Dr. Sanele Gamede On Mentoring Young Changemakers To Change Their Lives And Positively Impact Communities

Dr. Sanele Gamede is an African Award-Winning Strategic Youth Life & Career Coach, passionate about youth, skills development, education, and academic success & successfully coaching thousands of people.

He holds numerous degrees, including two PhD’s. He has written several books, created online courses & provides powerful pathways to choosing a career, finishing your qualification in record time, finding jobs, and being effective in the workplace. His programs and initiatives continue to successfully touched many young people in many African countries.

He effectively contributes on media platforms reaching over 1 million people since 2014. He has worked in research, supervision, and teaching in university & is currently a full time lecturer and researcher at the University of Johannesburg.

He holds a Doctor of Leadership and Management, Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Social Science degree, Bachelor of Social Science Honors Degree in Cultural and Media Studies, and Bachelor Social Science Degree in Media and Management all from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Dr. Gamede discusses how his personal struggles motivated him to pursue mentoring, empowering and equipping young leaders with the tools to discover their purpose and lead a successful life.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Sarah Ripper] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and what led you to work in personal development and academia?

[Dr. Sanele Gamede] - Who is Dr. Sanele Gamede? He is a strategic youth life and career coach from South Africa. I live in Howden, Johannesburg, and I'm a young patient explorer who works in personal development and training. I feel like there is a need for personal development, especially with young people. I think they are the future, which I must say comes from a little bit of my past. I didn't get someone to guide me, I didn't have someone to mentor me.

I did have several people who showed up in a way, but I didn't have someone to be there as my mentor and coach. I've never attended coaching, but I thought many young people (especially in our country) need someone they can look up to, someone who they can trust and build a relationship with. I'm an author (I have written five books), and I'm a public speaker mainly on the issues of education (and more specifically succeeding in education), personal development, and setting goals. That’s who I am in a nutshell, but I'm also a lecturer at the University of Johannesburg teaching media journalism and communication.

Where did your passion for education originate?

It came from my struggles. When having to finish high school, I had to go through grade 10 twice, then grade 11 twice and then grade 12 twice again. I had my fair share of challenges, but I'm so happy I managed to overcome them. Here I am today, and I have two PhDs at the age of 34!

What were the keys to you overcoming these obstacles? Was it a gradual process or were there certain events that unfolded?

It's a process, you don't just overcome all the life challenges we face in a minute. It's a journey which you must accomplish every day. You must work on it daily. You set your daily goals and you achieve them. You achieve your weekly goals through your daily goals, and you achieve your monthly goals through your daily and weekly goals.

You achieve your yearly goals through working daily, weekly, and monthly. I wouldn't say to someone listening it just happened like poof. It's a process, you must be capable of putting the work in as well. Recognise you must push through, work hard, and put the hours in, it doesn’t happen like magic.

What insights have you gained from assisting more than 20,000 people in gaining employment?

Unemployment is global now, it's not only in South Africa. The key is not to look for a job, it’s to look for work. Many unemployed people (young people and graduates especially) are looking for a job, they're not looking for work. When you're looking for a job, you're most likely to show off your qualifications. You're most likely to show off your piece of paper, which doesn't matter that much. Of course, an employer would want to know whether you are qualified, and they will request a piece of paper certified by the police as an original document.

But to be quite honest, it doesn’t matter out there in the work force, what matters is what you can do. If I was looking to work for you, I would approach you and say, "Sarah, I see that you're running a podcast, I think I have something to offer.” I would share what I have learned how to do and showcase my skills and abilities.

You should be showcasing what you can do more than showcasing what you have studied. The difference between this and looking for a job is that people who are looking for a job showcase their qualifications.

They will say, “I have got three qualifications,” and you have already heard me saying I've got two PhDs at 34! Those people who are looking for a job, they normally showcase just those pieces of papers, but for people who are looking for work, they start working before they even get employed. An employer in social work might for example find someone who is already working as a social worker. Before they even graduate as a social worker they started working as one. They started dealing with issues in the community, and an employer who's looking for a social worker will most likely employ someone who's already working in the community, uplifting them, and showing that they have a degree in social work.

Of course, there are many difficulties one must go through, such as putting together a good, targeted CV that speaks to the post you are applying for and you need to ace your interview. I normally say every employer is looking for three things, someone who can add value, someone who can make money, and someone who can do things differently. This is someone who can improve the operations of any organisation. You need to have all those things, but most importantly that mindset must shift from a piece of paper into what I have. What is it that I can do? What is it that I can offer company A or company B?

