Episode 15: Connecting with your Purpose
Yukako Sato worked with the World Food Programme (WFP) for 17 years. For the first half of her career, she coordinated food assistance programmes in countries such as Tajikistan, the Darfur region of Sudan and Yemen during the Arab Spring years. In her last assignment, she worked at the WFP headquarters as the Staffing Coordinator for the programme and policy function globally. In that role, Yukako facilitated the provision of talent management support that impacted about a quarter of the organization’s 15,000 global workforce in 80 countries. She led various initiatives such as talent deployment, talent acquisition and capability development. She also led the design and delivery of innovative blended learning programmes for leaders, and developed partnerships with top universities, with an aim to build the future talent pipeline for the organization. In 2018 Yukako transitioned to becoming an international Leadership Coach and is very passionate about working with international leaders globally. She joins us from Tokyo, Japan.
She speaks to us about:
working in emergency settings
designing creative and inventive food assistance programs
being a young female leader in a patriarchal culture
interagency cooperation and working with government partners
implementing accountability mechanisms
respecting the culture you are working in
building trust
supporting others in their careers — including those experiencing burnout
ensuring diversity in recruitment processes
important leadership practices
communication
connecting with her purpose - and much more.
Editors note: This transcript has been slightly edited for clarity and coherence.
Transcript
Intro: I always know that I’m a guest in that country, because I come from a different background. And so I take time to get to know the local culture and also I take time to get to know my counterparts, my colleagues from that country, the local staff in that country office, and I highly respect their cultural background and then their traditions. So it is a long process. And it was particularly difficult in Yemen, because as you may know, Yemen is very low on the gender index. I was quite young at the time, so becoming the Head of Program and being a female from Japan, it was not easy at the beginning to win the trust from my male colleagues.
Safa: Welcome back to the Rethinking Development podcast. My name is Safa and I will be your host as we speak with and learn from practitioners of all backgrounds and affiliations around the world. In our conversations, we aim to rethink ethical behavior and best practices through the lived experiences and personal reflections of different practitioners. Our guest today is Yukako Sato. Until 2018, Yukako was a professional staff member of one of the largest UN agencies, the World Food Program. For the first half of her 17 year long career with the United Nations, Yukako coordinated food assistance programs in countries such as Tajikistan, the Darfur region of Sudan, and Yemen during the Arab Spring years. In her last assignment, she worked at the headquarters of WFP as a Staffing Coordinator for the program policy function globally. In that role, Yukako facilitated the provision of talent management support that impacted about a quarter of the organization’s 15,000 global workforce in 80 countries. She led various initiatives such as talent deployment, talent acquisition, and capability development. She also led the design and delivery of innovative blended learning programs for leaders and developed partnerships with top universities with an aim to build the future talent pipeline for the organization. Since 2018, Yukako has transitioned to becoming an international Leadership Coach and is very passionate about working with international leaders globally. Yukako, thank you so much for joining us today and speaking with us.
Yukako : Thank you very much for inviting me.
Safa : It’s our pleasure. Thank you. Maybe to begin the conversation you can share a bit about what led you to pursue this career path, what were some of the earlier experiences you had that made you interested in working in the development sector? And especially, you know, at the beginning when it was mostly related to food security and with the WFP?
Yukako : Sure. So my first encounter with the United Nations goes back to age 14. So my mother took me and my brother to the UN headquarters in New York, and we joined a tour of the UN headquarters. And I was just so fascinated as, a 14 year old, to see like people from all over the world working together in the same place. So that was the start of my dream to become a UN professional eventually. And when I was studying international development at the college, I had the pleasure of studying directly from a UN professional who was on sabbatical and teaching in Japan. And luckily, there was this young professionals program recruitment mission to Japan in the year that I was graduating from the university. And I was very lucky to be one of the three people chosen from Japan to join the World Food Program as a new graduate Program Officer. So that is how my career started.
Safa : In that earlier stage, one of your first roles was eventually working in the Darfur region of Sudan, and coordinating emergency food assistance programs. In that role, in that experience working in emergency contexts, what were some of the challenges you faced, or some of the ethical questions that came up for you that maybe were new to you or that were important for you to kind of think about and approach in new ways and work on those issues.
