Jacquie Bhana

Jacquie Bhana, the owner of Jacquie Bhana Consulting, is an accredited high-performance coach, mentor, and counsellor.

Jacquie was born into a very close-knit family who lived in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. Of her early years she says, “I was born, during the years that it was taboo, into an interracial marriage to the most fantastic parents, which was an absolutely amazing experience that taught me to have an open mind around religion and race.” This upbringing has provided a solid base for Jacquie who relates well to people of all backgrounds.

Following attendance at a local township school, Jacquie completed an undergraduate degree majoring in psychology, a postgraduate degree focusing on industrial relations, a masters in industrial sociology and an executive and leader- ship coaching qualification at UCT.

Jacquie’s successful career in the corporate world has spanned over 30 years. Her first ‘proper’ job was at Volkswagen South Africa where Jacquie started off in training and development. “The then CEO Peter Searle was a true leader of his time. What I really loved about VW is that you learned about the importance of vision, mission, culture, and values in bringing people together in an organisation.”

BUILD CAPACITY
After much thought her current position is something that Jacquie dreamed of for a long time. “I really wanted to have my own business and for the work that I do to make a difference, the basic competencies are those that I acquired at VW.”

Jacquie’s main focus is on development, helping diverse teams build their capacity, and helping people to find and speak their voice. She enjoys coaching executives and says that the kind of mental blocks they create for themselves are incredible. By walking alongside her clients, Jacquie helps to free these blocks so they may be the best person that they can be. Mental or emotional wellness is a key area of interest for her; especially the mentoring of executives experiencing loneliness or anxiety in new positions.

In addition, says Jacquie, “I absolutely enjoy working with graduates or people newly out of school and getting them socialised into the business environment. They don’t always understand that it takes more than a degree or a diploma to be successful in business. The value that I am able to bring to their lives and to each business is a revelation.”

The other area Jacquie works in is human resource consulting for small businesses, often focusing on talent and succession planning. She helps to build structures and mechanisms to ensure that things are done the right way to cultivate growth.

“Small and medium enterprises have enormous potential, have an appetite for risk, and are hungry for success. They work really hard and have great ideas, however, they often need a sounding board to help them succeed. My purpose is to help them make a difference in business, in their world, and to the economy.”

Without a doubt Jacquie’s proudest accomplishment, as well as her biggest challenge, has been moving out of the corporate sector to open up her business. “I had a stable job at a senior level with a steady income; to jump outside of that environment and start from scratch has been very challenging.”

Her uncertainty was firstly to believe in herself; that she could survive without the support of a massive corporation and move beyond her corporate title. Apart from skills such as administration and information technology, one of the challenges has been in marketing herself and getting her business ‘out there’.

Jacquie is proud that her venture is impactful and that she is able to work with various people with immense success. Reflecting on her journey she says, “In order to stay motivated you can’t work in a vacuum, you have to wake up to your purpose. You’ve got to have a master plan, you’ve got to plan around daily, weekly, and monthly goals and then relentlessly pursue them.”

A BETTER PLACE
The best advice Jacquie has ever received is not to expect anything from anybody. “If you do something for somebody, do it because it’s making the world a better place, it’s making the person a better person. Don’t expect anything in return. It helps with managing your expectations and helps with not experiencing disappointment. Just learning and applying this lesson has really helped me not to expect anything from people, which is simple but profound.”

“However, I think South Africa has awesome and resilient people who inspire me,” says Jaquie. “In addition, there are universal guiding lights such as Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani advocate for education for girls who was shot. That she could stand up to a force so violent just speaks volumes of her. The other person that I truly admire is politician Angela Merkel, who was the German Chancellor. She is the epitome of leadership; she showed us the humanness of being a leader.”

Jacquie works very closely with the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, serving on the board as the first vice president. “I work with CEO Palesi Phili, who is authentic, courageous, and able to work with real issues on a daily basis. I have a great admiration for her level of ethics and ability to get things done.”

The motto of the Chamber, ‘In business for a better world’, resonates well with her purpose. Jacquie’s vision is to work with her clients to help them become better leaders.

“I would like to build ethical, high performing thinking leaders who in turn will help KwaZulu-Natal to become a better province, so that we can take this province to the next level and create a better world. And importantly, to help our youth, to get them to help build this province to make this a better place, so that they leave a legacy of greatness for the upcoming generations.”

“I always think, ‘If I am not afraid what will I do’ which is great motivation to achieve in what has been a great journey so far,” concluded Jacquie.