As a high performer, what are some of the things that you do and don't do to take your life to the level it's at now?

I was talking to the secretary for my organisation yesterday evening (I think it was around 10:30) about time management. I'm big when it comes to time management and consistency. I’m not someone who lacks commitment, I'm big when it comes to commitment. To be a high performer, I think you need to master a few things. Your time is very important, and the issue of commitment is very important as well. You need to be consistent in what you are doing. Do it over and over and over up until it is within your system.

there are things that I don't do, and one has been my major policy; I don't engage or want to be part of anything that has no control or assessment processes. These are two practices I do daily, assessment and control. What is it that we are doing? Why are we doing it? Where are we doing it? How are we doing it?

After we have done it, how are we going to measure what we have done and the impact and results we wanted to achieve? Those are the two words that govern me, assessment, and control. What are we doing and how do we know we have done it? If you can't pitch to me any of those two words, I’m not going to be part of what you’re doing. If you want to be a high performer, you need to be governed by those words.

You need to know what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you are doing it with, and where you're doing it. The most important part many people forget (especially the South African government), is to go back and ask, “we said we are going to do X, Y and Z, have we done it, and how have we done it?” What are the measurables? What is it that we said will measure our success? Have we reached our success? What is it that we can do if we have it and what is it that we can do more after we have achieved it? Those are the keys for me.

What advice would you give to someone challenged with self-motivating who needs a helping hand to get out of whatever space they're in?

I think you're touching on something very important, because sometimes we want to buy a house, buy a car, get a job, or start a business, but the motivation to do it sometimes lacks. I must admit that so many people are going through a lot, and with some even if you present an opportunity, they might struggle because of whatever they are going through. But I think self-awareness is very important.

What is the space you are in right now? Where are you right now mentally, psychologically, physically, and financially? What is the situation around you, your family, and your kids? That self-awareness will result in you reaching out. If you must reach out and say, "Hi Sarah, I've seen you doing this, can you please show me how you did it."

Through self-awareness you can see your potential and even some of the challenges you are going to face before you face them. Many people get affected because they are not aware, not necessarily because it was going to happen to them anyway.

I normally talk to young people, and if you talk to a pregnant young person and ask, "how did you get here?" You can see from their answers that they were not self-aware, they were just cruising and thought life was just going to flow. Life isn't like that, life is tailored individually, and what worked for you is probably not going to work [for others].

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across creating a positive change?

I'm inspired by what young people are doing, especially when using technology, social media, and different platforms. It's quite amazing what can happen and what young people can do.

I was just telling my first-year students that they need to start looking at social media differently. If you are still a consumer and you are not making money out of social media, you will be overtaken by young people, younger than your age.

I'm quite inspired when I look across the entire world. I'm seeing young people emerging, which shows that young people have the potential. If there is a young person listening to me, I want you to find your space and use this technology that you are exposed to see how you can change your situation around you. I think you have the potential to do it, it's a matter of stepping forward and exploring what you can do.

One project I'm currently launching through my organisation that I need support with is a mentorship and coaching program. It's called Working Students Mentorship and Coaching Programme, and we're providing life skills to young people. As an organisation, we promote access to quality education. We also raise awareness on social ills such as suicide and unemployment. I'm looking forward to working with the young people we have recruited as a team, I put together a team in each province in South Africa.

*Working Students Mentorship and Coaching Programme* by Dr. Sanele Gamede

These are young people who are mentors under each team in each province in the country, and under those mentors, there are mentees who are being mentored monthly. I'm looking forward to that space. I'm going to be reading the first report at the end of April, and I will hear from the report what each mentor or each province has achieved. I look forward to this, but of course I am looking forward to our seminars on employability that are in the pipeline. I will be helping young people with career development and employability skills, which I think is something I'm looking for support in running because they require those financial assets in a way.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

There are two books on my shelf I'm reading from, but I don't know if someone else will read them. You probably pick a book because it speaks to your need at that moment, you don't just pick a book because someone else is reading it or recommended it. I've got awesome books and online programs that I've created, they're all available to anyone, anywhere on my platform. Currently, I'm reading books on public speaking because want to revise my public speaking. Who knows, maybe I'll be speaking in Australia soon! I'm reading The Exceptional Speaker: How to Deliver Sensational Speeches, and You Can Present With Confidence: How to Speak Like a Pro, Dazzle Your Audience, and Get the Results You Want Every Time. Those books are currently in my office, and there are a lot of books I go through for academic purposes also.