Yukako : So when I first started, I actually started in the headquarters as a new graduate. So I worked for two years in the headquarters, working in the unit that was coordinating the development programs in World Food Program. And then I went to Tajikistan country office for three years. And there I really learned the nuts and bolts of how do you design and coordinate a food assistance program. Then I went back to the university because I wanted to study more to improve my skills. So I actually did a Master’s in humanitarian assistance. Then I went to the Darfur region of Sudan. So by that time, I had academic understanding of what the humanitarian assistance may look like, but I never had an opportunity to work in a humanitarian crisis. So that’s how I entered the humanitarian operation in Sudan. So it was a few years after the Darfur crisis started, and the challenge definitely was the time. And basically, we were always almost like firefighting, because there were ongoing conflicts in different parts of Sudan, and especially in the Darfur region. So at one point, there was a very big clash between armed forces in one part, and basically every day there were thousands of new internally displaced persons flowing into like three different camps, which was close to where we were based. So we were racing against time. And at the same time, there was a huge spike in malnutrition among children under five years of age. And we had to be very, very innovative. One of the biggest challenge was how are we going to reach these children under five who were scattered all across Darfur region. And we came up with this new project, which was actually to provide the blanket supplementary feeding program. And it was a massive effort because we had to be very timely in planning our actions, and together with all the different UN agencies and the NGOs. So I learnt about interagency coordination and also coordination with the local authorities. And I think the biggest success of all that was that we were able to think outside the box, we were not thinking of doing the traditional things. And we basically developed a new, how do you say, a production line of blanket supplementary feeding premix in order to be able to deliver them quickly, in a form that mothers can easily cook for their children.
Safa : Very interesting. And in that effort to think outside of the box or be innovative, where their partners or perhaps colleagues who are maybe against that, or was there bureaucracy that maybe made it harder for you to implement that?
Yukako : It was a bit difficult because basically, we had to find a way to deliver the food so we had NGO partners who were working in providing general food distribution. So they were very good at delivering food parcels. But they were not skilled in teaching people, like teaching mothers how to prepare this nutritional premix. And we also work with a group of NGOs and also UNICEF on the nutrition program, but they were not the specialists in delivering food parcels to the people, right? So what we thought about was to match these two different agencies. So basically, we matched a nutrition NGO and another NGO who was skilled in delivering general food distribution. And then, still, we have to overcome this challenge because nobody had ever done this. And our NGO partners said, yes, it’s okay, we can go and deliver, but can you please make sure that the bag, the bag of that the premix is designed in a way so that it has all the instructions with pictures, because people may not know how to read. We said ok, so we had to design this special bag, which has pictures of how to prepare these nutritional premix in a very, very easy and understandable way. So, I actually went to a local market, found this local designer and worked on designing this special plastic pack for our premix and of course, together with our nutrition sector.
Safa : That’s so interesting. And do you know if that design and that approach has continued to be used?
Yukako : Yes, so it actually was a great success. So in addition to the plastic bag, we also came up with big posters, which we can hand out at the distribution sites. There are three separate regions in Darfur, north Darfur where I was based, and there was west Darfur then south Darfur. Because of our success, the same program, the blanket supplementary feeding program was expanded to the west and south of Darfur using the same modalities.
Safa : What a great example of innovative thinking and creativity. So after your time in Darfur, you transitioned to other roles. And one of those roles eventually was as Head of Programs in Yemen in the context of food and nutrition insecurity around the time of the Arab Spring. And one of the contributing reasons to the Arab Spring was a really sharp increase in grain prices and the cost of food. So in that time, working in a position of leadership, as Head of Program, in that kind of environment, a revolutionary moment, how were you able to work in that environment, especially with government partners, and what were some of the challenges of that experience?
