4 leadership lessons

Four women from Digitas share their career stories and leadership lessons. L to r: Nomika Singh Govender - GM, Bonita Christie - BUD, Zakona Mlaba - digital copy lead and Chelsea-Summer Lodewyk - strategy director at Digitas (Image composite: Lesley Svenson @ Bizcommunity)

From assimilation to authenticity

Bonita Christie, BUD, Digitas, is a senior business leader with 20+ years’ experience driving organisational performance, business growth and integrated marketing excellence across Southern Africa.

When I started my career in marketing in the late 1990s, many women entered the workplace believing that success meant fitting into leadership models largely shaped by men.

The expectation wasn't spoken, but it was understood. At the same time, the workplace reflected broader societal attitudes. Female brand ambassadors were often selected according to their appearance before their capability.

Conversations about women frequently focused on how they looked rather than the value they brought. Looking back, it's remarkable to see how much has changed.

In the early years, many women felt they had to assimilate into existing leadership models. Success often meant adopting behaviours traditionally associated with leadership and proving that we could operate in the same way.

Bonita Christie - BUD, Digitas (Image supplied)

Today, I see something very different.

Women have stepped into the power of contrast.

What I find most encouraging is how female leadership has evolved.

Rather than trying to fit into someone else's definition of leadership, they are creating their own. They are proving that leadership can be decisive and empathetic, commercially focused and people-centred, ambitious and collaborative.

The most successful female leaders I know are equally comfortable discussing profitability and performance while building culture and developing people. They understand that empathy and commercial success are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they often strengthen one another.

Perhaps that is the greatest shift I have witnessed during my career.

Not simply more women in leadership positions, but more women leading authentically.

As leaders, we also carry a responsibility to create opportunities for the next generation. Representation matters. When young women see other women leading businesses, managing teams and shaping industries, it expands what they believe is possible for themselves.

This Women's Day, I feel optimistic.

I see a generation of women entering the workplace with confidence, ambition and a strong sense of self. They are not waiting for permission to lead. They are building careers, businesses and communities with purpose and conviction.

The conversation is no longer about whether women belong in leadership.

That question has already been answered.

Zakona Mlaba - digital copy lead, Digitas (Image supplied)

Closer to a jazz band than a hierarchy

Zakona Mlaba is a Cannes Lions award-winning senior conceptual copywriter, now a digital copy lead at Digitas, and a strategist-turned-storyteller who is an unapologetic advocate for African, women's, and queer voices in the creative industry.

My challenges were rarely about the work. They were about the room. As a Black, queer woman in South African advertising, I was often the only one, learning the difference between being invited into a space and being trusted in it.

Early on, I made myself smaller to be legible, toned down the queerness and the parts of me that didn't fit the template of a “safe” creative.

It made the work worse. The moment I stopped translating myself for other people's comfort, the work got braver, and so did I.

Our industry sells culture back to people. If the rooms making that work don't hold real African, women's and queer voices, what we make is a costume.

Authentic South African energy is not a tone you switch on for a brief. It comes from allowing people in the room to be fully themselves. That is not a diversity slide. It is a creative advantage.

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I don't lead by volume. I lead by making the people around me braver, closer to a jazz band than a hierarchy: give everyone room to solo, hold the structure so the whole thing swings.

I would rather grow a junior into someone who takes my job than be the smartest person at the table. If there's one thread through my whole career, and the thing I most want to lead by, it's this: be a storyteller, and stay teachable. I am everything and nothing. I want to learn, and I want to teach. The day I decide I know enough is the day the work goes stale.

My advice to women coming up, especially the ones who feel like they don't fit the mould: stop shrinking to be understood. Your difference is the asset.

Learn the craft until nobody can question it, then use it to say things only you could say. Find the rooms that trust you, and when you get power, hold the door open behind you.

I'm not trying to make campaigns. I'm trying to make work that lives in culture, that people carry around and argue about. Work that outlives the media plan. That is the point. It always was.

Chelsea-Summer Lodewyk - strategy director, Digitas (Image composite: (Image supplied)

The conversations that change everything

Chelsea-Summer Lodewyk is strategy director at Digitas, Publicis Groupe Africa, with more than 14 years of experience helping organisations unlock growth through customer-centric strategy, digital transformation and integrated marketing.

Early in my career, I believed credibility was something to be earned before contributing to important conversations. Experience has taught me the opposite. Credibility is built through contribution, not permission.

If I could offer one piece of advice to women building careers today, it would be this: don't wait until you feel qualified to think strategically.

Strategy is not reserved for the most senior person in the room. It begins the moment you become genuinely curious about why things work, why they fail and how they could be better. The confidence to contribute rarely arrives before the opportunity; it is forged through it.

Serving as a judge for the 2026 IAB SA Bookmarks reaffirmed something I have long believed: the industry's most exceptional work is rarely distinguished by flawless execution alone. It is distinguished by the quality of strategic thinking that precedes it.

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I've never believed communication exists to tell people what to think. At its best, it creates the conditions for people to think differently.
The conversations that change everything are rarely those delivering the loudest message.

They are the conversations that fundamentally alter how we understand the problem itself.

And once that happens, everything that follows becomes possible.

Data reveals patterns. Technology accelerates execution. Creativity captures attention. But sustainable growth begins with understanding people: their motivations, tensions and the context in which they make decisions. Communication, therefore, is not simply about expressing ideas well. It is about creating the conditions in which better decisions become possible.

Leading through change, connection and courage

Nomika Singh Govender - GM, Digitas (Image supplied)

Nomika Singh Govender, GM, Digitas, is a business and client services leader with more than 25 years of experience.

When I reflect on my career journey, I do not see a carefully mapped-out plan. I see opportunities, challenges and moments where I had to trust myself enough to take the next step, even when I was not completely sure where it would lead.

As my career developed, I often said yes to opportunities that stretched me. Some were exciting, others intimidating, but the moments that shaped me most were usually the ones that challenged me most. One of my biggest lessons is that careers are rarely linear. Growth comes from learning, adapting and embracing uncertainty.

There was a time when I stood at a crossroads. I had gained experience, achieved milestones, and developed confidence, yet I had to ask myself whether I was willing to stay comfortable or grow.

Choosing growth meant stepping into uncertainty, taking on opportunities without guarantees and backing myself before I felt completely ready.

Throughout my journey, I have experienced challenges many women will recognise. There were times when I questioned whether I was ready, felt I had more to prove, or struggled to balance personal responsibilities with professional ambition.

Like many women, I have learned to navigate the tension between being present for the people who matter most and pursuing professional growth.

Perfection is an impossible goal, but progress is always within reach. I have also learned that growth often happens before confidence arrives.

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If I could offer one piece of advice to women building their careers, it would be this: do not wait until you feel completely ready. Some of the best opportunities in my career arrived long before I felt fully prepared for them.

If I had waited until I was certain, I would have missed experiences that shaped who I am today.

Be curious. Keep learning. Ask questions. Seek out experiences that challenge you. Build meaningful relationships and invest in your network. Most importantly, do not underestimate the value of what you bring to the table. Your perspective, experiences and voice matter.

As we celebrate Women's Month, I am reminded that every woman has a story.

Mine has been filled with lessons, opportunities, challenges and growth. The greatest lesson my journey has taught me is that success is not measured only by what we achieve ourselves, but by how many others we help grow along the way.