CIO South Africa recently caught up with Multichoice Africa / Canal Plus group executive for information and digital technology Maggie Matsie, who unpacks mum guilt, Enneagram 8 leadership, and why you should never delegate what you haven’t mastered.
Q: What makes you excited to get up in the morning?
A: I am not naturally a morning person, so getting up is already a discipline for me. Nothing profound just the reminder that before you lead others, you must lead yourself. No work in the brain at that time, it's conquering the one thing I am bad at, getting up.
Q: What keeps you up at night?
A: What keeps me up at night is twofold. The first is normal mum guilt, the feeling that you are constantly trying to overcompensate, even when your children are not judging you as harshly as you judge yourself.
The second is reflection. I am often described as an iron lady with a heart. I am tough and direct, but I care deeply about how people experience my leadership. I reflect at the end of the day to not miss moments, I replay moments and ask myself: could I have said that better, recognised someone more or paused long enough to celebrate the work? I do this as I want people to feel stretched, not broke, challenged, but still valued and I don't want anyone on a Sunday to have anxiety because of me. That's what keeps me awake at night. That's the one thing that keeps me up at night.
Q: What is the biggest shift you have had to make in how you lead or think about your role in the last 12 to 18 months?
A: The biggest shift has been learning that clarity is not a once-off message. It is something you have to repeat, reinforce and be intentional about, especially during change.
I am an Enneagram 8 and in most leadership profiles I come out as red so I am naturally a “let’s go” person. I like pace, action and momentum. So learning to pause, centre people and repeat the message, even when I get frustrated in the process, has been a real shift for me.
In my role, I have also had to encourage teams to be innovative without forgetting the basics. We can chase new ideas, but we still have to be excellent at the fundamentals: stability, accountability, delivery discipline and understanding the work deeply enough before we delegate it.
So the shift has been reinforcing – do not delegate what you have not mastered.
Q: When you eventually step away from this role, what do you hope to have left behind?
A: I hope I leave behind people who are stronger because I led them. I do not need people to love me or glorify me. I would rather they love who they became because of what they learnt while working with me.
Of course, the deadlines, budgets, platforms and delivery matter. But what would mean the most to me is someone saying, “She taught me something I still use.”