Yukako : So our main partners in Yemen were definitely the government partners. So we worked very closely with the Ministry of Education and also the Ministry of Health. So actually before the start of the Arab Spring, as you rightly said, there was a huge issue with the high food prices and also the high fuel prices. And because of that, the number of people who are suffering from food insecurity in Yemen were increasing very, very quickly. So at that time, we decided to design our new relief operation. So we had organized, together with the government, a huge consultation workshop, where we invited all the government authorities, NGO partners, and other UN agencies to discuss the issue, the challenge we’re facing, and to come up with a strategy to address it. So I actually volunteered to write that project document, based on the consultation. And it was very difficult to put together, but it was the most rewarding thing, because I was able to design the program together with others, and actually to have the opportunity to implement it. So the challenge was, how do you reach all those people who are scattered across Yemen? And especially Yemen was a mountainous country, not like Darfur. So we discovered that the government actually had a safety net program, which was running for some time through the post office mechanism. So we decided to partner with the government, and our program was basically to top up whatever they were providing through their existing safety net program by adding either cash, where there was a market functioning, or by providing actual food assistance. So it was in line with the government’s existing strategy. But then we were complementing it to cover for the high food price shock.
Safa : I see, very interesting. And in that process, in terms of working together, whether it’s providing cash or food assistance, did you have any challenges when it comes to ensuring accountability or just monitoring the process of making sure that the funds are used in a correct way?
Yukako : Right. So we actually did a massive exercise to check the government list of beneficiaries before we started the actual distribution of food or cash. So we hired about a few hundred monitors, field monitors, and we trained them. And we dispatched them to all the locations before we even started the food distribution to verify that those people on the government list were still living there and were still alive, because some of them were quite elderly. So we started with that verification process. And that really helped us to build our reputation with the donors who were supporting the government in the safety net program design and implementation, because nobody, except the government themselves, had actually gone out to the field to verify that those beneficiaries are still there and that they require assistance. So we started with that. And using the same kind of mechanism, we use those hundreds of field monitors to spot check the distribution process as well. So, yeah, we had a pretty good accountability system.
Safa : When it comes to fostering trust and collaboration among partners, what are your thoughts and experiences around that? Not only in Yemen, but generally when it comes to making sure that in these partnerships and relationships that there is equal respect and trust and collaboration?
Yukako : That is so important in any work we do, to build the trust, because everything we do is built upon the trust relationship. So wherever I go, I always know that I’m a guest in that country, because I come from a different background. And so I take time to get to know the local culture and also I take time to get to know my counterparts, my colleagues from that country, and I highly respect their cultural background and their traditions. So it is a long process. And it was particularly difficult in Yemen, because you as you may know, Yemen is very low on the gender index. So I was quite young at the time, so becoming the Head of Program and being a female from Japan, it was not easy at the beginning to win the trust from my male colleagues, especially the male Yemeni colleagues and counterparts, but it was through the constant dialogue, to get to know each others and also I really think it’s important to have the feedback both ways. So I often had one on one discussions with my colleagues, or the counterparts, and really be open about sharing feedback both ways. I share my feedback and I always asked for their feedback to understand what is working, what is not working, and how can we make it better, so that we can work together to achieve our goals.
Safa : You know, you mentioned your experiences with being a woman in a male dominated environment and working in a position of leadership. Is that something that you continued to experience later on in other roles? Or is that something that you see is still a struggle for many women and also younger people, younger colleagues in the sector?
Yukako : I can only talk about myself. And I think that Yemen was the most difficult experience I had, being a woman in that cultural context. But then I started my career very, very young. So from the start, like, my first field assignment in Tajikistan, I was 26 and I was already managing a team. So obviously, it was difficult for both both of us. It was difficult for me, and also it was difficult for my team members. But I think we found a way to work well together.
Safa : This involvement of young professionals in the industry, in the sector, you know, as someone who has gone through that experience, is that something that you look back on positively and do you think that there should be more opportunities for young people to be participants and working in these agencies, in the UN system internationally?
Yukako : I think it was a very positive experience to join the UN as a young professional. And I believe it will be great to have more opportunities for people to experience the UN career early on. So one of the things I was doing in my last position was to design this internship program for graduate school students, so they can actually experience how it is like to work with the UN agencies. If they were interested in working in the future, I think it’s important for them to get to know how it is to work with the UN. And also it was important for us to know what kind of people are interested in working with the United Nations. So I hope there will be more and more opportunities to do some kind of a short experience like a fellowship, in addition to young professional programs.
