Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Adopt-a-School Foundation
Steven Lebere
Steven Lebere is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Adopt-a-School Foundation and has been with the Foundation for several years. His leadership has contributed to some of the success of the organisation. Steven studied engineering and started his career as a graduate intern and his career has grown impressively since then. He believes that once you grow in your career, you start not to apply a lot of what you learned at university or Technikon, but you learn how to apply leadership and focus more on strategic issues. You apply probably only 20% of what you learned at school. As you grow in a position, it starts becoming less of what you have learned at university but more about the things you apply in the position you are in. Working within your field gives you a different perspective of your career and what it requires.
Steven has a unique character because he seeks excitement from his job. He requires different challenges in order to not get easily bored with his job. He started off his career trying to find a job that was not repetitive, and it took a while for him to find a job like that. It was when he joined Adopt-a-School that he started to enjoy his job. Finally, he was at a point in his career where he was faced with new challenges that excited him. It was a new challenge that he was looking forward to.
When asked whether he was intimidated by his role as CEO, Steven said that it was intimidating for him because it was a jump from being a Project Manager in his previous employment to being a leader of an organisation. The intimidation was not knowing what to expect. There was a lot of learning that he had to go through. One of the obstacles Steven faced early in his career was lack of transformation in the engineering sector. During his time working in the 90s, he would be overlooked for certain positions.
“In those years, there were few Black engineers, and we had to work in companies that were predominantly white”. The other obstacle for Steven had to do with doubting himself. He believes that it was the fear of reaching a certain level and the fear of failing. Steven advises that if you can address and fight those things, it will be easier to achieve your goals.
So where to for Steven now? He simply said retirement. But he also wants to mentor those who aspire to be Executives and who want to grow within their careers. He had mentors who helped him to reach his goals and to be where he is today. He wants to share some of his experiences and what he has learned from being in his position.