Retail manager: Gisela Fourie

Gisela Fourie leads a team of employees at the Woermann Brock branch in Katutura and says she enjoys every minute of the rewarding challenge.

Fourie’s long list of responsibilities includes managing daily operations, ensuring a safe and secure work environment, developing personal growth opportunities for her team, communicating job expectations to staff and planning and monitoring job results.

For her, the best part of the job is the opportunity to mentor and uplift her team.

“I love that I am able to coach and develop others and that I can help assist where trust building is needed,” Fourie says.

Fourie says she is often asked how she manages to work the long hours typically associated with retail jobs.

Her response is simple: “If you have a love for something, like the love I have for my job, the long hours are more like an opportunity to spend more time doing what you love.”

Fourie says one of the first lessons she learnt in her new position was that accountability takes you a long way in life.

“We all need to take responsibility for our own situations and circumstances,” she advises.

Focus on staff, customers

Fourie takes pride in her job and hopes that she can positively impact someone’s life through her work.

“I hope to one day know that because of the way I led my staff, I was able to change a life for the better."

As a manager, she spends a lot of time thinking of ways to create and promote a healthy work environment and to help her staff find opportunities to develop.

Nevertheless, Fourie also emphasises one of the most critical aspects of the retail sector: customer service.

“What excites me most is the fact that I can provide the best customer experience to our clients by making sure that I present an environment that allows me to deliver on value,” she says.