Powered by: Zanie Theron
The Powered by Women interview’s, bring together successful women from across PNG to share their insights and experiences into what has helped them create successful careers.
In this episode we interview Zanie Theron.
Zanie has been living and working in PNG since 2006. She has spent the past 20 years in the accounting profession after leaving a successful career as a lieutenant colonel in the South African Navy. She is a chartered accountant in Australia and South Africa and a CPA in PNG and Solomon Islands, Zanie is also a qualified barrister admitted to the Supreme Court in South Africa. Zanie is passionate about the growth in PNG and also the development of high-quality local accountants. Zanie understands the business environment and unique issues and challenges faced in PNG and she has built excellent networks in the country over the past eleven years.
Q: So, let first look at your impressive career to date, can you give us a bit of an overview of how you got to where you are today and what your journey was like?
Zanie: As you might be able to see from my career, and my CV, my journey started in the Defence Force, and that is where I believe a lot of my principles and determination were formed. Having moved from a very strict regime, framework, and more autocratic structure to professional services, it made me rethink and remodel my leadership and my management style. My journey has been one of being a female in a male-dominated organisation (being the defence force) and having to fight for everything that I achieved and having to be better to be considered equal. That has stood me in very good stead in professional services, where everyone is considered equal and in fact in PNG professional services females are very valued.
So it was that determination, that grit and that will to succeed that has brought me to where I am today.
I?m always looking forward to what’s next, what’s my new challenge, what can I achieve more. Not just being content with making it to partner, but then I made it to the head of a department and then to the head of the firm. A constant drive and the energy to achieve that next step.
Where do you think that energy and that drive comes from? In other words, what is that why that gets you going and makes you want to achieve?
Zanie: My why is to not stand still, and to understand that life is finite. I want to make the most of the time that I have on earth, and make most of what my working career because I realised starting a career at say, 24, means I’ll only be able to do this in a formal structure until I am about 60. Am I just going to tread water and reach a certain level of complacency during these years, or can I see how far can I go in this limited working life that I have in a formal structure?
I want to make most of this limited time that I have so as to not have a wasted my life. I have a quest for knowledge of, cramming as much knowledge into my life as I can and sharing that with people around me during my limited timeframe.
Are there any sort of skills or practices that have helped you to get you to the next step and what are your comments around that learning mindset?
Zanie: I would say it’s mostly an approach to being open to all experiences, and to all fields. The general learning mindset is that thirst for knowledge and to take up new interests, even if it is one different interest each year, like taking up a musical instrument or a new hobby. Whatever it is, you want to enrich your life with experiences outside of your chosen professional field, and then find how that applies to your chosen professional field. The learning mindset is that openness and thirst that you need to keep feeding, because it can’t really be quenched.
Do you make that decision (to learn new things) like at the beginning of the year? How do you actually purposely, make it part of your life?
Zanie: I would say it’s an informal decision because I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, except the one that I made about 10 years ago, was to stop stressing. So at the beginning of the holidays, I think how is next year going to improve my life. On a personal, financial and work level.
Whatever I set out to do, I make sure that I action that, and it may sound very boring but I actually keep a spreadsheet, especially on the financial side. To track where I’ve come from and where I’m going to measure myself, because you need to be strict with yourself and monitor yourself against those goals.
And do you have any mentors in your life? Have you had mentors?
Zanie: I haven’t had real formal mentors. I have been a very self-driven person, but having said that, I have taken from people that I admired – these are people I might have worked with, or who were in other organisations, locally or organisations globally. Even from fiction fictional characters, I’m a big Star Trek fan and some of those captains like from the female perspective, you know, Captain Janeway from Star Trek.
I ask myself, what is one thing about that person that I would emulate if I could? What can I learn from this person, how they manage things? In terms of having a formal mentor relationship. I have not had that opportunity. I don’t think it was to my detriment but I do think it could have enriched my life, and could have formalised and structured a lot of my development.
So is that something you would encourage?
Zanie: Yeah, absolutely. I believe that the mentee person in the relationship has got a big role to play because the fact that they seek out a mentor shows their interest in their own development. However, the mentor should also not be shy reaching out to the mentee if there hasn’t been that communication or connection for some time.
You speak about women leaders, what advice would you give an organisation or an HR team, so that they can better empower female leaders in their business and thinking of PNG specifically?
Zanie: I would say, given that the current situation, worldwide but especially in PNG it is still probably unfairly skewed, in terms of the leadership.
I think you need to have a leadership program for women. In order to make it fair and equal in the future you need to make it unfair and unequal for the moment. You need to invest time, money, effort, and training into your female workforce now and at the same time educate the men. At some point in future, bring the two groups together. I would say separate them from now, incubate that learning separately, and then bring them together so that there is no us versus them approach, but you do need to spend time.
To the young woman coming out of uni or coming out of school or just starting their career. Is there any advice that you could give them?
Zanie: You do need to speak up and you need to get yourself out of your comfort zone. I suggest you set very high expectations for yourself, because it’s going to be some time before things are equal and you need to prove yourself better than someone to be considered equal. In the PNG workforce certain organizations do it better than others, but for any young female expect much more of yourself than others expect of you.
What legacy do you hope to leave? When you finish your career and does legacy even matter to you
Zanie: Legacy means a lot, especially in the PNG context. I would not want the organization (KPMG) to be dependent on me – or one person. It sets a business and team up for potential failure in the future. So, I would like to leave the organization (KPMG) a much better place than when I entered it and I would like to see female leaders, and with it, that I mean citizen female leaders in the firm become directors and above by the time I leave.
Is there anything else that you want to add to that?
Zanie: I would like to encourage other female leaders to make their time available and make themselves available to be that main tool for any young PNG women that wants to develop themselves. The opposite as well for anyone who wants to be a mentee, reach out and be brave and ask people to be a mentor, so that you can start your journey and have people be your mentor as well.
Okay, excellent. That’s an amazing story I love doing this it’s like such a delight to hear everyone’s story, they are so encouraging and enriching. Thank you very, very much.
Zanie: You are so welcome.