Safa : You also had an experience of serving as a Regional Program Advisor at the Asia Regional Bureau and also you were working in the monitoring and evaluation field, in that role, what were some of your experiences in terms of systems and processes or best practices, you know, learning from failures, learning from mistakes, what have been your own thoughts about that process?
Yukako : It was my first assignment to focus on monitoring and evaluation exclusively. And actually, it was a new position. So I started my assignment and the first thing I did was actually to develop a regional monitoring and evaluation strategy, together with the 11 country offices that I was supporting as the Regional Program Advisor. So it took a lot of effort, but then I actually spoke with, I would say, like 40 people, I interviewed about 40 people, including the monitoring and evaluation specialists in each country office and their supervisor, which could be the Head of Program or Deputy Country Director. And I really tried to understand you know, how the monitoring and evaluation is serving the program design and the program implementation. Because I come from the program background, I was on the other side using the monitoring and evaluation findings to design the program or to redesign the ongoing implementation process. So that whole exercise really gave me a better idea of how we can use our learnings to design the future programs, or use the ongoing monitoring findings to do even better in program implementation. So I think that experience, starting with the strategy development, and obviously the situation analysis, helped us to develop a better link between the monitoring and evaluation and then program design. So I think it’s like a group process, it’s an ongoing process, and it’s not static. So it has to be an organic process, and well blended into the day to day program implementation and coordination.
Safa : And in terms of being at the regional office, as opposed to at a national or country level, what were your experiences with maybe the value of working across regions, the value of multilateral collaboration, but also sometimes the challenges in that when countries, maybe they have their own priorities or their own preferred way of approaching issues.
Yukako : Definitely being at the Regional Bureau, I was able to generate lessons and then share the lessons from one country to the other countries in the region. So I think it was easier for some countries to learn from the other countries if they had already done something. So I could facilitate that by having an overview. And the other interesting aspect in working in a Regional Bureau was the interagency coordination aspect. So in Bangkok, there was a very advanced UN evaluation network, it was basically a variation of offices from different UN agencies that had this network. And they developed a very advanced evaluation training for their staff. So I was able to use that opportunity to send some of the World Food Program staff to take part in that interagency evaluation program. And they were able to benefit, not only to learn about evaluation, but they also got to know the other agencies’ evaluation focal points in different countries. So I think it was fascinating to be able to facilitate that kind of collaboration between the different agencies and also between the different country offices.
Safa : So I’m curious to know what motivated you to after that, move into the position of Staffing Coordinator at the headquarter level, and what was it that interested you in kind of shifting your focus to that part of the organization?
Yukako : That Staffing Coordinator role, I didn’t even think about applying. I knew that position existed because I was speaking to that Staffing Coordinator about my reassignment, but I wasn’t due to rotate yet. I only spent one year and four months in Bangkok, which is supposed to be a four year assignment. But I was encouraged to consider applying for that position. When I thought about it, I was very, very fascinated about the role. So I gave it a try. And then that’s how I got into that job.
Safa : We had spoken earlier and you had said that in that role, you really had guiding values or a mantra at that time, which was balance, integrity and equality. So could you speak to us about how it guided you and also how come you chose those three values?
Yukako : So it was my personal mantra. Basically the role, it required me to be balanced in a way that I had to balance the need of the organization, by need I mean, what kind of staff we required to be in that certain position. And so, I had to balance that need of the organization. But at the same time, I had to be very cognizant of each staff member, what kind of assignment will help them to grow professionally, and what are the other consideration we have to take into account, like their family situation or personal needs? So when it comes to the Staffing coordinators role, I would say simply that my role was to do a matchmaking between the positions and then the staff. So I was always thinking about what’s best for both. I had to balance the two. And then integrity, I had to be maintaining the highest ethical standard in whatever I do. I was always aware that it might be just one of the conversations I’m having in a day, but for that particular staff member, it might be the one conversation they have in the entire year or two years. So I was always trying my best to show up in my best possible capacity to serve them best. So I wanted to remind that to myself. And the last one on the equality, obviously, the demand was very, very high because I was in charge of 340 or even close to 500 people, and my responsibility was to facilitate their career movements. So that’s quite a lot of number. So, the time was very short, even though there were so many people who might wish to speak with me when it comes to their career transitions or even to plan for their future career development. So I wanted to make sure that the whoever had approached me, they all had equal opportunities of speaking with me. So just to give you an example, when I started that job, it was the busiest time of that job in the entire year. In WFP, every summer people move to different duty stations. So people apply for their next positions in winter and then by early spring, the human resources committee, staffing committee will meet and take a decision. So I arrived after all the vacancies’ announcement closed, and how to get to know the staff, and then to facilitate their transition. So at the same time, there was this Ebola crisis at the time. So it was of upmost importance to make sure that we have the right people going to West Africa to support emergency relief efforts. So obviously, there were so many people who wanted to speak with me, but at the same time, the emergency response is important. And that was part of my job to find people who were able to support that kind of emergency surge support.
