Ratidzo Mutizwa is a Development Economist, Life coach and Leadership Content Creator. She primarily focuses on community engagement, CSR and women’s development. She holds a masters in Political Economy from the LSE and has successfully trained in corporate governance, capacity building and monitoring & evaluation.
She is the Founder of Deeply Driven now known as the Leaders Lounge Foundation, which empowers, coaches and provides training for young leaders.
Previously she worked for BRAC, Deloitte Central Africa and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. She is a passionate change agent determined to aid the development of young leaders and to equip them with essential life skills.
[bctt tweet=”Professionally, whatever I do has to have an impact that will outlast me – Ratidzo Mutizwa Njagu” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
What are your most important values personally and professionally?
Personally, I find that whatever I do needs to feed into my purpose, cater for a healthy lifestyle and allow me to fully express myself.
Professionally, whatever I do has to have an impact that will outlast me. In other words, what I do is driven by a need to achieve generational impact and ultimately improve the future of those to come.
If you were given unlimited resources, what women focused initiatives would you contribute towards?
I would seek to ensure that young women under the ages of 35 are able to get access to free value added personal development and basic business training. I believe that access to upskilling in Southern Africa ( which is our initial primary target region) can be a positive catalyst for change across the continent.
[bctt tweet=”Ratidzo Mutizwa says her goal is to drive innovation and promote socio-entrepreneurship.” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
What can millennials expect to get from training or advice from Leaders Lounge?
The Leaders Lounge is a place for millennials to learn from the legends, those that have gone before them. As well as a common space where millennials can meet up to share ideas and information with each other.
Trainings are given in the form of workshops, seminars and conferences. Topics are centered around redefining the leadership landscape across various sectors; and seek to inform and educate on business principles and essential life skills. The goal is to drive innovation and promote socio-entrepreneurship.
Deeply Driven provides CSR advisory services. What social responsibility commitments do you have as an organization?
We have committed to providing free life-skills training services in high schools within Zimbabwe. A part of our mission is to encourage the development of a highly self-aware and well equipped generation of leaders.
Leaders Lounge is tailored to impact global audiences. How do you reach out to these audiences and how do you plan on growing?
We are being purposeful about building our social media reach as we know that African millennials are increasingly active online- no matter where they are in the world.
We also understand the demand for African-driven solutions and innovations and are seeking to address this. At Present we have established a blog through which we share weekly tips, advice and inspiration.
As part of our strategy we are launching Podcasts as well as monthly YouTube videos, which will share on particular topics relevant to the African millennial.
Ratidzo Mutizwa Njagu, what things in life are still a mystery to you?
It baffles me that we often continue to want to be and to do more. For our generation, happiness in our present state is often quite illusive and without a concerted decision to choose happiness we are often left wanting
[bctt tweet=”To be a CEO is to nurture and allow great leaders within the organization to thrive and to create a highly innovative environment – Ratidzo Mutizwa” username=”SheLeadsAfrica”]
Would you rather suddenly be elected a senator or suddenly become a CEO of a major company. (You won’t have any more knowledge about how to do either job than you do right now.)
This is interesting!
I would certainly rather become a CEO of a major company today. At that level of leadership a lot of the real work is in identifying and bringing together the people who are good at what they do- something I already enjoy doing.
To be a CEO is to nurture and allow great leaders within the organization to thrive and to create a highly innovative environment. I think the role of a CEO is to be able to bring great ideas and great people together effectively and to instill confidence in the management teams
What have you done to up-skill yourself this year?
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