, and really liked the conversations they were having. I couldn’t wait to join and be part. I decided to stay and learn. I knew I was a leader but this leadership thing was it just because people thought I was authoritative in some ways? I also needed to demystify what leadership means to me and also clarify the kind of leader I wanted to be as well as how all that fits into my career space and social matters.

Role of relationships and a learning spirit in your journey.

I think learning should be a daily thing. Learning more about self, other people, and general things. If you are constantly learning you are at a place of giving knowledge but also receiving. You become like a sponge. One of my favorite sayings is, “Remain stupid and remain hungry.” So long as you are aware you don’t know everything, you will always yearn to learn something and if you are hungry to learn something, there will always be that drive.

I can never speak enough about how important relationships are. The role I am in today and even the jobs I have been in before, were because I had relationships that walked the journey with me. Sometimes it’s just people sharing ideas and out of that you learn something you are curious about; from that curiosity, you develop an interest to learn more about something. Keep close relationships but beyond those relationships is what you are discussing. 

You really have to be intentional about those relationships. Some of the most important mentors I‘ve met at Lapid and at one point took a deliberate action to buy them coffee or go to their offices and take a gift. Identify someone in any space and be bold enough to walk up to them. Sometimes the relationships will be transactional and building; people who will ask you harder questions, constantly keeping you accountable which allows you to continue learning and growing.

Greatest lessons from Lapid.

For me the biggest one is Excellence. To me, excellence is showing up and giving your best. Do everything as unto God and not man and allow today’s maximum to be tomorrow’s minimum. Lapid has very hard days, especially towards the end. Give your best to a point it leaves you empty and you find that you live fulfilled and happy knowing that you gave your all with nothing left to give. 

In addition to that, is service; serve! When working in a team, you will find that there are people who will not pull their weight. Your duty is to pull your weight. Serve yourself and serve people.

Even if you do not care so much about something, allow yourself to learn about it. It keeps you open-minded. It also prepares you for a workplace where people may not agree with what you are saying. When it’s your way or the highway, it keeps people from wanting to work with you.

In summary, the three greatest lessons were Excellence, Service, and being Open-minded.

What do you look for when hiring?

I am looking for reliability, attitude, and a willingness to learn. Reliability means that I do not have to constantly follow up on you to get your work done. Someone who is conscious of deadlines and all that. If I have to micromanage you, I will do a great job at it but you have lost my trust.

When it comes to attitude it is about how you look, how you show up, and body language. It is the small nuances that give out more about your attitude. It’s the relationship with colleagues and your approach to work.

When your boss is hiring you as a graduate, they are aware that you do not know. What they are looking for is do you want to know which is demonstrated by your willingness to learn. Learning looks like failing and rising as much as possible. One of the things I struggle with but mostly initially as a graduate was taking so long to do a task so that the end result is perfect. What I’ve come to learn is I can do the task quickly, based on what I know, and not merely get the job done, and allow room for feedback. So if there are any mistakes to be corrected, I have enough time to do that rather than leaving it to the person superior to me. 

Fail often, especially when you are just getting started. Failing many times gives you many opportunities to learn.

Naturally, I don’t like to fail. So I used to take so much time with my work, rereading copies over and over again but I only know as much as I know. After submitting my work the review comments would be so many and I would be so angry that the person did not consider the amount of time I took on the task. Over time I realized that people have different thought processes and I would probably need to first understand what they are looking for. My approach then became to first understand what the person requires or their style of working. Learn the person first before learning the job.

Something you wish you knew when younger.

It takes time so be gentle with yourself. The world is your oyster. There is nothing you put your mind to that you cannot achieve. In the initial days, it will feel like it’s a lot and that you can never get there. Sometimes I look back at the young Ciru who on her first day at work cried because her manager give her a review comment that she did not like. Now, when I raise review comments, I have to step back and ask myself was that too harsh? Be gentle with yourself and realize it takes time.