Safa : When it came to speaking with staff, especially those who most of their career was spent in emergency settings, you know, sometimes staff maybe they face burnout, or they have some challenges that go along with working in a high stress environment. Were there times when you had to help and support staff members through those experiences?
Yukako : Yes, definitely. Especially in WFP, I would say like 60% of the positions in the program function only we’re based in those hardship duty station, some of them non family. So more than half of the staff were working in emergencies in general. So I often had conversations with those staff members who were working in very difficult situations. And some of them do realize that they are approaching burnout state and some of them may not even realize that they are close to burnout. So I was constantly having conversations with those staff members. And when it comes to their next move, we often had conversations, whether they could be reunited with their families. And it was quite difficult to make sure everybody’s wish was made true because there weren’t that many family duty stations available. And the skill set they may have developed up to that point might be more towards emergency coordination, emergency assistance and humanitarian relief versus maybe working in a Regional Bureau setting providing program guidance. So the match of the skills were important. At the same time, you had to also count on each staff members ability to learn something new, just like I learned in all my different assignments, learned something new, and then get accustomed to that new role.
Safa : In the cases where colleagues were experiencing burnout, did you also have experiences where the best decision for them was actually maybe to stop working in this sector or to focus on taking a different approach in their career?
Yukako : The number wasn’t that many, but then there were few, very, very few people who decided to take a leave of absence from the UN career. After serving in many hardship duty stations, they wanted to take a pause and think about what’s next in their life. So I have supported some of those staff members, to discuss about their carrier and what they want for their life. And very, very few of them, during the 3.5 years of my role as a Staffing Coordinator, very very few of them actually left the organization to pursue something else. There was support from the organization itself, like when it comes to the staff reassignment or rotation, so some people who have been serving for a long, long time in emergencies and wishing to move to different types of assignments in a family duty station, their wish was considered in those meetings. So it was part of my role to convey that message to the staffing committee.
Safa : Part of the role of making hiring decisions, sometimes there are challenges when it comes to feeling that there’s enough diversity or representation, whether it’s gender diversity or of different nationalities, different ages, different backgrounds. What were your experiences or what are your thoughts on greater diversity, especially in positions of leadership, positions of more seniority? Because often, they also maybe have some political considerations as to who is given such roles…
Yukako : So, I was just facilitating the decision making process, so I actually didn’t have a decision making power. But what I observed in World Food Program is that the diversity aspect was very, very important. So the human resources were constantly monitoring the statistics of the regional diversity and also the gender balance in every staffing decisions that were being made. So there were actually kind of a dashboard where they were monitoring that as well. But when it comes to taking the decision, the decision is always about who is best fit for the role. And if there were two equally qualified candidates, then they would consider the diversity aspect at that point. So that was considered in making staffing decisions. But what I was personally involved in on the recruitment side — in 2017 to 18, WFP started this new recruitment initiative. So basically the idea was to create a pool of qualified candidates who are recruited from all over the world to be in the talent pipeline when there are opportunities that open up. So instead of recruiting for a position each time when it becomes available, we decided to create a pool of certain profiles and then when the position opens up, we choose from that pool. So when we did that talent pool, obviously we considered about having a very diverse pool, in terms of the cultural background but also nationality plus gender, and we hired external companies who helped us to do a reach out on different online platforms to do active hunting for the potential candidates. So through that process, I was pleasantly surprised about the diversity among the applicants from those talent pool call out applications.
