Andrew Golding is a highly respected member of the business community and a member of the Institute of Directors, the Young Presidents Organisation and the SA Medical Health Profession.
Andrew’s known for his global networking and ambassadorial role in promoting South Africa. Ex-President of International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI), a Board member of ooba and currently President of Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa (IEASA), he’s been responsible for introducing new innovative marketing initiatives focused on the overseas market, including the highly successful Euro Invest tour.
My Definition Of Success | Success has a wide-ranging meaning for me and encompasses running and leading an organisation that is based on sound values, adheres to these values and strives for continuous improvement on an ongoing basis. In my early business career, success was much more bottom-line focussed, but over the years I have learnt that financial success generally will look after itself as long as the other critical factors are in place.
Decisions which promote medium to long term sustainability are now more important to me than they used to be.
On Inspiring Others | I lead an organisation which comprises 2,500 people and we are fundamentally in the people business, both from an internal perspective and obviously in terms of the thousands of clients that we interact with as an organisation every day. With so many people and so many interactions, there is a constant challenge to maintain and enhance relationships towards better business efficiency. This is by definition always work in progress and is a constant challenge.
A Key Talent | Having been trained as a General Practitioner, one of the key core competencies is to listen carefully to what the patient is telling you and to observe and pick up signals that the patient is emitting, either consciously or unconsciously. I have found that in business this has been my most valuable learned skill and it certainly is as applicable in business as it is in medical General Practice. One of the challenges in today’s fast moving and every increasingly technologically dominated environment is to force oneself to really listen to what is being said, both in terms of the content itself but also the manner and tone of what is being said. Ultimately, from my perspective, leadership is about making good decisions which are as informed as possible and by listening carefully I believe one is able to gather information accurately – which is critical to good decision-making.
Dealing With Doubt | It’s a reality of business life that setbacks, disappointments and even crises will arrive, and its important to recognise that this is a normal part of any business but it’s equally important as to how one reacts to these inevitable events. One o the most important lessons I have learnt is in these circumstances to remain calm, to take some time to delve deep into the issues, to evaluate them clearly in order to ensure the best possible decision-making at the time. In all likelihood, after this process one arrives at the conclusion that the circumstances are not as severe or critical as one first thought.
Lessons I Have Learnt | Businesses by definition are in constant state of flux and one of the most important lessons I have learned over the years is that success is never a short-term event but rather a long-term process. Individual peaks and success are merely pointers along the road and ironically generally reminders of the work that needs to be done to continue striving towards the probably unattainable goal of “success”. So for me, it’s much more about the business journey than it is about any specific destination and very definitely an endurance event rather than a sprint.
Performing At My Peak | I think that it’s a truism that work life balance is a critical success factor and so I think it’s important to constantly strive to attain balance between work and non-business-related activities in one’s life. So for me, participating in endurance events (IronMan) is a great source of balance.
Critical Skills I Develop | One of the other critical success factors I feel which is a prerequisite to both success and happiness is the question of passion. It’s one of the things we look for in our organisation in terms of recruitment of new talent and for my own part I am passionate about the Pam Golding brand, passionate about the people that work in the organisation and passionate about striving for a customer experience that exceeds expectations in every transaction where we are involved.
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