Loyce Oluoch on Building Leadership Through Competence, Integrity and Execution
Loyce Oluoch’s leadership journey has been shaped by experience across different disciplines, industries and African markets. Today, as the Country Manager – Tanzania for Choplife Limited, she brings together experience shaped by commercial law, corporate governance, mining, oil and gas, and the iGaming industry.
In her recent conversation with Mary Wanja, Content Director at iGaming AFRIKA, Loyce reflected on the experiences that have shaped her approach to leadership, governance and building organisations that create lasting value. She explained that her approach to leadership is rooted in the belief that a business must be thoroughly understood before it can be effectively guided.
That means listening to the people within it, understanding what the organisation needs and recognising where her own experience can be useful. It is an approach that has gradually brought together the qualities she now considers central to her leadership, which are integrity and the discipline to execute strategy.
As more women continue to earn seats at executive tables and take on senior decision-making roles, Loyce believes that securing a position is only part of the journey. She believes they must be ready for the responsibilities that come with leadership positions by investing in education, professional certifications, and the skills needed to succeed in the roles they aspire to hold.
“We should not just be saying there’s no room for women, while we also don’t want to invest on the competence of the roles we are looking forward to. For example, you want to be a CEO in a business, but the only education you have is a bachelor’s degree. Well, you’d have your colleagues at work who are pursuing Masters, they’re pursuing certifications. So despite that we want these men or the society to create a room for us, I think it’s very important to also have the competence so that when that position comes in, it finds you prepared with enough competence to get the position,” Loyce explained.
Competence, however, is only one part of how she views executive leadership. Working across different sectors and jurisdictions has taught her to listen before making decisions. Different businesses have different needs, and understanding those needs requires engagement with people beyond senior management.
She applies that thinking across the organisations she works with, listening to people at management, mid-level, and operational levels before determining where her input can be most useful. It allows strategy to take account of what is happening within the business, as employees working with the business every day can identify needs and challenges that are easy to miss from the top.
“Listening is one of the things I am very good at, and I make sure I listen to everyone from the management level to mid-level to normal people so that I get to understand the business. This is so that when I am planning my action plans for a specific project, or how I am going to move this business from one place to another, they should also align with the local people as well,” she noted.
Integrity and transparency sit alongside that approach. Executives need to be clear about the decisions they make, the action plans they intend to follow and what they expect from the people responsible for delivering them. Her legal background has also made risk and compliance a natural part of that process. In a regulated sector such as iGaming, she sees compliance as closely connected to the strength of a company’s governance and reputation. At Choplife, she points to the company’s tax compliance record over the past two years as one example of the importance placed on meeting those obligations.
“Where I am now at Choplife, we have had the best certificates for tax compliance for two years in a row now. And that puts us in a very good space compliance-wise. When the company is compliant, then governance becomes much easier.”