Safa : Very interesting. You know, after a while, you also decided to leave WFP and become a full time certified international Leadership Coach. What made you decide to go in that direction? And how did your motivations change when it came to what you want to do in your career, what you want to contribute to?
Yukako : I was with WFP for 17 years by the time I made the decision to leave. Because I was supporting many other colleagues in making their career decisions. So when I thought about my own carrier, I still had like 25 years to go if I decided to stay with the UN until the retirement age, at the time. So I really loved every single assignment I had. And I was so passionate about the work I was doing. So I didn’t leave because I didn’t like the job. On the contrary, everything was going great. And I love my job. And I felt that I was very lucky to be able to work and connect with my own purpose. And so I thought I had to challenge myself a bit more. I wanted to see the world outside WFP because I had only worked with WFP professionally since my graduation from college. I wanted to see the word outside WFP and see what’s out there. And if I decided to go back to the UN afterwards, that’s great because I still love the work of the UN. So I took the decision to leave. And one of the things I really loved while I was working with WFP was the career coaching conversations I was having as a Staffing Coordinator. I really enjoyed supporting people to become the best version of themselves. So pursuing a coaching certification program was really a natural thing for me, in order to serve best in that position, but then personally, I was also passionate about having that kind of skill. So the transition to my current job as a coach, it was quite natural.
Safa : So you decided to be a full time international leadership coach and in that role, are you working at an individual one on one level or also working in group settings and what are some of the guiding values you have in that role when it comes to supporting your clients?
Yukako : I coach individuals and most of them are from the United Nations. But I have supported a group of Japanese UN professionals based in Bangkok. So they have this group to support each other in their career development. So I was invited to design a small workshop for this group of professionals, about one of the sticky issues they were having at work. So it was having difficult conversations in the workplace. So I enjoyed delivering that kind of a leadership training program for a group of individuals. So that is something that I also hope to do from now. And one more thing, which I have done in the past couple of years, was asked to speak with university students. So I have been invited several times to speak to a class of university students, most of them at the undergraduate level, about humanitarian work.
Safa : Wonderful. And how has it been to transition to living back in your home country after many years of working abroad?
Yukako : So I actually traveled a lot after I left WFP. So for the first few months, I was not really in Japan. I was traveling around. But then when I settled in Japan, I chose a location where I knew no one, in the south of Japan, I just happen to be in that prefecture by luck, and then I really liked it. So I decided to live there for about nine months. So that was a very interesting experience. I knew maybe one person in that entire prefecture but then I got to know people, not through my work, so nobody there saw me as Yukako from WFP, it was just Yukako, and then we just got to know each other from that starting point. So that was an interesting experience. And now I have moved to Tokyo. So I have more opportunities to work with universities or some other individuals based in Tokyo. And I would say my transition has been quite smooth because I don’t belong to a Japanese company, for instance. I’m working on a freelance basis. And most of my clients are actually not Japanese, they are based abroad, except those university students I have been speaking to. To be honest, I still feel like I’m half tourist even though I’m living in Japan, just like before, whenever I was coming home on holiday, I felt like I was a tourist.
Safa : Yes, I think probably many people who work in this industry can relate to that feeling. I also want to speak to you about the leadership part of being a leadership coach. And in terms of when it comes to teaching others or coaching others on leadership styles or leadership values, what are some of the ideas that are important for you to share? Sometimes in the sector, or generally, when it comes to leadership, some people are just kind of thrown into the position, maybe they don’t have prior training, or they haven’t really thought about what it takes to manage other people or be a leader.
