Excellent Leadership Hanlie Wessels MeMber of CounCil
Remote working during a pandemic can pose challenges HANLIE Wessels is a Member of Council on UWC’s board. She is that remote working and distributed teams were the norm. This leading the AdHoc committee to determine the feasiis similar to some part of the lockdown work situation, bility of the establishment of the Infrastructure which we all needed to get used to during the Governance Committee for the UWC Counpandemic. “The challenges I faced when cil. Wessels boasts an impressive CV working remotely were usually about and has over a decade of experience people and teams. How to keep the in Executive Leadership. connection, pacing your own work “I am curious and love learnhours and safeguarding your ing and my career therefore health and emotional wellbeing stretches across almost all at the same time.” possible functions in differWessels was faced with a dient organisations and multimension of challenges and ple industries. The various uncertainties when her husroles reflect my enjoyment band started a new job in at working in diverse enviNorth Africa last year durronments and learning from ing the pandemic. She had different perspectives. The to figure out things such as best result comes from such how travel works, packing environments.” one’s own food for travel, Wessels learnt that it is imwaiting for the Covid-19 test portant to embrace a disrupresults in the host country, tion such as the Covid-19 panand potential isolation in a govdemic, even if it requires some ernment facility. time to get used to. “This present“Since having children and being ed an opportunity to discover how a working mom, I have accepted that the new normal can reward us with work-life is never going to be perfectly e.g. less commuting time, a quick hug balanced, and the balance on one day will on your way to grab coffee before the next never be the same as the next. However, if I meeting, and perhaps a reality check listen to, and stay in touch with those for those in your personal life of what around me who I care about, and with “Since having children and being a your workday demands from you.” myself, I can tweak and adjust to ensure working mom, I have accepted that that the relative balance is attainable.” Her international experience ensured
work-life is never going to be in a perfect balance, and the balance on one day will never be the same as the next.”