Yukako : Mm hmm. The first thing is the importance of communication with your teams and with your counterparts. Because wherever you go as a UN professional, you are working with such a diverse team, everybody has different cultural backgrounds. So you need to get to know each other in order to build a trust relationship. In order to serve as a leader, you have to win their trust. I think communication is so important. And it’s not only about work related communication. Like for instance, when I was in Yemen, when I first started to act as a team leader, one thing I was doing every morning was to physically move from desk to desk of all my colleagues to greet them each morning, to get to know them and to have a small chat about, you know, how’s your family? How are you today? That kind of conversation and also just like going for lunch. So having that kind of personal relationship was important. And also as I mentioned earlier, the feedback was very important. So I used to have regular one on one meetings was each of my team members, my direct reports. And that was an opportunity not only to talk about the work progress, but then also to seek feedback about my leadership style, if how I was leading them was serving them, or whether they wanted a different style of leadership. So I was very flexible in adapting my approach to each staff member, wherever it worked. And I also wanted to make sure in that conversation to ask how our work together was serving them in terms of reaching their own career goals. So having that kind of a regular one on one session was very useful for me. And I think it’s important for any leader to have the conversation going. So that’s one, and then the second part is about respecting diversity and different cultures. Wherever you go, especially in the country office setting, you are a guest in that country. So it’s very important to get to know the local culture, and then also to get to know your diverse team, including the international staff. So wherever I go, I have my personal rule, that it takes about three months to go over the culture shock. So the first three months, I am consciously observing everything without making judgments. So I try to be a very good observer in the first three months. And I wouldn’t make immediate judgment or decisions on something to change even as a leader. So that’s the second point, respecting the diversity and then taking time to get to know the different host culture. The third part, I think that one of the important jobs of a leader is to make a decision and also be responsible for that decision. So that decision may involve, in most cases, delegating certain responsibilities to your staff members. Because you won’t be able to micromanage everything, but also you want to give a chance to each staff member to shine. So make the decision to delegate and then also support them, but if something goes wrong, the leader has to take responsibility. And it was very important for me to take timely decisions, as quickly as possible in emergencies, we don’t normally or we don’t always have everything we need in terms of a situation analysis, and we just have to make a decision and move forward and if the decision was a wrong one, we’ll quickly make corrections, but it’s much better than not taking a decision and not moving.
Safa : I think that’s very well said. You know, earlier you mentioned finding your purpose. And I think that probably in this field, there’s a lot of people working in international development because they feel like they will contribute to social change, or they will contribute to improving the livelihoods of people in different countries. So there is an element of wanting to help, there’s an element of wanting to improve global systems. But over time, what have been your thoughts about finding your purpose and what are the different ways to make change? Because, of course, you can also make change at an individual level, through coaching, through support, through different kinds of career paths. So what have been the thoughts you’ve had over the years? And how has that changed as you changed your career as well?
Yukako : My purpose, my personal purpose, which I mentioned earlier, hasn’t really changed. Even in the UN, I wanted to serve the people who are trying to make this world a better place. I enjoy working on an individual basis, which is very different from working in a large organization. But then, I still support those people. Most of my clients are actually working as leaders in UN agencies, and then they are trying to make a change and make a difference in the lives of people, wherever they are working in the world. So I may not have a huge strategic advantage, being an individual, I won’t be able to make a huge impact, like the UN can do at the country or national level, but it is through an individual level that I think I can still contribute to make this world a better place.
Safa : Absolutely. Thank you. I think that’s a great spot to wrap up the conversation. Thank you so much for speaking with us and sharing your thoughts and being so open about your experiences. Do you have any final comments you’d like to say or anything maybe that is important for you to add?
Yukako : I would say, for the professionals or practitioners who are already working with the United Nations or the humanitarian sector, and especially those people who are right now working in emergency settings, I know you must be working so hard. And I often saw that people were putting their own needs secondary. When you are so into providing assistance, much needed assistance to the people you serve, it’s important to take care of your own needs first. Because, unless you’re in your best condition, you won’t be able to continue to serve those people in need. So I would encourage those people who are on the front line to not feel guilty about taking care of themselves, so that they can run better and they can run longer.
Safa : Yukako, thank you so much for speaking with us, we really appreciate it. As always, thank you also to our listeners. This is the last episode of our second season. I’ve really enjoyed facilitating these conversations over the past few months. If you want to donate to support our work and help us bring you an even better third season, the best way to do that is by going to www.patreon.com/rethinkingdevelopment and becoming a patron. There you can sign up for various levels of monthly monetary support or paid subscriptions. There are different subscription options and each comes with its own exclusive rewards and perks. Thank you again for tuning in, and I look forward to sharing similar conversations with you in season three. Until then, take care.
